Altiorem

Policy Statement 

The Library Collection Policy aims to provide an accessible, valued and highly used electronic resource collection available 24/7 to the Altiorem community.

Application 

This policy establishes the principles and guidelines for the management and acquisition of library resources relevant to the Altiorem community and to account to the public for the selection of resources.

Altiorem’s objective is to facilitate free and equitable access to curated electronic resources relevant to sustainable finance. Altiorem supports advocates for sustainable finance while also engaging and educating the next generation of finance leaders. The library is committed to ensuring the community has access to a current and relevant collection of library materials, with a diversity of credible content.

The reasons for preparing a Collection Policy include: 

• Inform the community of the principles by which the library’s collections are selected, maintained, developed and deselected. 
• To keep the collection current, relevant and accessible; 
• To ensure that the collection is continually monitored to meet changing community needs; 
• As a management tool and for internal communication and training of staff; 
• To ensure that professional objectivity informs the selection and weeding processes; 
• Responsible management and allocation of collection budget for current and future priorities.

Best practice collection management requires that the collection’s performance must be continually monitored to make sure it is meeting community needs. Resources must be constantly evaluated and out of date, superseded and irrelevant items replaced on a regular basis. Securing the budget to ensure the collection’s success is a key factor in good collection management.

Definitions 

Collection Development: Collection Development refers to the process of planning, evaluating, building, maintaining, and weeding a library’s collection to meet community demand.

Contributors: Volunteers who complete Summaries that ensure the material meets Altiorem’s collection criteria.

Electronic Resources: An electronic resource is any information source that the library provides access to in an electronic format.

Mentors: Experienced finance or sustainability issue professionals who volunteer to support contributors in publishing content and in curating and prioritising new content and weeding the collection. 

Summaries: A dynamic document that identifies core collection requirements provided to library suppliers to assist in selection.

Sustainable finance: More than integrating environmental, social and governance factors into investment & financing decisions, it is an industry which, through the allocation of financial capital and positive influence, supports flourishing social and environmental systems with principles of stewardship and responsibility at its core.    

Trello: Electronic workflow and communications platform used by Altiorem to manage the collection.

Weeding: The continuous, systematic removal of resources from a library based on selected criteria.

Collection Management Principles – Library Collection

The library is an electronic resource collection. It includes materials available in a variety of formats which may include but are not limited to webpages, PDFs, eBooks, online databases and tools, online news articles, academic articles, videos and podcasts. While the relevance of the content of material is a primary consideration, the format can affect its suitability.

Altiorem is committed to providing resources that reflect the needs of Altiorem’s community . Collections are shaped by feedback and suggestions from our community; this process is open to the public, with suggestions emailed to research@altiorem.org or via a web form accessible from most pages of the library. Suggested content is listed in the Trello board, Altiorem Workflow, for assessment.

Staff and Mentors evaluate suggested resources through applying the criterion of explicit demonstration of sustainable finance relevance. Accepted resources are categorised by priority, complexity, number of pages, topic covered and content type. All resources undergo a process where they are summarised by our community of volunteers before they are freely accessible to library members. 

Resources may not be excluded from selection based on personal taste, moral or political viewpoints, social or ideological variance. Resources will be considered for selection based on their own merit and the audience for whom it is intended.

To ensure the collection is maintained resources are regularly removed from the collection as part of the library’s weeding program. Refer to the weeding guidelines below. 

Weeding Guidelines 

The weeding process is vital for Altiorem’s capacity to continuously provide a current and relevant collection. 

The criteria used for removal of resources include: 

• Content is outdated or obsolete
• Content is no longer relevant to community needs 
• Superior or more update content is identified and accepted in the library

Selection Criteria 

The collection is subject to the application of the following criterion:

Demonstration of explicit sustainable finance relevance. For the purposes of determining sustainable finance relevance, Altiorem staff and mentors refer to those subjects defined in Altiorem’s taxonomy of issues, cases and implementation activities. 

Once approved the collection is prioritised for inclusion according to the current needs of the library, for example if a gap in human rights content has been identified, suggested content which fills that gap will be prioritised. 

The Collections

The collection is organised in accordance with Altiorem’s taxonomy of issues, cases and implementation activities. Staff and volunteers can find out more about the Taxonomy on Trello and in the latest Contributor Manual located on the Altiorem Workflow board on Trello.

Collection Management and Responsibility 

The Head of Research and the Business Manager are responsible for the development and implementation of collection management guidelines.

Budget

Altiorem procures freely available electronic resources. The budget for Altiorem’s collection is focused on providing a website that is easily navigated and information that is current and correct to ensure the library collection is accessible and relevant to the community.

Policy Review

This Policy will be reviewed every two years or as required in the event of legislative changes. Any amendment to this Policy must be by way of the approval of Altiorem’s Managing Director.

Approved by the managing director on 3 April 2020.

Policy statement 

Altiorem’s operations policy outlines how Altiorem provides and maintains an accessible, high quality, comprehensive and useful sustainable finance library for our members. 

Objective

The primary objective of the Altiorem Library is to facilitate free and equitable access to quality assured information on electronic resources dedicated to sustainable finance. Altiorem supports advocates for sustainable finance while also engaging and educating the next generation of finance leaders. The library’s operations seek to ensure the community has access to a current and relevant collection of library materials, with a diversity of content in a variety of formats. 

Altiorem’s ecosystem 

Altiorem has developed a scalable and flexible ecosystem which allows university student volunteers (who we call contributors) to work with experts (who we call mentors) to summarise and categorise research and other content for the library. Altiorem provides the tools, templates, taxonomies and training necessary to produce high quality, reliable, consistent and usable information for the Altiorem community (members of the library). 

The system also relies on the community of users to suggest new content. The network effects which stem from these interactions will allow the library to continuously improve and maintain relevance to the community’s evolving needs.

Collection management and development 

See Altiorem’s Library Collection Policy for the principles and guidelines for the management and acquisition of library resources relevant to the Altiorem community.  

Website maintenance

Maintenance of Altiorem’s information webpages are updated on an ongoing basis with formal review occurring at least annually. 

Systems maintenance 

Altiorem uses several external online services to organise library content and communicate with volunteers. Altiorem’s external systems will be reviewed annually or as required. 

Security of systems 

Staff, contractors and volunteers are authorised to use Altiorem’s accounts when assigned a user account or granted access by Altiorem to user only areas. Altiorem’s user only areas include:

• WordPress 
• Trello
• Slack

Users must maintain good security hygiene of the device, including the following:

• Turn on automatic updates and ensure software receives the latest fixes;
• Use security software and configure security features such as firewall and anti-virus / anti-malware; and
• Password protect their device.

A device must not be used where it is known to have a security compromise. Users must reinstall the operating system and all software from trustworthy sources before continuing to use the device.

Users must not store confidential or valuable data on a personally owned device, instead it should be uploaded to the relevant cloud systems such as WordPress, Trello or Google Drive.

Membership 

Altiorem seeks to:  

• Provide clear and intuitive avenues for member feedback and correspondence.
• Demonstrate responsive and professional communication with member correspondence. 

Complaints and grievances 

Members can make a formal complaint by completing the feedback form on the website or by contacting Altiorem at info@altiorem.org. 

Altiorem will respond to all complaints. The complaint will be managed in accordance with Altiorem’s complaints procedure. 

Complaints procedure:

1. Listen to the complaint
2. Record details of the complaint
3. Get all the facts
4. Discuss options for fixing the problem
5. Act quickly
6. Keep promises
7. Follow up

Managing stakeholder relations 

Altiorem is committed to working with a broad range of stakeholders including professional network members, industry organisations, university employees and students, Altiorem members and the community. Altiorem values the expertise, knowledge and experience that stakeholders contribute and aims to harness this to ensure that the best informed decisions are made in relation to Altiorem’s strategic priorities, policies and operations. Although it is not possible to always collaborate or consult, Altiorem is open to different views, needs and expectations to continuously improve and better target objectives of the Altiorem Library. Altiorem is committed to building relationships with stakeholders and the community based on trust and respect, to achieve these objectives.

Marketing and social media 

Altiorem uses social media to communicate to our community, to attract new users and to further our mission of changing finance for good. All published posts must embody the correct application of Altiorem’s branding and logo. Altiorem staff must use social media in accordance with principles of integrity, professionalism and respect for others and Altiorem. 

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) characterises the qualities and skills of public library staff as: 

• The ability to understand the needs of users 
• Knowledge of the library’s collections, programs and services and to efficiently access these
• The ability to communicate positively with people
• The ability to work with others in providing an effective library service
• The ability to cooperate with individuals and groups in the community
• Imagination, vision and openness to new ideas and practice 
• Knowledge of and ability to use ICT to improve service delivery and customer use of information. 

Changes in how people discover, access and consume information have prompted changes in library services, leading to a need for different skills in the library workforce. It requires staff who embrace the potential of technology and creatively find appropriate ways to embed it in library services. 

Professional and continuing education of the library workforce is essential to a sustainable quality library service. 

Objective

To ensure that the number, competencies and mix of library staff support a range of services and programs which meet the needs of the community. 

The primary objective of the Altiorem Library is to facilitate free and equitable access to quality assured information of electronic resources dedicated to sustainable finance. Altiorem supports advocates for sustainable finance while also engaging and educating the next generation of finance leaders. The library is committed to ensuring staff have the support and skills needed to provide our members with a current, relevant and diverse library. 

Staffing requirements 

Library staff include both paid and suitably qualified and experienced volunteers, who are appropriately trained to discharge their particular job responsibilities. 

The Head of Research is a paid position and is responsible for maintaining the collection and managing volunteers in accordance with the collections policy. Staffing levels are sufficient to deliver the services set out in the library’s strategy or plan, and are appropriate for the library’s community. 

Altiorem is an online library enabling our members 24-hour access to our electronic collections.

Staff requirements to ensure the quality delivery of Altiorem Library material to its members: 

• Maintain library collections in accordance with the standards outlined in the Collections Policy, Contributor Manual, Mentor Manual, Altiorem taxonomy and other relevant policies and procedures. 
• Making use of training, video sessions,  live Q&A and other support available to staff and volunteers in managing the collection. These include use of Altiorem’s workflow tool (Trello) and communications tool (Slack).
• Ensure members are supported by monitoring member communication and responding to members in a professional and timely manner.

Staffing Mix

A library service’s commitment and responsiveness to its community is reflected in the mix of library staff selected to provide library programs and services. 

Altiorem is a specialist library dedicated to electronic resources on sustainable finance. Due to Altiorem’s focus, the staffing mix is comprised of both specialist (sustainable finance) staff and non-specialist (operations) staff. 

Altiorem is a community focused and community run library that relies on a network of sustainable finance students and professional volunteers to ensure the collections are current, relevant and diverse. See our Volunteer Policy for further information. 

Professional development 

All library staff are educated on Altiorem’s operations, policies, standards and culture upon induction. Any changes or updates to Altiorem’s operations, policies, standards and culture are explicitly communicated to staff. This seeks to ensure that staff have the sufficient knowledge and skills to undertake the requirements of their roles with a minimum of supervision. 

We facilitate and actively encourage ongoing professional education on a formal and informal basis. Formal training is supported by informal skills transfer, mentoring and information sessions for staff. 

Library staff are encouraged to participate in reading, online exchange of ideas, and by attending courses, conferences, and meetings. 

 Review

This Policy will be reviewed every two years or as required in the event of legislative changes. Any amendment to this Policy must be by way of the approval of Altiorem’s Managing Director.

Approved by the managing director on 3 April 2020.