Document Delivery Working Group
ALA Annual Meeting
22 June 2003
Toronto

Goal:

Improve document delivery and interlibrary loan for German-language materials, both among ARL libraries and between German and North American research libraries.

Attending:

Lynn Wiley, Univ. Illinois-Urbana; Mary Jackson, ARL; Laura Dale Bischof, Univ. Minnesota; Thea Linquist, Univ. Colorado; Susan Widmer, Vanderbilt University; Mary Williamson, Univ. Wisconsin; Cherie Weston, Univ. Minnesota; Tom Kilton, University of Illinois-Urbana.

Member and participants introduced themselves. The agenda was approved along with the brief summary of meeting minutes from the meeting at Midwinter (Philadelphia).

Steering Committee

A brief Report from Steering Committee was provided by Tom Kilton as Lynn was not able to attend the meeting Friday night due to the ILL preconference.(see minutes from that meeting now posted on the GRP website at: http://grp.lib.msu.edu/) Tom detailed the new fee structure recommended to offset the programs costs (costs include newsletter, web updates, office work, travel aid). It is possible that CRL may take on some of the infrastructure work and Tom talked more about that possibility. The Hungarian Academy has asked about some involvement in the GRP as they have a large German collection. Affiliate memberships were discussed. The Contact partnership web information will be changed to be more visible to all the working groups. Other items such as the continued discussion on the acquisition of a large collection being offered by the National Library of New Zealand and the Euro to dollar exchange difference ands its impact on the Xipolis search payments were discussed.

Report on Upcoming Munich Meeting

Lynn gave an update on the meeting organized by the ARL GRP to take place before the IFLA meeting in Berlin and an IFLA preconference hosted by the BSB (Bayersiche Staatsbibliotek in Munich). The IFLA preconference site provides more details at:

http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/ifla/papers.htm.

The preconference is being organized by the IFLA Section of Acquisition and Collection Development. The special GRP meeting is to be held at the Goethe Institut in Munich and will provide for an opportunity to share ideas for better collaboration with German librarians. ARL travel stipends of $500.00 per members are available for those participating. Lynn was planning to attend as was Tom Kilton. Tom was reporting on the history and background of the GRP while Lynn was going to review ILL and document delivery issues

Survey to German libraries, update

Lynn reported on a survey to go out to the Contact Partner list basically asking for help in determining what German libraries need by way of North American ILL. A draft survey had been developed earlier (see copy attached) It is hoped that this group may learn more on how North American libraries may help German libraries obtain loans and articles from their collections.

Brainstorm on new approaches

Lynn reviewed the brief past of the working group projects and asked for help in determining future directions. The group offered their thoughts on the importance of the work and ideas on how to move ahead. We went around the table and each member contributed to the discussion. Members were able to talk at length on how critical access to German collections has been for their researchers and for their own work. Members confirmed that the improved access and potential offered by the GRP document delivery initiatives had led to better service. The loss of access to GBV Direct and SUBITO were felt by all. Members also commented on how many more international requests they received and that loan delivery was still an issue (cost and speed). Members agreed that it would be helpful to pursue better links with German libraries to help researchers on both sides of the Atlantic

Web Pages : outline of new pages:

• Resource Page
• Discovery tools: German to NA and then NA to Germany
• ILL Ordering
• ILL fees
• ILL Delivery

Lynn had passed out these pages previously and asked for comments however we ran out of time. Comments may be sent via Email. Pages will be approved at the next meeting.

New Business

None mentioned

Meeting was adjourned at 12:30

Draft Survey to be sent out:

 

Dear Contact Partner,

The Association of Research Libraries German Resources Project Document Delivery Working Group would like find out about German library users’ need for material in North American libraries. North American libraries have had excellent experiences in finding, ordering, and receiving material from German libraries. The committee named above wants to explore better reciprocity on our end to Germany. The Document Delivery Group is therefore asking your help in contacting your German partner to ask the following:

Do you currently request books or articles from North American libraries?
Yes______ No__________

If yes, how frequently? (indicate an estimate of use)
Weekly___________ Monthly ______________Annually

What do you need more:
Book Loans______ OR Journal articles

If you do NOT request, is it because this kind of access is:
Too expensive? ______
Too slow? ______
Not needed? ______
Other reasons _________________________________________

If ILL between North American libraries was easier to do because you could both find and then order a title quickly, would you use North American libraries more often?

Do you have other comments on obtaining material from North American Libraries OR in sending material to them?

Many thanks for your help!