1. AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE
OCUL VDX Project Meeting
February 25, 2004
Ophelia Cheung
Ryerson University Library

2. Canberra from the hotel room

3. Australian’s view of the world

8. Unmediated is the message: consortially-facilitated, user-centered approaches to enhancing interlibrary loans: one academic library's experience
Ophelia Cheung and Susan Patrick, Librarians, Borrower Services,
Ryerson University Library, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
8th Interlending and Document Supply International Conference, Canberra, Australia 30 October 2003

9. 3 unmediated, user-centered initiatives
Unmediated is the message: consortially-facilitated, user-centered approaches to enhancing ILL
3 unmediated, user-centered initiatives
enhanced our traditional ILL service
all enabled by membership in a consortium
***
Ryerson University - Ryerson Library
OCUL Consortium
Netlibrary ebooks
CISTI Source Document Delivery Service
RACER (VDX) ILL Service

10. OCUL Ontario Council of University Libraries
consortium of 20 university libraries in the Province of Ontario, Canada
total FTE/service population served: approx. 300,000
Purpose: to enhance information services through:

11. OCUL information resource-sharing collective purchasing
document delivery
thus consortium provides cost savings - more clout and $s for negotiating with vendors

12. The Birth of RACER
University of Toronto looking for a new ILL system & invited OCUL members to review ILL software
Mar OCUL ILL managers met & voted in favour of VDX to replace AVISO
Apr OCUL Directors accepted recommendation to acquire VDX

13. RACER wouldn’t be around without Consortium
Government funding – Ontario Innovation Trust (OIT) for hardware, software & licensing
Central service provider – University of Toronto
Project management & technical support – Tactical Information Group (TIG)
Various teams set up by OCUL members

14. Big Issues for Consortium
Surveys & questionnaires to decide on common service settings such as renewal policies, turnaround time, selection of holdings, etc.
Staff training
System testing – among OCUL members & with non-ISO systems e.g. Generic Script

15. RACER in motion 2002 - virtual catalogue launched
- more than half of OCUL libraries go “live”
June institutions (including Ryerson)
Sept more sites
Oct University of Toronto (largest site)

22. User Receives Automatic Alert in E-mail
1. Arrival of requested items
2. Cancelled requests due to local availability or non-supply

23. Benefits to Users (1)
(AVISO) User filled in a blank Web form on the Library’s Innovative integrated system
(VDX) User has the additional choice of bibliographic search across library holdings and results auto-populate the ILL request form, without re-keying.

24. Benefits to Users (2)
(AVISO) User had to search local library holdings and other catalogues separately
(VDX) User can search a virtual catalogue and library holdings simultaneously, and in real-time.

25. Benefits to Users (3)
(AVISO) User could not monitor the status of his/her request
(VDX) User can monitor the status of his/her request – whether it is in process, or cancelled.

26. Benefits to Users (4)
(AVISO) User had to communicate with staff in person or through the phone to find out the status of request
(VDX) An automatic Alert is sent to the user’s account, informing him/her that materials have arrived, requests cancelled or available in local holdings

27. Benefits to Users (5)
(AVISO) Staff had to re-key users’ requests in AVISO from the Innovative system. Requests sent /received through AVISO were stored overnight on local computers before batch dispatched to other locations
(VDX) Users’ requests are received in real-time by staff and sent in real-time to lending locations

28. Growing Pains Users Self-registration VDX or ISO terminology
How to use bibsearch and interpret results
Staff
How to communicate with non-ISO compliant systems or libraries without ILL systems
- Generic Script driver
& workarounds
Questions from non-ISO libraries
Questions from end-users
Local preference vs. global settings

29. Consortium is a trend SOLS (Southern Ontario Library Service)
CREPUQ (Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Quebec)
New York WNY Libraries
California University Libraries

30. Conclusion: enhanced users access to resources beyond our collection
empowered users through access: more direct; remote locations; own time and convenience
future – continue to work with consortia to: - expand users’ access
- make our services truly unmediated

31. The REAL world

32. Sources of Information on VDX in Australian libraries
Conversations with conference delegates
Conference papers – WAGUL – Murdoch University; CLIC – Macquarie University
Survey responses:
Academic consortia: WAGUL – Murdoch University; Edith Cowan University
CLIC – La Trobe University; Macquarie University
Regional or state consortium: - State Library of New South Wales 
National library: National Library of New Zealand
FDI Customer InView

33. LIDDAS - Library Interlending Document Delivery Administrative System
LIDDAS, a nation-wide project, grew out of CILLA, a study aiming to identify the needs of Australian ILL departments and reviewing available software products
May the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee entered into an agreement with FDI to provide networked interlending and document delivery services for ‘not for profit’ libraries in Australia and New Zealand

34. Australia is the size of Western Europe

36. Auckland

37. Established since 1978, members include:
CAVAL - Cooperative Action by Victorian Academic Librarians a consortium of the Victorian University Libraries and the State Library of Victoria
Established since 1978, members include:
Australian Catholic University
Deakin University
La Trobe University
Monash University
RMIT University
Swinburne University
University of Ballarat
University of Melbourne
Victoria University
State Library of Victoria

38. CAVAL Collaborative Solutions
Grown from its solid beginnings as CAVAL, the company has developed to serve a wide customer-base — museums, galleries, archives as well as libraries across Australia, New Zealand and the region while still being owned by Victoria's Vice Chancellors and the State Library Board of Victoria

39. CAVAL Collaborative Solutions
Services include CARM (CAVAL Archive & Research Materials) Centre, reciprocal borrowing program, COOLCAT (union catalogue), development and training and digitizing.
Contracted by FDI to provide application support and training to Australian and New Zealand VDX customers

40. CLIC - CAVAL LIDDAS Consortium (formed in Jan 2001)
CARM Centre
La Trobe University
Macquarie University
RMIT
University of Newcastle
Victoria University

41. WAGUL- The West Australian Group of University Librarians
Curtin University
Edith Cowan University
Murdoch University
University of Western Australia

42. 1st phase participants
Australian Catholic University for the CAVAL CIDER (CAVAL Information Delivery & Electronic Requesting) Project
Griffith University
• Macquarie University
• State Library of New South Wales
• University of Southern Queensland
• University of Technology, Sydney
• National Library of Australia
• National Library of New Zealand
• University of Auckland

43. 2nd phase participants
WAGUL joined LIDDAS project and placed official order with FDI in mid 2000

44. Different Progress National Library of New Zealand
- went “live” in Jun 99
- upgrade to version in Jul 03
State Library of NSW
- Oct 02 – for pilot project
- primary ILL system from Jan 04
National library of Australia - KDD
(Kinetic Document Delivery service)
- interoperability with LIDDAS – Jul 03

45. Progress - WAGUL Jun 2000 – jointly acquire and install VDX
2001 – technical infrastructure, VDX installed and configured for testing
Aug 2002 –production (as basis of Document Delivery, and for library staff use only)
Early – Murdoch - client direct requesting and tracking requests
Mid libraries activated gateway between local VDX system and KDD
Oct 2003 – Zportal – Edith Cowan

46. Progress - CLIC May 2003 – accepted version 2.3
Jul 2003 –interoperability with KDD, through NLA payment gateway
Oct 2003
Victoria – patron load in production; end-users focus group
RMIT – plan to have unmediated service once LIDDAS fully implemented

47. Progress - CLIC (continued)
Newcastle – end-users trial , extended to all requesting in 2004
La Trobe –phase out Dbase ILMS; patron load; Zportal ; communicate with CISTI and end-users trial with desk –top delivery. Full end-user requesting in 2004
Macquarie –exchange requests with other libraries; Zportal trials with small group of end-users, extended to all in Feb 2004.

49. LIDDAS’ implementation of VDX
LIDDAS was a world-first in regards the online management of print and electronic information resource delivery. Great commitment and collaboration from the 18 LIDDAS member libraries, their staff, and FDI were integral to the success of this complex innovative project.

50. Some reasons for delay CLIC– Macquarie
Underestimated wish list of functionality and complexity of software
Consortium vs configure own system
Other issues:
-  Z39.50 a fairly primitive standard, dependent on quality of the records it interrogates
-   Authentication
- Patron loads – unable to obtain all necessary information from existing sources

51. CLIC & WAGUL With whom do they communicate?
Members of own consortium
Other VDX libraries/ KDD locations in Australia
CISTI

52. VDX impact on WAGUL document delivery transactions
Prior to VDX - 45% within WAGUL
After LIDDAS implementation – drop to 37% due to communication with other VDX libraries, especially with CLIC

53. Other document delivery sources
OCLC – none through VDX
WAGUL
Murdoch – rarely
Edith Cowan – request directly from OCLC
CLIC
La Trobe – Fax
Macquarie – via OCLC 
BLDSC
WAGUL – Murdoch – if ISO interface works
State Library NSW - will try through VDX

54. Zportal end users’ interface
National and State libraries – No
WAGUL
- Edith Cowan
- Murdoch – will be
CLIC
- La Trobe - Oct 03
- Macquarie – Feb 04

55. Receive requests from end-users
WAGUL
Murdoch – web interface to VDX
Newcastle – end-users register (request forms will be obsolete when move to Zportal direct requesting)
CLIC
La Trobe – test groups in VDX, others via web form
Macquarie – web form via but will be through VDX in Feb 04

56. End-user charging WAGUL – Murdoch – Yes, and work through problems
CLIC - No, Use KDD payments
State Library NSW – built in interface between VDX and finance system

57. Reports
WAGUL
- Murdoch – titles requesting and supplying and many different reports for accounts, as they charge back to patrons
- Newcastle- no additional report besides UWA’s monthly transaction summary. Will develop on part of that functionality
 National library NZ – Seagate and Crystal to generate batch reports
 CLIC – CAVAL does it on behalf of consortia

58. Website WAGUL Murdoch – Yes http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/service/
docdel
Edith Cowan – Intranet
CLIC
La Trobe - under construction
Macquarie - password protected

61. Performance problems WAGUL – Murdoch – stability problem
National Library of New Zealand – Yes, but far fewer now; slow response time issue resolved; core dump and acknowledge button freezing

62. Bureau Model
WAGUL
server centrally maintained and managed by the University of Western Australia Library   
CLIC
CAVAL Collaborative Solutions – manages CLIC

69. Comments
CLIC - Victoria University – Comments from trial group of users, who are heavy users of traditional ILL service:
‘articles arrived in three days”
“good interface, clear”
“quick turn-around, around a week”

70. Comments CLIC - Newcastle
“The statistical and accounting reports will save many staff hours”.

71. Comments CLIC – Macquarie
Unforseen opportunity: improved services migrate from document supply to distance education
Established in May 03 the Postgraduate and Distance Services Project, specifically focused on how VDX can be used to improve turnaround time with desktop delivery and how Z39.50 functionality allow students to search catalogues simultaneously and from remote locations

72. Comments CLIC – La Trobe
“having system flexibility such as the ability to use the web administrative module or the Windows administrative interface for particular parts of the workflow has enabled us to meet the workflow needs of the various campus libraries.”

73. Comments
Barbara Paton, Deputy University Librarian at La Trobe University and Chair of the VDX Users Group for Australia and New Zealand, said that users require timely and convenient delivery of print and electronic resources to meet their needs in an increasingly complex information environment. “LIDDAS is an integral part of meeting that requirement, while at the same time it provides libraries with the necessary tool to manage effectively the interaction with both the users and the organizations supplying the documents.”

74. Resource Sharing with OCUL
WAGUL – Murdoch – dependent on costing and exchange rate; Edith Cowan – interested
CLIC – La Trobe - Most definitely; currently fax by ALA form; Macquarie – Yes, very interested
State Library NSW – Yes