June, 1998 — Volume 16 Number 6

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FLICC/FEDLINK Is Moving!

Consortial Purchasing Possibilities With FEDLINK

TECH NEWS: NARA Libraries Offer Analog, Digital Resources for Archivists

Sanville Shares Consortium Tips

New FEDLINK Delegate to OCLC Users Council

FFO Mails Rejected Invoices Report

Options for End-of-Year Money: Database Subscriptions

End-of-Year Schedule for FY 98 Accounts

Telecommunications and Networking Concepts Video Available

Visit the FEDLINK Booth at ALA, D.C.

Vendor Questions or Concerns?

Attention Dialog Customers!

Editorial Staff

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Consortial Purchasing Possibilities With FEDLINK

FEDLINK's recent focus on forming a consortial purchasing pilot program for electronic journals is an outgrowth of the other consortial services already offered by FEDLINK. At the April 30 FEDLINK Member Meeting, Network Program Specialist Meg Williams outlined the differences between current services and new approaches.

"In the past year and a half, I've found it difficult to differentiate between what federal libraries have been doing through FEDLINK for 25 years and what everyone is talking about now," said Williams. "FEDLINK has always been a consortium. We act centrally to negotiate for 800 members whose combined $120 million expenditures give FEDLINK some leverage in the market."

The distinction between current services and the pilot program under development by the Consortial Purchasing Task Group is small but important. "Under the regular FEDLINK model we negotiate centrally but members still buy individually; in the consortial pilot, members can pool funds for true joint acquisition of resources," said Williams.

Arranging Customized Services Through FEDLINK

FEDLINK moved to foster joint acquisition and other creative ways for libraries to go digital by making some changes in its most recent RFPs and new BOAs for electronic information retrieval. Besides making it clear that electronic journals and news feed services were within the scope of the RFPs (in addition to online, CD, gateway, and document delivery services), FEDLINK added the ability for vendors to provide specialized service to members under Lot 4 of the BOAs. These services include

• special volume pricing,
• specialized file groupings,
• access to the customer's own files through the vendor's system,
• interfaces between the vendor's system and the customer's agency's network, and
• research assistance.

Intra-agency Purchasing Currently Available

Because FEDLINK contracts are still deliverables-based rather than personal-services-based, libraries can buy a finite amount of access, number of documents, or number of searches. "This pricing structure is an incentive to joint acquisition of resources," said Williams. Large libraries, or consortia of intra-agency libraries could use Lot 4 to pool funds and negotiate for deeper discounts. For example, all of the legal offices in the IRS might join together to purchase access to LEXIS/NEXIS, or all of the Navy libraries could buy database services jointly. Agencies interested in this option for this fiscal year should email Williams at mwil@loc.gov for more information.

Multiple Agency Purchasing Through the Pilot Program

Participants in the proposed consortial purchasing pilot program could join with different agencies to achieve the same end. Williams outlined a strategy for multiple agencies to pool funds into a common account and share access to electronic publications. FEDLINK could establish a separate IAG which represents the consortium itself, administered by a consortium member on a volunteer basis. Every consortium member would transfer funds for the purchase on its own IAGs, then through a cross-FEDLINK ID, a money move would shift funds into the consortial IAG account. A delivery order would be issued, the vendors would bill against the central ID, and the group representative would receive the account statements.

"Trying to find a way to get federal libraries within an agency or in separate agencies to pool money to purchase something which will not be owned by any one of them individuallythat is the challenge," said Williams. Once money has been committed to the joint account, it would have to stay there for the duration of the fiscal year. However, if the consortium had carefully investigated the costs involved in the joint purchase, the savings on access charges and time spent on account administration might be significant. Also, each member of the consortium would have access to the aggregate of vendor publications available to the whole consortium, not just the individual member's list. "Cost savings plus increased access are what makes the consortium model so attractive to librarians," said Williams.

Members of the Consortial Purchasing Task Group have requested that Academic Press present FEDLINK members with a proposal for joint procurement of several electronic serials titles. The Consortial Purchasing Task Group has also asked members to share suggestions about this plan, and concerns and stories about consortial purchasing. Please send feedback to Williams or task group chair Stephanie Publicker of the National Institutes of Health at publicks@nih.gov.

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TECH NEWS
NARA Libraries Offer Analog, Digital Resources for Archivists

By Jessica Clark

At the Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) building, floor-to-ceiling shelves stacked with gold-stamped volumes line a room crowded with research desks and stepladders. Recently relocated, the librarians had to string wires for computer access in a room designed and built in the 1930s, all the while sharing space with the Center for Legislative Archives.

Over at the new NARA headquarters in College Park, Maryland, the large, airy library overlooks a wooded tract through two stories of glass panes treated to keep harmful rays from delicate records. Ceiling cameras sheathed in black balls observe researchers seated at elegantly modern tables. Librarians and patrons are hard at work at computer terminals connected to high-speed lines.

The difference between the two NARA libraries reflects the span of preservation and research challenges faced by NARA's staff and visitors. The libraries support archivists and patrons working with records which range from the country's founding documents to a box of hard drives dropped off after a recent round of inquiries into presidential misconduct. Both libraries provide reference service on archival practices, American history and government, biography, information management, and government documents, plus information about other archival repositories and organizations.

The NARA libraries serve employees around the country in regional facilities and presidential libraries. They also serve a worldwide community of archivists and records managers. The library Web site (www.nara.gov/nara/naralibrary), is a crucial tool for serving these diverse and scattered users.

Online Access to ALIC

In 1987, NARA agreed to create the Archives Library Information Center (ALIC), a comprehensive collection of resources about archival practices, techniques, and procedures, records management, and manuscript collection. The ALIC database has more than 30,000 professional bibliographic citations. Although NARA does not own all of the materials cataloged in its databases, it is meant to serve as a connection point for archivists. Information on how to locate these documents has been included in the citations when possible.

The NARA library is in the process of converting the ALIC database to a format that will be searchable via the World Wide Web. A more precise description of the database contents—and the page which will eventually link to the database—is available on the library's Web site (http://www.archives.gov/research_room/alic/).

Reference at Your Desk

The reference section of the NARA's Web site ( http://www.archives.gov/research_room/alic/reference_at_your_desk.html) provides quick access to research tools. Links to archival repositories and professional organizations, biographical sources, geographical information, government documents, legal information, language and style reference works, military information, news media, and more are all arranged for the convenience of archivists and records managers. Additional links connect to lists of archivists' conferences and listservs, library catalogs, descriptions of special collections, and full-text online resources. The library also compiles a quarterly list of periodical literature ( http://www.archives.gov/research_room/alic/journal_citations/quarterly_compilation_2004.html) reflecting research that involves the use of NARA records.

Professional Training and Management Resources

The NARA library has begun to document procedures in HTML files used to train library interns and new employees. The public Web site contains professional resources for NARA library staff members around the country. NARA and the NARA libraries have recently completed several stages of reorganization, shifting toward pro-active customer service. Annotated bibliographies on organizational change and team building address current issues federal employees face in the midst of government reinvention. Other federal libraries and information centers may find the NARA library's online training program site ( http://www.archives.gov/records_management/initiatives/training_goals.html) extremely useful.

Sites to Watch

Federal librarians and information center professionals should keep an eye on the NARA and NARA library Web sites. As questions about the preservation and storage of digital information mount, NARA will become a focal point for experimentation and expertise, and the NARA library a repository for both printed and electronic reference materials.

If your library or agency is taking technological strides, please let us know so we can highlight the efforts of federal libraries and information centers everywhere.

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Sanville Shares Consortium Tips

At the April 30 FEDLINK Member Meeting, Tom Sanville, Executive Director of OhioLINK, spoke about establishing and managing a statewide consortium of academic libraries.

A cooperative venture between university libraries and the Ohio Board of Regents, and funded by the state of Ohio, OhioLINK offers users the ability to search and request materials from a central catalog and access electronic research databases at 104 locations serving more than 500,000 students, faculty, and staff. OhioLINK has 14 staff members and a central site which houses several databases. Sanville has directed OhioLINK since 1992; formerly, he worked as Vice President of Marketing for OCLC.

Sanville outlined several reasons for libraries to establish consortial relationships:

• Most libraries do not and will not have all of the information that patrons need.
• The frequency with which patrons use information is based on ease of access; electronic information systems greatly ease their access.
• To meet the challenges of this information intensive age, libraries need to invest in more information and maximize the information they get for each dollar spent.
• No one has geared the pricing mechanisms for access to online information for a high-volume use; they gear them to a rationing environment in which librarians selectively deliver information to users.

"Libraries end up saying, `please give me more money so I can buy less information,' " Sanville said. He noted that many information stakeholders need to experiment to develop an appropriate model for pricing. "We cannot expect quick and simple solutions," he said.

Meanwhile, individual libraries can neither take full advantage of the opportunities of the emerging electronic world nor deal with the obstacles. Consequently, they have turned to consortial agreements. Sanville urged federal libraries to follow suit and get involved in consortial purchasing. "You are not going to solve these problems by sitting in a meeting," Sanville said. "We can only make progress through practice, evolution through experience."

The Role of the Consortium

Consortial purchasing and resource sharing provides both economic leverage and operational leverage. "Why do things 50 times if you can do it once?" asked Sanville. "Many gateway vendors are creating a vanilla project while a consortium of libraries can bargain for customized access features that each member can further tailor for their users," said Sanville. Working within a consortium also allows libraries to prepare for new technological developments and share concerns and ideas.

Sanville noted that the OhioLINK system has worked as a marketing tool for the state higher education system. "We can attract better students and better faculty by telling them that they can have access to all of the books in the Ohio library system within two days—that helps in recruitment."

Expectations Fulfilled

Sanville described several of OhioLINK's accomplishments. The group has built a central catalog which serves 56 institutions, with 18 more joining the consortium by the end of 1998.

OhioLINK has developed their central catalog so statewide patrons can submit ILL requests online; in the report from the latest 12 months, patrons have made more than 555,000 requests, and OhioLINK filled more than 85 percent of them.

In 1997, users conducted more than 2.5 million searches. They have also created statewide access to electronic information. In December 1992, they offered only two databases, by January 1998, they had 68.

Strategic Priorities

OhioLINK has set goals to deliver all services to the desktop via integrated Web-based platforms. They want to complete the core statewide reference databases and make the necessary investment to build a critical mass of electronic journals online at the OhioLINK site. They also plan to establish serials usage measurements so that they can make procurement decisions over time, and expand into nontext-based electronic resources such as maps, numeric data, and images.

Sanville strongly argues against trying to obtain funding database by database. "Create a portfolio of information that has something in it for everyone and that can be bought at the most economical price possible," he said. "I would urge all of you to take advantage of what you can do as a group and develop the techniques and negotiation to take advantage of as much as you can. . .the consortium allows you to step ahead of where you are in significant ways."

For more information about OhioLINK, see the program's Web site (http://www.ohiolink.edu).

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FFO Mails Rejected Invoices Report

FEDLINK Fiscal Operations (FFO), Accounts Payable Section, will be generating a special report of all rejected FY98 vendor invoices and sending them to members during June. FFO will forward the reports to all IAG points of contact to help them identify those invoices that remain unpaid due to insufficient funds. This information can also assist you in making financial decisions regarding funding for the last quarter of this fiscal year.

When placing additional orders, adding, or moving funds, or requesting an account refund, please take into consideration any outstanding unpaid invoices. These include invoices that we may have rejected due to insufficient funds earlier in the fiscal year as well as new orders that vendors have not yet billed. Remember that the remaining funds in your account must be enough to cover all rejected invoices, incoming invoices, bill-laters, and supplemental invoices.

Review FEDLINK's End-of-Year deadlines below in conjunction with the rejected invoice report. Our fiscal staff is on hand for telephone conference calls to offer individual account information and assistance to members from July 20-30, 1998. Please call the FEDLINK Hotline at (202) 707-4900 if you wish to schedule a telephone conference during that time to discuss your account activity. If you are planning a site visit, do remember we will be moving our offices back to the Library of Congress's Adams building in mid-July but we will be available for visitors the week of July 27^th.

If you have any questions or concerns about your rejected invoices report, please call the Hotline at (202) 707-4900.

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Options for End-of-Year Money: Database Subscriptions

When thinking of ways to spend your end-of-year funds, consider database subscription options. You can order database subscriptions now and pay for them with funds from the current fiscal year even though they will be delivered over the course of a subscription period that extends beyond September 30, 1998.

Under current subscription acquisition regulations and procedures, the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act's new provisions on severable services contracts for periods crossing fiscal years applies to database subscriptions. Because many of FEDLINK's current electronic information retrieval vendors offer special pricing options for subscription packages or commitments for fixed usage levels, this may be an opportune time to consider these services.

Subscription pricing is available for online, CD-ROM or tape databases, gateways, and electronic serials. Subscription pricing helps you earn volume discounts, control database services costs, and provide continuity of service into the next fiscal year. With subscription pricing you can predict overall expenses and limit open access by setting up finite subscriptions for particular units in your organization. Subscription services often include the features listed below.

Format

The vendors may have defined their subscriptions as a specific number of online hours or searches, a specific funding amount, or usage for a specific period of time.

Period

Whatever its form, the subscription may last for a period up to 12 months, beginning on the day the order is placed.

Billing

As with print subscriptions, vendors invoice for online database subscriptions and expect you to pay up front for their services. Because you have prepaid for the subscription, if you ordered a subscription in the current year and also signed up for the service for the next year to cover supplemental charges outside the subscription, it is very important that you monitor your statements to be sure you are not charged for usage next year that was already covered under your subscription.

Reporting

The vendor will supply a monthly report of your usage under the subscription so that you can track the "draw down" of your pre-paid amount. Depending on the format of your online subscription, you will be able to track the number of hours or searches remaining, the funding amount available, or the extent of monthly usage under an open access subscription.

User IDs

To make it easier to keep usage associated with the subscription separate from regular online access, many of the vendors are able to assign separate user IDs that only bill against the subscription. This also makes it possible to control expenditures by ordering separate, finite subscriptions for separate sets of users. You can, however, also use your existing IDs if you do not want to change or distribute additional user IDs.

Check out the list of current vendors offering FY 98 subscription pricing (http://www.loc.gov/flicc/prices/epprdisc.html) or contact the vendors' representatives listed in the online FEDLINK Services Directory for specific information about products, services, and pricing data. The current Directory is available on the FLICC\FEDLINK Web site at http://www.loc.gov/flicc. Click on Contracting and Vendor Services. If you have questions about vendor services, please call Jim Oliver, FEDLINK's Vendor Services Coordinator at (202) 707-4960. For information on your accounts, please call the FEDLINK Hotline at (202) 707-4900.

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FY 98 End-of-Year Schedule

FEDLINK Fiscal Operation (FFO) must receive requests for adding or canceling services, or for adding or transferring funds by the deadlines noted below to complete necessary IAG, delivery order, and billing activity by the end of FY98. Requests received after these dates cannot be processed this fiscal year.

ADD NEW SERVICE REQUEST
Request to add a new service account over $25,000
must be received in FFO—July 31

Request to add a new service account under $25,000
must be received in FFO—August 14

ADD NEW FUNDS REQUEST
Request to add new funds to an existing account that will exceed $25,000
(accounts that exceed $25,000 must be synopsized in the Commerce Business Daily)
must be received in FFO—July 31

Request to add new funds to an existing account that will not exceed $25,000
must be received in FFO—August 14

RETURN OF SIGNED IAG
Signed IAG for new servicev accounts that exceed $25,000 or add funds accounts that will exceed $25,000 (accounts that exceed $25,000 must be synopsized in the Commerce Business Daily) must be received in FFO—August 14

ALL OTHER SIGNED IAGs MUST BE RECEIVED in FFO
(no exceptions)—September 18

REFUND
Requests for refunds must be received in FFO
(to ensure receipt in your agency before September 30, 1998)—July 31

TERMINATION
Requests to terminate service before the delivery order expires
must be received in FFO—August 14

MOVE FUNDS
Requests to move funds from one account to another that will exceed $25,000 (accounts that exceed $25,000 must be synopsized in the Commerce Business Daily) must be received in FFO—August 14

Requests to move funds from one account to another that will not exceed $25,000 must be received in FFO—September 4

For more information on your account or on the FY98 End-of-Year Schedule, please contact the FEDLINK Hotline at (202) 707-4900.

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Telecommunications and Networking Concepts Video Available

Last March, The Alliance of Library Service Networks broadcast Networks Telecommunications and Networking Concepts, a two-hour interactive video conference. This joint effort of the various networks (including AMIGOS, BCR, CAPCON, FEDLINK, ILLINET, INCOLSA, MINITEX, MLC, MLNC, NEBASE, NELINET, OHIONET, PALINET, SOLINET, SUNY/OCLC/WILS) provided a wealth of knowledge and highlighted several options for implementation and planning. (Interested federal libraries can view a video recording of this conference through interlibrary loan. See below for details.)

The core of the conference was intended to:

• update librarians on the latest telecommunications and networking technology,
• define terminology that would assist librarians in communicating with vendors, consultants, and funding agencies,
• provide criteria that would assist librarians in selecting hardware, and
• provide information that would assist librarians in planning for the future

During the first segment of the program, George Machovec, Technical Director of the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries, covered basic telecommunications and networking concepts and helped create a set of common terminology for librarians. He highlighted Local Area Networks (LAN), Wide Area Networks (WAN), Metropolitan Area Networks, Synchronous Optical Networks, Hardware and Software, and TCP/IP. With his groundwork, participants were ready to review the variety of options covered in the next portion of the program.

The second segment provided case studies of three different kinds of librariesa small rural library, a medium urban library, and a large academic library. The staff of each library detailed how their library used new technological capabilities, carried out network strategies, and identified future enhancements to their existing systems. Each offered a different insight into telecommunications:

• The Brewton Public Library, a small 35,000 volume library in Alabama, uses technological approaches to servicing remote users including providing full scale Internet access to the public.
• The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh designs their architectural structure and network setup to furnish support to 65 remote library sites.
• Vanderbilt University's Heard Library, one of nine large academic libraries on the campus, utilizes the SIRSI Unicorn library automation system, Silverplatter ERL Server, and OCLC Sitesearch resources. The library initially used OCLC's TLP Access model but now has converted to Dedicated TCP/IP Access. An Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) backbone connects each library's Local Area Network to the campus's Wide Area Network.

The third and final segment of the program offered a questions and answers format of all the presenters and featured a discussion on the future direction of telecommunications and networking. George Machovec described key factors that will affect libraries in the next one to five years:

• Internet 2,
• High Speed Internet at Home,
• Cable Modems, and
• Thin Client/Networked Computers.

Visit the Amigos web site at http://www.amigos.org/.

Through a special cooperative agreement with FLICC, the National Library of Education will offer copies of the video teleconference later this summer through the OCLC Interlibrary Loan Subsystem. For the current list of the entire cataloged series of educational videos, visit the FLICC Web page (http://www.loc.gov/flicc/tn/97/09/tn9709.html#FLICC/FEDLINK Educational Programs on Video), users can enter the derived search: vid,ta,of,f<F11>.

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Vendor Questions or Concerns?

Wondering what new services your vendor is offering? Concerned that favorite products may no longer be available? Missing delivery orders? FEDLINK can help you resolve a variety of issues with your vendor accounts.

For account information, please call the FEDLINK Hotline at (202) 707-4900 to discuss invoices, charges, or other questions you may have. For specific vendor questions or concerns, FEDLINK's Vendor Services Coordinator, Jim Oliver can assist you. Give him a call at (202) 707-4960 or send email to joli@loc.gov.

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Attention Dialog Customers!

In the April issue of FEDLINK Technical Notes we incorrectly reported the frequency and cost of the Dialog Corporation's new Password Fees. The Password Fees will be charged twice a year. The first charge appeared on your usage invoice for the Month of April and the second charge will appear on your October invoice. The correct Password Fees that Dialog billed on May 5, 1998 (the April invoice) is $72.00 per user ID. However, all FEDLINK users receive an automatic 8 percent discount; therefore, the final cost to FEDLINK users is $66.24. The Password Fees do apply to all FEDLINK members using the Dialog services who have up to five different user passwords. If you have passwords that you do not use frequently, you may want to cancel the passwords so that you avoid paying additional charges.

Monthly Minimum Charge Update

The Dialog Corporation also recently announced they intend to charge their customers a new Monthly Minimum Charge of $75.00 beginning with the invoice dated July 5, 1998, covering usage for the month of June 1998. FEDLINK has reviewed the terms and conditions of the current FY98 Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) with the Dialog Corporation and have conferred with the Contracts and Logistics Office of the Library of Congress. Collectively we have determined that Dialog did not propose this Monthly Minimum Charge in their FY98 agreement and thus Dialog cannot include this charge in their pricing to FEDLINK members for the period of October 1, 1997 through September 30, 1998. Therefore, Dialog's proposed Monthly Minimum Charge, announced to be effective June 1, 1998, does not and will not apply to FEDLINK members using Dialog service for the remainder of FY98.

For additional assistance, please contact the FEDLINK Hotline at (202) 707-4900 or FEDLINK's Vendor Services Coordinator Jim Oliver at (202) 707-4960, email—joli@loc.gov.

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Editorial Staff

FEDLINK Technical Notes is published by the Federal Library and Information Center Committee. Send suggestions of areas for FLICC attention or for inclusion in FEDLINK Technical Notes to:

FLICC was established in 1965 (as the Federal Library Committee) by the Library of Congress and the Bureau of the Budget for the purpose of concentrating the intellectual resources of the federal library and related information community. FLICC's mission is to foster excellence in federal library and information services through interagency cooperation and to provide guidance and direction for the Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK).

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