National Library of Australia
Kinetica Kinetica
This page is an archive page and will no longer be updated.

Kinetica Advisory Committee Meeting

26 February 1999


Agenda

  1. Deputy Director-General’s remarks
  2. Minutes of the Previous Meeting KAC/1998/2/11
  3. Kinetica Implementation Project Progress Report – Oral Report
  4. Business Issues
    a. Kinetica Charging and Budget KAC/1999/1/2 (embargoed)
    b. Kinetica business relationships KAC/1999/1/3 (embargoed)
  5. National Bibliographic Database Report February 1999 KAC/1999/1/4

    National Resource Sharing Working Group KAC/1999/1/5
  6. Kinetica Customer Services KAC/1999/1/6
  7. Kinetica-l: Issues Raised on the Online Discussion List KAC/1999/1/7
  8. For Information
    a. The Digital Services Project: Progress Report KAC/1999/1/8

 

Kinetica Advisory Committee Meeting, 12 and 13 November 1998
Draft Minutes

Draft minutes of the second meeting of the Kinetica Advisory Committee held at the National Library of Australia on 12 and 13 November 1998.

Present

Chairperson Ms Helen Livingston
Deputy University Librarian, Deakin University
Members Ms Sally Anderson
NSW Agriculture Library, Trangie
Ms Marian Bate
Principal Librarian, University of New South Wales
Ms Kaye Hill
Library and Information Service of Western Australia
Mr Philip Keane
Head, Library and Educational Information Services, Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science, Adelaide
Ms Jan Maslen
Associate Librarian (Technical Services), La Trobe University
Ms Sherrey Quinn
Library Services Co-ordinator, BHP Researc

Joined the meeting by teleconference for item 4 (a)

Ms Meredith Wallace
Manager, Information & Library Services, Parramatta City Library
Ms Jan Fullerton
Deputy Director-General (Acting), National Library of Australia
Observer Mr Warren Horton
Director-General, National Library of Australia
Officers in Attendance Mr Andrew Wells
Director, Kinetica Implementation Team, NLA
Dr Warwick Cathro
Assistant Director-General, Services to Libraries, NLA
Minutes Ms Bryony De La Motte
Kinetica Implementation Team, NLA

The meeting opened at 10.00 am.

The chair welcomed Kaye Hill of the Library and Information Service of Western Australia as the new representative of the Council of Australian State Librarians.

Apologies were received from David Toll and Sherrey Quinn. Ms Quinn was able to join the meeting by teleconference for item 4(a).

Agenda item 1

Minutes of the Previous Meeting

The meeting accepted the minutes of the meeting held on 21 and 23 July 1998 as a true and accurate record of the meeting.

Agenda item 2

Remarks by the Director-General

The Director-General commented on the following matters:

Ministerial arrangements for the National Library have changed as a result of the recent federal election. As an agency of the Dept of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, the Library will have two ministers: Senator Richard Alston as the portfolio minister, assisted by Peter McGauran MP as the junior Minister for the Arts and the Centenary of Federation.

NLA structure. The recently announced 6 Division structure for the library will be more flexible than the previous 4 Program structure. Division 3 will be called Kinetica, reflecting the primary function of the Division. Andrew Wells will act in the position of head of Division. Introduction of a new IT Division, to be headed by Warwick Cathro, reflects the growth of functional and strategic requirements. Positions heading some Divisions will be advertised in December. The new structure will result in expansion of the Library’s Corporate Management Group, as all Division heads will be members.

Agenda item 3

Kinetica Implementation Report

Andrew Wells presented an oral report on Kinetica implementation, covering the following items:

Data migration. 8.3 Million records have been loaded to the Kinetica database, and 400 000 interim records will be loaded in the next stage. Planning for the ‘gap loads’ is well advanced. Authority record loading has been extensively tested; the records will be loaded very soon before going live to eliminate the need for ‘gap loads’.

Logical views. Multiple ‘views’ of the data are a feature of the AMICUS software which while offering great flexibility also involve great complexity. The National Library chose to have only one view, but on advice from sub-contractors, did not select the most appropriate one for loading ABN bibliographic records. The selected view did not provide the crucial network function of ensuring that each customer library could only change its own holdings data. As a result, the records already loaded have to be ‘flipped’ from the view they were loaded to, to the most appropriate view.

LibriVision. Testing of the LibriVision interface is almost complete, and the Library will soon be able to accept it. The version to be shown during the presentations will be very close to the version used in the production system; final versions of some extra functionality is yet to be delivered and it will still require changes to screens to reflect the ‘Kinetica’ name.

Cataloguing client. Some elements of the cataloguing client will be accepted soon, although testing and fixing on other areas will continue. The version shown in the presentations will be a relatively unpolished version, but it is still useful to show it.

Service levels. January and February will be crucial times for IBM to tune the system to achieve the contracted performance levels.

Downline loading development. The functionality is satisfactory, and reporting is now being tested.

Products module. The newly developed products module has been delivered and is at an advanced stage of acceptance testing.

AMICUS user meting. Mr Wells attended this meeting in Budapest in September. It was very useful to make contacts with other AMICUS users, especially the British Library. He also visited the British Library during this trip, and believes that a useful partnership will develop.

Start date. The Kinetica Implementation project is still on schedule for implementation during the first quarter of 1999. The actual date of implementation depends on VDX proving satisfactory in the next week.

Staff. Julia Trainor has joined the Kinetica Implementation Team. ABN and Kinetica staff are working together on most Kinetica activities.

Agenda item 4

Business Issues

a) Charges and Incentives for Kinetica KAC/1998/2/1

Sherrey Quinn joined the meeting by teleconference from Darwin for this item.

Warwick Cathro introduced the item, acknowledging Tom Ruthven’s contribution. Development of the proposed charges followed the principles that the Kinetica charging and incentive arrangements must reflect the needs and policies of the National Library as well as the needs of customer libraries and that they must also reflect the wide and varied use of services by customer libraries. He also noted that work on the incentive scheme had involved defining criteria to govern the allocation of libraries to ‘incentive bands’.

Dr Cathro drew the Committee’s attention to the reintroduction of a transaction-based charge, which had become possible when we developed a better knowledge of the reporting capability of the AMICUS software.

The proposed charges were developed using a database of 50 sample libraries, who were sent questionnaires seeking information about their budget, staffing, population served, collection size, branches and ILL activity.

Andrew Wells added that ELiAS have undertaken to develop software to allow AMICUS concurrent sessions to be limited to a specified number.

The following items were then discussed and clarified in response to questions from Committee members:

The document request fee is for sending requests to other libraries. The financial services fee for use of the document request payment system is a separate item.

The proposed percentage surcharge on search transactions for users who elect to use the gateway services would be applied to all searches. Marian Bate suggested that this would be unattractive to customers, particularly to those who were likely to be small users of the gateways. It was suggested that it would be more acceptable for the transaction charge to apply to Kinetica ‘core databases’ which should comprise the NBD, RLIN and the CJK database. This charge should be reviewed annually to take account of new gateways and the exchange rate.

The transaction-based fee was commended by Philip Keane who noted the concern small libraries had expressed at the $500 minimum subscription for ABN. It is important not to drive away small libraries, some of which have important collections for resource sharing. Tom Ruthven reported that approximately one third of ABN customers are on the $500 subscription; of those about 60 spent less than $40 on ABN in the previous year. He also noted that non-contributing libraries use ABN as a reference tool, and find it a very cheap source of information.

The concurrent session charge could be lower than that proposed in the paper as the Library now has more information on possible concurrent session use. Site licences could be negotiated with large customers, at a price which would incorporate the appropriate level of incentives.

Incentives should be given for activities which are beneficial to the system, ie contribution of holdings and for original records. Incentives would be a percentage rebate and the level of for individual customers should be linked to the level, quality and amount of Australian content contributed. The Committee agreed with the intention of the criteria proposed to determine which contributors meet these levels, and suggested tightening the wording.

The cataloguing client should be supplied free of charge to those customers who undertake to do original cataloguing online, as part of the incentives scheme. The special rate for educational institutions (ie library schools) should be retained. The upline loading registration fee is a charge for assessment of each institution’s data, and is a one-off fee.

The charging model should be reviewed after 12 months’ operation to determine whether it is appropriate to add new charging methods, such as search blocks.

b) Charges for Commercial Use of Kinetica Records KAC/1998/2/2

Andrew Wells introduced this item, reporting on a visit he and Julia Trainor made to Bennetts. He stated that the objective in setting all charges is to ensure cost recovery. In setting charges for commercial suppliers, we should also aim to ensure that they pay a price consistent with the benefit that they receive from use of Kinetica. Two scenarios are possible for commercial organisations:

i) the commercial body can act as proxy for an individual library, using the library’s Kinetica account, and passwords connected to it. In this case, the commercial body would be charged as a library.

ii) the commercial body can develop its own database containing records sourced from Kinetica, and reusing these records for multiple library customers. There is no necessity here for the commercial user’s customers to be Kinetica customers. In this case, there would be a base charge per record, and a surcharge for reuse.

Mr Wells proposed that separate negotiations would be held with each commercial user, because each wants to use Kinetica in a different way.

Following the discussion of charging and incentives, the following recommendations were passed:

KAC/1998/REC/8
The Kinetica Advisory Committee recommends that the core Kinetica services be
Searching the NBD;
Daily consumption of MARC records; and gateway access, including to CJK and RLIN databases.

KAC/1998/REC/9
The Kinetica Advisory Committee recommends that the charging model adopted for access to Kinetica core services provide a number of options, including:
A transaction-based charge;
A subscription charge based on the number of concurrent user sessions;
Negotiated site licences; and
Combinations of the above three options.

KAC/1998/REC/10
The Kinetica Advisory Committee recommends that the following items be charged separately and not covered by the charge for Kinetica’s core services:
UnCover Australia
Interlibrary Loans Payment Service
CD-ROM
MARC records where the number of MARC records in a file is greater than 2,000
Ariel software
Training courses
Documentation
Joining
Upline loading registration

KAC/1998/REC/11
The Kinetica Advisory Committee recommends an annual subscription to all Australian records be offered, with no redistribution rights, and that rates for retrospective files and large batches be negotiated separately.

KAC/1998/REC/12
The Kinetica Advisory Committee recommends that there be a charge for resupply of Kinetica bibliographic records. This does not preclude reuse of bibliographic records within the original purchaser’s library system.

KAC/1998/REC/13
The Kinetica Advisory Committee endorses a minimum monthly charge for use of Kinetica services.

KAC/1998/REC/14
The Kinetica Advisory Committee recommends that the incentive scheme be a percentage rebate based on the level of a Kinetica customer library’s bibliographic data contribution and the level at which it meets the following criteria:

in its Kinetica Agreement, the customer commits to contributing all of its library holdings to the NBD;
in its Kinetica Agreement, the customer commits to contributing original cataloguing for all Australian materials not found on the NBD;
the timeliness of contribution of holdings and original cataloguing; and
the quality of the holdings and original cataloguing data contributed.

KAC/1998/REC/15
The Kinetica Advisory Committee recommends that provision of the Kinetica cataloguing client be part of the incentive scheme, with the number of copies allocated reflecting the level of bibliographic data contribution.

c) Kinetica Business Relationships Oral Report

Warwick Cathro gave this report, noting that there are four issues to be considered.

RLG. The contract for the proposed gateway access is being revised by the lawyers for both parties, but agreement has been reached on all points, and letters of intent have been exchanged. The contract will be a revised version of RLG’s standards reseller agreement: the National Library must ensure that there is no unauthorised reuse of RLG’s records.

RMIT Publishing. Their aim is to provide document backup for customers of Informit Online, with a short term arrangement for back-up from the National Library.

Document delivery. The UnCover agreement expires at the end of June 1999. The Library is considering replacing this exclusive agreement with a number of non-exclusive arrangements. A Request for information is being developed to determine the technical requirements and terms of a number of alternative document suppliers.

OCLC. Discussions are still under way, with a number of matters still requiring resolution.

d) Budget Summary

Warwick Cathro tabled this paper, noting that ABN revenue is a little below pro-rata so far this financial year. Subscription payments have the effect of smoothing revenue throughout the year, so that the lower revenue formerly generated in December and January will not occur this year. However, credits are being earned at a slightly higher rate than forecast. Expenditure had also been slightly over the forecast level. None of these is a matter for concern at this stage.

Agenda item 5

Database Report

KAC/1998/2/3

Andrew Wells added one point to the paper. The ABN authority files will not be loaded to the Kinetica system until quite close to implementation. This will eliminate the need to load ‘gap files’, which would raise major synchronisation requirements. The load programs have been tested, and necessary changes are being made, and loading is expected to proceed smoothly.

Agenda item 6

Cataloguing Expert Advisory Groups

KAC/1998/2/4

Tom Ruthven introduced the item, updating information on each EAG:

Subject Headings group is expected to meet for the first time in early 1999. The major task for the subject headings group will be to work on Aboriginal languages. It was noted that the CAUL view is that Australianisation of headings is now less important than in the past, as Kinetica is just one of a number of databases used by Australian libraries; a business case for continuing this practice needs to be made. Andrew Wells said that this could be done by using SQL searches to identify terms which do not meet the Australian standard; these could then be changed. In ABN this is done manually, so the use of SQL would make identification of terms more efficient. Testing on the SQL approach will begin in January. Committee members suggested that the National Library should stress that the best way to improve data on the national system is to work online on Kinetica. Marian Bate pointed out that libraries are becoming less concerned with amending records for local use as they outsource more of their technical services.

Cataloguing Workflows group’s membership also includes Pam Dunlop from the National Library. A teleconference of the Expert Advisory Group on Cataloguing workflows was to be held that morning. The group is considering the implications of the use of bibliographic records for acquisitions. The group will prepare a paper for distribution to library managers, describing options and some scenarios (including the use of batch reporting) for use of Kinetica in cataloguing. The Committee suggested that this should be extended to the development of good practice guidelines to guide customer libraries in efficient use of Kinetica for cataloguing.

Helen Livingston tabled a letter from the Victorian ABN User Group’s Cataloguing and Standards Subcommittee. This letter addressed three issues related to maintaining the quality of data on the NBD after Kinetica’s implementation : the demise of the Standards Committee; authority control in Kinetica; and bibliographic record standards in Kinetica. During discussion of the latter two items, Committee members noted that the best way to improve data quality on the national system is to work online on Kinetica, which also ensures timely availability of records.

Following discussion of the second two issues, the Kinetica Advisory Committee recommended:

The Kinetica Advisory Committee recommended:

KAC/1998/REC/16
The Kinetica Advisory Committee recommends that the Expert Advisory Group on Cataloguing Workflows develop and promulgate good practice guidelines for efficient use of the Kinetica system.

Standards Committee. Andrew Wells stated that the National Library believes that it can consider standards without a formal Committee. If it proves otherwise, then the decision to disband the Standards Committee will be reconsidered. The forum for raising of standards issues will be the Kinetica Division of the National Library. The National Library is working on a number of standards matters, including cataloguing standards, and a paper on this activity is in the agenda papers for this meeting (KAC/1998/2/9), with a more detailed report on the National Library Web site (http://www.nla.gov.au/services/standards.html).

Andrew Wells informed the Committee that a new EAG would be set up to consider issues raised by the ABN Standards Committee.

The National Library undertook to publish more reports on the activities of the Expert Advisory Groups.

Marian Bate stated that ABN User Groups are unsure of the future framework for input on Kinetica to the National Library. The Committee suggested that the National Library should publicise that users and user groups can approach either the Kinetica Division or the Kinetica Advisory Committee, and that these approaches will be very welcome.

Agenda item 7

Kinetica Marketing Report

KAC/1998/2/5

Rob Walls introduced this item, adding the following recent activities:
A series of advertisements featuring Kinetica are being prepared for InCite;
Kinetica will sponsor publication of the Online and On Disc Conference papers. Kinetica will also be covered by a product review, and in papers to be given by National Library staff; and the first Kinetica Document Delivery presentation will be held on 18 January in conjunction with the Online and On Disc Conference. It will be followed by a reception hosted by the National Library

Agenda item 8

Kinetica Document Delivery Service - VDX Implementation

KAC/1998/2/6

Andrew Wells introduced this item. He informed the Committee about a number of aspects of the implementation: Staff from the National Library of New Zealand would attend training in the National Library of Australia next week, because they would introduce the same functionality for their service.
VDX access to Kinetica via Z39.50 has been difficult to establish.
The LIDDA service is being marketed actively to the university libraries.

Bronwyn Lee will manage the implementation of VDX in the National Library’s Document Supply section.

Directory services are a medium-term project; they are not a high priority at the moment.

Other issues affecting the Australian ILL scene were discussed. And it was noted that with the termination of ACLIS, there will need to be a national co-ordinating body for the ILL code of practice, especially as the ILL protocol becomes more widely implemented. The Kinetica Document Delivery presentation will include ILL protocol information. It was suggested that the National Library might need to adopt this and other roles in the absence of ACLIS. Helen Livingston commented that ABN ILL is very strong in the standards area, and could be the basis for future coordination.

Andrew Wells informed the Committee that Bronwyn Lee will set up an Expert Advisory Group to advise on Kinetica Document Supply in the first quarter of 1999.

Agenda item 9

Dates for Future Meetings

Committee members settled on the following dates for meetings in 1999.

Kinetica Advisory Committee

26 February
19 July (all day) and 21 July (afternoon) - to be held in Sydney
11-12 November - to focus on strategic planning for Kinetica.

Kinetica Annual Users Meeting
20 July (all day) and 21 July (morning) - to be held in Sydney

Agenda item 10

Information Papers

a) Future of ANB KAC/1998/2/7

Warwick Cathro introduced this item, noting that it arose from concern expressed by a number of major libraries at the termination of the printed ANB. Recommendations 2-5, 9-10 refer specifically to Kinetica, and will be taken up after the implementation of Kinetica. They represent some minor but important enhancements to the Kinetica system. The full report of this Committee is on the National Library’s Web site at http://www.nla.gov.au/ANBreport.html

The Kinetica Advisory Committee expressed its approbation.

b) National Round Table on Access to Overseas Monographs KAC/1998/2/8

Warwick Cathro introduced this item, noting that the Round Table was held in response to concern expressed by some researchers about the availability of these monographs in Australia. The academics who attended the Round Table gave strong support to the goal of improving the focus of overseas monograph collection. One outcome of the Round Table is the setting up a the Australian Library Collections Task Force.

c) National Library Standards Activities KAC/1998/2/9

Warwick Cathro introduced this item, noting that there is a more detailed report on the Library’s standards activities on the Library’s Web server at http://www.nla.gov.au/services/standards.html

d) The Digital Services Project KAC/1998/2/10

Jan Fullerton introduced this item, noting that the National Library is increasingly involved in digital projects. This project is intended to result in a coherent way to build, manage and make accessible all our digital activities. A draft RFI will be released shortly for industry comment. A priority for the DSP is to ensure that it is compatible with and accessible via Kinetica.

Agenda item 11

Kinetica Presentation

Committee members attended a presentation to National Library staff on Kinetica cataloguing and Web services. This was the final run through of presentation to be given in all capital cities and some regional centres during November and December. Following the presentation, Committee members provided comment and advice on the arrangement and content of the presentation.

Agenda item 12

Conclusion

The following agenda papers were embargoed:
Charges and incentives for Kinetica KAC/1998/2/1
Charges for commercial use of Kinetica records KAC/1998/2/2
Budget summary paper Tabled paper

After discussion and endorsement of the recommendations, the meeting concluded at 11.35am on 13 November 1998.

National Bibliographic Database Report February 1999

KAC/1999/1/4

Data migration
Migration of all eligible bibliographic records and holdings as at May 1998 is complete. The migration has afforded opportunities to enhance the NBD data. Over 400,000 interim records have been upgraded to MARC format. Cataloguing records which have failed validation by the Kinetica load programs, are being corrected by NBD staff. Removal of duplicate records is being achieved by a combination of Kinetica duplicate detection and ABN human review.

Gap loading of almost 3 million additions and changes to ABN in the period May 1998 to March 1999 is proceeding swiftly.

The migration of the authority file is scheduled for the last three weeks of March. As a result of testing, enhancements are being made to the authority load program.

It has been decided to extend the migration of MARC records without holdings from ABN to Kinetica. Pre 1994 Library of Congress MARC records will be extracted from ABN for loading to Kinetica, possibly after implementation.

Batch loading of cataloguing records to Kinetica
The Kinetica record matching program is being modified to enhance accuracy and minimise the number of records requiring human resolution. This is an essential pre-requisite to routine batch loading of Australian library holdings to Kinetica.

Batch loading of Australian library holdings to ABN is winding down. Future records from regular batch contributors, such as UNILINC, La Trobe University, the State Library of Queensland and the University of Queensland, will be loaded to Kinetica.

Batch loading of RLIN records, staged for FTP by Australian libraries using the ABN RLIN account, will be suspended 2-3 weeks before Kinetica implementation and resumed after Kinetica implementation. This service will probably continue to be used by libraries obtaining Chinese records. The National Library converts RLIN and OCLC Chinese records from Wade Giles romanisation to Pinyin before loading to the National CJK Database. Other users are likely to use the Z39.50 gateway to obtain RLIN records.

Expert Advisory Group on Cataloguing Workflows
The EAG on Cataloguing Workflows has been consulted on the following matters to date:

  • Minimum record standard
  • 'Verification levels' to indicate completeness and quality of individual Kinetica cataloguing records
  • Batch reporting of holdings and cataloguing to Kinetica
  • Suggested work flows for cataloguing in Kinetica
  • Incentives for original cataloguing
  • Sharing of cataloguing templates

The EAG is currently being consulted on the application of other ABN bibliographic standards to Kinetica. In addition, all members of the EAG have agreed to participate in the pilot installations of the Kinetica Cataloguing Client in late February and early March.

European microforms project
The project funded by the Australian Research Council, to provide access to European microform collections in Australian libraries, is progressing well. The National Library's contribution to this project has been substantial. All MARC records purchased from OCLC have been loaded to ABN with Australian library holdings. MARC records have also been obtained from UMI and Chadwyck Healey. The project is starting to compete with Kinetica for programming resources, but it is hoped to load the UMI and Chadwyck Healey records to ABN before Kinetica implementation.

Julia Trainor
Kinetica Implementation
22 February 1999


National Resource Sharing Working Group   KAC/1999/1/5

The following paper was prepared by Charu Sood (National Library of Australia) and Susan Magnay (State Library of New South Wales). The paper is presented to the Committee for their advice and comment.

This paper was discussed at the Council of Australian State Libraries meeting on February 6, 1999. CASL endorsed the paper and the formation of a working group. The Library is planning to have this matter raised with the Council of Australian University Librarians.

Andrew Wells
Assistant Director-General, Kinetica Division [Acting]
16 February 1999


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 ILL 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 ILL 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 ILL 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 Collections Taskforce of the National Round Table on Access to Overseas Monographs through Australian Libraries.

Terms of Reference for the Working Group
It is envisaged that this group will have an ongoing role to monitor ILL 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 (ILL 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 ILL staff.

  4. Conduct a wide-ranging survey of Australian libraries to ascertain document delivery trends and current ILL practices in Australia.

  5. Ensure that Australian requirements are reflected in the developments of the ISO ILL Protocol (the international standard for ILL 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 ILL between countries and recommend improved processes for international ILL of monographs not held in Australian libraries.

  7. Identify and recommend mechanisms which improve access to ILL 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 ILL operations and identify best practice ILL operations for libraries for benchmarking.

Membership of the Working Group
The group will be convened by the National Library and will be composed of ILL 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.

Reporting and timeframe
The group will report to industry peak bodies as mentioned above. The National Library will provide secretariat support.

The proposed timeframes are provided as an initial framework and timetable for the working group. The group at its first meeting will review these.

Feb-May99

  • Establishment of working group and endorsement of terms of reference (responsibility: Australian Library Collections Task Force and the peak bodies involved)

Feb – Dec 99

  • Performance standards drafted
  • Plan for consultation developed by working group
  • Survey of document delivery practices and trends developed and conducted
  • International interlending issues investigated

 Jan – May 2000

  • Consultation with library and user community
  • Survey instrument for measuring client satisfaction developed and piloted
  • Criteria for defining best practice in ILL operations developed

  July 2000

  • Performance standards presented for endorsement by Australian library community (through Australian Library Collections Task Force and other representative organisations such as CAUL, CASL, ALIA etc.)

  Ongoing

  • Evaluation of the implementation of standards
  • Ensure that standards & ILL practices continue to evolve to meet new technologies and changing user needs.
  • Monitor the costs of ILL in Australian libraries to enable libraries to set ILL charges.
  • Develop strategies to encourage Australian libraries to implement ILL standards.
  • Participate in IPIG deliberations.

 Funding

Although most of the work of the group will be done through teleconferences and email, there will be a need for some face to face meetings. The group will therefore need funding support for travel. Funds will also be required to conduct the survey and consultation on standards. The National Library as the sponsoring organisation will provide funds for the secretariat support and contribute some additional funds for the survey. The peak bodies will be asked to contribute additional funds to support the work of the group.

Charu Sood Susan Magnay
Director Interlending Services National Library of Australi Manager Document Delivery Service
State Library of NSW

15 January 1999

Kinetica Customer Services Report

KAC/1999/1/6

This report presents a brief summary of activities undertaken to enable ABN customers to make a smooth transition to Kinetica.

Customer registration. All ABN’s customer libraries (over 1200) have been sent letters inviting them to join Kinetica. These letters were accompanied by information on the options available for registration and separate forms for each of these options. Parallel to the preparation and despatch of the printed letters and forms, the National Library Server Team prepared forms which are available on the National Library Web site. The online forms are linked to ALG (the Australian Libraries Gateway) and address information from ALG is imported to the forms when the customer inputs their NUC symbol. The customer is then invited to correct this information if necessary; any changes will also be incorporated in ALG. ALG address data will also be placed in the Kinetica Client Services module, to reduce the amount of keying required. As the Kinetica downline loading service will use the same customer profile information as ABN, this data will also be migrated to Kinetica Client Services. Kinetica Division staff will be supplemented by temporary staff to input data.

Documentation. Kinetica division staff have made extensive revisions to the AMICUS manuals, clarifying, adding, amending and removing and replacing Canadian information and some examples. The course manuals for Kinetica Web searching, Kinetica Client searching and Kinetica Client cataloguing have been tested in the KTA training courses, and amended in the light of comments from the early participants. The Kinetica Client Manual for users of the Client has been completed and will be printed in time for distribution with the Client. Handy hint brochures covering search tips, broadening and narrowing searches, cataloguing and MARC tags (numerical and alphabetical) to assist users in the transition from ABN MARC to MARC21 are also nearing completion.

Training. Training of KTAs (Kinetica Training Agents) commenced in the first week in February, and three groups of trainees have been trained so far, although some have chosen not to offer courses in the full range of Kinetica functions. These 36 KTAs will increase to 50 when the fourth group is trained from 22-26 March. As a result of these courses, there will be KTAs in all states and territories, and most have already scheduled courses. Not all of the KTAs will offer commercial courses; a number come from the larger ABN customers (eg State Library of NSW, LISWA, and CSIRO) and will undertake inhouse training only. As part of the Kinetica Division’s support for KTAs, courses and contact information for KTAs have been announced on kinetica-l. KTAs are guaranteed a volume of training by the inclusion of vouchers for free training courses as part of the allocation of Kinetica Cataloguing clients in the incentives scheme. KTA courses have covered Kinetica Web searching, Kinetica Cataloguing Client searching and cataloguing (including Authority Control) and Kinetica Document Supply. As the Kinetica Document Supply module is not yet finalised, there will be recall sessions for those KTAs who plan to offer courses in Document Supply.

Bryony De La Motte
Kinetica Customer Services
February 1999

Kinetica-L: Issues Raised on the Online Discussion List.

KAC/1999/1/7

The kinetica-l discussion list was set up to enable the Kinetica Implementation Team to disseminate information about the implementation project and planned services as widely as possible. It is a very useful tool for this purpose, and for users to raise issues which they consider will be of general interest. As an unmoderated list, kinetica-l does also allow some less useful comments to be raised, however the disadvantages of this must be weighed against the advantages of presenting an open environment for the raising of concerns and of the National Library being alerted to areas of concern.

Kinetica-l has almost 1800 members. The majority are Australian, but a number come from the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Belgium and Canada – countries which have a direct interest in the Kinetica project. Less predictable are the subscribers from Sweden, Finland, Thailand and Singapore. The United States is represented by subscribers from RLG and from system vendors. Postings to the list have come exclusively from Australian subscribers.

Topics raised on the list since December 1998 fall into two main categories: announcements and information from the National Library and questions from customers.

The National Library has posted messages on the following topics:
the schedules of both rounds of presentations
the results of negotiations with RLG and OCLC
details of Kinetica charges and the incentives scheme and clarifications of some aspects
information on training agents and their scheduled courses, where the size of each message meant that a separate message was posted for each state
the Kinetica cataloguing client and its distribution

ABN customers have posted questions about the following:
implications of the charges for their libraries
the closure of ABN and its services
cataloguing workflows

The Library has also posted a series of answers to questions and arising from a number of sources: the formal presentations, user group meetings, email and phone calls directed to individual staff members. These sets of questions and answers are compiled from those questions which appear to have fairly wide applicability. Convenors of state user groups and special interest groups have posted announcements of their meetings, and their agendas and minutes. From time to time, user group minutes contain misunderstandings; these postings serve as an effective alert to Kinetica staff, and provide an opportunity to correct views which may otherwise have a negative effect on customer perceptions.

The announcement of the availability of the DSD (Defence Signals Directorate) statement on client access to Kinetica resulted in numerous request for copies of the statement. While the DSD statement doesn’t specify solutions to the question of Internet security and firewall requirements, it does provide direction on these topics, and will be valuable to library staff who need to tackle these issues with IT staff from their organisation.

Where list subscribers have posted messages which contain misinformation, Kinetica staff have posted messages stating the facts about the issue, without direct reference to the original message. In some cases this action has been augmented by a phone call to the originator of the misinformation, to discuss their concerns.

The Kinetica Training group maintain a separate email discussion list for contact with the Kinetica Training Agents. This list announces Train the Trainer course schedules, availability of documentation and system access during the implementation period. It is a much smaller list than kinetica-l and provides a useful forum for discussion and sharing of information. The original email discussion list set up by the ABN Office still continues, with a decreasing list of subscribers. Its use is now confined to announcements about ABN services and products. Information about some Kinetica issues is also posted to other discussion lists, especially to the Federal Libraries Information Network list (flin-l) whose members are particularly concerned about secure Internet access to Kinetica.

Bryony De La Motte
February 1999

Digital Services Project: Progress Report

KAC/1999/1/8

The National Library released its Information Paper on the Digital Services Project on 16 December 1998. The Information Paper sets out the Library’s functional and technical requirements, the background to these requirements, and the Library’s current thinking on the tender conditions.

The Library delivered a presentation on the Digital Services Project to interested parties, including libraries and potential suppliers, in Sydney on 18 January 1999. About 50 people attended this presentation. The slides used in this presentation form an appendix to this report.

Since this presentation, the Library has responded to several requests for meetings with interested suppliers.

The Library has actively sought comments on the Information Paper. These comments were due by 22 February, but are still being received.

The Library has appointed Mr. Tony Boston as the Project Manager for the Digital Services Project. Mr. Boston comes to the Library with extensive experience in the development and delivery of web based information services at ERIN, the Environmental Resources Information Network.

The Library has allocated a budget of $1.4 million for expenditure related to the Digital Services Project during 1999/2000.

The Library will now reconsider the scope of its requirements, and will review its specific functional and technical requirements, in the light of all comments received. This review is intended to lead to the release of a Request for Tender (RFT) by 30 April 1999.

The Library will be giving particular attention to whether it needs to include in the RFT the requirement for a Gateway System (Configuration 6) given that the Library is already using such a system for Kinetica, in the form of the LibriVision product, which might be capable of being enhanced to meet the full range of the Library’s requirements.

The Library will also consider whether it needs to include the requirement for a Metadata Repository System (Configuration 5). The Library has decided that it needs to fast track the selection of a new metadata capable search engine product to meet its immediate requirements for delivering services through the web, including improved searching of its own web site, and the potential support national cooperative projects such as ImageSearch. The need to include Configuration 5 in the Digital Services Project RFT will depend on the extent of the compromises which might need to be made in the selection of the search engine product.

Return to Kinetica Home Page

Last updated: 20 May 1999