Resource Sharing at the American University of Beirut: Challenges and Opportunities Carla Chalhoub, M.L.I.S Head of Access Services

 Founded in 1866, the American University of Beirut is a teaching-centered research university.  AUB has around 800 instructional faculty and serves a student body of around 8,000 students.  The University was granted institutional accreditation in June 2004 by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in the United States and reaffirmed in June  AUB offers more than 120 programs leading to the bachelor's, master's, MD, and PhD degrees. OVERVIEW

University Libraries Consist Of the main Library and 4 branch libraries: Nami Jafet Memorial Library Saab Medical Library Engineering and Architecture Library Science & Agriculture Library The Agricultural Research and Education Center (AREC) in the Beqaa Valley

Document Delivery Services - OVERVIEW  Prior to 2006 circulation department was in charge of the Document Delivery services.  In July 3 rd, 2006, the Document Delivery Services Department became a separate entity in the University Libraries. A DDS librarian and a support staff were hired to take over.  2008 the DDS department was merged with circulation department to form what was named the Access Services Department.  Until , the Document Delivery Department was serving our faculty members only by purchasing their items from DDS suppliers.

RETHINKING DDS?  Serials cancellations increase in number of DDS requests.  Launching of 6 PHD programs in  Hiring faculty members who conduct systematic reviews. Number of requests especially in the medical field raised significantly.  Budget cuts, decrease in DDS budget.  As a result of the Syrian war in 2011, researchers became more and more interested in Middle Eastern Studies and AUB libraries couldn’t keep up with purchasing all needed materials.

COOPERATION A.RECIPROCAL AGREEMENTS with local institutions: 2.Bibliotheque Orientale - Centre Louis Pouzet d'étude des civilisations anciennes et médiévales (BO) 1.Orient Institute of Beirut (OIB) Why OIB and BO?  Rich in the field of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies.  Gave access to books that are rare to find.

 LIDS is a resource sharing group of Lebanese academic & special libraries.  11 members : 9 academic libraries and 2 special libraries.  Positive: Easy, fast and free resource sharing. Rich collections in Middle Eastern Studies.  Negative: filling an ALA interlibrary form. Plans: Developing management tool to facilitate the lending process. Open to regional libraries to join. B.LOCAL CONSORTIUM 1.LIDS CONSORTIUM

2.AMICAL CONSORTIUM Founded in 2004 AMICAL is a “consortium of American international liberal arts institutions” located outside the United states and working together on advancing technology and learning. Collaboration in resource sharing through OCLC WorldShare, loans and photocopies. Out of 25 members, 6 are cooperating in resource sharing: 1.AUB - Beirut 2.AUC - Cairo 3.AUS - Sharjah 4.AUA - Armenia 5.LAU – Lebanese American University 6.HAIGAZIAN University B.INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

2.LVIS CONSORTIUM After acquiring OCLC WorldShare, AUB joined Libraries Very Interested in Sharing (LVIS) consortium that provides free exchange of documents. Results: 1.Removed the limit on the DDS requests for the graduate students. 2.Opened the ILL/DDS services for the whole community. 3.increase in ILL/DDS requests and decrease in costs. DDS became ILL/DDS

75.67% of the requests were filled free of charge after signing agreements and joining consortiums 1.Number of borrowing requests increased. 2.We started borrowing free of charge.

Percentage of filling the lending request is 51% and this is due to : 1.Requested electronic items not licensed to fill. 2.Lacking volume/issue of requested item. Number of lending requests is expected to rise as we opened our lending returnables service worldwide.

we have purchased 749 articles and paid $10, The average cost per article was around $14. Note: This data excludes the purchases done through IFM. Cost Reduction ILL/DDS TRANSACTIONS Total Borrowing Free For a fee DDS Expenditures$5,200.32$1,434.18$3,122.01$3, Average cost per article$6.16$1.26$2.42$3.05

DDS Services Prior to joining consortiums and signing agreements, we use to purchase all our requests from DDS suppliers. For example: 1.Subito 6 Euros per article. 2.NLM 9$ per article. 3.Publisher. Especially when it comes to E-PUB articles.

RETURNABLES Challenges: 1.Time 2.Cost 3.Shipping method Solutions: 1.International Lending or Borrowing: shipping via FEDEX or DHL. 2.Lending local if possible. Observations: 1.Receiving international requests to borrow items from our Middle Eastern collection especially the Arabic and the French books.

One library is never self sufficient in terms of providing access to needed resources to its community. Resource sharing allowed us to: 1.Reduce cost allocated to the DDS unit. 2.Provide unlimited DDS services to the whole AUB community. 3.Open our lending services on the local and international levels, thus becoming more visible. CONCLUSION

AUB joined the Arabic Collection Online (ACO) project to digitize and make accessible worldwide over 100,000 volumes of Arabic content. Funded by NYU Abu Dhabi and with the help of the libraries of NYU, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, and other major research institutions in the U.S.

So let’s get outside the box!!! Collaborate and share our resources free of charge!!! LIDS MEIDS IIDS Yes why not?

Thank you Q&A Carla Chalhoub Head, Access Services Department American University of Beirut