Libraries have always been considered a trustworthy, safe and familiar environment but, today, greater access by the public to online information has opened up new opportunities to provide a compelling consumer experience while resulted in avenues for potential cost efficiency.

In particular seniors, students, jobseekers and the disabled are using the Internet at libraries to access a variety of resources primarily for email, electronic registration, distance education, research and training. As the skill level of the community increases libraries are continually reviewing and improving the facilities that are offered to meet consumer needs.

Armed with a mandate to provide free and equitable access to information to all members of the community, the SWAP Library network (SWAP) was established in 1989 to provide a computerised library management system for the councils of
St Peters, Walkerville and Prospect in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.

In 1999, amalgamation between councils expanded the network to include the Norwood and Payneham libraries. Today, the libraries of Athelstone, Campbelltown, Norwood, Payneham, Prospect, St Peters and Walkerville serve 58,000 residents and allow members to borrow from any or all of the libraries.

SWAP’s website (http://www.swaplib.sa.gov.au) provides online access to a library catalogue which houses a collective database of 103,000 bibliographic records. The organisation’s Dynix library information management systems enable users to access catalogues online, be advised, make reservations and review other notices by email and enjoy easy access to a larger range of materials due to regular courier runs between the participating libraries.

Indeed, since SWAP placed its catalogue online, it has seen a 400 per cent increase in consumer requests. This figure increased yet further when the SWAP Community Information website was launched in 2002 to provide access to a wealth of local community information.

However, with the ever-increasing demand for online access by the community, including the need to operate and maintain a secure, round-the-clock service, SWAP realised it needed to provide a more effective online infrastructure to meet the needs of a technologically literate community and acquire additional resources and support in the process.

Following a comprehensive review of its online infrastructure, SWAP decided to outsource its web hosting requirements cancelling a pressing need to buy new server and software kit.

“We reviewed three vendors and were looking for a hosting provider with a good track record in service, support, reliability and security. Our evaluation process concluded that Hostway was clearly the best solution for our organisation," said Leonie Edwards, Systems Administrator for the SWAP Network.

Founded in 1998, specialist hosting provider Hostway maintains over 400,000 domains for 300,000 customers around the world. The company has 250,191 square metres of data centre space in nine international operation centres. The company’s significant investment in network infrastructure means that clients can leverage the best possible hosting solutions and be confident of the highest quality service and support.

The hosting provider’s ability to offer a fully integrated Microsoft solution is a major advantage for SWAP. It means the site can be run using one operating system rather than having to change between different systems, making site administration much easier.

SWAP transfers approximately 5 gigabytes of Internet data per month. Edwards says that moving onto Hostway’s servers made a substantial difference in managing such a large amount of traffic.

“The website is an important tool in promoting the library and community information services and provides the community with a valuable resource. Upgrading to a bigger bandwidth link and more powerful servers has increased the throughput of the site significantly. We were previously limited by the power of the machines and bandwidth restrictions. Now the machines have significant reserves left so that they can handle large spikes in traffic with no problems.”

Another important development in SWAP’s library services has been the availability of remote access to a variety of online databases. This has provided enormous benefits to the community in that information can be accessed at a time and in a place that meets the needs of the user. However, when dealing with personal contact details, security is of paramount concern. Hostway’s strong managed firewall solution and secure premises were also important factors in SWAP’s confidence to outsource its hosting.

The high security levels offered by Hostway are supported by a fully redundant network infrastructure that guarantees 99.9 per cent uptime. In addition, Hostway offers 24/7 live support and prides itself on quick response times when help is needed.

“When we did our initial review, Hostway seemed to offer good service and we contacted their referees all of whom indicated that their support was good though quite frankly we haven’t had the occasion to need it,” says Edwards.

Another benefit of outsourcing its web hosting to Hostway is that SWAP can automatically gain regular statistics and data on numbers accessing the website, the most popular types of information requested and the demand in subject area at any particular point in time.

Edwards says that the site regularly gets around 100-120 hits on a daily basis. This information is then used for corporate reporting into councils and bi-annual reports into SWAP’s chief executive ensuring SWAP formally complies with government legislation on corporate reporting standards while enabling the library network to plan for new product acquisitions and facilities.

“When we did our own hosting, it would cost us around $5,000 per year to maintain the system as well as the hidden costs of staff required to maintain the systems driving that figure higher. Now, our IT team is freed up to handle other activities, including daily website updates.

“We just don’t need to worry about the server anymore. We’re now redirecting savings back into new features and greater efficiency for the public. We can keep the software up-to-date, investigate new technologies and remove the hidden administration costs involved in in-house web hosting.

“Outsourcing to Hostway has provided better value - its more efficient, works well and is more reliable. It saves money,” concludes Edwards.