    Newsletter of the Section on Document Delivery and InterlendingJuly 1998A Note from the Chair and SecretaryOur goal in preparing this issue of the Newsletter is to provide you with an outline of the section's activities planned for the Amsterdam conference next month. Before we started to gather material, this seemed like a fairly brief undertaking. A schedule of meetings, the agenda for the Standing Committee, and a few reports. But the news kept flowing in.For members of the Section who will not be attending the Amsterdam conference, we think you will find the reports on the Ghana project and the use of Interlibrary Loan Protocols are of interest in themselves. Also, we hope the announcement of the 6th International Conference on Interlending & Document Supply in Pretoria next year will stimulate you to propose papers and seek travel funds to attend this perennially successful gathering. For conference attendees, we have provided the most accurate schedule of events available at this time and an outline of several programs to whet your appetite for Amsterdam. We are happy to say we plan to make this newsletter available on the Section's web site even before you receive your airmail printed copy. Our spiffy electronic image has been produced by Una Gourlay, our information coordinator, and Louise Lantaigne, on the staff of the National Library of Canada. The improved web site now includes the complete text of all the Section's newsletters and reports, plus the full text the Principles and Guidelines for Interlending. We hope this Newsletter gives you a good idea of the various activities of the Section. We welcome any suggestions for future issues. The next issue, due in January, will summarize the conference and set the stage for the coming year. We hope to include more items from or about members. We welcome your contributions.
Chris Wright, Secretary Recent News from MembersUna Gourlay Moving to SingaporeUna Gourlay is leaving her position as Head, Document Delivery & Fee-based Services at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and moving to Singapore where her husband will head the regional office of his engineering firm. Una is the committee member from the Special Libraries Association and has served as the Committee's information coordinator for the past three years. It is thanks to Una that the Section has developed web pages and email networks. Una has said she intends to continue her work as an information broker or consultant in Singapore, and will participate in IFLA activities as much as possible until her position is filled following the Bangkok conference. Unfortunately, she will have to suspend her function as Information Coordinator because there will be a period when she won't be "wired" to the Internet. She promises to send everyone her address as soon as she's back on the net. In Una's absence the duties of Information Coordinator will be performed by your Secretary, Chris Wright (cwri@loc.gov).Improved Web PageThanks to Louise Lantaigne of the National Library of Canada for working with Una Gourlay to make great improvements to our Section's web page. The page now contains the text of Section newsletters, minutes of Standing Committee meetings, the full text of the Principles and Guidelines for Interlending, and a bevy of project reports. Please look over the page and send suggestions of items to add or attach to Chris Wright.Library of Congress purchases Voyager integrated library systemLC has purchased the Voyager integrated library system from Endeavor Information Systems Inc. This news is particularly gratifying to those of us working in interlibrary loan because it means that LC will no longer be locked behind a wall of home-grown automation. In announcing the purchase to senior staff in mid-May, Deputy Librarian Donald Scott said the Library of Congress had specifically sought off-the-shelf production software that would be maintained by the vendor in concert with standards and practices developed by the library community. As a result, LC is expected to be an active partner with other libraries and networks in developing efficiencies for transmitting loan requests.Eventually, the integrated library system will make data on LC's holdings available worldwide through LC's Web catalog, thus allowing potential borrowers to know in advance whether an item is actually held by LC. In addition, loan requests from networked libraries may eventually be sent directly to LC's stacks without intervention by lending staff if current efforts to standardize the exchange of ILL messages are successful. LC is scheduled to "go live" with Voyager in October 1999. Report Published on North American ILL/DD Operations"Measuring the Performance of Interlibrary Loan Operations in North American Research and College Libraries," the final report of the ARL ILL/DD Performance Measures Study, was published by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in May, 1998. The publication reports the results of a study conducted by Standing Committee member Mary Jackson that was funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and undertaken in collaboration with the Council on Library and Information Resources. The report summarizes the performance of 119 research and academic institutions in terms of direct cost, turnaround time, fill rate, and user satisfaction. The report compares current cost data with the results of the 1992 ARL/RLG ILL Cost Study, summarizes the performance of four OhioLINK research library participants, and provides an overview of the performance of the 13 Canadian research library participants. The publication also details characteristics of high-performing, low-cost ILL/DD operations in research libraries, and concludes with a series of strategies for improving local performance.
The report may be purchased from ARL for $45, prepaid. The Executive Summary and additional order information for the full report is available at
Friday, August 14:
Saturday, August 15:
Sunday, August 16:
Monday, August 17:
Tuesday, August 18:
Friday, August 21:
Table is not available, please communicate with Chris Wright, Secretary of the Section on Document Delivery and Interlending
The presented papers will be:
Hartmut Walravens, Director, Bibliographic Services, and Director,
International ISBN Agency, Berlin State Library: "The German Serials
Database (ZDB) - from union catalogue to shared cataloguing and
document delivery system"
Carrol D Lunau, National & International Programs, National Library of
Canada: "The virtual union catalogue project (vCuc): using Z39.50 to
emulate a centralized union catalogue."
John Godber, Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB):
"Consummating the Union - Making a Union Catalogue of Alternative
Formats Really Work"
Suzanne Ward, UNIverse Project Officer, The British Library Document
Supply Centre: "The UNIverse Project - a European demonstration which
adds value to the virtual union catalogue".
Sara Gould, IFLA Office for UAP and International Lending: "The IFLA
World Directory of National Union Catalogues".
To book a place, or for more details, please contact:
The following matters will be focused on:
One of the most important aspects of the meeting will be a discussion on the future role of Reference Work.
James Neale, Director, Milton S. Eisenhower Library, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland: "Electronic Publishing: Current State and Future Trends."
Lars Bjoernshauge, Director, Technical Knowledge Centre, Denmark: "From Document Delivery and Interlending to Document Access and Interlibrary Collection."
(Speaker to be determined): Electronic libraries and document delivery in the United Kingdom. Preliminary
The presented papers will be:
Hartmut Walravens, Director, Bibliographic Services, and Director,
International ISBN Agency, Berlin State Library: "The German Serials
Database (ZDB) - from union catalogue to shared cataloguing and
document delivery system"
Carrol D Lunau, National & International Programs, National Library of
Canada: "The virtual union catalogue project (vCuc): using Z39.50 to
emulate a centralized union catalogue."
John Godber, Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB):
"Consummating the Union - Making a Union Catalogue of Alternative
Formats Really Work"
Suzanne Ward, UNIverse Project Officer, The British Library Document
Supply Centre: "The UNIverse Project - a European demonstration which
adds value to the virtual union catalogue".
Sara Gould, IFLA Office for UAP and International Lending: "The IFLA
World Directory of National Union Catalogues".
To book a place, or for more details, please contact:
In the first half of 1997 a librarian from each library participated in a training programme that took place in Ghana, the United Kingdom, and Denmark. First we arranged an Internet course in Ghana and in May/June we trained the librarians in interlibrary lending procedures in the United Kingdom and Denmark. Classroom training and excursions were arranged by IFLA Office for International Lending and INASP (International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications). Practical work with interlibrary lending and Internet was arranged in Copenhagen at the following libraries:
In November 1997 the librarians trained in Europe arranged a training seminar in Ghana. About twenty librarians attended the seminar that took place at the Balme Library. During the two-week seminar they converted the Cataloguing Department of the library to an Internet laboratory.
The librarian from the Balme Library had been trained in OCLC services during two weeks in January 1998. OCLC had arranged the training in Birmingham and financed a part of the expenses.Internet connections:
They will soon establish the Internet connection for the Balme Library. We have worked out a networking plan for the University of Ghana Campus and the Balme Library is connected to this network. The internal network of the library is in place and an office for interlibrary loans has been established.
The plan for the other involved libraries is divided into two phases.
By the end of 1998 we expect that the technology and interlibrary lending procedures can be operational and in the beginning of 1999 we will arrange a mid-term-evaluation seminar in Ghana. We will also discuss the project at a workshop at the IFLA conference in Amsterdam. [See Workshop Program p. .]
For the past three years, the North American Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery (NAILDD) Project has focused on implementing the international standard for ILL communication - the ISO ILL Protocol (ISO 10160/61). The ILL Protocol Implementors Group (IPIG) was established to expedite implementations in the U.S. and internationally. The IPIG now represents nearly 50 organizations, vendors, and projects in the U.S., Canada, and 8 other countries. A number of vendors are designing new ILL/DD systems that use the ILL Protocol to communicate messages between libraries. However, the Protocol is only one portion of a comprehensive ILL/DD system as it addresses only the communication functions of the overall ILL/DD process. The ILL Protocol does not capture statistics, but defines fields that can be used by applications for statistical purposes.
A key issue before the IPIG during the last six months is the extent to which optional messages should or should not be made mandatory. The Protocol defines over 20 structured messages in an ILL transaction, including the initial ILL request, a message indicating the item has been shipped, a request for a renewal, and a message that the item has been returned, etc. The messages are almost identical to those used in existing ILL messaging systems. However, the Protocol was designed to support a minimal level of communication between libraries. For example, the shipped message is optional in the ILL Protocol, but is the message that includes the due date and any lending charges. Developers of new ILL/DD systems may choose not to support some or all of the optional messages and parameters defined in the Protocol, which in the case of the shipped message, may result in a system that cannot send the due date and lender charges.
The minimal number of required fields and parameters included in the Protocol reduces the cost of sending messages, minimizes the complexity of the process, but decreases the likelihood of interoperability. To increase interoperability of Protocol-compliant systems, IPIG members are developing a profile that details the areas on which IPIG members have reached agreement. As one example, the IPIG Profile states that implementations must use version 2 of the Protocol if they wish to be considered IPIG Profile-compliant. The IPIG Profile is expected to be finalized by early fall.
Approximately 30 representatives regularly attend the quarterly IPIG meetings. Underscoring the importance of the international membership of the group, the IPIG will meet in London in mid-September - the first meeting held outside North America. The IPIG meeting will follow a two-day document delivery conference hosted by eLib.
In 1997, eight IPIG members successfully exchanged one or more of the Protocol messages and reported their testing on the IPIG listserv. However, in 1998, no new testing has been reported by these eight or by other IPIG member. Because IPIG members decided not to share the current status of their Protocol implementations at IPIG meetings, it is not known whether some IPIG members are quietly testing with other IPIG members or whether no new testing has occurred over the past six months.
Additional information about the IPIG, including a list of current members and the status of current testing, can be found on the ARL home page:
The sixth Interlending and Document Supply International Conference is organized jointly by the IFLA Office for International Lending, the University of South Africa and the State Library, Pretoria. Papers are invited in line with the theme and sub-themes below. Suggestions for additional sub-themes and proposed papers on these themes will also be accepted.
* Empowerment of the developing world through interlending and document supply.
- DETAILS OF SPEAKER (Name of speaker, Institution, Work address, Telephone,Fax, E-mail)
FORMAT: Handwritten abstracts will not be accepted. They can be e-mailed to the South African Organizing Committee but a copy should also be faxed or sent by post. All contributions will be acknowledged.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 31 August 1998.
ACCEPTANCE: Acceptance will be at the discretion of the Organizing Committee. The Committee will communicate its decision to prospective authors.
ADDRESS FOR SUBMISSIONS: Abstracts should be sent to:
The Copysmart project, which has run for 2? years, produced an electronic rights management system in which access to and use of electronic documents can be monitored, and payments debited through the use of an electronic smartcard. The British Library's role was to test the use of CopySmart in a networked CD-ROM library environment, and staff from the IFLA/Copyright Office set up user trials with both staff and end-users. Other test sites in the project were the Open University of the Netherlands and Bureau van Dijk, a commercial CD-ROM producer. The British Library trials concluded that an electronic rights management system such as CopySmart is a feasible technical solution to the problem of controlling use of electronic material and of ensuring that electronic publishers are fairly paid for that use in a library environment.
The CopySmart solution will now be used in further EU projects, such as Project Sedodel, which
will look at secure document delivery for visually impaired people. For further information about the project see
The Directory of National Union Catalogues will provide complete information about all national
and international union catalogues which are in existence today. The listing will include general
catalogues and those relating to any specific subject area, and in any language. The date range
covered by the catalogues is not important, so long as the catalogue is still current, with records still being added to or deleted from it. The Directory will give details of contributing libraries, subject coverage, date range, and language for each union catalogue, as well as providing access
information and a brief description about any plans for future development.
The Directory will eventually be accessible on IFLANET, IFLA's Internet site, and paper copies
will be available for those without Internet access. To tie in with the production of the Directory, a half-day workshop on the subject of union catalogues will be held at the IFLA General Conference in Amsterdam this year, which takes place from 15 - 21 August. Speakers and topics have yet to be confirmed.
For further information about the Workshop, or the Directory of Union Catalogues, please contact Sara Gould.
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