Extending the CIC VEL to Encompass Digital Collections

Strategic Directions for 1998

Preamble

As the libraries of the CIC look toward serving the information needs of their students, faculties, staffs, and other users in the 21^st Century, they see unparalleled opportunities to work together to achieve collectively far more than they could achieve by individual action. The circumstances of this particular set of libraries could not be more favorable for productive cooperation and collaboration: They serve a group of institutions of higher education that have a high degree of similarity in mission and share a high level of quality and distinction in the scholarship, teaching, and service they carry out. Similarly, the libraries, individually and collectively, possess great richness in their collections and great strengths in their staffs. Further, there is great commonality of need among the users of the information resources at these universities.

The libraries, as well as the universities, have a long history of interaction and cooperation through the CIC, which has, since 1958, provided a vertically and horizontally integrated organizational infrastructure unmatched between voluntary educational consortia. Being a consortium of peer libraries within a consortium of peer universities gives the CIC libraries a strength and cohesion not found in stand-alone library consortia.

At the same time, the libraries of the CIC are individually distinct entities. Their differing constituencies, environments, and resources not only direct the development of the individual libraries, but they show the way to more productive cooperation between libraries. A principal object of our cooperation is to make each of the several libraries better by developing its strengths and shoring up its relative weaknesses. The following articulation of a vision, mission, and goals for the CIC libraries charts our course toward becoming an organization that performs such computational alchemy.

Vision

By the beginning of the 21^st Century, the CIC libraries will have a cohesive consortial organization guided by a vision of the information resources in the CIC as a seamless whole, whether those resources are developed or owned individually or collectively. Through shared planning and action, the libraries and their patrons will have equal access to the total information resources of the CIC. In addition, the libraries will provide the students, faculties, and staffs of the CIC universities with access to comprehensive resources throughout the world. Through collective leadership and cooperative action, each CIC library will realize extensive value-added services for its clienteles. The CIC libraries will be in the forefront of efforts to preserve, expand, and access both electronic information resources and traditional collections.

Mission

Through cooperation and collaboration, to advance the missions of the individual CIC libraries in their support of teaching, research, and service by:

CREATING--individually and collectively--new ways to fulfill the information needs of the faculties, students and staffs of the CIC universities;

EXTENDING and ENHANCING the information resources and services available on each campus by providing equal access to complementary resources throughout the CIC; AND THEREBY, IMPROVING the collections, information resources, and services of the individual CIC libraries.

GOAL I

To maximize the collective information resources available to the students, faculties, and staffs of the CIC universities, and to provide barrier-free access to those resources

Objective A:
Implement coordinated collection development among the CIC libraries.

Strategies:

1. Implement the five-year tactical plan developed by the collection development officers.

1. develop and implement detailed plans in the six collection areas identified for coordinated activity.
2. Evaluate the six collection plans and modify or expand, as warranted.

2. Develop or employ a tool for analyzing CIC collections in order to guide and support       collaborative collection management.

3. Pursue coordinated preservation endeavors, including mass deacidification, microfilming and preservation using digital technology, and the preservation of electronic information resources.

1. Pursue funding for continued microfilming and digital preservation of rare and brittle materials.
2. Through the Task Force on Preservation and Digital Technology, pursue pilot projects in selected, key areas of preservation using digital technology.

4. Continue to collaborate on the acquisition and licensing of electronic information resources.

1. Implement structure for collaboratively identifying needs, pursuing, opportunities, and making decisions on the acquisition of electronic information resources.

5. Coordinate the collaborative organization of CIC World Wide Web resources (including both locally produced and generally available resources).

Objective B:

In collaboration with the campus computing facilities, university presses, and vendor partners as appropriate, coordinate CIC-wide access to and development of digital collections of text, video, data, audio, and other information resources as part of the Virtual Electronic Library.

Strategies:

1. Develop federated infrastructure model for distributed digital collections and information resources.

1. Identify the architecture nessary to support CIC-wide development of and access to digital collections
2. Collaborate with the CIC Chief Information Officers to implement needed components.
3. Develop CIC text conversion and markup center for production of e-texts.
4. Develop and test prototype shared digital collection.
5. Develop guidelines for materials to be included in the digital collection.
6. Explore and test possible economic and costing models based on experiences at Michigan (e.g.JSTOR).

2. Create and test capability for creating new scholarly resources in digital format.

3. Build expertise across the consortium and provide CIC-wide opportunities for training in text conversion and encolding.

4. Deploy a system for providing networked access to electronic resources distributed by the federal government, and to Geographic Information Systems.

Objective C:

Provide students, faculty, and staff on our campuses with barrier-free access to information resources in the CIC.

Strategies:

1. As the access point for users and staff into the VEL, implement a WWW-accessible, seamless information search, request, and fulfillment system - capable of interacting with the OPACs, request system, and both internal and external electronic and digital information systems.

1. Implement a WWW-accessible search tool capable of searching multiple CIC OPACs, returning holdings for both monographs and serials to a user in a useable format.
2. Develop OPAC and searching links to all databases, order status, locations, holdings.
3. Implement standards-compliant system for patron-initiated interlibrary loans.

2. Provide complete bibliographic information on all collections (including archives and manuscripts) in CIC libraries through the VEL.

1. Identify and prioritize subject areas for retrospective conversion.
2. Negotiate discounted rate to outsource retrospective conversion (e.g. OCLC).
3. Explore the possibility of a retrospective.
4. Create government publications (pre-1976) bibliographic record set as a CIC cataloging source file.

3. Enrich OPACs with tables of contents, finding aids, hotlinks to reviews, etc.

Objective D:

Achieve maximum efficiency in document delivery within the CIC.

Strategies:

1. Improve interlibrary lending process and performance across the CIC by exploring new models for the management of ILL services and implementing the following activities and policies:

1. Move from 11.5 days to 5 days from time of patron initiation to time of patron availability.
2. Survey user expectations and needs about timeliness requirements.
3. Regularly track and report ILL turnaround time and fill rates.
4. Identify optimum workflow, staffing levels and organization.
5. Pursue consortial arrangements with commercial document delivery vendors.
6. Investigate the feasibility of identifying CIC "provision centers" or "delivery centers" for non-returnable materials.
7. Establish ILL performance standards for members.
8. Develop a method of compensation for "net lenders".

GOAL II

To expand the range of possibilities for information access and improve the delivery of library services to the students, faculty, and staff of the CIC universities by collaborating in research and development initiatives and cooperating in the implementation of new technology applications.

Objective A: Assume leadership on copyright, licensing, and intellectual property issues.

Strategies:

1. Working with national and local copyright initiatives, investigate and identify copyright issues that will arise from CIC action in the following areas:

1. Learning technologies applications and resources (i.e. NLII/IMS);
2. Digitizing text, image, motion, and audio information and distributing the information in a networked environment;
3. Preserving and archiving digital information; and,
4. Copyright issues that will arise in a patron-initiated ILL and document delivery system.

2. Promote generous and favorable licensing arrangements as recommended by the Task Force on the CIC Electronic Collection.

Objective B:

In collaboration with the CIC campus computing centers, insure the availability of adequate capacity and efficiency in the electronic transmission of information.

Strategies:

1. Improve systems for the CIC-wide delivery of digital information.

2. Improve systems and inter-operability among the CIC libraries through the application of technical standards for information delivery and exchange.

1. Agree on a suite of technical standards to support access to and delivery of information (e.g. Z39.50, GIF, HTML, SGML).
2. Develop capability for authenticating and validating data and users across systems.

Objective C:

Use staff expertise cooperatively across the CIC through mechanisms that encourage, promote, and facilitate such sharing.

Strategies:

1. Identify, develop, and share library expertise across the CIC.

1. Identify and experiment with technologies for enhanced staff communications (e.g. CU/SeeMe, Lotus Notes).
2. Identify and experiment with learning technologies for staff development and collaboration (e.g. Iowa grant to develop models using learning technologies.)
3. Continue sponsoring joint workshops.
4. Based on the experiences of the University of Minnesota and the University of Chicago, identify and experiment with shared staffing through the use of communications technologies.

1. Implement joint efforts to produce/share documentation and training for shared databases such as MathSci or Beilstein.

2. Expand opportunities for interaction and strengthen working relationships among functional groups (e.g., technical services directors, special collections librarians) and among subject area groups (e.g., science subject specialists, social science subject specialists) as tasks and projects warrant.

3. Pursue projects in cooperative authority control, cooperative cataloging, and experiments in shared on-line reference services.

4. Build expertise across the consortium and provide CIC-wide opportunities for training in text conversion and encoding.

Goal III

Conduct research on the economics of collaborative library service delivery.

Objective A:

Develop economic models for predicting and measuring the costs and benefits of collaborative library service.

Strategies:

1. Analyze costs of ILL.

2. Establish a common methodology for measuring the cost of shared electronic resources (including databases, electronic journals, digitized publications, etc...).

3. Explore and test possible economic and costing models for digital information systems (e.g. JSTOR, Elsevier projects at Michigan)

GOAL IV

To work with the CIC Members and other groups to build support within the CIC universities for the changes brought about by achieving goals I - IV, and to provide leadership nationally and within the CIC to bring about greater understanding of the changes in scholarship and in the access to and uses of information that will occur in the next decade.

Objective A:

Ensure that library staff and university faculty understand, support, and participate in CIC VEL activities with the ultimate aim of fully integrating the VEL into local decision-making and information-seeking behavior.

Strategies:

1. Continue to promote awareness about activities and accomplishments of the CIC libraries.

2. At the conclusion of each and every VEL meeting (task forces, committees, etc...) specify key messages/conclusions that all participants agree to communicate to local library staffs.

3. Encourage librarians having faculty liaison responsibilities to explain the goals and various aspects of the VEL to their respective faculty groups.

4. Promote a greater understanding about economic, scholarly, and functional values of shared intellectual resources.

1. demonstrate impact of digital library initiatives.
2. Link new academic programs to appropriate collections at other CIC libraries.
3. Publicize cooperative areas studies efforts in African Studies and Korean Studies occurring between CIC libraries.

Objective B:

Define user population, identify user needs, and implement user training systems to ensure that staff and users have skills necessary to exploit the power of the VEL.

Strategies:

1. Provide baseline data on VEL user needs (parallel to baseline data on ILL performance from early implementers group).

        a. Test users' need for "seamless" interface.
        b. Test users' perceptions of prompt receipt of materials.
        c. Analyze transaction logs.
        d. Test users' tolerance for searching OPACs.
        e. Test size of retrieval set needs in various searches.

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Revised: February 11, 2000