Managing International Education: the Cybrary's Perspective

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

The diverse community at the University of Queensland includes 6000 international students from 124 countries. The University of Queensland Cybrary delivers client focused innovative information products, services and programs of the highest quality, that are integrated with and central to the University’s teaching, learning and research activities. In this increasingly cross-cultural environment, this paper presents the role the Cybrary plays in international activities within the University and overseas. The Cybrary constitutes the largest teaching, learning and research collection in Queensland and is one of the largest in Australia. The Library uses the term Cybrary to describe the integrated access to printed and electronic resources and the combination of physical and virtual space. The success of this strategy was recognised in 1998 when the Library was awarded joint first place in the institutional category of the prestigious Australian Awards for University teaching. For international students, the Cybrary provides an interface to the extensive collections of print, electronic and networked databases. Providing client focused quality services is the Cybrary’s driving force. Specialist Cybrary services for international students include information skills training, the AskIT computing help and training, access to special language software enabling different scripts to be read, wordprocessing in many languages, a large video collection with many languages other than English, an International website, multilingual staff and International student liaison officers. International newspapers are available in print and electronic form. The high levels of personal assistance and the extent of Cybrary resources consistently receive very positive feedback from international students. The Cybrary runs a unique six-week program for international library professionals called ‘Creating a Cybrary: The Library of the Future’. To date, participants from countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Fiji, and Sri Lanka have enrolled in the program to acquire skills for providing innovative library services. Managing International Education: the Cybrary’s Perspective Grace Saw Page 2 of 9 BACKGROUND The University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a leader among Australian universities and is recognised internationally as a premier research institution. It is the largest and the oldest university in Queensland. It has over 30,000 students and 5, 000 staff. The main University campus is at St Lucia in the western suburbs of Brisbane. Other campuses include: Gatton, located 100 kilometres from Brisbane; Ipswich, which is a new campus located 40 kilometres from Brisbane; a medical school; a dental school as well as farms and research centres throughout Queensland. The University’s teaching, learning and research activities have attracted numerous awards. In 1998 the University of Queensland was declared the University of the Year by the Good Universities Guide to Australian Universities. It received the maximum five-star rating for positive graduate outcomes, prestige, student demand, research performance, gender balance and staff qualifications. The University is consistently in the top three in Australia in the amounts of researching funding it receives and consistently performs well in teaching and learning awards nationally. The University of Queensland is a member of the Universitas 21 consortium, a network of seventeen research-intensive universities across nine countries. It is also part of the Group of Eight, a consortium of Australia’s leading Universities. The University of Queensland Cybrary The University of Queensland Library badges itself as a Cybrary to illustrate that the libraries of today are not just mere physical spaces for study or storage spaces for books. The library of today provides access to information via the Internet as well as through electronic full text journals and electronic books. Information access is now provided through the physical library as well as that of cyber space (Internet), and with that the brand of the Cybrary was created. The University of Queensland Cybrary has one of the largest collections amongst academic libraries in Australia and by far the largest in Queensland. The collection comprises: over 2 million volumes; 12,340 print journals and over 22,600 electronic journals; 752 networked databases; 299, 600 electronic books and 27, 387 videos. Over 20 service points deliver services up to 84 hours per week over 13 branch libraries located at the St Lucia, Gatton and Ipswich campuses and in the major teaching hospitals. Service delivery through branch libraries is supported by centralised processing and administrative services for the whole system. Personnel are recruited centrally and library materials are ordered and processed centrally. Policies are developed by the Library as a whole, with participation and input of as many staff as possible. In 1998, the UQ Library was awarded joint first place in the institutional category of the prestigious Australian Awards for University Teaching for its development and implementation of the Cybrary concept. In 2000, the Library won the same award for its AskIT Computing Help and Training Service. UQ Library is the only Library in the country to have won this Teaching Award. The University Librarian, Mrs Janine Schmidt was designated Library Manager of the Year for 1999 by her colleagues in the Australian Library and Information Association. International Services Illustrations here are drawn from the University of Queensland Cybrary’s involvement in a range of international education initiatives in a number of countries in South East Asia. These activities include: • Support for University of Queensland students living abroad • Support for international students studying at the University of Queensland • Support for students enrolled in bilateral UQ twinning programs. Managing International Education: the Cybrary’s Perspective Grace Saw Page 3 of 9 • Collaborative library development activities with university libraries • Professional development programmes for professional librarians from the higher education sectors of developing countries • Feedback from international students. 1. Support for Remote International Students All remote international students enrolled at UQ are provided with Cybrary services. Access is provided to all services available via the Cybrary’s website, free of charge. Authentication is required to access the library’s services, which uses the student’s Library ID Number and a PIN that the student assigns.