Collection policy and reports

• Library collection policy (October 2023)
• Library client survey report (2019)

Budget

Funding available for information resources is determined as part of the University's annual budget process. The Library is not funded at a level that allows it to purchase all journal subscriptions requested.

In allocating the acquisitions budget, the Library gives priority to:

• Maintaining existing commitments and subscriptions
• Supporting teaching through the acquisition of required and recommended ebooks
• Resources that support the current research priorities of the University

For both books and journals, the Library takes advantage of consortia purchasing arrangements.

Up to 80% of the Library acquisitions budget is allocated to existing subscriptions for journals and databases. The remainder is allocated to one-off purchases (books and journal backsets). Because of the ongoing financial commitment to existing subscriptions and because increases in subscription costs often exceed the annual inflation rate, there is little flexibility to acquire new journals or databases without cancelling existing subscriptions.

Responsibility

• Academic and research staff are encouraged to be involved in the selection of Library resources, and are expected to recommend those resources needed to support their research and the courses for which they are responsible
• Library staff have primary responsibility for selecting resources to support research and teaching at UniSA
• All Library clients are able to recommend the purchase of relevant scholarly resources

Criteria

The following criteria may be used by the Library to evaluate and prioritise recommendations:

• Relevance to the existing or anticipated needs of the University’s research and teaching
• Strength of the existing collection within a subject area
• Currency and quality, including presence on University lists of preferred publishing targets and Australian lists such as those for ERA and the Australian Business Deans Council
• Actual or expected demand
• Price (and ongoing financial commitment)
• Availability via alternative methods (e.g. document delivery)
• Licensing obligations
• Information resources are acquired in digital format whenever possible

Service charter

Our commitment to quality service

We promise to provide a professional, reliable and efficient customer focused service to you. Here’s how we do it:

Online

Access to Library catalogue, databases, guides and digital learning resources

We will provide:

• Access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Course ereadings as advised by academic staff
• The resources needed for learning, teaching and research electronically, so you can access them anywhere, anytime, on any device

Opening hours 

Access to Library buildings, technology and collections

We will:

• Open our buildings at least 110 hours per week during peak periods
• Provide the Ask the Library service at least 70 hours per week during peak demand
• Ensure self-service is available 100% of the time

Ask the Library

Contact the Library by telephone, chat, video call or email

We will:

• Respond to telephone, chat and video enquires within 1 minute
• Seek to resolve your enquiry the first time
• Follow up all enquiries within 2 hours or the next working day*
• Provide a professional customer focused service

Responsiveness

Provide feedback to improve our services, resources and facilities

We will:

• Respond to your feedback within 48 hours*
• Redirect appropriate feedback to other areas
• Order relevant recommended course resources within 48 hours*
• Respond to eResource access problem reports within 2 hours or the next working day*

Requesting items from another campus

Request physical items and print documents held at another campus or in offsite storage

We will:

• Action your requests within 24 hours*
• Deliver items electronically within 48 hours of the request*
• Make physical items available within 48 hours of the request*
• Notify you of unavailable items within 24 hours*

Off campus library service

For external, international or remote staff and students, including Open Universities Australia

We will:

• Action all requests within 24 hours*
• Dispatch article requests to you within 24 hours*
• Dispatch available items from UniSA collections within 72 hours*

Request items from other libraries (Interlibrary loans)

For staff and research degree students when the item is not available within UniSA

We will:

• Action all requests within 48 hours of receipt*
• Deliver items within 24 hours of arrival*
• Display status reports in myLibrary
• Dispatch loans to other libraries within 5 days of the request*

*Weekends and public holidays excluded.