Reports

The Charge The Virtual Catalog Functionality Task Force will investigate options available to the BLC so that it may provide searching and unmediated requesting of serials within the Consortium. The group will investigate the serials searching and requesting functionality of URSA and other products and identify the solution(s) that best meet the Consortium's needs. The Task Force will report on the pros and cons of products identified. Appropriate search results and request options will be defined as a basis for product evaluation. A report, including recommendations, will be submitted to the Management Council. Charge

1. The charge
2. A Proposed Model
3. Diagram of the Proposed Model
4. Evaluation Methods
5. Vendor Evaluation Form Summary
6. Vendor and Product Evaluations
7. Bibliography
8. Appendix: Evaluation Forms for Each Vendor

The Task Force brainstormed to envision what might be an ideal system and what functionality and features that ideal system might have. Below is a summary of the Task Force's ideas as well as a simple model reflecting the proposed system.

This system would have a cross database searching feature into each library's OPAC providing the "Virtual Catalog" from which a user begins a search and discovers a source. The system would allow users to retrieve links only to documents and services for which they are authorized.

Such a system would be a single, generalized linking service that is universal enough to be used by any source of bibliographic citations; flexible enough to determine article availability in any format, from any source to which the user has access; and open enough that BLC staff could easily maintain and customize it to meet users' needs. From the user's perspective, this single linking service will provide a uniform interface and functionality, regardless of the source of the citation or its ultimate location.

While evaluating these products, it became evident that there are three components that are essential for unmediated searching and requesting of serials. These components are discovery, locating, and delivery of articles. Not all products evaluated were designed to perform all three functions.

The following diagram suggests what the group envisioned as a system that would perform an unmediated request for an article.

• if yes - system will generate a message indicating the location
• if no - system will automatically perform a distributed search to affiliated libraries (virtual catalog) to determine who has the journal and that particular issue

if found, the system will populate a request form and send it to the library (unmediated)

if not found, a message will appear as to how it might be obtained

Keeping this proposed system model in mind, the Task Force began searching for information about different models and products that were already available or were in the process of development. Each member of the Task Force conducted literature and internet searches, as well as person to person networking. The group decided to investigate nine products that are in various stages of development. Members of the Task Force attended a number of demonstrations displaying the functionality and features of the following products:, EnCompass, INN-Reach, iSelect, LinkFinder Plus, SFX, MetaLib, URSA, and VDX.

The Task Force elected to create an evaluation form containing the required features and functionality depicted in the proposed model and identified during their literature searches. The form contained all features and functionality and was used to determine whether or not the products met any or all of these recommended components. This provides a view of all products juxtaposed on a single form.

Each product was evaluated in depth on a separate form and pulled together in a more simplified view in order to provide the BLC with multiple ways of looking at the products. The following are the short descriptions of each product with a comparative evaluation form for the nine products we investigated. The more in-depth evaluations are in an appendix.

This report has been abridged. Information regarding specific vendors and products has been removed. The full report will be available online for the BLC community in the near future. Staff of BLC member libraries may contact the BLC office for unabridged copies of task force reports.

Breeding, Marshall. "Capturing the Migrating Customer." Library Journal 1 April 2002: 48.

Crowley Gwyneth H. "Unmediated Document Delivery: A Project Using FirstSearch and EBSCOdoc." Interlending and Document Supply Volume 27 No. 3 1999: 122-127.

Grogg, Jill E. and Carol Tenopir. "Linking to Full Text in Scholarly Journals: Here a Link, There a Link, Everywhere a Link." Searcher Nov/Dec 2000. www.infotoday.com/searcher/nov00/grogg&tenopir.htm. Last accessed 5/30/02.

Interlibrary Lending and Document Delivery in the 21st Century. RLG's ILL Manager. April 25 2002 <http://www.rig.org/illman/illmadv.html>

Jackson, Mary E. "Interlibrary loan and resource sharing products: an overview of current features and functionality." Library Technology Reports Volume 36 Issue 1 Nov/Dec 2000.

Kochan Carol A. and Daniel R. Lee. "Utah Article Delivery: a new model for consortial resource sharing. Computers in Libraries Volume 18 No. 4. April 1998: 24-29.

Lynch, Clifford A. "Distributed Search, and Cross-Database Linkage." Library Trends Volume 45 no. 3 Winter 1997: 448.

"Overview of ILL Products." Library Journal 1 April 2002: 57.

Preece, Barbara. "Consortial Thinking: Union and Virtual Catalogs in a Consortial Environment." The Journal of Academic Librarianship Vol. 27 Number 6 Nov. 2001: 470.

Preece, Barbara and Thomas L. Kilpatrick. "Cutting Out the Middleman: Patron-Initiated Interlibrary Loans." Library Trends Volume 47 (1998): 1.

Rogers, Michael. "Gale Group to include Ex Libris's SFX on InfoTrac." Library Journal December 2001: 27.

Rogers, Michael. "Colorado State Library Beta-Testing SWIFT System." Library Journal 15 March 2001: 27.

Seven ARL Libraries Launch Scholars Portal Project in Collaboration with Fretwell-Downing, Inc. May 1, 2002 http://www.arl.org/arl/pr/scholars_portal.html

Stokes, Lauren and Karen Wilber. "Our Libraries wanted their patrons to have a high-tech ILL system. So we brought Alleycat to life." Computers in Libraries April 2001: 41.

XML: Libraries; Strategic Opportunity. Library Journal Netconnect. February 19, 2002 http://www.libraryjournal.com/xml.asp

At this juncture in the process of the Task Force's work, the group feels that it is on track in identifying important and indispensable functions and features that any serials virtual catalog must contain, if this catalog is to offer unmediated ILL services for the BLC. While different members of the committee have attended demonstrations by vendors who offer products somewhat relevant to our needs, there are still several vendors who are scheduled for presentations. The evaluation form will be used to assess and indicate each vendor product the task force has identified as having some or all of the functionality desired. While we await further presentations, we have fine-tuned the evaluation form below to a degree that is close to satisfying the committee.

The Virtual Catalog Functionality Task Force will investigate options available to the BLC so that it may provide searching and unmediated requesting of serials within the Consortium. The group will investigate the serials searching and requesting functionality of URSA and other products and identify the solution(s) that best meet the Consortium's needs. The Task Force will report on the pros and cons of products identified. Appropriate search results and request options will be defined as a basis for product evaluation. A report, including recommendations, will be submitted to the Management Council. http://blc.org/task_forces/tf_vcf/vcf_charges.html

A literature search was done in Library Literature and LISA Additional sources were also located. A short list of relevant titles is included in the minutes from the February 13, 2002 Meeting.

The Task Force discussed a list of functionality features that unmediated serials searching and requesting software would have to provide, and based on those criteria developed a system model. The Force discussion went from a simple "what's out there now" scenario to an "it would be nice to have" scenario. Below is a summary of the Force's ideas as well as a simple model of a system.

This system would feature cross database searching of each library's catalog and electronic databases, providing a "Virtual Catalog" from which a user begins a search. Ideally, the system would only allow users access to resources to which they have authorized access.

The preferred alternative would be a single, generalized linking service that is universal enough to be used by any source of bibliographic citations; flexible enough to determine article availability in any format, from any source to which the user has access; and open enough that BLC staff could easily maintain it and customize to meet users' needs. From the user's perspective, this single linking service will provide a uniform interface and functionality, regardless of the source of the citation or its ultimate location.

Based upon this system, the user would be able to perform an unmediated request for an article. See the following model.

a. Products: URSA, iSelect (under development)
b. Sites:

The Task Force is developing an evaluation form based on the above model, the literature read, and the initial investigation of products to compare systems and functionality. The evaluation will indicate the pros and cons of each system, and whether or not there is a system to recommend based on the needs of the consortium.