ULMS Unified Library Management System Update: November 2005 Andrew Jackson Senior Information Manager Knowledge Services Group 29 November 2005

On the road …  Visits to regional meetings and library services covering 9 Health Boards  Visits to 6 Special Board services  Visits to Strathclyde University, Glasgow Caledonian University, Paisley University and Edinburgh University to discuss metasearch solutions and library systems  Visit to London for a demonstration of Sirsi products

ULMS FAQs  Will I have to re-classify or re-catalogue my collection? No – conversion to MARC21 is an automated process managed by the bibliographic data provider, myself, and the library service. There is an opportunity to ‘tidy’ catalogue records before migration, to save on retrospective work. Data conversion will not take place until early 2007

ISBNs  If ISBNs are important, is it only book data which will be held on the ULMS database? No – all stock currently held on existing systems will be transferred into the ULMS database: books, videos, teaching kits, equipment, articles. ISBNs provide an exact match on existing MARC records, thus providing high quality records where available.

Barcodes  Will I have to re-barcode my collection if items already have barcodes? Possibly – if your barcode sequence matches that of another library service, both services will need to re-barcode from a central stock. Barcodes will be provided from project funds. Barcoding should be completed by December 2006.

Inter-lending  If I commit to Phase 1 of the project, is inter-lending across Health Boards mandatory? No – services must be willing to begin formulating inter- lending solutions which provide an equitable service to local and non-local users. The ULMS Inter-lending Sub-group will discuss the best approach for NHS Scotland, and invite responses. “The supplying library has the ultimate right to decide whether to supply any requested item.”

Resource booking  Will the ULMS contain a Resource Booking module for my Health Promotion service? Yes – the specification document will ask for a Resource Booking module as mandatory. Vendors will be asked to demonstrate how their product will meet the needs of NHS Scotland services. I will investigate booking modules at other library sites and report back via LIS-NHSS.

Representation  As a Phase 1 service, how and when do I become involved if I’m not on the Working Group? After the Working Group has chosen a preferred system (September 2006) a representative from all Phase 1 services / Health Boards will be required to sit on the Implementation Group. I will be making site visits to all Phase 1 services throughout 2006 to fully discuss their requirements and support data export / MARC conversion.

Other support  If I’m not involved in Phase 1, can I still ask you for advice on non-ULMS catalogue mergers and other library system issues? Yes – I’d be glad to discuss to any systems development issues within NHS Scotland, and contribute to discussions about catalogue mergers. My role is to support library system developments where required, not just the ULMS.

What next? There is a final 2005 meeting of the Working Group on 16 th December. On the same day, the Cataloguing sub-group and the Inter-lending sub-group will meet for the first time. These sub-groups will consist of Working Group members, library staff with particular interests in cataloguing, and other staff not included in the Working Group due to number restrictions.

Commitments Phase 1 commitment will be sought by the end of January If services require more time to discuss ULMS issues with IT or Management, this may be stretched to the end of February. If anyone would like to discuss the project, I am more than happy to make more site visits – or to re-visit sites in order to discuss specific issues in more depth.

The future … “It sounds like you are certainly embarking on a massive project …” (Alice E. Jacobs, National Library of Medicine) NHS Scotland library staff will be leading the UK in shared systems development and collaborative practice.