Minutes, ILL Working Group, December 7, 2001

Present: Nancy Paine (University of Texas), Scott Downing (Texas A&M, Commerce), Amy Chang (Texas Tech), Michael Duncan (Waco Public Library), Jeanette Mosey (Austin Community College), Sara Lowman (Rice University), Kate Cordts (San Antonio Public Library), Heather Perkins (UT Southwestern Medical), Tim Prather (AMIGOS), Valerie Johnson (Texas State Library), Dayna Jones (Texas State Library), Linda Lupro (Nicholson Memorial Library System), Ashley Schimelman (San Marcos Public Library)

Absent: Marilyn Comte, Yolanda Calzada

1) Roster changes; housekeeping—the roster was updated. Appointments of new working group members was discussed. The group discussed the importance having good statewide representation, balanced with the ability to participate on the working group. People who are nominated need to have funding and the ability to participate. Action: Valerie Johnson and Dayna Jones will follow up with a message to the Loanstar listserv asking for nominations and self-nominations. This message will be sent out in the spring (March) when other working groups are also seeking new committee members. The message will include information about participation and the need for the institution to fund travel for the working group members.
Action: Current Working Group members should nominate active, competent, interested ILL staff this Spring.

2) Protocol—modest changes to the protocol were discussed.
The group also discussed sending letters to libraries that are not providing good ILL service. The Working Group agreed that in the future, a letter will be sent to the library inquiring about the nature of the problem, and offering support for solving the problem. Examples of support could include training assistance, support for additional staff, etc.
The group then discussed how to encourage public libraries to sign the protocol. There is a feeling that non-protocol signing libraries are unaware of the need to sign the protocol. The group thinks there is some misunderstanding about how the protocol works--it standardizes interlibrary loan, and is a statement of principles. The protocol doesn’t require any particular behavior, but instead makes recommendations about how interlibrary loan should be handled by TexShare libraries. The group discussed a change in philosophy regarding the protocol. Instead of asking libraries to sign the protocol, we could instead state that all TexShare members support the protocol unless they state otherwise. If libraries are NOT interested in supporting the protocol, they must state otherwise.

Action: Nancy Paine will send protocol changes to the TexShare webmaster for inclusion on the website, and will then send a message to the listserv announcing the changes. The most significant change relates to payment for lost/missing materials.

Action: Check with board regarding change in philosophy regarding signing/supporting the protocol.

3) ZLOT discussion. Sara Lowman briefly updated the group on the ZLOT program. The ZLOT project will build consensus on functional requirements and demonstrate the feasibility of a Z39.50 based approach for distributed access to Texas' library resources. For more information about this future project, see: "http://www.unt.edu/zlot"

Action: Sara Lowman will arrange a conference call with Bill Moen, principal investigator for the ZLOT project and the ILL working group in January or February.

4) OCLC report on journals most often loaned. What is possible? How much does it cost? What’s useful?
Tim Prather has been working with Tony Melvin at OCLC about developing a custom report that would derive a list of the most often requested journals within TexShare libraries that cannot be filled by Texas holdings. Tim reported that OHIOLink is using this kind of report--there is a section for items that are filled within OhioLink, and items filled outside OhioLink. The initial charge is $1200 to create the report, and $400 to run it. OhioLink runs the report quarterly, for a cost of $1200 per year. OhioLink then uses the data to try to lobby libraries to purchase the journal locally. The working group discussed how the report could be used within TexShare, and decided that we would want to have the report run annually for a first year cost of $1600, and then at an annual cost of $400.

Action: Valerie Johnson and Dayna Jones will follow up with Beverly Shirley and the TSL about possible funding for this project.

5) Future goals for TexShare and possible program impacts (Valerie Johnson).
A) Valerie reported on a task force charged with studying the possible expansion of TexShare. The task force is charged with exploring how membership could be expanded in the future. a) School libraries will be considered at some point, but are not in the first round of recommendations; 1-2 years from now, school libraries may be partially included b) Other types considered--law libraries, museum libraries, quasi-government agencies, and special libraries. *State agencies have been considered for the next round. Also, fifty-three hospital libraries that meet the MLA standards will be included in the next recommendation for membership.
B) Courier service—Valerie reported that TexShare is three libraries away from reaching the cap on number of TExpress courier members . Unless funding increases, new libraries will have to pay full rate (current members are subsidized at approximately 60%).
C) Library of Texas (LOT)—this project will have future impacts, and is still in the planning phase.
Action: Valerie will continue to keep the Working Group apprised of new TexShare developments.

6) Ideas for new programs for the TexShare ILL Working Group:
A) Website updates—links to good websites should be sent to Nancy Paine;
B) The group discussed copyright and providing ILL from electronic databases--do we need to add information to website? Valerie Johnson indicated that all database licenses were set up to provide for fair use. Nancy Paine reported that Georgia Harper (copyright expert in UT's Office of General Counsel) stated that materials can be used for ILL unless license specifically prohibits it. Scott Downing would like to see TexShare and the TSL advocate for licenses to state that articles could be electronically sent directly to another user instead of printing off, rescanning, and sending via Ariel.

Action: The Texas State Library needs to determine whether members can use databases for ILL; Valerie will check the licenses and post a message to LoanStar as well as provide information on the web site.

Action: Idea of creating a “tip of the month” message to LoanStar listserv. Nancy Paine will start with the first tip of the month, and set up a list of WG group members and the month in which each should provide a tip. The tip of the month will be called “ILL Advice.” Messages could start with "Here’s the medicine"…we could also say ‘symptoms, diagnosis, cure, etc”

7) Workshop planning--The group discussed the next ILL workshop, which is planned for November, 2002.
Dayna Jones reported that there is $600 left from the last conference. The budget will remain unclear until August, 2002, but we can plan for approximately the same size budget as for previous workshops.
The group brainstormed about possible speakers/topics for the workshop. Ideas were as follows:
-Best practices, with a moderator, and then a speaker from each type of library give their BP.
-Statistics overview
-Humor, jokes—funny about ILL
-How people use the web for ILL
-Future of ILL—full text databases impact on ILL; lead into peer to peer or distributed ILL or recruitment/training of new librarians; Debate?
-Futurist—what does the future hold?
-Status of the Library of Texas project (LOT)
-Consortial best practices-OhioLink, Minitex, Georgia system;
-Where do I go in Texas for…? Patents, special collections, geneology, TexTreasures
-ILL management software—e.g., Prospero, Clio, Illiad
-Library of Congress speaker--Chris Wright
-Policy changes--how I made changes to ILL policies, and then convinced administration to accept recommendations

Decisions-

1) Chris Wright (keynote speaker)-where we’re going, and how we got where we are, personal experiences (1 hour)—(Tim Prather to contact)
Break
2) Best practices—academic and public-using statistics to change policies (1 hour, thirty minutes)—two publics and two academics—Keiko Horton (UH) Jeff Steeley (Baylor); Nancy Gemmel?, Dale Bullard? Large and small public librarians; Lockhart librarian sitting on the roof--moderator
Lunch
Award—5-10 minutes
3) Consortial best practices, Moderator, OhioLink, Minitex, Z-Lot (Bill Moen)—future of how state consortiums work together (Two hours-3 30 minute speakers, discussion)
Intersperse 15 minute break between one speaker and moderator
4) Futurist—(Kate Cordts to contact)

Assignments:
Blurb about topics—Amy Chang and Nancy Paine; look for names in consortia
Registration desk—Michael Duncan, Kate Cordts
Door prizes, Lunch tables—Jeanette Mosey
AV-Heather Perkins
Emcee and introductions—Scott Downing
Registration and collection of fees-Nancy Paine
Award—Ashley Schimmelman—two awards, public and academic
Hotel and Food-TSL
Publicity-Scott Downing
Speaker liaison-Dayna Jones
Handouts-Kate Cordts, Nancy Paine
Program Planning—Nancy Paine, Amy Chang, Kate Cordts, Sara Lowman

Actions:
Tim Prather will contact Chris Wright, and see which dates work best for his schedule
Kate Cordts will get the name of the futurist speaker
Consortial best practices--Nancy Paine and Amy Chang will work on finding names of speakers
Best practices--??
Dayna Jones will work on contacting hotels in the DFW area near Love Field.

After we get some dates from the keynote speaker and hotel information from the TSL, we can reconvene the discussion of the workshop planning in March, and contact the Texas/local speakers.