News
May 2005
Awards NWACC Excellence Award
Summit Database and Borrowing Statistics
  Mt. Hood Community College
 
New Patron Type
  Pickup Anywhere Statistics
  Steering Team
 
Summit Borrowing Day
  Use of OCLC Records in Summit
Electronic Resources
May Meeting
  Renewals & New Products
  Trials
 
Purchasing Program for Non-Members
Courier RFP Update
Committees Collection Development & Management Committee
  Organization Chart
Council Council Activities
  Lane Community College and Walla Walla College
  III Development Partnership
RLSC Regional Library Services Update
Conferences Acquisitions Institute
  NW Academic Library Directors Symposium
  Western Digital Forum

Please feel free to contact John F. Helmer with any questions or comments. He can be reached at 541-346-1835 or via e-mail: jhelmer@uoregon.edu

Alliance News is edited by Michelle Williams. She can be reached at 541-346-1664 or via e-mail: mdw@uoregon.edu
NWACC Excellence Award
  The Orbis Cascade Alliance has been awarded the first NWACC Excellence Award. The goal of the award is to recognize and share information about outstanding IT leadership and practices among the higher education institutions of the Pacific Northwest. The strength of the Alliance comes from the creativity and work of staff at all member libraries. Congratulations to all!
 
Summit
  The Database Continues to Grow
  As of January 2005, Summit includes 25,522,807 item records and 7,826,250 bibliographic records.
 
  Summit Borrowing Statistics
  Fulfillments in the first three months of 2005 were 27% higher than last year.
   
January - March Fulfillments

2005
2004
January
 35,147 25,278
February
34,639
29,433
March
32,331
25,777
total:
102,117
80,488

  Mt. Hood Community College
  Mt. Hood Community College went live on Summit Borrowing on April 4, 2005. Five new member catalogs have been added to Summit Borrowing during the past year: Portland Community College, Saint Martin's College, Clark College, Seattle University, and Mt. Hood Community College.
   
  New Patron Type
  A new Patron Type that Council approved at the January 20-21 meeting is being used so far by ten Alliance members to extend Summit Borrowing privileges to a small number of special library supporters.
   
  Pickup Anywhere (PUA)
  Pickup Anywhere supports distance learning and allows patrons to have their Summit items delivered to other Alliance libraries. PUA statistics from September - December 2004 have been compiled and posted. In that time period, there were 1,196 PUA requests (1.2% of all requests in that period: 102,668).
   
  Steering Team
  The Summit Borrowing Committee Steering Team met on March 11, 2005 at WSU-Vancvouer. In addition to meeting with Executive Committee, the Steering Team discussed topics that ranged from INN-Reach Too Long Reports to Annual Account Reconciliation. The Steering Team will be meeting again on June 3rd.

Two new web pages have been linked to the Summit Borrowing Committee page: Meet Your Steering Team and Steering Team Liaisons.
   
  Summit Borrowing Day
  The Summit Borrowing Committee Steering Team is planning for Summit Borrowing Day in July 2005. Summit Borrowing Day is a one-day event that includes presentations, forums, and informational sessions about workflow, best practices, and new features. All staff members involved with Summit Borrowing are encouraged to participate. Previous SB Day agendas and pictures are available on Staffhome.
 
  Use of OCLC Records in Summit
  At its October 2004 meeting, Council decided that the Orbis Cascade Alliance will not approve the use of Summit as a source of MARC records for cataloging. A policy statement was revised and approved by Executive Committee and will soon be linked to Alliance web pages.
 
 
Electronic Resources Program
  May Meeting
  The Electronic Resources (ER) Committee will hold its annual meeting on May 13th. The agenda of the meeting will focus on communication issues among the ER representatives and ideas on how to encourage more dialogue and involvement in ER activities. The ER Steering Team conducted a survey of all ER Representatives in February that identified a need to more fully involve ER Representatives. The day will also focus on directions the group would like to take regarding e-journal packages and ebooks.
 
  Renewals & New Products
  • 11 renewals processed between February and April 2005; 11 new libraries were also added to those renewals
  • 1 new product added with 2 libraries
  • Total value of 12 products: $286,380
 
  Trials (conducted or have set up)
 

• MLA Bibliography on EBSCO and Thomson Gale
• Scopus
• Old Testament Abstracts on EBSCO
• Classic Protestant Texts from Ad Fontes
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

 
  Purchasing Program For Non-Members Website
  A new website has been created for the Electronic Resource Purchasing Program for Non-Members.
 
 
Courier
  RFP Update
  The current courier contract with Lanter Delivery Systems expires June 30, 2005, so a Courier RFP (Request for Proposal) was issued. Several proposals were received by the April 15th deadline, and the RFP scoring group met on April 20th. A special thanks to all the participants of the scoring group:
   

Becky Norman, King County Library System
Gary Jeffries, Eastern Washington University
Louise Newswanger, George Fox University
Toni Haight, Chemeketa Community College
John Helmer, Orbis Cascade Alliance
Nancy Nathanson, Orbis Cascade Alliance

 
 
Negotiations are underway, and more information will be available once the new contract is finalized.
 
 
Committees
  Collection Development & Management Committee (CDMC)
  The CDMC has concluded the Article Supplier Study that had been requested by Council at its January meeting. Lynn Chmelir presented the committee's report at the recent April Council meeting. Council thanked the CDMC and all involved staff at Alliance libraries for their hard work in gathering the invaluable data in such a short period of time.
 
  Orbis Cascade Alliance Organization Chart
  An organization chart has been created to provide a clear and succinct visual representation of the Alliance and its committee structure.
 
 
Council
  Council Activities
  The Orbis Cascade Alliance Council page has been updated to include the agenda and action items from the recent April 14-15 meeting and adopted meeting minutes from January 20-21. Council has been working on a wide variety of issues, including: consideration of new member applications, continued planning for RLSC, consideration of the FY06 budget, and resource sharing at the article level.
   
  Lane Community College and Walla Walla College
  Council has considered the membership applications from LCC and WWC and decided to extend membership offers to both institutions.
   
  III Development Partnership
  At its April meeting, Council discussed the possibility of becoming a development partner for Innovative's Non-Returnables module. As part of this process, Council initiated an Article Supplier Study, sought information from III, and asked staff at member libraries to provide feedback. Council decided that if six or more members want to participate, Executive Director John Helmer will contact Innovative to negotiate terms. The deadline for members to make a decision is May 13, 2005.
   
   
Regional Library Services Center
  Dill & Co. produced a draft feasibility report, and a final report is expected by mid May. It will incorporate information from facilities contacts at Reed College, OHSU, and Linfield College. At their recent meeting, Council approved the organization of a second funding group meeting.
 
 
Conferences
  Acquisitions Institute
  The Orbis Cascade Alliance serves as fiscal agent for a great acquisitions and collection development conference: The Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge. The sixth annual conference is May 14-17, 2005. The final program and other conference information is available at the conference site.
 
  NW Academic Library Directors Symposium
  At the July retreat, Council decided to co-sponsor an academic library directors symposium. A planning site has been created that includes the first meeting's draft agenda and contact information for conference committee members.
 
  Western Digital Forum
  The Orbis Cascade Alliance is co-sponsoring the Western Digital Forum--Focus on Newspaper Digitization. It is the first in a series of four digital forums sponsored by OCLC Western Digital & Preservation Services Program. Other co-sponsors include the Utah Digital Newspapers Project and the California Newspaper Project. The conference takes place in Portland, Oregon on August 11-12, 2005. Registration information and a draft agenda are available from the conference page.

last updated May 10, 2005

Orbis Cascade Alliance