hkall: overview and status update
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HKALL: Overview and Status Update. Tony Ferguson University of Hong Kong Librarian Acting Director of IT in Learning. Background. April 2002, a JULAC taskforce with representatives from 8 institutions were charged to explore: - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
HKALL: Overview and Status Update
Tony FergusonUniversity of Hong Kong LibrarianActing Director of IT in Learning
Background
April 2002, a JULAC taskforce with representatives from 8 institutions were charged to explore: The experience of other consortia employing user initiated
document delivery services
The use of software/utilities/systems which could be used by the JULAC Libraries
The resource implications (e.g. reduce ILL-based borrowing and lending but will likely see significant increase on circulation increase, etc.)
September 2002, an interim report recommended: That such a service was a good idea for HK
That a suitable software platform be selected and implemented
System Selection Prerequisites
The taskforce then went to work to figure out which system to recommend. They decided upon 5 “drop dead ”criteria. The system must:
1. Accept user initiated online interlibrary requests
2. Support unmediated interlibrary requests directly from users to lending libraries
3. Support book loans
4. Check incoming interlibrary requests automatically against the user’s own collection, and block that request if the requested item was available on the shelf
5. Supports Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) characters
The Taskforce selected INNReach because
It was the only system to meet all criteria
CJK was a showstopper
Because all 8 institutions were already III customers, implementation would be much easier
More Background
Irrespective of the Taskforce’s findings, only 3 libraries were enthusiastic enough to try the system out. They ran an experiment from January to September 2004.
Remaining 5 adopted a “wait and see” approach
Their concerns included: Cost Impact on local collections and users Impact on library staff Possible threat of reduced funding
The three trial participants
Lingnan University (LU)
ca 400,000 physical vols City University of Hong Kong (CityU)
ca 1.1 million physical volumes
University of Hong Kong (HKU)
ca 2.3 million physical vols
Major Problems Encountered
1. Building the HKALL Union Catalogue - Matching CJK records problem
2. Three institutions needed to establish complimentary circulation rules and policies:
- Minimise policies that interfere with local circulation practices while still trying to maximise use of the mega collection;
- ensure that the policies would not undermine the interest of users in the owning libraries; and
- make the policies as simple as possible so that:
they are easily understood by both users and operational staff members;
operational procedures are simple and administrative costs are minimal;
they can readily include new participating libraries.
Reproduced from Innovative Interfaces: <http://www.iii.com/innreach/index.shtml#systemmgmt>
Scenario 1: A book is not owned by the local library
How HKALL Works
We do not have this title in our library. We search HKALL
Copies available at both CU and PolyU
Make request
Authenticate against local patron database
Title successfully requested!
Patron receives email pickup notice after the book is transferred to the borrowing site
Scenario 2: A book IS owned by the local library
We have 2 copies but both are checked out and one has 5 holds and the other has 3 holds. Check HKALL
UST has a copy available
Make request
Authenticate against local patron database
Book successfully requested.
Patron receives email pickup notice after the book is transferred to the borrowing site
Major Lessons Learned
1. Many more items borrowed using InnReach than traditional ILL (several hundred percent more)
2. Cheaper to process borrowing and lending transactions (40-45 percent cheaper)
3. Users loved it
Typical comments
“Excellent on the whole”
“… this scheme has been excellently carried out. With this scheme, resources in the universities can be better utilised.
“HKALL simply makes life easier. Thank you…….”
“It should include all eight institutions in HK.”
Post Experiment Major Events
Following many discussions the 8 university libraries decided to apply to the government’s University Grants Committee for funding
They requested hardware, software, and a limited amount of staff start up funds
They were awarded nearly all the requested funds
We began installation of software, figuring out what were the challenges, and solutions during the summer 2005
We had a soft launch September 1, 2005
Challenges that were solved or we learned to live with
Chinese character problems. Traditional and simplified Chinese records were not merging; Japanese variants had the same problem.
HKALL wanted to have call numbers in item records but some libraries didn’t put them there and so the system couldn’t find them. Innovative had to figure out a solution.
Sites didn’t want to all have the same borrowing profiles.
Findings so far
Super growth in amount of borrowing and lending
Social Science; Sci/Tech; Lang/Lit still most requested subjects
Super fastUndergrads and post graduate
students the largest users
Growth in Use: 3 Test Libraries
Items delivered September to November 2004 and 2005 compared (INNReach in place both years):
City U 350% increaseHKU 239% increaseLingnan U 237% increase
Subjects Borrowed (8 Libraries)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
September to November
Social Science
Sci/Tech
Lang/Lit
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Sept to November
Western
Chinese
Language of Materials Borrowed
Speed of Delivery (8 Libraries)
(Same day 99.7%)
Same Day
1+ Days
User Types
User Types
Undergraduates
Postgraduates
Sub-degreestudents
Academic staff
Non-academicstaff
Research staff
Undergraduates 53.7%
Postgraduates 24.4%
Sub-degree students 6.7%
Academic staff 6.6%
Non-academic staff 6.3%
Research staff 2.3%
Where are we now?
The program is so successful that we have to find another courier service
HKU is going to experiment with a RAPID non returnable INNReach related module.
We are about to replace the test hardware with new hardware
We will be loading new Innopac software that will effect INNReach
INNReach will be the borrowing system that will be used in our shared storage facility
Future issues: allow other HK or China libraries to join INNReach?
INNReach is the best example of DEEP COLLABORATION between academic institutions in Hong Kong!!!
Rapid Option
Works like INNReach1. Patron discovers they lack the needed journal2. Click to Rapid to search the Rapid catalogue – just like
INNReach3. Patr finds the title (hopefully)4. Patron provides the specific author, volume, issue,
page, etc. information5. Some supplementing of the citation takes place6. Information transferred to ILLIAD7. ILL staff process the request in RAPID8. Possible to create a HK pod in RAPID so that HK
libraries’ collections are first looked at.