QLD Transport to replace 'cumbersome' data search

Queensland’s Transport department will implement a single search interface for most of its physical and electronic library resources to replace a series of "disparate" search systems.

The Department of Transport and Main Roads’ (TMR) Information Division today approached the market for a solution to the current “cumbersome” set-up which requires staff to search library resources via multiple interfaces.

It wants a solution that will provide a single access point to its full library collection, with “Google-like search capability”.

The new system will support data volumes of 100,000 electronic and physical items, with an item growth rate of 5 percent per year, and 8500 employee records.

It will be able used by all 8500 departmental staff, 250 users at any one time. Up to 10 Library staff will have administrative capabilities. 

“[TMR] has identified that to provide efficient and effective access to all of the information resources, both physical and electronic, that its library has in its collection, it needs a contemporary LMS [Library Management System],” tender documents state.

A ‘discovery layer’ function would enable a consolidation of the current search interfaces, “simplifying the search complexity for TMR staff by providing a single search interface for the majority of TMR’s physical and electronic library resources”.

The TMR requires the new system to provide a user interface, export ability to Libraries Australia, bibliographic database management, circulation control, acquisitions, serials control, weekly data backup, document delivery and inter-library loans, management information, and reporting. 

The implementation of the new system will commence in August.

The contract will run over three years, with two possible one year extensions, and will cover the delivery of support, maintenance and software-as-as-service, as well as consultancy services.

TMR will outsource the management technical infrastructure as well as software and hardware updates. 

The Department will first import its borrower database, loan history data, current loan data and listing of all library holdings into the new system.

It will later move its missing item database, eJournal records, listings and password data, and basic records across.