National Resource Sharing Working Group

Proposal for the Formation of a National Resource Sharing Working Group

Rationale

The rationale for the proposed working group is to ensure that a robust, reliable and cost-effective interlending system, built on cooperation and agreed service standards and policies, is in place to serve Australian libraries and their users.

Background

Concerns about the performance and future development of the Australian interlending system were voiced at the National Interlending and Document Delivery Summit 1995. This summit was hosted by the Australian Council of Libraries and Information Services (ACLIS). More recently, at the National Round Table on Access to Overseas Monographs through Australian Libraries, concern was expressed about the effectiveness of existing resource sharing arrangements between libraries. Until its dissolution in December 1998, ACLIS had carriage of developing standards and policies for interlending in Australia. The Australian Interlending Code developed by ACLIS has been a successful voluntary mechanism for many years. The demise of ACLIS leaves the Australian library sector without a mechanism for addressing interlending issues at a national level.

Issues

The technical components of an efficient resource-sharing infrastructure for Australian libraries have been built over many years. These components are all currently being re-engineered. The main elements of this existing infrastructure are:

  • National interlibrary lending utility: Kinetica Document Delivery System
  • National union catalogue of all major Australian libraries providing access to holdings information – the Kinetica National Bibliographic Database, and library catalogues increasingly available through Internet & complying to Z39.50 standard
  • Electronic document transmission system developed by enhancing ARIEL through the JEDDS project
  • Interlibrary Resource Sharing Directory
  • Development of interlibrary lending management modules in integrated library management systems
  • Developing regional and sectoral agreements for resource sharing

Underpinning the infrastructure is a philosophy, code of practice and historic commitment to resource sharing and cooperation between Australian libraries, eg. Australian Interlending Code, standardised request form, standardised recommended pricing, national payment schemes (ALIA vouchers and ABN interlibrary lending sub-system).

The proposed working group will build on the history of cooperation and resource sharing in the Australian library community. Its work will complement the redevelopment of the other components of Australia’s interlending system by ensuring that practices and policies develop to match the changing technical infrastructure.

National Library will sponsor the working group but recognises that it will need the support of the Australian library community. The Library will work closely with peak industry bodies including the Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL) and the Council of Australian University Libraries (CAUL), and also with the Australian Library Collections Task Force of the National Round Table on Access to Overseas Monographs through Australian Libraries.

Terms of Reference

It is envisaged that this group will have an ongoing role to monitor interlibrary lending standards, practices and policies and to ensure that these continue to meet changing user needs and new technologies.

  1. Extend the current Australian Interlending Code through development of performance standards aimed at improving the efficiency, reliability and client satisfaction of Inter Library Loans (ILL) operations in Australian libraries.
  2. Co-ordinate a consultative process with the Australian library community (interlibrary lending practitioners & library managers) and user groups to reach consensus on these standards.
  3. Develop strategies to encourage Australian libraries to implement performance standards. These strategies will include areas such as training & competencies for interlibrary lending staff.
  4. Conduct a wide-ranging survey of Australian libraries to ascertain document delivery trends and current interlibrary lending practices in Australia.
  5. Ensure that Australian requirements are reflected in the developments of the ISO ILL Protocol (the international standard for interlibrary lending communication) by monitoring and providing input to the ILL Protocol Implementors Group (IPIG) convened by the Association of Research Libraries.
  6. Cooperate with international efforts to improve interlibrary lending between countries and recommend improved processes for international interlibrary lending of monographs not held in Australian libraries.
  7. Identify and recommend mechanisms which improve access to interlibrary lending services by end users.
  8. Develop a standard survey/evaluation instrument to measure client satisfaction with interlending services and promote its use by Australian libraries.
  9. Develop criteria for defining best practices for interlibrary lending operations and identify best practice interlibrary lending operations for libraries for benchmarking.

Membership

The group will be convened by the National Library and will be composed of interlibrary lending practitioners. The membership will reflect a geographic as well as a sectoral balance to ensure that views of the Australian library sector as a whole are considered. Most of the work of the group will be conducted via teleconference and email with occasional face to face meetings as required.

Charu Sood
Director Interlending Services
National Library of Australia
Susan Magnay
Manager Document Delivery Service
State Library of NSW
15 January 1999

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