1. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Jüri Järs Director Tallinn University of Technology Library Akadeemia tee 7 12611 Tallinn, Estonia Phone: 372 6203564 Fax: 372 6203561 E-mail: jars@lib.ttu.ee http://www.lib.ttu.ee/

2. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Topics: –Preconditions and institutions –Legislation issues –Coordinated collections development –Creating common databases –Joint supply of electronic resources –About other common projects

3. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Preconditions: –the object of cooperation –the will to cooperate –organisers-coordinators –“the rules of the game” (regulations, agreements, contracts) –executors-implementators –tools and connections for cooperation –the roof under which the cooperation could be realized

4. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Main institutions: –Estonian Librarians Association, ELA (founded in 1923, reestablished in 1988) committees of bibliography collections development education and training classification and indexing terminology rare books section of special libraries working group of distance learning roundtable of the directors of research libraries

5. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues –Estonian Libraries Network (ELNET) Consortium (founded in 1996) working groups of MARC-cataloguing analytical description authority files retrospective conversion music, art and cartographic literature periodicals circulation technical issues electronic acquisitions digital library virtual library

6. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues –Council of Research Libraries (formed in 2002 by the Ministry of Education and Research)

7. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues About legislation: some milestones 2000Development plan of Estonian libraries 2001Organisation of Research & Development Act 2002Requirements for a research library

8. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Requirements for a research library: –the main task (specified in statutes) is to collect, to process, to store and to make available the information supporting research and development activities –the destination group is research workers –public access to free of charge basic services –the availability of the system for selecting adequate information and the conditions for preserving and using it –the collections are developed at least in two subject areas from the following: natural sciences, technological sciences, medical sciences, agricultural sciences, social sciences, humanities –the collections are described and classified according to the international standards which are valid in Estonia –the library carries out research and development activities, publishes reports of its activities, is engaged in acquainting the research and development institutions and researchers, creates bibliographical databases –the collections are reflected in the common electronic catalogue of Estonian libraries (ESTER)

9. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues About legislation: some milestones 2000Development plan of Estonian libraries 2001Organisation of Research & Development Act 2002Requirements for a research library Rules for nominating research libraries First research libraries nominated

10. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Nominated research libraries: –Tartu University Library (2002) –Tallinn Technical University Library (2002) –Tallinn Pedagogical University Library (2002) –Estonian Agricultural University Library (2004)

11. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues About legislation: some milestones 2000Development plan of Estonian libraries 2001Organisation of Research & Development Act 2002Requirements for a research library Rules for nominating research libraries First research libraries nominated 2003First funding received according to the Act 2004 The regulation about funding principles and common acquisition plan

12. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Coordinated collections development: history 1960s Union catalogue of foreign periodicals Commission of collections at State Libr. Committee 1970s Union catalogue of foreign books Joint study of collections and their use 1980s Second joint study of collections and their use 1990s Committee of collections development at ELA 1994 Regulations of the Ministry of Culture

13. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues –common acquisition plan with 57 responsibility areas –three acquisition depth levels specified: A - as completely as possible B - selected items C - few selected items – division of tasks between 15 research and special libraries

14. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Shortcomings: –no additional funding for fulfilling the specified tasks –no online information system available for sharing data about the existing collections and current orders –the acquisition levels were library-oriented –the classification scheme (57 subject areas) was too general and complicated to use it in practice

15. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues RLG Conspectus by goals and activities: –assessment of available collections –specifying acquisition goals and priorities –coordination of current acquisitions –preservation and withdrawal of collections –strategical planning –guaranteeing necessary funding

16. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues RLG Conspectus: acquisition depth indicators 0 - out of scope 1 - minimal level 2 - basic information level 3 - study support level 4 - research support level 5 - comprehensive (maximal) level

17. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Complete acquisition matrix of research libraries By UDC and using three acquisition depth levels: –basic information level –study support level –research support level

18. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Creating common databases 1974Database of foreign books (30 libraries) 1980s PC-based not standardized, incompatible solutions 1990Database of foreign periodicals (20 libraries) 1992Working group of library automation at ELA 1993Common principles of library automation Information System of Estonian Libraries 1996ELNET Consortium 1998 Integrated library system live

19. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Integrated library system - “all in one”: –database of Estonian national bibliography –database of CIP records (books in print) –union catalogue of participating libraries –tool for storing and managing the local data (acquisitions, patrons, circulations etc) of each member library –centre for distributing bibliographic records –source for coordinated collections development

20. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Shared database (ESTER) contains data about: –books –periodicals –sheet music –maps –sound recordings –articles from Estonian journals –links to selected electronic documents

21. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues –add their unique data (shared MARC21 9XX fields) –link their item records Harmonized “rules of the game”: –unified cataloguing rules –Estonian Subject Headings –UDC numbers Only one bibliographic record for each title to which participating libraries:

22. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues –information technology –staff training Advantages: –quality of the unified database –end-user can make searches under one constant interface either in the catalogue of one library or in the union catalogue of ELNET libraries Economies in expenses: – man-power

23. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Supply of electronic resources 1998Trials of paid online databases 1999EBSCO databases jointly purchased by 3 libraries 2000OSI eIFL project 2001 ELNET Consortium as negotiator and contractor 2002Central support 64 000 euros 2003Central support 500 000 euros 2004Central support 800 000 euros

24. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues –5 abstract databases –4 other packages (factographical, dictionaries, etc) Consortium-wide licenses 2 – 9 participating libraries depending on databases EBSCO country-wide license more than 100 libraries and institutions have access a “big deal” may be a very good deal ELNET Consortium offers access to: – 8 e-journal packages (more than 10 000 titles)

25. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues –the negotiations are complicated and there is not enough professional competency in each library –it is more probable to achieve the optimum solution in price and performance –the trials of non-subscribed databases are organized centrally Advantages: – the same financial resources enable cooperating libraries to buy more because of their bigger critical mass

26. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Standardization: joint projects case by case 1991 Estonian Communication Format published 1993 Estonian UDC project started 1996 Creation of Estonian Subject Headings started 1999 Estonian UDC published 1999 Estonian Subject Headings published 1990 Translation and adaptation of the CCF started

27. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues What do the libraries need? –Estonian National Standard –Translated International Standard –National Library standard –International Standard is acceptable 1999 Permanent working group of standardization at the National Library

28. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Established as Estonian National Standards: –Library performance indicators –International library statistics –Standard of librarian profession

29. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Some performance indicators for university libraries: –acquisition expenses per student –library maintenance expenses per student –library staff (FTE) per student –computer-based workplaces per student –percent of students passing through the information retrieval courses

30. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Translated international standards: –ISBN, ISSN, country codes –Dublin Core metadata elements –Library terminology –Transliteration from Cyrillic alphabet

31. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Web-based defining dictionary with equivalents in English, Russian, German, Finnish and French about 3000 library terms

32. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Established as National Library standards: –IFLA ISBDs –Format for bibliographic databases

33. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Joint projects of retrospective conversion Open Estonia Foundation Open Society Institute Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Estonian publications - in terminating phase 4 mln volumes in electronic catalogue ESTER 12 mln volumes in collections of participating libraries Different projects started in 1999 and 2000 thanks to

34. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Digitation from microfilms The aim of the joint project is –to make the content of microfilmed documents easily available for the end-user in electronic form 2002special scanner was obtained, tuned up and tested technology for saving and desrcibing the image files 2003software for indexing image files web-based solution for open access 200415 titles from 1857-1920 of digitized Estonian newspapers available for public use

35. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues Creating common information portal 2001 – 2002 concept, basic principles and requirements The goal is to introduce for end-users an information portal which allows: –secure –single point –multi-protocol searching against the variety of sources –licensed full-text or citation databases –local digital collections –web sites –search engines –Z39.50 databases –library catalogues

36. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues –Estonian diacritics –Cyrillic alphabet 2003 MetaFind software was tested and evaluated The metasearch software must be able to search in

37. Cooperation between Estonian research libraries: integration and resource sharing issues