Karen Calhoun, OCLC VP for WorldCat and Metadata Services posted the following WorldCat Cataloging Partners status update on OCLC-Cat on Feb. 1 2010:

This is to provide an update on the resolution of the recent problems with the WorldCat Cataloging Partners service. Nearly all of the reprocessing of incorrect label files and records that resumed on December 18, 2009 has been completed. We continue working to resolve remaining known issues, including Cataloging Report production. We are committed to resolving all of the issues.
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Update: As of Feb. 3rd CISTI has reinstated OCLC IFM payment option

CISTI (Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information) has announced that starting January 25, 2010, they will no longer bill through IFM (Interlibrary Loan Fee Management). Nylink member libraries who have registered with CISTI through Nylink will continue to be billed for CISTI materials on their monthly Nylink invoice. Documents ordered from CISTI and billed through Nylink will receive a 5% discount off the standard CISTI price.

If you would like to take advantage of the Nylink discount and centralized billing, and are not already registered with CISTI through Nylink, please complete the registration form on the Nylink web site:

http://nylink.org/sharing/forms/cisti_reg.cfm

You can read more about Nylink’s CISTI offer at http://nylink.org/sharing/cisti.cfm

For questions about CISTI billing, please contact Peg Palmiere at palmierep@nylink.org or 1-800-342-3353.

Yesterday the NEA released the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. This is the NEA’s largest national study of adults’ participation in the arts.

From the Museum Association of New York:  “The new study finds a notable decline in theater, museum and concert attendance and other “benchmark” cultural activities between 2002 and 2008 for adults 18 and older, and a sharper fall from 25 years ago. The drop was for virtually all art forms and for virtually all age groups and levels of education.  Between 2002 and 2008, percentages fell for movie-going from 60 to 53.3, for jazz from 10.8 to 7.8, for museums/galleries from 26.5 to 22.7.  Other categories with lower attendance include ballet, opera, musical and nonmusical theater, and art/crafts fairs and festivals.  Visits to parks/monuments/historical buildings fell from 31.6 percent in 2002 to 24.9 percent last year.

The survey was conducted in partnership with the United States Census Bureau and has been conducted five times since 1982.  The conversation will focus on how these findings should inform the arts community’s work going forward, as well as how the survey should be expanded and refined in the future.”
Related to this, in recent weeks I have read and heard that many museums have found that their visitation actually increased in 2009.  However, many museums and cultural heritage organizations continue to struggle with basic funding.  MANY encourages museums and other cultural heritage organization to contact local media outlets to highlight their recent experiences during current economic crisis.   The Albany Institute of History and Art, located in Albany, NY, recently did just that and a story about their current situation was covered by local TV station WNYT, News Channel 13.

OCLC has announced the first meeting of the OCLC Americas Regional Council, to be held at ALA Midwinter in Boston, MA. More details TBA.

One of the current trends in resource sharing has been the growth of purchase on demand. In the age of Netflix and Amazon, user expectations for delivery of information have changed, and these changes have led to a re-evaluation of the traditional resource sharing model. The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative is a good example of the work that is being done in this area. One of the key beliefs behind Rethinking Resource Sharing is that that there are often multiple options available to get information resources. While traditional ILL is still a viable option, there may be occasions where it is, cheaper and faster to purchase the item.

For purchase on demand to work efficiently as a substitute for ILL, the order process needs to be simplified. The library staff at SUNY Geneseo has developed a toolkit that is designed to streamline the purchase on demand process, and optimize the acquisitions and interlibrary loan workflow.

http://toolkit.idsproject.org/doku.php?id=borrowing:purchasingworkflow

In addition, the Geneseo folks have created the GIST (Getting it System) Toolkit. According to the IDS Project website:

“The Getting It System Toolkit (GIST) is a customizable set of ILLiad tools and workflows that will enhance interlibrary loan and just-in-time acquisitions services; purchase request processing; and cooperative collection development efforts. GIST was developed at the State University of New York College at Geneseo with an eye toward converging ILL and Acquisitions workflows and user interfaces, while leveraging the strengths of various workflows and systems. Beware: GIST was designed to transform the business of borrowing, buying, and accessing.”

Check out the GIST Toolkit at:

http://toolkit.idsproject.org/doku.php?id=wiki:gist

The SUNY Office of Library and Information Services have also recognized the importance of purchase on demand. In June 2008, the SUNY Borrowing Task Force and SUNY OLIS sponsored a day long conference on purchase of demand. This event was held in conjunction with the SUNYLA Annual Conference and focused on the relationship between acquisitions and interlibrary loan. The agenda included speakers from both acquisitions and ILL, and provided an opportunity for ILL and acquisitions staff to discuss how they could work together to implement purchase on demand programs. I attended this pre-conference and was struck by the fact that this was the only event (in my memory) where both ILL and acquisitions staff met together to discuss common interests and opportunities for collaboration. Since purchase on demand requires increased cooperation and communication between the acquisitions staff and the interlibrary loan staff, this conference provided an opportunity to bring both groups together.

There is also evidence of support for purchase on demand in Western New York. The Western New York Library Resources Council, one of nine regional library councils in New York State, is funding a purchase on demand pilot. WNYLRC is providing $20,000 in funding to be shared among all participating libraries to purchase materials. This pilot began on October 1, 2009. Under this pilot, materials are purchased through Amazon, and are paid for by WNYLRC. Materials may be shipped directly to the requesting library or directly to the patron depending on each library’s preference. More information on this pilot is available at:

http://www.wnylrc.org/documentView.asp?docid=464

The Smithsonian Libraries, Archives and Museums have just announced the creation of their Collections Search Center.   This system allows the public to search over 2.3 million records.

Check out the press release below:

Smithsonian Libraries, Archives and Museums have worked together and created the Collections Search Center (http://collections.si.edu), a one-stop-searching center for the public for SI collections.  This fast growing Collections Search Center is hosted by OCIO and currently contains 2.3 million records with 280,000 online media such as images, sound files, videos, and online collections.

Collections are contributed by:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

National Air and Space Museum

National Museum of American Indians

National Museum of Natural History

National Portrait Gallery

National Postal Museum

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Archives at the National Museum of the American Indian

Archives Center at National Museum of American History

Archives of American Art

Archives of American Gardens

Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives,

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Human Studies Film Archives

National Air and Space Museum Archives Division

National Anthropological Archives

Smithsonian American Art Museum Photo Archives

Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Smithsonian Institution Archives

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory – Chandra X-ray Observatory

We encourage you to look at and explore the search center and see the power of pulling our resources together.  The following includes just a few examples:

American Artist portraits

American Indian beadworks

African American pilots

Butterflies

This search center also supports the ability to read manuscripts page-by-page with zooming capability.  Please try these examples:

Notebook by Albert Samuel

Sitting Bull pictographic autobiography, 1882

We thank all the partners for making this effort possible.

Ching-hsien Wang,

Library and Archives Systems Support Branch,

Office of Chief Information Officer

Conducting a preservation needs assessment is the first step for developing an effective preservation plan.  The preservation needs assessment evaluates several different areas that affect preservation at an institution.  These include: environment; housekeeping; collections storage, handling and exhibition; security; disaster planning; integrated pest management; and staff and user education.

The Northeast Document Conservation Center and the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Programs both offer onsite preservation planning surveys.  Currently, the CCAHA is offering a limited number of subsidized preservation needs assessments for $350.  If you are looking to conduct a preservation needs assessment, these are two great resources to check out.

New York State will be participating in the 2010 summer reading program.  This year’s theme for children is Make a Splash-Read and Make Waves at Your Library for teens.  New York State collaborates with 47 other states on the national Collaborative Summer Library Program.   As always, New York libraries that participate in the program provide children and adults with a mix of fun and engaging activities that encourage reading and learning.

What is your library planning for your Summer Reading Program?

We’re here at the NYLA Conference in Niagara Falls presenting Nylink’s second program of the conference – ours is on Social Media and teaching history.

If you’re attending (or already attended) – or just curious – you can check out our notes and resources bibliography at http://nyla2009.wikispaces.com – feel free to join the wikispace and add your contribution.

A few more details on our presentation:
Living History Through Social Networking (Media)
NYLA Annual Conference 2009
Presented Friday, October 16th 9:45 a.m.
Stacia Snow, Tech Valley High School
Meredith Case, Nylink

Thanks!
Stacia & Meredith

The Society of American Archivists recently released “Orphan Works: Statement of Best Practices”.

This statement describes what constitutes reasonable actions and efforts that can be used in identifying and locating rights owners.

Additional information about the statement can be found at the History News Network site.