National Resource Sharing Working Group
Minutes of the First Meeting, 14 May 1999
Attendees
Susan Magnay (Chair) (State Library of New South Wales)
Sue
Grimes (Nepean Hospital Library)
Joan Tucker (CAVAL)
Margaret Gauld
(University of Queensland)
Christine Cother (University of South
Australia)
Toby Burrows (University of Western Australia)
Jody Rodas
(Waverley Library)
Cynthia Love (CSIRO Information Technology Services)
Donna Runner (Deakin University - Geelong)
Sharon Howells (University
of Newcastle)
Charu Sood (National Library of Australia)
Patricia
Woods (Minutes)
1. Introduction
Susan Magnay welcomed working group members and outlined the process the meeting would follow. Priorities for action would be decided after a discussion of issues.
2. Welcome by Warren Horton, Director-General, National Library of Australia
Mr. Horton expressed the National Librarys appreciation to the participants for agreeing to join the group. He saw the Working Group as a shared enterprise, promoted by the NLA, but requiring the contributions of other peak organisations. He said the NLA was willing to help the work of the group by providing staff and financial assistance and will consider proposals from the group on merit.
3. Introduction of Participants
The participants then introduced themselves, provided details about their backgrounds and gave a brief summary of what they hoped to achieve through their membership of the Working Group. A summary of each participants profile as supplied by them is attached.
4. Background to the Establishment of the Working Group and Terms of Reference
Susan Magnay gave an outline of the reasons for the establishment of the Working Group - these included environmental changes, frustration with trying to increase efficiencies, changes in libraries collecting policies, changes emerging through the use of Internet and budgetary pressures all of which impact on interlibrary loan/document delivery functions. The demise of ACLIS as the body responsible for national coordination has left a gap in coordination of interlibrary lending/document delivery issues at the national level. At the Round Table on Overseas Monographs academic users had indicated that the current interlibrary lending system was not working for them.
With the assistance of the Coordination Support Branch which is coordinating research into the availability of overseas monographs in Australia for the Australian Library Collections Task Force, Charu Sood and Susan Magnay jointly put a proposal for the formation of the group to NLA. The proposal gained the support of the NLA and was sponsored by it through CASL, CAUL, and ALIA. The formation of the group has now been supported by all the peak library organisations.
The group is a practitioners group to ensure that issues are addressed at a practical level. The group then discussed and accepted the Terms of Reference as set out in the proposal.
5. The Broader Context of Interlibrary Lending /
Document Delivery in Australia, Jan Fullerton, Deputy Director-General,
National Library of Australia
Ms Fullerton spoke on the broader context within which the NRSWG outcomes would be considered. The impetus for the formation of the group came from the concerns raised at the National Round Table on Access to Overseas Monographs through Australian Libraries. There was a perception at this round table that access to monographs published overseas was at a crisis stage.
Ms Fullerton gave a brief report of the work being done through the Australian Collections Task Force which was set up to address the issues raised at the round table. The research has included focus groups with academic users to gather information on their perceptions of a range of issues including collection development, interlibrary lending, access policies, discovery services and how they get materials from overseas. Interlibrary lending services emerged as a critical issue for academics in the focus groups research. Another project involved citation analysis of thesis in English and Psychology to determine availability in Australia.
The following issues were identified in discussions with Ms Fullerton:
- There was both inadequate knowledge and misinformation about interlibrary lending services and how end users can access them with the result that many users bypassed the service and used personal contacts to obtain material from overseas.
- Collection development There needs to be closer liaison between interlibrary lending librarians and collection development staff in libraries.
- Electronic resources and the desirability for a national consortium to negotiate with publishers - A national model licence which protected fair dealing and interlibrary lending provisions was desirable and would assist small libraries in particular in purchasing electronic resources.
- Unmediated access to reduce costs and increase efficiencies by allowing end user requesting.
Ms Fullerton described her participation in an OCLC Institute on Resource Sharing where efficiency was the key interlibrary lending issue. Colorado Interlibrary Code was seen as highly efficient and a best practice by those who attended the OCLC Institute.
6. Discussion of Issues
Based on the discussion paper on the issues prepared by Charu Sood, the following issues were identified and discussed:
- Obtaining evidence and data on interlibrary lending and document delivery issues and practices was important
- Competition from commercial suppliers
- Competition between institutions
- Standard charges - examine Standard ACLIS charge
- Voucher system and electronic vouchers
- Licence agreements for electronic resources
- Technology availability across sectors, how not to exclude libraries based on technology, incentives for libraries to upgrade technology, automation and the importance of interoperability, open systems and ISO interlibrary lending compliant systems
- Methods used for costing interlibrary lending
- Methods for two way information sharing across the industry
- Performance and policies (eg interlibrary lending code) (and underlying procedures)
- Measurement of performance
- Standards (any standards developed should reflect needs of all libraries, not just large libraries)
- Best practice
- Roadmap for clients and understanding of clients needs
- Question assumptions eg overseas versus local supply is one better than the other?
- Copyright (including training)
- Incentives for supplying
- Incentives for improved performance
- ILRS interlibrary lending policies and capabilities.
- Training TAFE, competencies, professional development of interlibrary lending staff
- Supplying activity how importance of supply can be recognised and given adequate staff and commitment by library management
- International interlibrary lending
- Closer links between collection development and interlibrary lending
- Unmediated requesting and supply (including how to control budgets, charging etc)
The Group agreed that the priority areas to be addressed are:
- Unmediated requesting and supply
- Incentives for supply; Incentives for improved performance
- Road maps for clients (end users) and understanding their needs
- Performances and policies; Standards; Measurement of performance; Methods of costing
- Obtaining evidence on issues/practices (data collection)
- International interlibrary lending
7. Setting the Priorities Work Program
The Working Group agreed that efforts would focus on the four priority areas identified in the agenda paper. The work of the group should start now, and not wait for the results of the survey.
It was agreed that the work would be divided between three committees, each dealing with one of the four areas identified as priority areas:
- 1. Consultation Committee
- This committee will develop a plan for consultation and communication to the broader library community, including identifying critical stakeholders and groups.
- Committee members: Christine Cother, Susan Magnay (Coordinator), Cynthia Love, Toby Burrows, Sharon Howells, Charu Sood
- 2. Data Collection and Survey Committee
- This committee will develop a proposal for a survey, and a draft funding proposal.
- Committee members: Cynthia Love, Donna Runner, Charu Sood (Coordinator), Sharon Howells
- 3. Performance Standards
- This committee will gather information on existing models and ISO interlibrary lending standards and develop draft standards
- Committee members: Sue Grimes, Joan Tucker, Jody Rodas (Coordinator), Charu Sood, Margaret Gauld, Donna Runner
- 4. International Interlibrary Lending issues
- It was decided that although the issue of improving interlibrary lending between countries was important, it would be given a lower priority. Charu Sood is a member of the International Interlibrary Lending Task Force of the RLG SHARES Program. Charu will provide feedback on developments from the Task Force to the group.
8. Working Group Logistics
- Secretariat support will be provided by NLA
- List of names and contact details will be circulated
- Charu Sood will set up a closed email list for general communication within the group
- Committees will communicate by separate email but report back to the main group
9. External Communication and Reporting
Formal reporting should be to the Director-General, National Library of Australia who would forward the reports to the CASL, CAUL etc.
Less formal reporting may be done to the organisations supporting working group participants. However there is a need to ensure that the same information is being given out. Charu Sood will provide a copy of a paper for Gateways and a copy of an article to be written for Incite to the group.
Dissemination of information to the Australian library community through postings to lists should be sent via Susan Magnay or Charu Sood.
10. Membership of Group
Membership of current participants will be for one year. A mechanism for future membership will be decided by NLA at a later date.
11. Other Business and Next Meeting
The next meeting would be held in Sydney to coincide with the Kinetica Users Meeting (to be held 19/20 July), Susan Magnay to arrange the venue.
The meeting closed at 4.30 pm
