NSW PUBLIC LIBRARIES DOCUMENT DELIVERY WORKING GROUP MEETING MINUTES
Date: Monday 3rd May 2021
Venue: Macquarie Room, State Library of NSW
Time: 2.00pm-5.00pm
Chairperson: Anne Laidlaw, City of Sydney
Secretary: Kristin Ovidi, Sutherland
1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Apologies
- Anne Nevins, Berrigan Shire Library Service
- Ania Milczarczyk. Campbelltown
- Dianne Jenkins, Newcastle
- Brenda Finney, Singleton
- Ken Cullen, Inner West
3. Confirmation of February 2021 Minutes
Shelley Petchell (Cumberland) and Joanna Goh (SLNSW).
4. Actions arising from previous meeting
Clarification of SLNSW items which can be borrowed – resolved. A comprehensive table listing what can be borrowed from the various collections at the SLNSW was sent to ill@libraries.nsw.gov.au by Joanna Goh on 15th March 2021.
ILL loan periods across NSW library services – ongoing. The question was raised regarding the standardisation of loan periods across NSW libraries. As this process is largely dictated by individual council policy, the best course decided was for everyone to continue monitoring the ILRS directory and ensure that their Conditions of Supply information on the directory is up-to-date.
5. State Library of NSW report
There is no SLNSW report update. Information on library enquiry statistics for the 2019/2020 reporting period was sent to the PLN e-list on Wednesday 28th April 2021. Document Delivery/Interlibrary Loan statistics can be found on pages 78/79.
6. Multicultural Services report - may_multicultural_services_report-2021-04.pdf
Additional notes were made to the report during the meeting.
Chasing up on overdue bulk loans. - Reports are being generated monthly. Joanna will contact libraries which have many overdue items or loans overdue by a year or more.If you are unable to renew items via your own account with SLNSW, Joanna and team can do it for you so please contact them at mc.bulk.loans@sl.nsw.gov.au.
When requesting renewals of bulk loans, you will need to send through the IR number and language of the loan or the Excel spreadsheet which was originally emailed to you. The barcode or call number of items can also help. This will assist Joanna and team to locate the items on your library’s account. Only 1 renewal of 3 months is permitted on items with the condition that they don’t have reservations pending.
New purchases - The Multicultural Services team are doing their best to procure junior material but Scandinavian languages have been difficult to purchase due to Covid. The team has weeded and updated a lot of the old collections and with the constant heavy demand on junior items across the board, it would be appreciated if bulk loan requests for junior material could be capped at 20 items instead of 30 where possible.
7. ILL Van
As mentioned by Samantha Mantakoun, the SLNSW is currently communicating with AusPost to see if they can arrange for a second driver to be trained in servicing the ILL delivery to hopefully minimise any future disruptions to the service.
Update - As of 5th May 2021, a new AusPost ILL driver has been appointed. Siya will be taking over permanently from Mike.
Siya has been provided with a list of feedback that was made by libraries regarding their requirements. In the next few weeks, AusPost will also be looking to find another driver to train as back-up and it will create a handbook of instructions. This will hopefully reduce the number of disruptions in the future.
Samantha encourages everyone to contact her directly for any further information or issues that need to be reported to AusPost. This includes any problems with current ILL tubs. Please email her at Samantha.Mantakoun@sl.nsw.gov.au or phone 9273 1624.
8. The Wiki
What is happening with updating the SLNSW’s Dokuwiki? - Currently three people have been trained to edit the DD Working Party wiki: Anne (City of Sydney), Teresita (Waverley) and Kristin (Sutherland). Some editing has been done but we are still honing our skills.
The classic Google wiki will be phased out by end of August 2021 - Teresita asked whether anyone still uses the old Google wiki? She received an email from Google informing her that they will be deprecating classic Google websites and the wiki will be shut down from 1st September 2021.
Anne is making a list of the information which is still relevant to us and contained on the old wiki; Anne will chase this up with Sharlene Louey (City of Sydney). Can everyone please have a look at the Google wiki regarding the information which needs to be transferred to the new SLNSW Dokuwiki https://sites.google.com/site/interlibraryloansnsw/suspended-libraries.
Please email Anne ALaidlaw@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au and let her know what you would like to have transferred to the Dokuwiki.
9. Libraries Australia/LADD issues
LADD request form. - At the top right hand side of the form, there used to be an arrow which allowed you manipulate the libraries listed and enable you to select one, but the arrow has now disappeared. It was mentioned that perhaps this is dependent on the specific browser being used but both IE and Chrome have been tested and the issue is the same. You now need to click on a library and arrow down the one required.
The question was raised why has this change to the form happened?
Requesting rare items via LADD - The question was asked whether it would be good practice to select Conditional Supply if the library from which you are requesting will only allow your borrower to use the item in your library.
Try and remember to check if there are any extra conditions attached to the loan and add it to the request. It might be best to check with your borrower whether they are happy with special conditions such as on site use only as most people would assume they can take the ILL home (especially if they are paying $28.50). An example of this situation is the State Library of Victoria which is a charging library but only lends on the condition that item is to be used in library only.
Suspended libraries on LADD - Fujing (Ku-ring-gai) noticed that even though a library may be showing as suspended on the LADD Suspension Directory, they may still be sending out request to other libraries. This happened to Ku-ring-gai when they received a request from a library indicating that their service is suspended.
The inconsistency was questioned and whether we are able to approach libraries whose services are unavailable?
10. Suggested topics for discussion.
Increase in returned in error items- Anne (City of Sydney) has noticed that there has been a marked increase in items returned in error to them. Anne was interested to know how other libraries deal with the issue, especially with school items. City of Sydney gets many items returned for Inner West and Woollahra.
- Georges River reported that their branches send the items to the ILL Officer and she then returns them via the van run. No list is kept as during Covid many borrowers thought that they could return their items to any library to be forwarded on.
- Strathfield does keep a record. It was also mentioned that they have received items belonging to postal libraries.
- Stanton gets in touch with the borrower.
- Cumberland sets the item aside in case the borrower realises they’ve returned it to the wrong library. Details are then entered into a spreadsheet and it is sent back via the van. Liverpool calls the owning library to get in touch with their patron.
- Canterbury mentioned that if you get one of their books returned, and it is obviously a discard, please dispose of it as there is no need to return.
- Ku-ring-gai has had a book belonging to a UK library returned them. They often get books belonging to Hornsby and Willoughby libraries. Where possible they let patrons know to return items to the correct library.
- Sutherland contacts the owning library to notify their patron to collect item if possible. They also keep a list of items returned via the van.
Borrowing from interstate libraries (public and university) and the National Library. - Ken (Inner West) raised the question that, as a library that doesn’t use LADD, how does this affect borrowing interstate items? Some libraries only accept requests via LADD although most public libraries are willing to lend to non-LADD libraries.
From discussion with other 'Non-LADD' councils, a good rule-of-thumb is to focus on the east coast libraries (Queensland, NSW and Victoria) which have reciprocal borrowing with all libraries. Mark (Ryde) will send Inner West a list of the libraries which can be approached and will respond favourably. An observation was made that most requests to South Australian public libraries aren’t successful as many of these won’t interlend, and if they do, they will usually charge $28.50.
Regarding requesting from university libraries, some accept requests via email while others (such as University of Technology, Sydney, University of Adelaide, University of South Australia and the National Library) will only accept non-LADD requests using their online forms. To borrow from these libraries, you will need to contact them and they will set up an account for you. For the university libraries which are happy to respond to freeform emails, just contact them using the address listed on their ILRS entry.
11. General Business NIL
12. Next Meeting
- Monday 2nd August 2021, 2pm-5pm. Online via Teams. Anne can send information on how to access Teams if anyone would like details. From a regional perspective, this is a good move as it allows colleagues to join in the conversation.
- Monday 6th December 2021, 2pm-5pm. Venue – TBC
13. Attendees:
- Anne Laidlaw, City of Sydney
- Annette Maksum, Blacktown
- Annie Persijn, Georges River
- Christine Bendit, Blacktown
- Deborah Malcolm, Stanton
- Eidell Ahumada, Inner West
- Fujing Zhao, Ku-ring-gai
- Grace Yoo, Mosman
- Joanna Goh, SLNSW
- Kristin Ovidi, Sutherland
- Mark Ross, Ryde
- Mayer Wu, Canterbury Bankstown
- Murray Boothman, Strathfield
- Sharon Downie, Liverpool
- Shelley Petchell, Cumberland
- Teresita Quinones, Waverley