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Home > About Us > Policies & guidelines > Entry Service > Our service guidelines & principles > Our service guidelines

Our service guidelines

Our information and research services are guided by the National and State Libraries Australasia (NSLA) guidelines for information and research services. These are also available as a PDF on the NSLA website: Service guidelines: information and research services at NSLA libraries.

The national, state and territory libraries of Australasia support you to find information in a variety of ways through our information and research services. When self-help tools and resources do not guide you to the information you need, support is provided through a range of channels, which may include:

  • face-to-face in reading rooms
  • telephone
  • web-forms and email
  • letters
  • instant messaging services

This policy and statement of standards is underpinned by our guidelines and principles.

The policy is designed to help you understand what levels of support to expect from our staff.

What we are able to do initially

If you visit our Library and ask us for assistance, we will advise you on a research strategy, support you to use finding tools effectively and suggest appropriate resources.

If you phone us or use our messaging service (where available), we are generally able to spend up to 10 minutes advising on the most appropriate information resources to guide you in your search.

If your enquiry cannot be answered in a short time frame, you may be referred to our research enquiry service.

You may also be referred to another information provider if that is most appropriate.

What we undertake as a research enquiry

Enquiries that cannot be responded to in a short timeframe and written or email enquiries may be referred to our research enquiry service.

Depending on the nature of the enquiry, this extended service provides:

  • guidance on the most appropriate information resources for you to continue with your own research
  • resources librarians have consulted to respond to your enquiry

This service is provided for:

  • all residents
  • anyone wishing to access information relating to the jurisdiction of this Library
  • anyone wishing to access information which is unique to our collections

You may also be referred to another NSLA library, to your closest public, school or tertiary library, or to another information provider if this is the most appropriate place for you to find the information you need.

WHAT WE PROVIDE

Up to one hour of research on most enquiries. We may spend more time on enquiries which require researching materials unique to our Library.

Where copies of documents are an outcome of the research, a charge may be levied. We will inform you if this is necessary as part of the response process.

OUR RESPONSE TIME

Up to seven to ten working days for most enquiries.

For enquiries which require researching materials unique to our Library, we may negotiate a longer response time with you.

What we are not able to do

  • lengthy or ongoing research e.g. extended family history or newspaper searches or searches through manuscript collections
  • extended research assistance to people interstate or overseas asking for information that is readily available in their own state, territory or country
  • answers to lists of questions for quizzes or competitions
  • detailed assistance with school assignments
  • searches for missing persons
  • valuations
  • legal and medical advice

In these instances, we may give you guidance on search strategies and relevant resources to get you started in your research, or refer you to your local library or another information provider.

To ensure everyone is treated fairly/equally, we may reserve the right to limit the number of enquiries per person we can respond to per year.

Disclaimer

When responding to enquiries, we make reasonable and diligent efforts within our service guidelines to obtain accurate information from authoritative sources, including online databases. Information is provided in adherence with copyright legislation and, unless specifically stated in writing, there is no attempt at analysis.

© National and State Libraries Australasia, 2010
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