The University of Adelaide Library

Established in 1874, the University of Adelaide is the oldest of the three universities in the State of South Australia. The University is located in the central metropolitan area of Adelaide and has a student enrolment of approximately 15,000, with a relatively high proportion of postgraduate students. It covers a wide range of academic and professional disciplines, and has a strong research emphasis. The University and its libraries have successful co-operative relationships with many local institutions, including the Flinders University of South Australia, the University of South Australia, and professional, research, governmental and commercial organisations

The University of Adelaide Library comprises:

• the the Barr Smith Library serving approximately 85% of the University's population (14,600 square metres)
• the the Law Library, in the Ligertwood Building on the North Terrace campus (1,600 square metres)
• the the Elder Music Library, in the Hartley Building on the North Terrace campus (780 square metres)
• the the Waite Library, at the Waite campus some six kilometres to the south of the city centre (2,600 square metres)
• the the Roseworthy Campus Library, at the Roseworthy campus some 50 kilometres north of Adelaide (1,300 square metres)

The Waite Library and the Roseworthy Library both serve the staff and students of the Faculty of Sciences and several primary industry departments of the South Australian Government.

The Barr Smith Library is the central library of the University and accommodates materials and services to support all faculties and departments not specifically served by the branch libraries. It has study seats for 1,300 persons, with a further 700 seats in the branch libraries. The Barr Smith Library supports the branch libraries with central services, including acquiring and cataloguing new materials, purchasing supplies and equipment, collecting and recording management information, and developing and managing computing systems and electronic information resources.

Library holdings exceed 2,240,000 items, with 17,000 new monograph volumes catalogued each year. The libraries subscribe to 3,000 journal titles in paper format and 63,000 electronic journals. Collection strengths include medicine, dentistry, bio-sciences, agriculture, music, nineteenth century English literature, and Australian history. In excess of 500,000 volumes are held in the Universities Research Repository, located on the campus of Flinders University and shared with the other two university libraries. A daily courier service delivers volumes and requested articles between all libraries of the three universities and the Repository

The Library lends 500,000 items annually, including 12,500 items to other Australian libraries, and 4,300 items are borrowed from other libraries to support researchers in the University. Library membership is open to the staff and students of the University of Adelaide, to staff and students of the other two universities in South Australia, and to other persons on payment of a modest fee; members of the public are welcome to consult items in its collections.

The Library is a pioneer in aspects of the application of computing in information retrieval, and library routines are extensively automated. Together with the libraries of Flinders University and the University of South Australia, the Library selected and has commissioned into service the Voyager system as its main library computing system. This co-operative venture maintains the strong tradition of co-operation between the State’s three university libraries. The Library provides some 200 public computers for use by staff and students of the University

Administratively the Barr Smith Library is structured into functional areas:

• Reference and Research Services provides reference and information services
• Lending Services manages lending, reshelving, and borrower enrolment
• the Acquisition area orders, buys and receives additions to the collections, and manages the binding of journals
• Bibliographic Services catalogues the Library's holdings and manages the repair of volumes
• the Library Administration provides central support services including stores and supplies purchasing, management information, and computing systems development and support

In 2007 the Library's budget was $14,800,000, of which 40% was spent on the collections, 52% on staff salaries, and the balance on equipment and other support costs. Total expenditure on library collections (print and electronic) amounted to $5,800,000. The Library employs 124 equivalent full-time staff.