Information Central : a service success case study

The University of Western Sydney (UWS) is the ninth largest university in Australia, with over 35,000 students, including some 5000 international students. Its six campuses, served by seven libraries, are responsible for students over an area of 9000 km², a footprint roughly the size of the Netherlands. A large proportion of UWS students study through off-campus and offshore multimodel delivery. 'Two thirds of our domestic students live in the region, which has a population of 1.8 million and the third largest economy in Australia' (Pavincich, 2007,1). The UWS library is committed to ensuring that it provides an equitable approach to all services across all campuses, and all modes of study. The challenge of providing high-quality client services to such geographically dispersed and disparate groups of academics and students has been in part met through a service we call Information Central, which is a single receipt and response point for all incoming queries (telephone, online and e-mail). Information Central is staffed by a small team throughout the library's extensive opening hours, including evenings and weekends.