Innovation in practice: redeveloping the Australian national bibliographic service

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to report on the redevelopment of the Kinetica service. The first phase of redevelopment is based on innovatively using new technology to enable searchers to find and get resources through a single resource discovery interface.

Design/methodology/approach

The new search service will be launched in late 2004. The structure of the project and deliverables are described, together with details of the “get” component of the search service.

Findings

The Kinetica service provides Australian libraries with access to the Australian National Bibliographic Database, and international resource discovery services. Kinetica is currently being redeveloped with a new architecture based on a combination of a bibliographic data management system and a resource discovery system. With around 6 million searches a year, it is at the heart of resource sharing and cooperation between Australian libraries.

Practical implications

Innovative use of a software toolkit is enabling the library to achieve its goals for a national online service to support the Australian library network and allowing Australians to access resources in the nation's collections.

Originality/value

The paper is significant in outlining issues in developing a seamless national resource discovery and resource access service.

Citation

Missingham, R. and Boston, T. (2005), "Innovation in practice: redeveloping the Australian national bibliographic service", The Electronic Library, Vol. 23 No. 6, pp. 641-651. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470510635728