An online learning program set to revolutionise library skills training around Australia and overseas will be launched at Charles Sturt University today, Thursday 17 August.

Web-ezy is a fully interactive self-help tutorial designed to develop information skills via the Internet, enabling people to used web-based data resources most effectively.

CSU's version of the Web-ezy software will be officially launched by the University's Vice-Chancellor Professor Cliff Blake at the Wagga Wagga Campus Library at 3pm today, followed by a demonstration to showcase the system's many uses and applications.

The software was developed by CSU and UNILINC - the entrepreneurial library services cooperative that provides electronic technology services, library management systems and support to more than 100 libraries around Australia.

This first release of the Web-ezy Software is a set of nine self-paced interactive tutorials on subjects such as: searching library catalogues and the Internet; topic analysis; searching a research database; and other information skills. It has been designed for use by students studying online, whether on or off campus. Anyone with access to the system can use the modules in sequence or dip into parts of the package relevant at a particular time.

CSU's Library Services Executive Director Margaret Macpherson welcomed the leading-edge technology. "An important aspect for CSU is that the Web-ezy software can be embedded in online subjects and course work, so that students can go straight to the module that will help them when and where they need assistance," she said.

Ms Macpherson said the lack of interactivity in existing web-based information literacy programs was recognised by the former CSU Bathurst Library Director Garry Hall, and UNILINC Executive Director Rona Wade, and addressing this lapse was the genesis of Web-ezy Software.

"Most academic libraries have developed some form of web-based information literacy but have found it hard to maintain. Prior to Web-ezy the web's interactive capability wasn't used because of the cost and complexity of that development process," she said.

"Garry and Rona developed the idea of a shell that could be reused and at the same time customised. The software and content were developed by Glenda Henderson from UNILINC and customised in association with CSU Library staff."

That "shell" can be adapted to a vast range of web-based resources. Marketed by Australian-owned Web-ezy Solutions, the program has export potential as well as domestic uses.