Quantum² : InfoStars : Christine Herrmann

Christine Herrmann

The Australian National Audit Office's Christine Herrmann

As a librarian for the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO), Christine Herrmann believes in actively engaging with the people she supports. As part of a new program, Christine and the only other librarian at ANAO walk the floors of her office and proactively offer to help employees in other areas find information.

By leaving her desk and walking around, she connects with people in her office and raises the profile of her department and the services it provides. Christine has discovered that people, who would not otherwise ask for help via the phone, are more likely to ask for help when they see her in person. This daily, practical interaction with the people she supports, demonstrates the value of having someone with Christine’s knowledge, ability and drive on staff.

“I often hear, ‘Oh, I was meaning to ask you …” as I walk around,” says Christine. “It also gives me an opportunity to find out more about what our clients are working on and their information needs.”

Located in the Australian capital of Canberra, ANAO is an Australian government agency providing audit services to other government agencies. ANAO has a staff of approximately 280, consisting mainly of financial statement auditors and performance auditors. It is here that Christine works in the agency’s Information Research Center as a cataloger and systems librarian.

In her 10 years at ANAO, Christine’s role has grown to include more reference and research work and she also now assists in managing the information center, including strategic planning, marketing services, developing new services and hiring new contract staff.

Users at ANAO can search the information center’s catalog of materials directly from their desktops. The center’s holdings include a small collection of hard copy materials, consisting mainly of books in the subject areas of accounting and public administration. It also has a small number or periodicals and government reports. Any item the information center doesn’t have can be requested through an inter-library service. The two librarians on staff are also available to assist with reference and research services.

Some of the information services that the center provides go beyond the confines of the library, such as the electronic news service (Dialog NewsRoom) and parliamentary and government current awareness service. These services are administered by the center, but users can access them without the library’s involvement.

“We prefer to provide users with direct access to the electronic services without the library staff acting as an intermediary,” says Christine. “The role of a librarian is changing from intermediary to facilitator.”

From a virtual library perspective, the information center provides access to numerous electronic resources for clients via the center’s Intranet. These resources, both free and subscription based, are accessed via the Internet, and the librarians promote them to clients so that they know where to locate specific information.

Currently, the information center continues to transform from a traditional library to a research center. The transition began seven years ago and included a name change and a reduction in the physical space and collection (a 70 percent decrease). The center also moved closer to its main client group and concentrated on providing good client service.

Looking ahead, Christine hopes to make more electronic resources available to users from their desktops. The center has prepared a three-year strategic plan that would further transition the center into more of a virtual library.