HKALL Hong Kong Academic Library Link (HKALL) 香港高校圖書聯網 ( 港書網 ) An Accelerated Resource Sharing Project in Hong Kong

HKALL Background In May 2002, representatives of the 8 JULAC libraries met for the first time under the name: User Initiated Document Delivery (UIDD) Taskforce

HKALL Impetus for Taskforce Establishment 1. Sutherland Report - Libraries through cooperation can provide good access for all students and teachers to monographs - To compete internationally, we have to find new ways of working together more effectively

HKALL Impetus for Taskforce Establishment 2. Putting 8 JULAC libraries resources together - Rank 11th in North America in total volume count (over 8M) - No single library can support the research, educational, and teaching needs of students and staff on its own - May reduce costs by purchasing less duplicate materials

HKALL Impetus for Taskforce Establishment 3. A single UIDD system of JULAC library collections - Give our students first class library support - Dramatically improve users’ access to the materials they need

HKALL Criteria for Choosing a System The Chosen System: must accept user initiated online ILL request must support unmediated ILL requests directly from users to lending libraries must support monograph loans must check incoming ILL requests automatically against own collection, and block request if requested items are in own collection must support CJK characters

HKALL Process and Results Systems assessed: INN-Reach Library.Request URSA VDX IMPACT/ISO RLG/ILL Wings Clio ILLiad Recommendation – InnReach InnReach is the software, the system is named HKALL

HKALL Why InnReach? Satisfies all of the essential requirements; only one that has a proven record in handling CJK Has most of the special features enquired about Very positive comments from InnReach sites contacted Reference sites for the other products are “few and far between” Union catalogue – reliable technology and has a proven track record

HKALLSchedule Phase I, 3 libraries, HKU, LU, CityU ~ 31 Oct 04 May 2003 – Directors of 3 Libraries agreed to go ahead June 2003 – Working group met for the first time July 2003 – InnReach Orientation August 2003 – Delivery and set up of hardware (SunFire 280R – 2 CPUs, 2gb RAM) Aug 2003 – Systems Worksheets Sep/Oct 2003 – TestPac Oct 2003 – Circulation briefing Nov 2003 – complete loading of union catalogue Nov 2003 – Circulation worksheets Dec 2003 – Circulation training Early 2004 – Phase I, Live Pilot Phase II, up to 5 more JULAC libraries, ~ Jun 05

HKALL Agreements Systems Worksheets – Govern the loading of the union catalogue – Unified system parameters Circulation Worksheets – For materials circulation and patrons privileges – Unified patron types and loan rules

HKALL Problems  Solutions Merging of Records – Standard algorithm - 2% merge rate in test loading – Alternate algorithm - 4% merge rate in test loading – Complete load of union catalogue - 12% merge rate – Other InnReach databases – 40% merge rate Chinese – First InnReach database with such a large number of Chinese records – Merging done on Roman tags only

HKALL Problems  Solutions Cont’d 856 Links & Internet Resources – E-resources not available via InnReach – Agreed that e-resources will be displayed but without URLs. Courier Service – shorter turnaround time than ILL – fast yet economical outfit

HKALL Pilot – Phase I Life use from January to October 2004 Over 3M volumes available to our users Gather statistics to measure success – Increase in traffic (ILL and non-ILL patrons) – Decrease in ILL traffic – Pickup rate – Turnaround time compared to ILL – Costs compared to ILL costs – Increase/Decrease in library staff workload