'Access as a service' - reframing the service catalogue and measures of success for information resources

As collection development and the management of information resources have shifted from ownership to access or to ownership as access (in perpetual access models) the traditional distinction between collections and services - as the basis for thinking about service delivery - is no longer a tenable model. This turn towards "access as a service" has also meant that information resources have come more to resemble 'soft services' in their attendant issues of measurement and value demonstration. Previous input, or infrastructure, measures (volume counts, usage, etc), if not unproblematic in terms of demonstrating their contribution to University outcomes, were at least rigorous in having a shared methodology across the sector, providing a basis for comparison and benchmarking. As such they functioned as proxies for quality but were harder to frame as measures of service outcomes or success. In the more ambiguous environment of new scholarly communication and access models the quality assessment shift is towards a more direct connection with the client experience. This paper describes Macquarie University Library's development and implementation of a client-centred service model for its information resources services via the development of a service catalogue approach using client 'I can' statements to scope the range of services and service outcomes. The Library's 2013 Client Survey comments on information resources provided context on client service expectations and a 'sense check' for the new service catalogue. This process has allowed for the development of new measures of success and facilitated the mapping of information resources services into service portfolios.