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Global Area Network

Bringing the Internet to remote areas

The Upper Murray Regional Library (UMRL) provides an important service to people living in country areas of New South Wales and Victoria. Operating through a network of 13 branch libraries and two mobile libraries, the service stretches from large regional cities through to the more remote areas of the country.

The UMRL has been operating since 1950 and covers the Cities of Albury and Wodonga and the Shires of Corowa, Holbrook, Hume, Indigo, Towong, Tumbarumba and Urana. Hume and Urana Shires are served exclusively by the Mobile Library.

Providing all the traditional library services, members have access to the full range of regional resources. The mobiles carry a combined stock of 10,969 items in all formats. For the year 2000–2001, the service processed 73,923 loans and 5,736 reservations and dealt with 6,882 requests for information. It services an area of 28,211 square kilometres, stopping at 72 sites across the region on a two week cycle.

The Mobile Libraries cater for the whole community, from preschoolers and school children, to the more elderly members of the community. Regular stops are made anywhere and everywhere. The terrain of the sites varies dramatically, from the valleys at the foot of the Snowy Mountains and the Victorian High Country, to the plains of Urana. These varied locations have meant traditional forms of connection, such as power poles and phone sockets are not readily available.

The constraints of geography and the limitations to traditional connectivity in remote areas have meant the Mobile Libraries have been unable to provide anything but the most basic of services. In particular, online services have been out of the question.

“We wanted to make the library service as equitable as possible across the whole region and it has been a long term goal of the UMRL to have all branches online with full, live access to the library,” said Dale Cousens, Information Systems Manager. “We constantly review our communications options and when we first heard about the mobile Global Area Network (GAN) service, we thought that we may have found a solution. The funding we have received through Networking the Nation is allowing us to install the hardware required and set up the service as a pilot.

“The public now have access to the Internet and the staff have real time access to our Library Management System. Xantic has provided a satellite solution that has allowed us to maintain the flexibility of our service while providing the maximum level of connectivity for our customers and staff. The GAN service has meant we are able to offer a complete library service to the people living in remote areas, this service can be easily deployed anywhere regardless of the location or facilities available.”

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