Donna Dixon (Director of the Member Programs Team) will be transferring from Nylink to SUNY Press (http://www.sunypress.edu) where she will be Co-Director along with James Peltz, who is currently an executive acquisitions editor at the Press.
This new role will be a great opportunity for Donna to broaden her experience to include the university press arena. At the same time, she will bring a wealth of knowledge regarding publishers and information providers in her dealings with such organizations while at Nylink. Her work at SUNY Press will include contract and financial management duties as well as other tasks as required.
We will miss Donna’s experience and positive approach to challenging issues. While she will be moving into this new role immediately, she will be “just across the hall” now that SUNY Press is relocated to Corporate Woods. We wish her the very best and expect to stay in touch on a regular basis.

As Nylink prepares to wind down its operations, plans are being put into place to secure a new home for LAND (the statewide delivery service administered by Nylink) or its alternative. A statewide delivery transition steering committee has been formed to explore all alternatives. Members of the group and the constituency that they represent are Ed Rivenburgh (IDS), Gary Thompson (ConnectNY), Loretta Ebert (New York State Library), Mary Beth Krupczak (New York State Library Division of Library Development), Carey Hatch (SUNY Office of Library & Information Services), Curtis Kendrick (CUNY), John Shaloiko (Reference and Research Library Resources Systems-NY3Rs), and Kathleen Gundrum (Nylink). As plan progress, information will be shared. If you have comments, questions or concerns, please direct them to Kathleen Gundrum (gundrumk@nylink.org).

Please read the following message and our response. A message regarding Nylink’s transition was sent from WALDO to its members on May 20, 2010.  Nylink believes there is need for clarification on some misleading elements of this message.

We urge you to review this information and take the time to consider your many alternatives as Nylink winds down our operation over the next 12 months. You have the time to make the choices best for your particular situation.

Italicized text below is excerpted from the WALDO communication. Nylink’s response is in boldface.

Dear WALDO Member-

As you are probably now aware Nylink has announced its decision to cease operations.

Nylink will be phasing out operations over the next 12 months. We are not immediately ceasing operations.  Please refer to our continuously updated FAQ at http://nylink.org/SL/index.php/archives/1367 for more information.  For Nylink members, please note that we will be waiving our membership fee for 2010-2011.

In a recent communication Nylink referenced WALDO as a source for transferring many if not all of your current Nylink based subscriptions. WALDO is eager to assist you in this transition and is committed to make the process as seamless as possible.

Nylink referenced WALDO as one of many consortial options, including other regional networks, New York’s Office of General Services, and others, for libraries to consider as they transition over the next year, and we will be adding to this list periodically. See the list.

The information below highlights renewal options for (1) OCLC Core Services (2) Products that WALDO offers today and (3) Products & services not under contract with WALDO at this time.

Your choice is either to contract directly with OCLC or use a third party OCLC billing service provider. WALDO recommends contracting directly with OCLC, since using a third party may require you to pay additional fees to that third party.  A number of WALDO members have used the OCLC direct option for several years and can recommend it as the most cost effective solution. WALDO receives no compensation from OCLC in any way for any
referrals made. We recommend the OCLC direct option strictly as a benefit to our members.

Nylink continues to provide OCLC billing services through June 30, 2011. This includes billing for all OCLC services, including Cataloging and Resource Sharing. There are no additional fees assessed by Nylink for any OCLC services. Libraries have the next year to consider all of their options to be billed for these services in the future.

PRODUCTS UNDER CONTRACT WITH WALDO TODAY:
As a current WALDO member you can transfer many of your 2010 renewals to ourexisting vendor contracts in a matter of days. Please take a minute and complete the survey below in order for WALDO to begin the transfer process… WALDO will waive our administrative fees for the first year on all databases and services transferred from Nylink to WALDO, for those libraries electing the OCLC direct option.

Nylink subscribers can, with confidence, renew all of their subscriptions that have a July 1 renewal date with Nylink.  There is no need for you to undo all the work, including budgeting decisions, allocation of funds, and payments, that you have already put in to your renewals this spring.  

Special Notes:

• Nylink subscribers to OCLC reference products with any renewal date starting in 2010 may renew through Nylink.
• Nylink subscribers to HW Wilson products with renewal start dates through September 1 may renew through Nylink.
• TumbleBooks subscribers with renewal dates through November 1 starts may renew through Nylink.
• The dates above are guidelines, and we are glad to work with individual libraries on a case-by-case basis if it is more convenient to continue subscriptions through Nylink after these dates.  As always, we are here to help, and are ready to offer our objective opinion on your library’s unique situation.
• Please note that if you have renewed your library’s database subscriptions with Nylink via MyNylink, and you choose to switch subscription agents, you must contact Nylink and notify us of this decision so that we may ensure your library smooth service and accurate billing.

PRODUCTS & SERVICES NOT UNDER CONTRACT WITH WALDO:

At this time we suggest you renew these subscriptions via Nylink for one more year. During the next few months, WALDO will negotiate additional vendor contracts based on your recommendations.

Nylink has communicated, and will continue to communicate with our own subscribers regarding their options for continuing all of their subscriptions.  Please refer to our continuously updated FAQ at http://nylink.org/SL/index.php/archives/1367 for more information, or call us at 518-443-5444/ 800-342-3353.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

From the OCLC website:
DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 17 March 2010—OCLC and H.W. Wilson will work together to transition library subscriptions for H.W. Wilson databases provided on the OCLC FirstSearch service to the WilsonWeb platform over the next 16 months. Wilson will continue to index many of its databases in WorldCat.org and WorldCat Local, a program that began in 2008.
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