Technically Speaking

Welcome to the October issue of Technically Speaking. Time sped right along and NLA/NEMA Conference is coming up soon. I hope many of you will be joining us in Omaha this year. TSRT is sponsoring two sessions—Technical Services in One or Two Person Libraries and Dead Ends in Your OPACs and How to Avoid Them—and co-sponsoring one session with the Paraprofessional Section—Get a Career @your library^TM. The TSRT business meeting will be at 3:40 on Friday afternoon.

NLA election results have been finalized and we welcome our incoming officers: Jim Shaw, Vice Chair/Chair-Elect and Casey Kralik, Treasurer.

At our spring business meeting in Aurora, several by-laws changes were approved including the re-wording of Article II: Purpose, which now states:

The purpose of the Technical Services Round Table is to promote the communication of ideas and interests of its members who are concerned with: acquisitions, collection development, cataloging and classification, preservation, serials control, interlibrary loan and document delivery.

This change was made to clarify who we see as part of the technical services staff in a library and, therefore, represented by our group. Although some people think catalogers when they hear “technical services,” the term really encompasses many more of the services provided behind the scenes. To start addressing this purpose, this issue of Technically Speaking contains several articles written by library staff from a variety of libraries that do Interlibrary Loan. If there are Interlibrary Loan staff at your library who have not received a copy of this issue, please share with them. And encourage them to join TSRT.

Providing Interlibrary Loan in Ord Township

Sally Wagner

When I originally filled the position of Librarian at the Ord Township Library in 1982, I had a lot to learn…and one of the first things I learned was that just about any title a patron requested was available through interlibrary loan. I took great pride in telling patrons, “We don’t have that title on our shelves, but we can probably get it for you!” I learned how to use the old four copy request forms, and searched for requested titles using Neucat, a microfiche catalog of the larger Nebraska libraries’ holdings. Requests were mailed using what we would call “snail mail” today, and requests usually took about a week to fill.

Interlibrary loan has gradually evolved over the years to today’s fast, efficient, and worldwide system…and I am pleased to be able to say our little library is right in the middle of it! We have recently moved to the web-based OCLC Interlibrary Loan Service program. I was hesitant about the transition, but within a couple of days I was completely sold on the new program. It is very user friendly, takes very little, if any training, and is much faster than the Prism Service we previously used.

The Ord Township Library receives anywhere from one to five requests daily from other libraries for titles in our collection. Our policy is to refuse requests from out-of-state libraries unless the request is for local history titles that might not otherwise be obtainable. We are reimbursed by the state for loans to other Nebraska libraries, but do not receive reimbursement for out-of-state loans.

The number of requests we produce for titles from other libraries for our patrons has decreased over the past few years to an average of one or two a week. These requests are sent to other Nebraska libraries whenever possible. They are frequently filled, shipped to us, and received within a day or two. We have an interlibrary loan fee of $4.00 per request. This amount covers the computer search and processing of the request and the return postage for the book.

Over the years we have requested materials on many subjects. To name a few, we have borrowed materials on the nesting habits and care of young birds for a lady who had a pair of canaries who were laying eggs in her bird cage, obtained technical information for an inventor, and aided many genealogists with historical records not otherwise available. We have received copies of numerous journal articles for a professional writer/researcher and are currently waiting for a Strawberry Shortcake cake pan requested for a child’s birthday cake.

Libraries are about sharing…they always have been and they always will be. Interlibrary Loan service allows us to reap the rewards of sharing on a much broader basis in an efficient and timely manner. It is very rewarding for a small town library in the middle of Nebraska to be able to be a part of this vast worldwide system.

Sally Wagner is a librarian at the Ord Township Library.

About ten years ago, I asked Dee Yost, who was the Republican Valley Library System Administrator, if I should dump my poorly catalogued collection into OCLC as the Nebraska Library Commission was promoting a movement to incorporate small library collections into World Cat. It was free and we could do our own interlibrary loan. Truthfully, I didn’t have a clue about what I was doing or if it was something I wanted to do. When I spoke with Dee she responded, “I think you should do it, and it really doesn’t matter that your records aren’t going to be requested in a notable universities cataloguing department.” So, I exported my records on disks and sent them into the Library Commission. It was by far the best thing I have done.

Sutton Public Schools is a NEON library (SUQ). We initiate and receive requests. In 2002, we requested 78 items and we loaned 45 items. So far in 2003, we have initiated 62 requests and loaned 35 items. We request items for students, teachers and an occasional community member. Most of the items we request are of a scholarly nature or materials recommended in the textbook curriculum for the teacher. We do requests for the Speech department when they are preparing for Speech season. We loan many children’s books, as our elementary library collection is very strong. We also loan books that are unique to our area. One of our most interesting requests is for a book published by a local person on weight lifting. I have loaned it five or six times in the last two years, all over the United States.

Requesting materials with NEON eliminates an extra step and allows us to receive materials quickly, creating very satisfied patrons. The whole process has given Sutton Public School patrons access to anything that any other person in the world has and in turn, we share our little piece of Nebraska with them.

Sherry Huston is a Media Specialist with the Sutton Public School.

TSRT Archives

Deirdre Routt

Do you know when the Technical Services Roundtable became a part of the Nebraska Library Association? The NLA Fall Meeting in 1995. Or when the first issue of Technically Speaking was published? The Fall of 1995 before NLA. You could know this, and more, by working with the TSRT archives.

At the January 2003 business meeting of TSRT, as I have previous experience as an archivist, I volunteered to chair an ad-hoc TSRT Archives Committee and so have become the default keeper of the archives. Currently, the archives consist of one wallet folder of manila folders of Technically Speaking proofs, past issues and other newsletter information and a large maroon binder of neatly compiled information on TSRT, which Mary Marchio gifted to me, from her time as a TSRT officer. This also includes a set of photos from what appears to be a previous NLA meeting, which are currently unlabeled. All of this material needs to be thoroughly sorted and some conservation measures need to be taken.

I am asking for two things from our members. First, volunteers to help organize the materials we have. No archival experience is necessary. Contact me (see the last page for contact information) if you are interested. Second, to let me know about any material that you think should be included in the TSRT archives. This is your archive. Consider what you want others in the future, whether five or 50 years from now, to know about this organization. Think of it as a chance to shape history!

Interlibrary Loan at Lincoln City Libraries

Shelia Jacobs

The Interlibrary Loan department at Lincoln City Libraries (NLN) is similar, perhaps, in many respects to other departments around the country. Lincoln City borrows items for its customers and loans items to other libraries throughout the United States. There is no fee for basic lender/borrower services. Approximately 800 borrower requests and 400 lender requests are received on a monthly basis. Lincoln City uses the standard methods of borrowing and lending, which are primarily OCLC and an occasional ALA form. Lincoln City Libraries’ customers are welcome to place requests in person, over the telephone or through our library’s homepage at www.lcl.lib.ne.us. With a few exceptions, that include microfilm and reference items, we loan all materials from our collection.

Some of our differences may surprise you. One is that our department is housed in the Outreach Services Division of Lincoln City. This has worked extremely well as our ILL staff member is able to devote all of her time to this service, rather than splitting up time to work in several different areas. Perhaps the most notable difference is that there is only one full-time, classified staff member assigned to ILL and that person is kept extremely busy, as we all can well imagine. While the bulk of the job is performed by the full-time Library Assistant III staff member, several other staff and volunteers help out with clerical tasks as can be scheduled.

As noted in the statistics above, the majority of requests are from our own customers. They range from that one book in the series that we do not have to genealogy and other special interests. The Nebraska libraries are very generous in filling requests and, as there are many genealogists in Lincoln, credit goes to all those libraries and the historical societies that loan microfilm and reference materials around the U.S. Kudos to all!

Sheila Jacobs is the Outreach Services Supervisor at the Lincoln City Libraries.

The Technical Services Round Table will be sponsoring three programs at the 2003 NLA Annual Conference. The first program is being co-sponsored with the Paraprofessional Section and is called Get a Career @ your libraryä. The presenters are Richard Miller, Nebraska Library Commission Library Development Director; Pam Scott, Nebraska Library Commission Continuing Education Coordinator; Carol Speicher, Northeast Library System Administrator; Kay Hershey, Metropolitan Community College Library Services Coordinator; and Deb Robertson, Northeast Community College Director of the Library/Resource Center. They will be discussing plans for library courses that may be offered through the community college system in Nebraska. The session will be Thursday, Oct. 30, from 3:10-4:00 pm.

The second program, Technical Services in One or Two Person Libraries, will be presented by Kathy Tooker, Eastern Library System Administrator; Brenda Ealey, Southeast Library System Administrator; Tom Schmitz, Lincoln Regional Center Library Director; and Jeanette Groppe, Scribner Public Library Director. They will be describing technical services operations in small libraries and the services available to assist in these functions. This session will be Thursday, Oct. 30, from 4:20-5:10 pm.

The final program, Dead-Ends in Your OPACs and How to Avoid Them, is being presented by Brian Striman, Head of Technical Services & Catalog Librarian, UNL Schmid Law Library. He will be exploring a wide array of OPAC displays, designs, jargon and navigation activities that cause confusion for patrons and also introduce ideas on ways to prevent these obstacles. This session will be Friday, Oct. 31, from 8:00-8:50 am.

We will also have a business meeting at the conference. It will be Friday afternoon from 3:40-4:30 pm. We hope to see you there.

Corinne Jacox is the incoming Chair of TSRT and the Catalog/Reference Librarian at the Law Library at Creighton University.

In June of 2001, the Nebraska Library Commission began providing interlibrary loan to all Nebraska libraries unable to provide this service locally. In preparation for the transition, several meetings were held with System Administrators, Commission staff, and key Interlibrary Loan providers. Though varying opinions were held on some issues, I'm pleased to report that at the beginning of our third year as an ILL intermediary, we have discovered a pace that works both for our team and for our customers.

To better prepare our customers, System Administrators published articles in their newsletters before the end of the school year alerting media specialists and librarians of the changes to come. Many questions for clarification came in the form of emails and telephone calls for several months. Former ILL providers helped refer ILL requests to the Library Commission during the transition. A one-page Tip Sheet was created and published in System Newsletters and sent to customers to help them understand the information needed by Commission staff to update requests in all stages of their loan process. An online request form was created by staff member Allana Novotny so customers could request books, journal articles, and other items.

In the beginning of our first year of service, we purchased CLIO software to help manage ILL paperwork. Two staff members visited Lynn Schneiderman at Creighton University to see first-hand applications of CLIO and to understand its potential. One benefit of this software is that team members are able to answer questions regarding status, date due, and renewal requests instead of leaving this burden to one person. CLIO, which is both affordable and easy to maintain, has made a notable difference in our ability to provide excellent customer service and has cut down on ILL paperwork. For anyone who works with more than 500 ILL requests a month, CLIO is worth investigating.

At the end of this past school year, several staff members studied statistical loan patterns, easily kept with CLIO. This lead to conversations with selected libraries that would be potential candidates to begin doing their own ILL via OCLC. It remains our hope that libraries are able to offer the best possible services locally and the new OCLC web interface makes this possible both in simple navigation and affordable cost per loan. State government budget patterns remain uncertain. Librarians who advocate for ILL funding at the local level are in the best position to maintain this very popular service.

The Nebraska Library Commission continues to provide reference support to Nebraska libraries. In tandem with providing databases to the state, some calls result in teachable moments to fill what could be an ILL request with a brief introduction to a database. Reference and ILL calls are often intertwined and what begins as one type of call, sometimes is completed as another type of query. It's very satisfying helping local libraries shine with their customers by providing the very magical service of Interlibrary Loan. On occasion, our customers share how our service makes a difference. That is the kind of fuel that helps us all continue believing what we do makes Nebraska a great place to live and thrive.

Lisa Kelly is the Reference Services Coordinator at the Nebraska Library Commission.

In the spring of 2002, at the request of then Director Mike Herbison, the Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Division at Calvin T. Ryan Library began investigating the possibility of purchasing and implementing the OCLC ILLiad interlibrary loan management system. Our research began by joining the ILLiad-L listserv, reading documentation available on the OCLC and Atlas Systems websites, and attending web seminars on ILLiad presented by OCLC and Atlas Systems. OCLC partners with Atlas Systems to provide the ILLiad product to libraries.

As we looked more closely at acquiring the ILLiad system we began a series of telephone and e-mail conversations with the staff at Atlas Systems. Through our research we found that both OCLC and Atlas Systems recommended that ILLiad be run on its own server. One of the options offered by Atlas Systems is server hosting for ILLiad. After discussions with the Information Technology Services staff at UNK it was decided that if we purchased the ILLiad system we should contract with Atlas Systems for a hosted server housed at their headquarters in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Unfortunately the cost of the hosted server was beyond our budget limits and we informed Atlas Systems that we would not be able to purchase the ILLiad system. An Atlas Systems representative then presented us with an alternative option. They had several other smaller libraries that wanted to purchase ILLiad, with the hosted server option, but those libraries also found the cost to be prohibitive. He suggested that we could share a server with one of these other libraries and the cost of the hosted server would then be reduced to an amount that would fit within our budget limits. We agreed to this alternative and proceeded with the purchase of ILLiad.

Atlas Systems began to work with us on the installation and implementation of the ILLiad system. The first step was for us to complete their Installation Wizard that provided constant data that would be loaded onto our hosted server. This step was completed via e-mail. We then scheduled an installation and training visit with an Atlas System representative. During the on-site visit the ILLiad client was installed on our computers and we received training on using the system for requesting (borrowing) and supplying (lending) activities.

Many libraries implement the ILLiad system in phases and we chose to follow this course of action. We began using the supplying program of ILLiad immediately after the installation of the program on our computers. After we mastered this side of ILLiad we turned our attention to the requesting side of the program.

The implementation of the requesting function in ILLiad was more complicated and involved more steps than had been required for the supplying function. Our first challenge was to select a method to authenticate our users when they registered for the ILLiad service. The UNK Information Technology Services staff worked with Atlas Systems to set up an authentication process based on UNK’s Lotus Notes e-mail system. When we encountered difficulties with the authentication process the Atlas Systems programmers wrote a special program patch that allowed us to use the Lotus Notes e-mail system to authenticate our users.

The next step in readying the requesting function for UNK users was to customize the web pages that would be used for registration, placing requests, and reviewing requests. As part of our agreement with Atlas Systems we provided edited copies of the web pages and their staff made the changes before loading the pages onto our hosted server. We then began testing the system with library staff and student assistants placing requests for books and journal articles. ILLiad uses an automated e-mail system to deliver notifications to users informing them that their books are available for pick up or that their articles have been delivered to the web. These e-mail notifications were also customized for UNK and we were able to do this customization in-house.

As the time approached to introduce the ILLiad interlibrary loan system to the UNK community we prepared an informational flyer that was sent to all faculty, graduate students, and staff via campus mail. This public relations effort was reinforced with an e-mail message sent campus wide as one of the library’s In Brief Online messages. In August 2003 we officially launched the UNK Loper Loan ILLiad Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Service for the UNK community.

The year we have spent preparing, customizing, and experimenting with the ILLiad system has provided us with challenges and rewards. For UNK users the new system offers one time registration, web delivery of journal articles, and the ability to track their request status and history. For the UNK Interlibrary Loan staff the ILLiad system provides a way to streamline our workload and make the most efficient use of the resources available to us. We have seen an increase in the number of both supplying and requesting orders while our student assistant hours have decreased. With ILLiad we have been able to meet the needs of UNK users as well as the larger library community.

Detailed information about the ILLiad interlibrary loan management system is available on the OCLC website (http://www.oclc.org/illiad) and the Atlas Systems website (http://www.atlas-sys.com). For more information about the UNK experience with ILLiad please feel free to contact Sheryl Heidenreich at heidenreichs@unk.edu or (308) 865-8721.

Sheryl Heidenreich is the Reference Librarian and ILL//DD Coordinator at the Calvin T. Ryan Library,University of Nebraska at Kearney.

UNL Libraries Pilot ILL Purchasing Program

Joyce Melvin

Inspired by a presentation at the 34^th Annual Interlibrary Loan Conference in Denver, CO, April 2003 (http://www.aclin.org/coloillconf/), the University of Nebraska Lincoln’s ILL office collaborated with their Collection Development Committee and Technical Services department to develop a program wherein materials requested by local patrons via ILL would instead be purchased and added to the collection. The UNL Libraries’ administration approved and funded the program in June 2003.

Guidelines were created to identify books eligible for purchase, based on criteria from a similar program at Purdue University and UNL’s current collection development strategies. The Acquisitions unit worked with ILL to find the most efficient method for ILL staff to order books directly and notify appropriate staff which titles had been ordered. The Nebraska Library Commission’s Barnes & Noble gateway provided the best interface for internal accounting criteria. An upper price limit of $60, excluding shipping, was chosen based on current purchasing information. Because of Interlibrary Loan’s interest in brief delivery times, ordering criteria was further limited to items shipped within 24 hours and delivered in three to five days.

As books are requested from ILL, borrowing staff compares them to the collection development, cost and delivery guidelines. Qualifying items are ordered through the vendor’s website. Documentation is forwarded to Technical Services staff for creation of an order record in the catalog and financial tracking. Purchased items are shipped directly to the ILL office, where they’re circulated as ILL material to the patron. Upon return of the item, it’s forwarded to cataloging, where processing is completed for permanent shelving. Items not purchased through the project due to price limitations are forwarded to the subject specialists for review.

Implemented August 4, 61 books had been ordered as of October 16, 2003. The average book arrives in six days, including weekends, and customer reaction to the program has been positive. Unit representatives plan to meet in January to evaluate the process and purchasing criteria.

If you would like additional information on the UNL Libraries’ program, please contact Agnes Adams, Collection Development Coordinator, Judy Johnson, Acquisitions and Electronic Licensing Coordinator, or Joyce Melvin, ILL Manager, at the UNL Libraries.

Joyce Melvin is Head of Interlibrary Loan at UNL’s Love Library.

Message from the Chair

Devra Dragos, Nebraska Library Commission

A Small Rural School Library Uses NEON

Sherry Houston

NLA Preview

Corinne Jacox