to go, and the CEO has publicly targeted 300,000 residents and businesspeople 

undertaking Internet training by 2005. Library employees usually provide training as well

as all other services required of them, often stretching themselves thinner and thinner.

The ACT Library Service recognised the need for donors to see training as an additional

service, and fund it accordingly. This has the added benefit for the library of making it a

high profile activity and an election issue. 

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is cooperating with public libraries across the

United States, Canada and the UK to provide both physical tools, such as computers

with Internet access, and IT training for patrons in low income communities to help

libraries become gateways to the digital world. 

Management information

Measuring library usage of online resources is an ongoing issue that has yet to be

resolved. In an article in Public Libraries,  Gate count at the virtual library,  Paula 

Wilson discusses what is to be measured and how to measure it, and how the use of 

statistics can improve services and collections.

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Librarians seeking to promote public access computers within the council are often

frustrated in the UK to find that their library management systems, which route the

transactions, are unable to calculate the volume of use. This is clearly a temporary 

problem, but one that must be resolved, as libraries move away from a circulation focus

to one based on a wide range of real and virtual transactions. The UK Public Library

Standards

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depend significantly on performance measures, including PLS 10, which sets

a target of the top quartile for the number of visits to the library website. This clearly

needs refinement, as there is, a lack of clarity regarding the use of the catalogue. For

example, the catalogue might be located at one site, and the Library's standard web

pages at another.

To provide valuable management information, Brisbane City Council Library 

Services uses a software product called WebTrends, which delivers solutions to meet the

specific needs of the public sector including web analytics, security and systems integrity

assurance, internal web usage analysis, and e commerce analysis. This kind of software

increases site usability, improves visitor satisfaction, ensures systems integrity and 

minimises security risks.

Libraries tend to be ahead of other council services in their measurement and assess 

ment of impact of use of the service. This is another area that demonstrates leadership in

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