NSW PUBLIC LIBRARIES DOCUMENT DELIVERY WORKING GROUP MEETING MINUTES
Date: Monday 7th February 2022
Venue: Online via Zoom
Time: 2-5pm
Chairperson: Anne Laidlaw, City of Sydney
Secretary: Kristin Ovidi, Sutherland
Agenda
1. Welcome and introductions
Annual General Meeting: Nominations for Chairperson and Secretary for 2022
There were no new nominations for the positions of Chairperson and Secretary.
Action: Anne and Kristin to compile an overview of what their positions entail, this will be included with the minutes when sent. Nominations will reopen at the May 2022 meeting.
2. Apologies
Jen Hallenan, Bega
Murray Boothman, Strathfield.
3. Confirmation of August 2021 minutes
Yes – minutes were confirmed by general consensus.
4. Actions arising from previous meeting
New surveys on lending AV and LOTE items (In progress). Anne will look into creating new surveys in 2022 to help determine which libraries are willing to lend AV and also which have LOTE collections and are able to supply – the latter will be useful for patrons who have read through most of a specific language at the SLNSW.
When setting up the new Dokuwiki and reviewing old wiki pages, Anne discovered that an AV survey had previously been undertaken a few years earlier but a refresh is needed as the terminology has changed. A draft AV form has been created by Anne (MS form). The main areas covered for the AV survey are the various formats contained in both adult and junior collections and which are libraries willing to lend? Here is the link to the Sample AV form (adapted from the 2014 survey). This is currently a work in progress as the form needs more work done. Any volunteers?
Once this survey has been completed, a similar survey for LOTE material will be created with questions such as: are you willing to lend books, talking books, etc.? This survey will be useful for providing information about magazines in other languages. Abby (SLNSW) mentioned that the LOTE survey would be particularly useful for SLNSW as they receive enquiries from libraries regarding languages that they may not stock. If we can have an idea about which libraries carry these languages and are willing to supply, it would be of benefit to everyone.
Action: Further action taken to make this LOTE survey a priority and get it out to libraries as soon as possible.
Record IDs in Trove searches (Resolved). Libraries Australia record numbers are hard to find or non-existent. This makes it harder to carry a search across to LADD.
Teresita (Waverley) has informed the Group that this number is actually located at the bottom of the Trove bibliographic record and it matches with the local number in LADD – this provides the unique number and its benefits while searching and ordering for interlending. Teresita’s previous understanding of the need for it to be displayed in Trove has been resolved however slowing down of navigation issues exist e.g. the increased need to go to different screens in order to get single requests done as well as having to return to the previous ones. The increased accuracy of libraries’ holdings with the Trove Partners Data Harvesting Project has led to Trove being favoured over Libraries Australia for Interlibrary Loans.
Searching Victorian libraries (Resolved). With V-Link now defunct, check with Victorian-based libraries to see what they suggest to aid searching.
Answer: Best option is to search Trove/LA. Most Victorian Libraries have set up/are in the process of setting up “live harvesting” so holdings should be quite accurate. While there is a Libraries Victoria search page only half of our public library services are part of the Libraries Victoria consortia. City of Melbourne Library Service suggested that we have a representative from NSW to liaise with them.
5. State Library of NSW Report
On 15th March 2021 Joanna Goh sent an email to the ILL elist containing the Guide for ILL Requests from SLNSW. This document is currently being updated and will be redistributed again shortly.
SLNSW Catalogue training Maria sent an email on 5th August 2021 asking if anyone would be interested in a training session demonstrating how to use the new SLNSW catalogue. Due to the response, Zoom sessions will be organised - one in the morning and one in the afternoon, to be held on different days. A Zoom meeting invite will be sent in a fortnight or so and the training will take around 30 minutes. The demonstration will involve topics such as searching for a known item, serial and newspaper.
National eDeposit training. After a query from our December meeting, Abby asked the NED representative at the SLNSW about additional training opportunities to explain how the eDeposit system works. It was confirmed that an hour long Zoom session has been organised for 3rd March 2022 from 10.00am-11.00am. Registrations can be made here.
See also email sent by Abby Dawson to PLN on Tuesday 8th February 2022.
Replying to ill and hard2find elists. Recent changes implemented to the elists software now means that ‘Reply all’ is the default when you reply to a message, even when you only click ‘Reply’. If you need to respond to the sender directly, their email will be located in the Cc field. You will need to click ‘Reply all’ and delete the elist email address (xxx@libraries.nsw.gov.au) to avoid sending your response to everyone.
6. Multicultural Services Report
Romanian language collection. This collection is in the process of being withdrawn from the SLNSW. This is a result of declining usage of the collection and changing community demographics. If you happen to get any requests for Romanian items, please contact Multicultural Services as they will hang onto these items for a year. Romanian is available on IndyReads as eBooks and eAudiobooks available for loan.
Telugu language collection. 2022 will see the addition of this new language collection. Telugu is a language primarily spoken in southern India, and there is a community of over 12,000 speakers living mainly in Western Sydney.
Overdue notices for outstanding bulk loan items. Notices will start being sent out again shortly – this is in the process of being developed as some libraries have many books which are long overdue. Notices will be emailed at the one and two month marks, then an email quoting the replacement cost will be sent. Abby has offered that if anyone is having problems accessing their loans or are unsure of what they have overdue, please send her an email and Multicultural Services staff can send through an Excel spreadsheet (similar to the ones sent when bulk loans are requested). Currently you need to use the old catalogue to check out what you have on loan.
Large print and talking books collections. These are sent out on long-term loan. Libraries can return items that they have had for a long time back to SLNSW. If you require some of these formats, get in touch with Abby as there is no need to wait for a call-out.
7. Van Run
The van run seems to be running smoothly. With libraries reopening after lockdown in 2021, there were many returned in error items. It’s been noticed that requests are also picking up. Book clubs are also back on board but even so, ILL request numbers are increasing.
8. The Wiki
Nothing to report.
9. Libraries Australia/LADD issues
Rush and Express requests. Mayer (Canterbury Bankstown) enquired about how other libraries receive/process Rush and Express requests. What are your experiences with these services? The general consensus was that it does not happen often as the cost can be prohibitive. The process seems to be easier if there’s a dedicated ILL team to make things timely. Offering an Express service level, for example, is an option – it is not compulsory to offer this service, it is up to each library to decide what they are willing to do.
~ City of Sydney has had a couple of requests in the past but as each item was at SLNSW and within walking distance, the end process of express post or courier was not used. Even this could prove difficult now as more desk shifts are occurring and less time to catch Rush/Express requests as they come through.
~ Teresita (Waverley) keeps pre-paid express post satchels on hand and takes them to the post office.
Journal article requests via email. Can these requests be delivered via email as LADD can be hard to fill in for these requests?
~ Sutherland successfully receives request journal articles from SLNSW and various university libraries. They email their request to the library in question and receive the article via email stipulating conditions of use (e.g. only one print permitted). An invoice is sent if required and is either paid through their Council’s Finance Dept. or paid online as some university libraries prefer this option.
Query on why some libraries are on LADD and others are not. This occurs for a variety of reasons and is mainly dictated by the library’s council and what services are already being paid for.
~ Inner West (email) – LMS allows for requests to be sent straight away via email. Before amalgamation there were locations that used LADD but this new system just makes it easier to process via email.
~ Canada Bay – they already pay a fee to access LADD and LA for cataloguing so also utilise the setup for ILLs.
~ Georges River – using LADD can make payment and tracking a lot easier to manage than using email.
Benefits of LA/LADD vs Trove searches. Discussion on where best to search for items. Trove seems to have more up-to-date holdings as more libraries take part in the data harvesting options – LA appears to have less. Trove can also be accessed by the public whereas LA requires an authorised password to enter. The general consensus is to check Trove first to see what the public sees and then LA.
10. Suggested topics for discussion
Nothing to report.
11. General business
Posting items back via SLNSW. Georgia (Hawkesbury) noticed that in the ILL handover notes she received it mentioned that requests for country libraries (e.g. Richmond Tweed) could be packaged and returned via the metro van to SLNSW for posting. Abby confirmed that this is still the case, the items just need to be post-ready (properly packed and labelled). Also keep in mind that it will add extra transit time to the item arriving at its destination.
Hard2find list error. Fujing (Ku-ring-gai) mentioned that she was having trouble sending emails the hard2find list – they bounce back with a status of ‘not successful’. If you get these types of messages, send them to Abby and she will look into it as the email system is very sensitive.
ill@libraries list error. Parekh (Burwood) also mentioned emails getting caught with the administrator and not being released. A similar issue has occurred in the past with other libraries and this was due to the size of the email being too large. This can be resolved by deleting any email signatures and composing the email in plain text only before sending.
New library for Parramatta in 2022. Sharni reported that Parramatta will be getting a new library this year so if response is a bit slow this is due to various projects being undertaken in preparation such as weeding, etc.
12.Next meetings
Monday 2nd May 2022, 2.00pm – 5.00pm, Venue TBC
Monday 1st August 2022, 2.00pm – 5.00pm (Online)
Monday 5th December 2022, 2.00pm – 5.00pm, Venue TBC
13.Attendees: