Interlending and Document Supply infrastructure developments in Australia
Describes the document delivery scene in Australia and the developments in which the National Library of Australia is involved. These developments are driven by the National Library’s strategic direction of developing and improving the infrastructure for information access for Australian libraries with a particular emphasis on Australian information. Reports on the direction that the National Library is taking after the cancellation of the World 1 project. Discusses the potential for coalescence between three projects to create a national infrastructure for inter library loans/document delivery in Australia. These three projects are: a) the Networked Services Project (NSP) of the National Library to replace the National Bibliographic utility, and the National ILL utility, b) the CILLA project being driven by the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AV-CC) to develop a local ILL management system and c) the Joint Electronic Document Delivery Software (JEDDS) (http://www.gu.edu.au/alib/iii/docdel/jointdev.htm) collaborative project to develop electronic document delivery software that will give libraries the capacity to deliver documents to the users desktop. The development partners in the JEDDS project are the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), Electronic Libraries Programme (United Kingdom) , and the National Library of Australia. Three projects have the potential to enable a user to go through the process of discovery, identifying and placing an order for desired items, and receipt of the requested item in a seamless and transparent manner.
Introduction
Libraries in Australia have a strong history of cooperation and collaboration in resource sharing. This is not surprising given the geographic isolation of the country and the absence of a major document supply centre like the British Library Document Supply Centre to act as a central provider of documents. The ILL system in Australia is part centralised through the Australian Bibliographic Network with many additional local, regional and sectoral networks which operate on a reciprocal basis. A survey conducted by the Australian Council of Libraries and Information Services (ACLIS) in 1992 into library networks in Australia mentioned 28 separate networks for ILL. In each state the state library is a major provider of ILL to the public libraries of the state. A system of local, regional, national referral used to work, but in recent years this has been taken over by a point to point system regardless of where in Australia the item is held.
The National Library of Australia, although still the largest supplier of documents in Australia, has never seen itself as being a central document supply store. Instead the National Library has placed an emphasis on facilitating resource sharing amongst Australian Libraries.
In its current Strategic Plan [1] the National Library has identified as one of its priorities improving Australians’ access to information by providing:
- leadership which fosters cooperation among libraries
- services which enable individuals to access materials in libraries and information sources throughout Australia and elsewhere in the world
- services which enable libraries to improve their own services
The National Library has no direct mandate of providing financial support to Australian libraries which are often funded by state and local governments, neither does it have any jurisdiction over these. Like the National Library, university libraries are funded by the Commonwealth Government, but operate quite independently.
The National Library has therefore focused on providing leadership in developing policies for resource sharing and in developing the necessary infrastructure to enable this to happen.
Policy framework for resource sharing in Australia
In 1988 the National Library organised the Australian Libraries Summit [2] to discuss collecting issues. The following definitions for a national collection emerged:
- Aggregation of all library collections in Australia whether in the public or private sector.
- Comprehensive in relation to Australia
- Selective in relation to the rest of the world as present and future need require
- Adequately recorded and readily accessible.
The concept of the Distributed National Collection and what it means in the electronic environment is still being defined and the National Library continues to work with Australian libraries to develop relevant policies. The problem of how to provide integrated access to print and electronic resources is also being examined.
In addition the National Library has for many decades provided strong funding support to cooperative mechanisms for the Australian library community [3]. In 1988 the Australian Council of Libraries and Information Services (ACLIS) was established to coordinate library and information services. Although ACLIS operates as an independent organisation funded by member library contributions, the National Library provides a significant financial subsidy in the form of staff and accommodation.
ACLIS has played a very active role in developing ILL policy in Australia and developed the Australian Interlending Code [4]. This code was designed to ensure equitable sharing of the resources of Australian libraries. It includes agreed principles, prices and levels of services. Although many countries have an agreed code, the agreed recommended pricing makes the Australian system unique. The price is based on ACLIS commissioned studies and is now an accepted feature of the ILL service.
This year, in response to concerns of libraries and the Australian Copyright Agency Ltd. about ILL costs, ACLIS undertook a study of costs of supplying a request. The Australian Copyright Agency Ltd. expects libraries not to charge more than the cost of making a copy when supplying copies within the fair dealing provision of the Act. Use of the fair dealing provision should not be used for a profit making activity. This year in July ACLIS recommended an increase in the basic ILL charge to $12.00 for standard service. Fast Track and Premium Track services are charged at higher rates and set charges apply for local and STD faxes.
Infrastructure Support
The provision of systems to support resource sharing has been the other strategy for supporting the Australian libraries. The National Library has therefore developed a resource sharing system with four aspects:
Australian Bibliographic Network (ABN)
ABN was intended to be the premier shared cataloguing network for Australia, was launched as a service at the end of 1981 with six clients. It was five years in planning and was based on the WLN software. The governance structure that was put in place emphasised the cooperative nature of the service [5]. The Network Advisory Committee whose members are elected by the users is still the mechanism for user groups in all states to have a say in the management of the network. A Charging Sub-committee of the Network Committee sets charges for the service. ABN has a membership of 1400 libraries. Most major Australian libraries are members of the network and contribute data.
National Bibliographic Database (NBD)
Underpinning ABN is the NBD which was built by loading files from other national agencies such as The Library of Congress, British National Bibliography , Canadiana (http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/pubs/cndiana/ecndian1.htm) etc. It has been built up over the last 17 years by the input from Australian libraries and has become a rich source of bibliographic data particularly since 1970’s [5]. A Standards Committee has been in operation since 1981 to resolve practical issues arising out of the use of the system for shared cataloguing. Currently the NBD holds about 13 million records, and over 26 million holdings.
ABN ILL Sub System
Although ABN was built to facilitate shared cataloguing, it was not long before its use as an ILL system became viable and in 1989 when the holdings reached over 10 million, the ILL module was introduced. The ILL utility links into the bibliographic utility for discovery and verification and for locating potential suppliers and handles all routing of requests. Aggregated billing was introduced in 1993. Currently 370 libraries use the ILL module and the system handled 242 132 requests last year. This is about a quarter of the total estimated ILL traffic of 1 million requests made in Australia.
The Inter Library Resource Sharing directory (ILRS)
The ILRS directory lists over 2000 libraries which participate in the inter library loans system, together with some information on their ILL policies and access conditions. This directory is available in printed form, as a searchable free database, and will very shortly be available on the web.
Future Developments
Although the essential building blocks for an efficient ILL system are in place, the ABN system is used to conduct only a quarter of the ILL business in Australia. ABN is a legacy system based on the WLN software and although it has powerful STAIRS software for searching, it is a character based, command language driven system. The ILL sub-system is difficult to learn, is not user friendly and needs a full day training course and lots of practice to learn. However the biggest problem with the current system is that it is a proprietary system and does not easily talk to other systems.
Networked Services Project (NSP)
As early as 1989, the National Library started examining the option of redeveloping ABN using an open and distributed systems environment. A common need was identified with the National Library of New Zealand and a joint RFT was issued for a National Document Information Service (NDIS) in October 1993. As many of you would be aware, the joint partners terminated the NDIS project in December 1996. Given the importance of the project, the time that had been lost and the need, now critical, to replace ABN if Australia was to maintain the cooperative and collaborative resource sharing nature of the Australian library system, the National Library needed to act very quickly to decide on a strategy for the future. Although the principles articulated during the NDIS project remained essentially the same, the National Library recognised that systems were now available which may meet its needs. It was decided therefore to buy rather than build the replacement system.
An information paper was issued in February 1997, and after an informal consultation process with industry, the National Library decided to undertake a staged approach to redevelopment. The tenders for stage 1 were issued on 24 March 1997. Currently the National Library is in the process of negotiation with the short listed tenderers. It is the intention of the National Library to start implementation late in 1998 if the process proceeds smoothly. Stage 1 of the tender includes the National Bibliographic Utility, Cataloguing client, http/Z39.50 server, National ILL utility and Administrative support.
From a system architecture perspective, the emphasis in the NSP project is on providing appropriate linkages between the National Library’s citation and bibliographic search services, and external Internet based search services to which the National Library may wish to provide access. The end user would be able to navigate from a citation record to associated bibliographic and location records through to appropriate interlending and document request mechanisms.
The text of the NSP RFT is available at: http://www.nla.gov.au/nsp/rft/
Local Interlending and Document Delivery Administration system (LIDDA)
A project which had been proceeding in parallel with the National Library’s Networked Services Project was the CILLA project (http://www.gu.edu.au/alib/iii/docdel/cilla/rfttoc.htm) which is funded by the Australian Vice Chancellor’s Committee (AV-CC). Australian universities have been suffering from the same problems as other libraries the world over in managing and responding to shrinking resources, greater expectations from university administration and increasing demand from their users. The university libraries have responded by taking advantage of newer technologies to move from a collecting model to an access model. The move to access has led to significant increases in ILL activity. The new technologies which have facilitated this, have also added layers of complexities to an already complicated process. The spotlight therefore fell on the ILL departments and how they could be made to function more efficiently.
CILLA was inspired by the North American Interlending and Document Delivery (NAILDD) (http://www.arl.org/access/naildd/naildd.shtml) project, and has developed a detailed specification of the functionality needed of an ILL management system. The focus of CILLA was on improving the internal operations of an ILL department and removing manual processing of requests.
At the same time a need was identified the need to automate the operations of its own document supply operations. The compatibility of the three systems was critical to the success of all three systems. The National Library and the AV-CC therefore agreed to collaborate in seeking a system for local ILL management jointly and an RFT was issued under the name Local Interlending and Document Delivery Administration system(s) (LIDDA).
A LIDDA system will provide a full range of ILL functionality including links into resource discovery, verification of patrons, copyright tracking, generation of billing details, and track supplier performance in addition to managing the request and supply process including routing and status updates.
At the time of writing a decision had not yet been made on systems selected. The LIDDA RFT is available from: http://www.gu.edu.au/alib/iii/docdel/cilla/cillarft.htm
Joint Electronic Document Delivery Software Project (JEDDS)
The JEDDS project (http://www.gu.edu.au/alib/iii/docdel/jeddshom.htm) evolved out of the synergies between several projects around the world examining methods for improving the efficiencies of document delivery processes. JEDDS is a collaborative project between the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AV-CC), the National Library of Australia, the National Library of New Zealand (NLNZ), and the Joint Information Systems Committee, Electronic Libraries Programme (United Kingdom) (eLib). The NLNZ withdrew from the project earlier this year. The four partners commissioned the RLG to enhance the document delivery product Ariel. JEDDS is being developed in three stages and the project is being managed by the AV-CC.
Stage 1 of the project has been completed and Ariel® for Windows(TM) 2.0 is now being used to send scanned images of documents as attachments to mime compatible email. Stage 2 of the project now being developed will provide interface to Inter Lending and Document Request Management Systems (ILDRMS) through standard interfaces such as the International Interlibrary Loan protocol (ISO 10160/10161) to enable ILL staff to invoke the Ariel application from their ILL system to achieve efficiencies of operation.
Although the software currently enables electronic documents to be delivered directly to the End User, this is not expected to be widely deployed until Stage 3 of the project when appropriate viewing software will be made freely available to the Client for use in conjunction with MIME compliant software already available on their desktop.
Further information on the JEDDS project can be found at: http://www.gu.edu.au/alib/iii/docdel/jeddshom.htm
All three projects NSP, LIDDA and JEDDS emphasise strongly the importance of compliance with relevant international standards. Standards are seen as the best method of achieving interconnection between systems to give a seamless and transparent environment for users to access multiple systems and resources.
Relationships between the three systems
The three systems will allow seamless linkages between search results, item description and item locations. Further they will link these item locations to document request and document delivery mechanisms as well as provide reporting mechanisms.
Trends in ILL in Australia.
Given these developments the future of the ILL infrastructure in Australia looks more promising and some of the problems currently faced by Australian libraries to achieve efficient resource sharing will be overcome. However in the meantime other factors, particularly the resource constraints and diminishing purchasing power, are forcing Australian libraries to make decisions now which may be irreversible and may in the long run reduce their ability to meet the information needs of their users.
Globalization
Australian university libraries have been very early adopters of the Internet, and globalization has had a big impact on how they deliver services. Already there is a trend for Australian libraries to source an increasing number of copies from overseas commercial document suppliers and libraries rather than going to another Australian library. This is because the Australian ILL system is seen as inefficient and unreliable for standard delivery. Overseas commercial document suppliers are also now very competitively priced compared to the Australian prices. Monograph supply from overseas is still difficult and expensive, so whilst use of ILL for copies has declined, its use for loans has increased. A two tiered system is therefore developing.
The above trend highlights two problems with the Australian system. One is its lack of agreed performance levels for standard delivery. ACLIS developed a performance standard for Fast Track (24 hr turnaround) and Premium Track (2 hr turnaround) services. However the lack of an agreed performance for standard delivery makes the system unreliable.
The second problem is that despite efforts by the National Library in developing and promoting the concept of a Distributed National Collection, there is as yet no agreed policy for resource sharing to maximise access to collections already within Australian libraries and to find cooperative ways of ensuring that Australians can use the Australian library network to get regular and long term access to the broadest possible range of resources regardless of format. There is a need to define a strategic vision for Australian research libraries based on a cooperative model in the same way that the UK is coming to grips with some of the issues as defined in the Anderson report [6]. It is critical that any agreements reached between libraries for collecting are underpinned by agreements to guarantee supply. The National Library is discussing these issues with the Australian library community to develop ways in which this can be achieved.
End User Access
Empowering the end user by providing direct access is a world wide phenomena from which Australia is not immune. This push to end user access in document supply is partly driven by market forces as document suppliers traditional library market is getting squeezed. Large libraries in Australia, particularly university libraries are also using direct end user access to take some of the workload off their ILL departments. So some of them for example have given UnCover accounts to their faculties. The LIDDA system facilitates access at the requesting end, and JEDDS will enable direct delivery to the end user.
Centralisation Vs distributed
Although the three systems together will deliver what Australian libraries need in the medium term, ie. the next four to five years, the environment is shifting too rapidly for the above to deliver a long term solution. The question of why we need a central ILL utility when we plan to have powerful LIDDA systems capable of providing all the functions needed of an ILL Utility is a legitimate one. The only additional functionalities provided by the ILL utility are aggregated billing at the national level, national directory services, statistics and reporting functions. In the short term to medium term there is a requirement for the National Library to provide both as server and client environment for many small to medium libraries which will not want a complex and possibly expensive LIDDA system to manage their ILL operations.
The same question can be asked of the central bibliographic utility, as cataloguing can also now be done in a distributed environment. The new systems being developed today make it much easier to have both a distributed union catalogues and point to point ILL based on these and facilitated by powerful ILL systems which are now under development.
The National Library is aware of these issues and is closely monitoring developments. However given the strength of the existing systems and as yet unproved capacity of distributed systems to deliver the efficiencies delivered by the centralised systems, the National Library has decided to stay with the centralised model, but to make it much more open and standards based to make an eventual transition to a fully distributed system as it becomes more viable. The three projects, JEDDS, LIDDA, and NSP place a very strong reliance on compliance with the Z39.50 and ISO ILL 10160/10161 standards. Although Australia will have a hybrid system of centralised and distributed systems operating together for many years, the National Library is committed to working with the Australian library system to move to a distributed system for resource sharing.
References
[1] National Library of Australia, Strategic Plan 1993-1998: service to the nation, access to the globe , 1993.
[2] Australian Libraries Summit , October 16-19, 1988 : final report, 1988. ISBN 0642104743
[3] Warren Horton, "First among equals: the leadership role of the National Library of Australia", in Library for the Nation: National Library of Australia, eds P. Biskup & M. Henty, 1991. ISBN 086804475X
[4] Australian Council of Libraries and Information Services, Australian Interlending Code , 1992.
[5] Warwick S Cathro, "Australian Bibliographic Network: a survey of its first decade", in Library for the Nation: National Library of Australia, eds P. Biskup & M. Henty, 1991. ISBN 086804475X
[6] Joint Funding Council's Library Review, Report of the Group on a National/Regional Strategy for Library Provision for Researchers (The Anderson Report) , 1996.