A n n u a l R e p o r t 2 0 0 1 - 2 0 0 2

Library Service Programs

The Bibliographic Systems & Services (BS&S) program provided support services and training for the staff of the 1,199 libraries that use OCLC cataloging, interlibrary loan and union listing services through BCR. In addition, BS&S staff provided related services including custom cataloging, MARC database processing, authority control services and the Serials Solution journal tracking service. In FY 2001-2002, use of the OCLC ILL system increased nearly 12 percent across the BCR region. About 14 percent of OCLC ILL requests now come through the FirstSearch reference database interface, and the expansion of FirstSearch use by large groups in Colorado, Kansas and Iowa has had a clear influence on ILL use across the region.

Use of OCLC online cataloging declined about 3 percent the first year this has happened in the BCR region. However, BCR member libraries contributed more than 48,000 records to OCLC WorldCat, an increase of 12 percent over the previous year. In addition, the use of CatExpress by small libraries increased by 92 percent.

Overall, the purchase of full-text, online database access through BCR's Internet & Database Services (IDS) program grew by more than 30 percent in FY 2001-2002. The use of OCLC FirstSearch database services continued to expand in the BCR region, although the growth rate was lower than in the past few years. BCR's discounted contracts for Grolier, Oxford University Press, Britannica, EBSCO and LexisNexis online, full-text products all saw significant increases in use from BCR member libraries.

A reorganization that combined Bibliographic Systems & Services and the Internet & Database Service programs into a single Member Services Division was planned and executed at the end of the fiscal year to improve the internal efficiency of BCR services and help further contain general and administrative expenses.

Revenue from the Research & Development (R&D) services also expanded by about 18.5 percent to $1,207,971. Since new database services are negotiated, free trials organized, special projects managed and new online administrative processes developed and tested through the R&D unit, steady revenue growth here is a good indication that our service incubation program continues to be successful.

Next Article | Previous Article | BCR Publications | Table of Contents