Reference services guidelines
General principles
Reference services at the University Library are focused on meeting the research, teaching and learning needs of staff and students of the University. Services are aimed at helping users with advice on how to locate relevant material independently.
Reference service is the personal assistance that Library staff provide to those seeking information. Inquiries are received and responses made in-person, by telephone, fax, electronically or by mail.
Staff consider each individual information query to be of equal merit regardless of the personal characteristics or status of the inquirer. Time spent by staff on a question may vary in response to the perceived needs of the patron, the information resources available, the method of receipt of the inquiry, and the pace of activity in the reference area. Special arrangements exist for persons with a disability.
Services provided
Short reference — questions which require less than 20 minutes to answer. In-person queries over a few minutes may require a referral to a subject specialist and/or an appointment.
In-depth reference — requests requiring more than 20 minutes. In-depth queries are likely to be referred to subject specialists and/or an appointment.
Library instruction — libraries offer tours and classes in the use of resources primarily to staff and students of the University.
Access to electronic resources — The Library catalogue is freely available on the Web. Most indexes to which the Library subscribes are available on the Web for staff and students. Some indexes, including a range of full text databases, are available for community users within Dixson Library only.
Interlibrary loans — The Document Services Unit can obtain material not held in the University Library for your research (depending on a range of eligibility criteria). Material may come from any of a number of Australian and overseas sources.
It may be appropriate that a telephone, email or web user be advised that an inquiry merits more extensive on-site use of the Library resources. Where possible, users are expected to conduct their own research. More extensive work is carried out on behalf of external students who are unable to browse the shelves for themselves.
Summary of services provided
| Patron | Short Reference | In-Depth Reference | Instructon | Electronic Resources | Interlibrary loan |
| UNE Faculty | Yes | Yes | Yes | All | Yes, marginal cost recovery |
| UNE students | Yes | Yes | Yes | All | Yes, if 4th year, major research, graduate or postgraduate student with marginal cost recovery |
| UNE general staff | Yes | Yes | Yes | All | Yes, marginal cost recovery |
| Visiting academics and PhD students | Yes | Yes | Yes | All | Yes, marginal cost recovery |
| Special borrowers | Yes | No, for a fee | May join sessions for UNE students and staff | Some for use within Dixson Library | Yes, marginal cost recovery |
| Casual users not registered to borrow | Yes | No, for a fee | Tours for groups of year 11 and 12 school children provided when staff available | Some for use within Dixson Library | Yes, marginal cost recovery |
Fee-based service
The Library’s fee-based service offers the alternative to staff-conducted research for queries which do not fall into categories listed in the above table. Services will be charged at $88 an hour for staff time (including GST), plus any searching, copying or ancillary charges incurred. Service will be offered where staff time and expertise is available.
Further information
Enquiries regarding this policy should be directed to Greg Kelleher, Deputy Information Services Manager.