National Resource Sharing Working Group

Minutes of the Third Meeting, 12 November 1999

Attendees

Susan Magnay (Chair) (State Library of New South Wales)

Sue Grimes (Nepean Hospital Library)
Joan Tucker (CAVAL)
Sharon Howells (University of Newcastle)
Margaret Gauld (University of Queensland)
Jody Rodas (Waverley Library)
Donna Runner (Deakin University - Geelong)
Charu Sood (National Library of Australia)
Patricia Woods (Minutes)

Apologies

Christine Cother (University of South Australia)
Toby Burrows (University of Western Australia)
Cynthia Love (CSIRO Information Technology Services)

1. Minutes of last meeting

Minutes accepted as an accurate record of the meeting.

2. Apologies

Toby Burrows, Christine Cother, Cynthia Love

3. Business arising

Charu Sood reported on the first National Resource Sharing Steering Committee Meeting.

Membership:
Andrew Wells (Chairperson)
Susan Magnay (representing CASL)
Liz Curach (University Librarian, University of Sydney, representing CAUL)
Cliff Law (National Library of Australia)
Charu Sood (National Library of Australia)

The first meeting was held on 22/10. Discussion had centred on an early version of the workplan which recommended several small surveys rather than one large survey. Some of the suggested surveys were approved, others were not approved. The meeting also discussed standards issues, as set out in the current workplan. Outcomes of the Steering Committee meeting were revised after discussion with Mary Jackson (ARL).

Notes from the Steering Committee meeting will be circulated.

Action: Charu Sood

Susan Magnay gave an update on the Public Library sector representation in the NRSWG (to replace Jody Rodas). A person has been approached and an announcement will be made in the near future.

4. Oral Reports on various consultations

Specials conference, Hobart - Charu Sood, Sue Grimes and Cynthia Love attended and gave a presentation. Comments included: importance of standards, concerns about Kinetica and some discussion of commercial suppliers. There was not a large attendance as there were too many parallel sessions, it could be useful in future to give a more formal paper.

Library Technician Conference, Perth – Toby Burrows and Christine Cother attended. Toby provided a written report. Comments included: service provided by commercial suppliers, with some libraries receiving poor service, interest in using OCLC Electronic Journals, issue of charging for delivery, suggestion that guidelines be developed on amount of checking for material not on shelf before passing the request on.

Public Libraries Conference, Perth - To be held next week. There will be a lunch time special session. Publicity for the session will be via various lists, both state and national. Meetings with special and university libraries have also been arranged.

CSIRO libraries, Brisbane- Susan Magnay gave a presentation to 40-50 attendees. The importance of document delivery to users was expressed. It was a good opportunity to raise awareness of the NRSWG group.

ACT Kinetica ILL Users Group – 25-30 attendees. Charu Sood gave background information on the group. The need to develop standards was seen as very important by the Group.

Kinetica Users Group and QULOC group meetings – Margaret Gauld reported that issues discussed were the lack of standards for ILL and variations in pricing.

Victorian Kinetica Users meeting – Donna Runner provided a brief report. The meeting discussed the issue of holdings for electronic journals on Kinetica and whether there should be notes on restrictions on ILL.

There was a suggestion that NRSWG have a seminar to coincide with VALA. NRSWG would organise the publicity and issue invitations. The session should not clash with the DESIG (Distance Education Special Interest Group Meeting) on 13-14 February 2000. Susan Magnay would discuss with VSL (as the CASL representative). Susan Magnay and Charu Sood would work with NLA staff to develop a program and follow up the organisational aspects of the session.

Action: Susan Magnay, Charu Sood

5. Report on Mary Jackson’s visit

Discussion covered how the results of the 2-year study on ILL performance in North American academic libraries were used. A statistically significant finding was that as the volume of lending increased, unit costs decreased. As a result, a few universities in the United States have now become lenders of first resort.

Other points included:

  • The need to get practitioner and senior management commitment for change to occur
  • Process engineering requires a fundamental change
  • High performers used technology
  • Need to raise the profile of ILL with managers
  • Need to encourage senior manager to question practices

Mary is working on a kit for senior managers to help them to examine ILL practices critically to use the findings of the study to drive change in their own organisations.

The lunchtime seminar was well attended (over 80 attendees); feedback will be sought at the next ACT ILL users meeting. A summary of the session will be made available on the web. Minutes of the meeting with Mary will be circulated to the NRSWG.

Action: Charu Sood

Mary has indicated her willingness for the methodology of the 2-year study to be used in Australia. Liz Curach (CAUL) has expressed strong support for conducting a similar study in Australia. Members supported this approach. Charu Sood will write a paper to NLA’s CMG requesting permission and funding to conduct a similar study in Australia. Susan Magnay to follow up with Liz Curach to gauge interest from CAUL libraries.

6. Workplan

Standards Subgroup

There is a need to widen membership of the Standards Subgroup to get greater input, commitment and ownership. Suggested new members were Bernadine Hardin, Gil Darby, Julie Wilson, with Sandra Gorringe from Special Libraries plus the new public libraries representative.

Charu Sood will take over convenorship of the group, replacing Jody Rodas.

Charu Sood will further develop her paper on standards. Possibilities include developing different models and publicising them for discussion. Suggested models included:

  1. Current model with standards for turnaround time set firmly
  2. A new set of standards and pricing structure to give libraries more choice and flexibility
  3. A deregulated system with each library setting its own pricing

Consultation

Susan Magnay commented that it was important for members to report on consultations, either in writing or through our meetings. Planning for formal processes for consultation can be undertaken at a later date.

The Workplan was accepted by the meeting, with standards as the top priority.

7. Delivery Time Survey

Kristen Ritchie (NLA) is analysing the data and preparing a report. It is expected to have a draft report within the next week, the draft should be available to the NRSWG early December, with a final draft early in 2000 with a probable publication date of February.

8. ILRS Directory

NLA is currently working on the directory in preparation for providing a gateway. They will look at interaction with KDD and LIDDA. The National Library will ask the NRSWG to look at the ILRS Directory and provide comments on what needs to be in it. NRSWG members considered that there was a need to retain a paper copy of the Directory.

9. GST implications for ILL

ILL will attract GST. Libraries can claim a refund of GST paid, but will need tax compliant invoices. KDD payments scheme is GST compliant.

NLA and ALIA are discussing GST issues, including vouchers.

10. Other Business

Electronic Journal Subscripions. Records on Kinetica do not indicate whether the item is available for ILL. Charu Sood suggested a message to DocLibs asking libraries how they find out who subscribes to electronic journals and how they find out whether licence agreements permit ILL, to generate discussion and debate on the issue.

Action: Charu Sood

KDD The level of use of KDD was discussed.

Sharon Howells – A study revealed that 80% of documents are supplied from the first location, which minimises the resending of requests. NNCU are searching Kinetica Web and then use KDD. They have a deadline of 3 pm for sending out requests, any requests not sent by then are sent by other means. They are confident the system will improve.

NSL are using KDD and are receiving the same level of requests as they received on ABN. ANL has analysed the number of requests being received on KDD. There has been only a small drop over the last year.

Sharon Howells suggested a promotional tour of KDD, providing advice on using the system. The meeting saw a need for more.

Charu Sood will to pass on the comments to the Kinetica Division.

Action: Charu Sood

11. Date for next meeting

Tentative dates for the next meetings by teleconference are:

10 February 2000 – Thursday 2pm

9 March 2000 – Thursday 2 pm

6 April 2000 – Thursday 2 pm

Back to the top