Rethinking Access to Information:

Montana Home Delivery/NCIP Project / Ken Adams, Director of the Montana Shared Catalog

Since May, 2007 twelve Montana libraries have worked closely with OCLC in testing the feasibility of home or direct delivery of ILL materials and the interoperability of the NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP) between OCLC and a local Integrated Library System (ILS).

The Home Delivery Project has tested the popularity and feasibility of direct to the patron options for Interlibrary Loan.  OCLC has provided mailing supplies and metering machines to the project libraries and covered the cost of delivery to the user’s home for the project. The user requests “home” or “direct” delivery, via their local OPAC or through direct request in FirstSearch.

The NCIP Project tested the ability of participating libraries which did not share user and circulation privileges to pass circulation information to each other, via NCIP.  The outcome was the ability of a library user from Library A to discover, request and receive material from Library B.   OCLC provided centralized NCIP tasks between the local system (SirsiDynix) and OCLC, whenever the lending and borrowing library did not share user and circulation privileges.

The projects were launched in May 2007, following six months of preparation between OCLC, SirsiDynix and Montana State Library staff.  The NCIP Project concluded in October, 2007, yielding some successes and some challenges.  The Home Delivery Project, which has been extremely popular with patrons, is scheduled to conclude in June.

Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovations Award 2008 : presentation of the award winning projects (continued)

Rethinking Resource Sharing : an Australian Perspective / Sharon Karasmanis, Interlending & Document Delivery and Deputy Resources Delivery Services Librarian & Alison Bates, Resource Acquisitions Librarian, Borchardt Library - Bundoora Campus, La Trobe University, Australia

Buying to Share, the Illinois State CARLI experience / Lynn Wiley, Head of Acquisitions & Coordinator for Technical Services, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Main Library, Elizabeth Clarage, Director, CARLI Collections Services

Libraries achieve greatness in a distributed networked environment as collectively, they can serve all users. But the challenge is to both provide user friendly services to allow easy access to partners' collections while also filling in the gaps in anticipating their needs. This paper reviews the successful evolution of CARLI, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois and the how the partnerships currently meet the educational and research needs for over 70 member library users.

The paper covers plans for an analysis of collective monographic purchases made in the last five years and how that analysis may guide cooperative collection development plans in the future.

Connecting the Dots...: Exploring Seamless Delivery of Content to the Researcher / Catherine Davidson, Associate University Librarian, Collections, York University, Canada, Mary Lehane, Manager, Resource Sharing, York University, Canada & Amy Greenberg, User Support Librarian, Scholars Portal, Canada

The speakers will examine institutional and province-wide elements involved in the seamless delivery of content to the researcher. A recent strategic planning exercise provides a university library with an opportunity to revisit longstanding policies and procedures. One outcome: a renewed emphasis on innovative collection development activities and a cooperative Resource Sharing and Acquisitions partnership. A broader province-wide perspective looks at the implications of a shared resource sharing system across 20+ universities and the corresponding opportunities for enhancing discoverability and access.... connecting the user with the content.

If They Build It They Will Come /  R. David Lankes, Director of the Information Institute of Syracuse, and an associate professor in Syracuse University's School of Information Studies

No matter how many users one talks to in designing a system, there will be a gulf between what a user wants and what a system can do. The belief that users even know what they want, or that somehow a library can correctly interpret the needs of users is at best presumptuous. To truly build systems that met the needs of users, we must let them build these systems directly. By transforming our library systems into participatory systems, not only do we better meet the needs of our patrons, we also build systems that reflect the core principles of librarianship -- getting away from simply adopting new technologies
developed in other fields. This presentation will explore the concept of participatory systems, and talk about what from the Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 world is durable, and how to avoid the latest fads. This paper will focus on the type of reference service needed for users who are internet savvy and will often only approach the library after they have exhausted their normal range of resources.

NextGeneration Library Technologies / Steven Abrams, Vice President, Innovation, Sirsi/Dynix, USA 

Can our libraries be more open?  Can we be more open to our users, our communities, to new technologies?  Can we be more open to change?  How?  Are there technologies that we should be trying and piloting to see if they improve the library's mandate for community service?  Which ones are worth investigating?  What are the latest emerging learning technologies for sharing?  
What does the next generation of books look like? Articles? Streaming media?  What are new ways to communicate with our users directly?  Stephen Abram is an inveterate library watcher and strategic technology reviewer.  In this session he shares the top technologies that he thinks we should be adding to our thinking about developing our library strategies.

Conference close / Matt Goldner, Executive Director, End User Services, OCLC