Presented by: Elizabeth Reale (ANF Federal Office)

On behalf of: Jeannette Bromfield (NSWNA)Cathy Matias (NSWNA)Christen Tracey (ANF Vic Branch)Jan Wright (ANF Vic Branch)Natalie Brewer (ANF SA Branch)Pat Vincent (Qld Nurses’ Union)Madeleine Brandt (Qld Nurses’ Union)

Health Libraries Inc. Conference, Melbourne21 October, 2011

The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) Federal Office has locations in Melbourne and Canberra.

There is an ANF Branch in each State/Territory.

The NSW Nurses’ Association (NSWNA) and Queensland Nurses’ Union (QNU) are state-registered unions, as well as being branches of the ANF.

ANF, NSWNA and QNU offices work autonomously.

The e-Library is a national catalogue of documents published by the ANF, NSWNA and QNU.

It was established a part of a collaborative projectby librarians across the Federation.

The aim is to adopt a more national approach to information and resource sharing.

In early 2006, the NSWNA librarian, Jeannette Bromfield, met with the ANF Federal Secretary to discuss the idea of a National Information Management project.

NSWNA and Federal Office librarians put their heads together to figure out a way to bring the idea to life.

A proposal and project outline was then prepared for presentation to the ANF Federal Executive in February 2007.

To create a National Information Resource.

To bring Librarians and Information Specialists together to pool their resources to create the e-Library.

To hold a national meeting of Librarians and Information Specialists from across the Federation.

To fulfill our desire for a collaborative resource system that would assist the Federation.

ANF Federal Office hosted the meeting in Melbourne to discuss the ideas and the proposal.

The proposal was finessed to two manageable projects:

The ANF e-Library

A Subject Thesaurus

The e-Library project team was established.

The Terms of Reference were drafted.

The choice of platform was discussed.

Maxus provided a presentation of DB/TextWorks.

No uniform set of subject headings.

The project team pooled their subject headings into a single alphabetical list.

Several members of the project team met to discuss how to proceed with the subject headings. (Dec, ‘07)

The Subject Thesaurus is still a work in progress.

In July, 2009 the group reconvened to discuss:

Hosting

Access Levels

Database Design

Design Elements

Cataloguing Protocols

Types of Documents

Capturing Documents

Who had the time to do all that cataloguing?

Who would take responsibility for the smaller branches?

How could we capture documents as they were produced?

How would we keep the e-Library current?

How are we going to promote the e-Library to Federation staff across Australia?

Presentation to various committees at Federal/State levels.

Make direct contact with end-users.

Ensure a presence on Intranets, where possible.

Marketing is on-going.

Availability of time and resources

Capturing newly published documents

Fiddly FTP process

Agreement of the e-Library design

Sticking to protocols and agreed terminology

Problems with the thesaurus (old vs. new)

To set realistic timeframes

To be proud of what’s been achieved

Staying positive when the plan deviates

Conflicting priorities need to be managed

To communicate effectively between teams

You won’t always get the support you need

An increased collaborative effort

Cooperation between Federal and State levels

Establishment of professional and social relationships between interstate colleagues

Innovative new opportunities for other collaborative works (CINAHL Consortium)

Increased profile of Librarians and Information Specialists within the workplace

Regardless of the time and work involved, it has been a rewarding experience

Librarians and Information Specialists need to continually network to stay within the budget

Promotion of our services at every opportunity!!

Are there any questions?Are there any questions?