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

The third Library Assistants’ Day was held on November 3, 2009 in Syracuse.  Over 115 people came to this event that was co-sponsored by Nylink, CLRC, SCRLC, RRLC, and Upstate Medical.  It was a great turn-out and a wonderful opportunity to meet with colleagues from across the state and one from Canada.   Sessions included customer service based upon FISH!, social networking, creating library exhibits and displays, genealogy resources, an update on Microsoft 2007 and time management.   Thanks to all of the attendees and our speakers for a day well spent learning and networking.  Now it is onto the fourth annual Library Assistants’ Day, 2010.

Oxford University Press is conducting surveys to obtain your input for guiding Oxford on the enhancement of Grove Art Online and Grove Music Online. As an incentive, Oxford is entering all survey respondents into drawings for Amazon Kindles.  In addition, Oxford encourages you to pass the survey links on to colleagues, professors, researchers, and students, directing them to provide your contact information at the end of the survey. The librarian or individual with the most referrals will be awarded $250 to spend at the OUP website (for Oxford books).

Here are the survey links:

Grove Art — http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=izEtVGCiuHyr15RgppMIlQ_3d_3d

Grove Music — http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=6NxNBwCaSUQ3N0_2fvDSlZWA_3d_3d

Surveys must be completed by Friday, November 20, at 5 p.m.

OTHER GROVE ART AND GROVE MUSIC NEWS:

The Fashion Institute of Technology, including FIT’s Gladys Marcus Library, recently collaborated with Oxford  to enhance Grove Art Online with the addition of content focusing on fashion as a visual art. As a result, Grove Art Online has been enriched with more than 100 new and revised articles and over 160 new images. A general introduction to fashion content in Grove Art can be  accessed by clicking on “Tools & Resources” within the Oxford Art Online portal, and then following the link for “thematic guides” to the  “Fashion” icon/link.

For Grove Music Online, an “Essential 20th-century Reading List” has been added to the Tools & Resources area (see link under Oxford Music Online banner). This list outlines some of the most influential writings on contemporary music, from composer tracts to periodicals to historical and theoretical studies published during the era. Hyperlinks are provided to help explore related content in Grove Music Online.

The Tools & Resources area offers several other pathways to content within and outside of Grove Music Online including an index of opera roles, music timelines, topical guides (e.g.,  women composers), and notably, research resources that provide detailed overviews of the types of resources (e.g., musical congress reports, periodicals, manuscript sources) and the types of institutions (e.g., libraries) that house them.

New Feature: “search within this article” (Grove Art and Grove Music) – You can now limit your search to the article you are viewing. This new functionality is particularly helpful with large articles spread over multiple pages, allowing users to search for terms within a single article, such as large country articles and articles on families.  The “search within this article” box is located near the top left of each entry. Simply click on the plus sign [+] to open the search box, enter your term(s) and click “search”. The search box expands to display a convenient list of search hits along with headings to contextualize them.

If your library is not currently subscribing to Grove Art Online or Grove Music Online, and you would like to take a look, you can sign up for free 30-day trials at https://ams.oup.com/user/trial.pfm. Contact Nylink for discounted pricing at services@nylink.org.

How can cultural heritage institutions legally use the Internet to improve public access to the rich collections they hold?

A new digitization manual from Peter Hirtle, Cornell University Library’s senior policy advisor, can help professionals at these institutions answer that question."Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums," published by Cornell University Library, is based on a well-received Australian manual written by Emily Hudson and Andrew T. Kenyon of the University of Melbourne, and it conforms to American law and practice. See more information about this publication here: http://communications.library.cornell.edu/com/news/PressReleases/manual.cfm