The Parliamentary Library aims to provide an effective knowledge centre for the Parliament through the provision of information, analysis and advice. These services are provided through two sub programs:

• Research Services: these services include responding to requests from individual parliamentary clients for information and research, and the production of print and electronic publications, and
• Library Collections and Databases: information services are provided to the Library’s clients by acquiring and providing access to information resources, through the selection, processing and indexing of material for library and media databases in ParlInfo Search.

Staff from the Office of the Parliamentary Librarian contribute to the work of both programs.

Performance is assessed using indicators that cover quality, quantity and price. Indicators, performance results and relevant comments are shown against each of the Library programs.

Progress in key projects identified in the Library’s Business Plan 2017–18 was the subject of discussion in the previous section. The Performance Report focusses on analysis of the Library’s achievement against service standards set out in that same document.

Research services

The services contributing to this program are as follows:

• commissioned information, research and advisory services—these are tailored and confidential responses prepared following requests from individual parliamentarians and their staff, and other parliamentary clients, and
• general distribution publications (publications)—these are prepared where strong client demand is anticipated for briefing on specific policy issues. Publications include the Parliamentary Handbook, Briefing Book, Budget Review, Bills Digests, research papers, quick guides and FlagPost blog posts. Publications are available to clients and the public, through the Internet.

Table 23: Research services

Deliverable	Measure	Performance
		2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18
Individual client requests	Percentage of primary clients using the service Target: 100%	100%	100%	100%	100%
	Number of individual client requests completed Target: 13,000	12,656	13,113	11,681	11,656
Self-service requests	Number of online uses of the Parliamentary Library’s publications, including the Parliamentary Handbook, through ParlInfo and the Internet Target: 5.4m	9.14m	6.74m	6.4m	7.2m
Publications	Number of publications produced Target: 260	328	267	280	295
Client training and seminars	Attendance at training courses and events (e.g. Vital Issues Seminars) Target: 500	418	729	1,101	803

Table 24 illustrates the costs associated with providing research services.

Table 24: Research services—price indicators

Deliverable	Measure	Performance
		2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18
Cost of research services	Average cost per individual client request	$500.87	$527.22	$556.39	$562.03
	Average direct cost per self-service client request (staff time only)	$0.11	$0.11	$0.16	$0.12

Client requests

During 2017–18, 100 per cent of the Library’s primary clients (parliamentarians’ offices, including ministers’ offices) used the client request service at least once, a considerable achievement given the unusually high number of new parliamentarians taking their seats during the financial year.

The Library answered 11,656 individual client requests in 2017–18, below its target of 13,000.

However, analysis of this and associated data present a more complex picture.

Figure 8: Client requests—relative indicators

The number of client requests is a demand driven indicator, representing a best estimate of how many requests the Library expects to complete annually. And complex, multi-part requests are generally recorded as a single client job although they may require significant and discrete input from researchers in different sections.

Another element in assessing performance relates to hours spent on client requests. In 2017–18, hours spent responding to parliamentarians enquiries again increased by five per cent compared to 2016–17 figures (44,503 compared to 42,178 the previous financial year). And the 2016–17 result had shown an increase of almost 13 per cent compared to 2015–16 (42,178 compared to 37,343).

Hours spent on client services to parliamentary committees, parliamentary departments and reciprocal arrangements increased by just over 30 per cent.

2017–18 saw the continuation of the trend towards fewer but increasingly complex client requests. As illustrated in Figure 8, Library data continue show an overall decline in the number of completed client requests of 46 per cent per FTE between the financial years 2000–01 and 2017–18. However, while year-to-year outcomes vary, over the same period there has been an overall increase in the average amount of time spent on individual requests. The average amount of time per request in 2017–18 was 4.1 hours, over two and half times the 2000–01 figure of 1.5 hours.

The Library will continue to monitor usage closely and consult with clients to ensure services are appropriately targeted.

Publications

In meeting the need to provide high quality information, analysis and advice to parliamentarians, the Library produces information and advice for individual clients on an ‘in confidence’ basis. It also produces publications for broader distribution in areas where there is strong client interest and demand, or where such demand is anticipated.

Figure 9: Distribution of client service hours by service type 2017–18

In 2017–18, the Library issued 295 new or revised research publications. Hours spent on publications decreased slightly to 18,418 (compared to 19,583 hours the previous financial year).

Of all Library publications, the most heavily used by clients, and most keenly awaited, remain Bills Digests. These provide an independent perspective on, and analysis of, legislation before the Parliament. The Library published 133 Bills Digests in 2017–18, compared to 121 in 2016–17 and 117 in 2015–16. No digests were produced on private senators’ or members’ Bills. Forty two digests were not published in time for debate in the first chamber (compared to 30 in 2016–17 and 43 in 2015–16). Digests were not produced for 24 Government Bills (compared to 26 in the previous financial year. Of these:

• one passed both Houses on the day it was introduced
• two were replaced and Digests were published for the replacement Bills, and
• nine were the subject of Flagposts.

In the context of prioritising research work, Bills Digests and client requests receive the highest priority, with other publications worked on as time permits.

Client training and seminars

The Parliamentary Librarian participated in induction sessions organised by the chamber departments for new senators and members. Library staff also served as contact officers for all new senators and members.

During the year, Library induction and orientation services continued to be successful in providing, through individual and small group sessions, a timely and detailed introduction to Library services.

The Library supplements its regular one-on-one training with other training programs including ‘drop in’ sessions in the Senators’ and Members’ Reading Room during sitting weeks. In 2017–18, sessions were offered on news services, new releases of Census data, e-books, and the new ParlMap service.

One of the recommendations of the Client Service Evaluation 2015 was that the Library focus more on providing orientation and training, and consider conducting some of these in other capital cities to make it easier for electorate staff to attend. The Library subsequently began a low-key program of electorate office visits, which are undertaken as time and resources permit. In 2017–18, visits were undertaken to 37 electorate offices in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, and Tasmania, exceeding the target of 20 visits for the financial year.

Since 1986, the Library has been running a program of lectures and seminars that bring notable speakers to the Parliament to give parliamentarians and their staff the opportunity to hear, first-hand, expert opinion on a range of currently relevant topics. In addition to the Budget seminars, the Library hosted the following lectures and seminars for clients:

• Australian Crime statistics—context is everything, Professor Toni Makkai, Emeritus Professor in the Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National University
• Taking stock of section 44 of the Constitution, Professor Anne Twomey, University of Sydney
• Alfred Deakin as Prime Minister, Emeritus Professor Judith Brett, LaInformation access services—deliverables Trobe University, and
• Australia’s anti-money laundering regime in the international context, Liz Atkins PSM, former Deputy CEO of AUSTRAC.

Most lectures are available for download from the APH website.

Client satisfaction with requests and publications

Table 25: Research services—key performance indicators

Deliverable	Measure	Performance
		2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18
Client satisfaction with requests and publications	High level of customer satisfaction Target: 95%	93%36	93%37	93%38	94%39
	Client service delivered to timeliness service standard Target: 90%	89.76%	90.4%	97.9%	99.33%
	Number of complaints from clients remains low	2	2	1	2

The 2017 client service evaluation found the general response to the Library was very positive. Satisfaction among senators, members, and their staff is high at 94 per cent (though slightly below the target of 95 per cent), with 99 per cent indicating they would recommend the Library’s services to a colleague. Most respondents considered Library staff to be hard working, professional and friendly, and services to be of a high quality.

In 2017–18, the Library also continued its program of consultation and outreach to parliamentary committees, with the number of client jobs increasing to 198 from 182 in the previous financial year.

Research Branch received two complaints in 2017–18, both relating to the handling of a research request.

Library Collections and Databases

The services contributing to this program include:

• the Library collection—development of the collection to meet users’ needs and provision of access through the catalogue and ParlInfo Search
• online full-text content such as news clippings
• media services—desktop access to television and radio news and current affairs programs broadcast in Canberra, provided to senators and members for their parliamentary duties
• commercial databases—including online full-text journal and newspaper services available through the Library Client Services’ portal and the Senators’ and Members’ Services Portal, and
• client services including the Central Enquiry Point and self-help services.

As far as possible, usage rates of all of these services are monitored to ensure that they remain relevant and are of practical assistance to senators, members, and their staff.

Table 26: Information access services—deliverables

Deliverable	Measure	Performance
		2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18
Material added to Library databases	Number of items added to the Library’s Electronic Media Monitoring Service and to ParlInfo databases Target: 150,000	172,766	177,644	168,788	175,249
Material added to Library collection	Number of new titles (books and serials) added to the Library’s catalogue Target: 5,000	6,530	7,318	6,575	6,378
	Percentage of titles (books and serials) in Library’s collection available to clients online in full-text Target: 44%	38.2%	41.2%	42.2%	45.5%
Use of the Library collection and databases	Use of the collections and databases, including loans from the collection, radio and television programs from the Electronic Media Monitoring Service, and from ParlInfo databases Target: 4 million searches	4.55m	4.44m	3.81m	3.95m

Table 27: Information access services—price indicators

Deliverable	Measure	Performance
		2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18
Cost of information services	Average cost per item added to the Library’s collection	$162.85	$155.81	$152.91	$162.93
	Average cost per item added to the Library’s databases	$14.79	$17.47	$17.85	$14.62
	Average cost per use of the Library’s databases and collection	$1.42	$1.57	$1.85	$1.59

Material added to Library databases

In 2017–18, the Library selected and indexed approximately 9,231 newspaper clippings a month. Of all the Library databases that are indexed for ParlInfo Search, the newspaper clippings accounted for 95 per cent of the indexed content.

Since the introduction of the automated Library Authoring System and Thesaurus (LAST) in 2010, the Library has been able to publish the latest newspaper clippings in ParlInfo Search, as well as produce the senators’ and members’ news clips of the day by 7:30am. Data shows that the introduction of LAST significantly improved the Library’s productivity in the selection and indexing of newspaper clippings. Since LAST was introduced, the Library has reduced the amount of time spent on selection of newspaper clippings by 26 per cent and indexing by 37 per cent. This is compared to the 2016–17 outcomes of 42 per cent and 21 per cent respectively. We have also seen an increase in the selection and indexing rates, with the selection increasing by 27 per cent since 2009–10 and the indexing rate by 49 per cent, and the overall rate by 39 per cent (compared to 22 per cent in 2016–17).

Material added to the Library collection

The number of new titles (books and serials) added to the Library’s catalogue significantly exceeded the 5,000 target at 6,378.

The percentage of titles available online (full-text) increased from 42.2 per cent to 45.5 per cent, slightly exceeding the annual target of 44 per cent.

Use of the Library’s collection and databases

The target figure of four million uses of the Library’s collection and databases was not met, with 3.946 million uses being reported. Last year’s annual report noted that usage figures have been trending down since a highpoint in 2013–14, and the resultant increase in the KPI from 3.8 to 4 million in 2014–15 (in response to the increase in the number of searches between 2012–13 and 2013–14).⁴⁰

The newspaper clippings database remains one of the most frequently selected databases.

The trend downwards in the internal use of the Library’s databases since 2013–14 likely reflects the Library’s investment in improving access to its news services and clients’ increasing use of the iSentia Mediaportal. As at 30 June 2018, 99 per cent of clients’ offices have a logon to this service and have set up alerts to push news stories directly to their inbox and the associated mobile app. Previously, Library clients needed to rely primarily on ParlInfo Search to access the daily clips. This change has a flow-on effect to the recorded KPI for use of the Library collections. Fewer clients are accessing news clips via ParlInfo Search because the Mediaportal provides more mobile and convenient access. While use of the Library’s databases has reduced, access to news services has improved.

Figure 10: Use of the print collection

Use of the print collection remained stable, with a total of 9,913 loans during 2017–18 (compared to 10,623 in 2016–17). The 2017 client evaluation of Library services found that use of the Library’s print collection had fallen slightly from 85 per cent in 2015 to 75 per cent in 2017 (after increasing significantly from 61 per cent in 2012). This decrease may be a result of the increased use of ebooks.

Though still quite low when compared to usage of the print collection, ebook usage increased significantly during 2017–18, with 1,100 loans being processed (compared to 478 the previous financial year). Overall, the proportion of print versus electronic loans during 2017–18 was 90 per cent print and 10 per cent electronic. In 2016–17 it was 95.5 per cent print and 4.5 per cent electronic. This increase may be attributable to the Library’s increased promotion of the ebook services and the implementation of the EZproxy system which provides a more seamless (single sign-on) access to our subscribed ebook collections outside the PCN.

Table 28: Subprogram 2—collections and databases—key performance indicators

Deliverable	Measure	Performance
		2014–15	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18
Client satisfaction with collections and database services	High level of customer satisfaction Target: 95%	93%41	93%42	93%43	94%44
	Number of urgent new titles (books and serials) added to the Library’s catalogue within timeliness service standard Target: 100%	100%	100%	100%	100%
	Senators’ and members’ offices using the iSentia Mediaportal Target: 90%	79.6%	89%	96%	99%
	Senators’ and members’ offices using social media monitoring service (new KPI 2016–17) Target: 45%	-	-	56%	66%
	New items added to the Library’s Electronic Media Monitoring Service and the ParlInfo newspaper clippings database within timeliness service standard Target: 95%	96%	94.7%	94.4%	99.07%
	Number of complaints from clients remains low	1	0	1	0

Client satisfaction with Library Collection and Databases

See the discussion on client satisfaction indicators.

Cataloguing

The key performance indicator for ‘urgent new titles (books and serials) added to the Library’s catalogue within timeliness service standard’ measures timeliness in relation to cataloguing items obtained as a result of direct client requests (with a turnaround deadline of 24 hours). These items are classed as urgent and are catalogued as a priority by Collection Management staff.

The cataloguing team met both its timeliness target for direct client requests and, as noted above, exceeded the target (5,000) for the number of new titles (books and serials) added to the Library’s catalogue by processing 6,378 titles. Despite the increased number of titles processed, the team also significantly exceeded its target of 85 per cent for adding routine items (those selected by the Library’s Acquisitions staff) to the catalogue within the two-week service standard, with 100 per cent of material being added within this time-frame.

Expansion of news services

The Parliamentary Library provides comprehensive news services to clients. The Library is proactive in its endeavours to enhance its news services within its available budget. During 2017–18 the news services were expanded to include an additional 10 daily News Corp digital titles to Library clients. An expansion of the Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) satellite dish added a further 12 rural ABC radio channels and seven metropolitan ABC TV channels to the Electronic Media Monitoring Service (EMMS). Several other services were procured in 2017–18 and will be implemented in July 2018. These include: the Front Pages service that conveniently bundles all daily front pages of national and metropolitan newspapers; access to Analytics, another service available through the iSentia MediaPortal that provides quantitative analysis tools for measuring media coverage; and IP access to The West Australian.

The Library has had a strong focus on broadening the scope of news services for the Parliament and making them more convenient to access. The costs for online news services for the Parliament are funded as business as usual through the Information Resources budget. In 2017–18, the Library spent $0.546 million on all its news services. This includes online news services, news databases and hardcopy newspapers located in the Newspaper Reading Room.

Social media monitoring

Buzznumbers, which was rolled out in July 2016, provides access to social media commentary from assorted blogs, Twitter and Facebook. Users can set up campaigns in the product to monitor particular areas of interest and receive alerts. During the year 66 per cent of senators’ and members’ offices made use of the service (target 45 per cent).

iSentia Mediportal

Senators and members are able to access a wide variety of metropolitan and regional press and broadcast news media through the iSentia Mediaportal, including news from more than 300 regional radio and television stations. Clients are able to set up alerts to push news stories directly to their inbox and to have easy access to the news services even when they are not on the parliamentary network.

Use of this service has grown significantly since it was introduced in 2013–14. As of 30 June 2018, 99 per cent of clients have a logon to this service, well above the target of 90 per cent. These users have created over 1,580 alerts.

Performance

The news services’ KPI in table 28 above combines the performance outcomes of the daily press clips service and Electronic Media Monitoring Service against their individual performance benchmarks or standards. Performance against this KPI was excellent, with both teams overall achieving 99.07 per cent against a target of 95 per cent.

Complaints

The Library Collections and Databases Branch received no complaints in 2017–18.