Executive Director’s Report to Council October 2006 – John F. Helmer

This report covers highlights of Orbis Cascade Alliance activities that are not already included in other reports or Council’s agenda for the October 2006 meeting. Please let me know if you would like to hear more on any of these topics.

Electronic Resource Program

The ER Program continues to be successful on the e-journal front. For reasons of confidentiality, summaries of deals with Wiley, Sage, and Cambridge are confined to the print version of this report.

Summit Program

Summit Summit Borrowing Day was a big success. About 80 people from 31 member institutions attended. Thank you for making the commitment to send your staff to this annual event. It is undoubtedly the most important and practical Summit Borrowing event of the year. For pictures and presentations, see http://www.orbiscascade.org/staffhome/SB_Day-cover.htm. I particularly recommend the picture of John Popko and his giant box of party candles.

New Reports. I'd like to recommend several valuable new reports drafted by Nancy Nathanson

Cascade and Orbis before and after the merger: a new document summarizing the impact of combining the Cascade and Orbis systems to create Summit, a great example of a combined effort that is more than the sum of its parts.

Loaning more materials through Summit Borrowing: Last year, the Summit Borrowing Committee and Council conducted a thorough analysis of ways to increase materials available through Summit. As a result, Council members decided to "make a commitment to talk with their staff about expanding the materials available for lending via Summit Borrowing" (see October 2005 minutes). Since then, several members have taken steps to broaden their lending policies. Here's where to find out more:

• Loaning more materials through Summit Borrowing, a summary of efforts at several member libraries
• Member comments, testimonials from staff at member libraries about their experiences loaning more material
• Summit Circulating Materials, a complete list of materials types each member circulates via Summit

Other recent Summit improvements

• implemented new policy allowing one renewal on the short loan materials (item #1 on Council's July consent agenda)
• upgraded to latest INN-Reach software release
• fixed advanced keyword index

Courier Program

The courier continues to work well. Debi Baker (Courier Program manager) and I will visit Senvoy's headquarters in mid-October to discuss various aspect of the program.

Recent new dropsites:

• Pacific University's campus in Hillsboro
• North Central Regional Library, Wenatchee, Washington

We have also discussed the possibility of serving more Washington Idaho Network (WIN) sites in the future.

Conferences

Fifth Annual Northwest Interlibrary Loan and Resource Sharing Conference: Michelle Williams attended the 5th NWILL meeting for the Alliance and Mindy Mutzako (TESC) represented the Alliance in a panel presentation, "Interlibrary Loan Consortia: RAPID, LVIS, and the Alliance."

Moving Mountains: A Symposium Exploring Library Courier Service: Nancy Nathanson and Debi Baker attended this courier symposium, possibly the first such event in more than 15 years. Nancy participated in a panel presentation and facilitated two break-out sessions exploring different courier service models.

ACRL-NW conference: the Alliance has been contacted about providing a 2-4 hour workshop as part of the ACRL Pack Forest conference in October 2007. It seems likely that staff from several member institutions would have the opportunity to participate.

Membership Inquiries

Since my last report, South Seattle Community College inquired about membership in the Alliance. SSCC will soon begin offering a bachelor's degree in Hospitality Management, part of a broader movement to have selected community colleges confer bachelor's degrees in particular areas of strength. I have corresponded with the SSCC Executive Dean of Workforce Education but am not aware of further plans at this point.

Steering Team Appointments

Caroline Mann (UP) has agreed to join the Summit Borrowing Committee (SBC) Steering Team for a term of service ending July 1, 2007. She is filling a position that was occupied by Jeremy McWilliams (L&C).

Alliance staff reassignments

In recognition of evolving roles and capabilities among several Alliance staff members, I have recently initiated some changes in processes and staff responsibilities:

• Greg Doyle has assumed duties from me as staff liaison to the Collection Development & Management Committee (CDMC)
• Debi Baker has assumed duties from Nancy Nathanson as program manager for courier service
• Michelle Williams has assumed website management duties from Nancy Nathanson
• We are asking staff at member libraries to direct Summit-related email questions, comments, etc. to a new email address: summit@uoregon.edu. This account is monitored during regular business hours, usually by Michelle Williams, who now serves as the first point of contact for Summit topics

These changes represent a larger and more independent role for Michelle and Debi as well as an opportunity to direct Nancy's talents in additional directions. Finally, since Greg is staff liaison to the Electronic Resources Committee (ERC), I think there will be some real advantages to having him work with CDMC as well.