Fiscal Year 2000
Annual Report of the
Federal Library and Information Center Committee

Susan M. Tarr, Executive Director

Highlights      Quarterly Meetings      Working Groups
Publications and Education Office     FEDLINK Operations     FEDLINK Fiscal Office

Highlights of the Year

During Fiscal Year 2000, the Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC)continued to carry out its mission "to foster excellence in federal library and information services through interagency cooperation and to provide guidance and direction for FEDLINK."

FLICC's annual information policy forum, "Government Futures: Impact of Information Advances in the 21st Century," explored how information technology is driving changes in the international marketplace which in turn drive how the U.S. government expands and uses this technology. The forum took an in-depth look at how each branch of government will anticipate the impact of these changes in information. FLICC also held its annual FLICC Symposium on the Information Professional, this year focusing on developments in knowledge management and their application in a federal setting.

FLICC working groups achieved a broad agenda in Fiscal Year 2000: the second annual FLICC Awards to recognize the innovative ways federal libraries, librarians and library technicians fulfill the information demands of government, business, scholarly communities and the American public; a Web-based handbook of federal librarianship; new educational initiatives in the areas of cooperative online cataloging and serials cataloging; Web site development, reference issues, and library and information center evaluation; revisions for the Office of Personnel Management's librarian 1410 qualifications requirements; increased federal library participation in the Library of Congress Bicentennial; and expanded access to resources through online video broadcasts, distance learning and the FLICC Web site.

FLICC also continued its collaboration with the Library's General Counsel on a series of meetings between federal agency general counsels and agency librarians. These general counsel fora grew out of the recognition that federal attorneys and librarians face many of the same questions in applying copyright, privacy, FOIA, and other laws to their agencies' activities in the electronic age -- with regard both to using information within the agency and to publishing the agency's own information. These meetings enhanced the relationship between agency attorneys and librarians and helped them develop contacts with their counterparts at other agencies. This year's series continued discussions begun in the FLICC Forum and on emerging FOIA and privacy issues.

Beyond supporting the membership projects, FLICC staff members continued to implement customer service recommendations and initiatives, including the release of FEDLINK's Fiscal Year 2001 online registration system. Fiscal Year 2000 saw substantial improvements to the efficiency of the FEDLINK program including expanded digital document management, improved members' use and payment for OCLC services, consortial purchasing opportunities, newly negotiated substantial vendor discounts, and strategies to replace the FEDLINK financial system. Staff members also sponsored 28 seminars and workshops for 1242 participants and conducted 77 OCLC, Internet, and related training classes for 738 students.

FLICC's cooperative network, FEDLINK, continued to enhance its fiscal operations while providing its members with $53.5 million in transfer pay services and $53.2 million in direct pay services, saving federal agencies more than $12 million in vendor volume discounts and approximately $6.3 million more in cost avoidance.

FEDLINK also procured software and support services to initiate work on electronic invoicing and increase online access to financial information for member agencies and vendors. Furthermore, FEDLINK's continuing financial management efforts ensured that FEDLINK successfully passed the Library's Financial Audit of Fiscal Year 1999 transactions performed by Clifton Gunderson, LLP.

FLICC managers worked throughout Fiscal Year 2000 to improve project planning, implementation, and staff participation through effective use of Facilitative Leadership (FL) techniques and leadership development programs fostered by the Library.

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FLICC Quarterly Membership Meetings

In addition to regular FLICC Working Group updates and reports from FLICC/FEDLINK staff members, each FLICC quarterly meeting included a special meeting focus on a new or developing trend in federal libraries: the first FLICC Quarterly Membership meeting featured a group brainstorming session on "Congressional Awareness of Federal Libraries, their Achievements and their Needs;" the second meeting included a "Legislative Update: IT Issues in the 106th Congress," presented by Congressional Research Service staff members Richard Nunno and John Moteff, while Dick Griffith from the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) made a presentation about the "NPR Public Access Project on Electronic Government;" the third meeting focused on the Special Libraries Association project on "Valuating Information Intangibles: Measuring the Bottom Line Contribution of Librarians and Information Professionals," with consultant and author Frank Portugal as the speaker; and the fourth meeting featured federal digital developments with remarks from Winston Tabb, Associate Librarian for Library Services and Chair Designate of FLICC, on the National Academy of Science's study report; from George Barnum, Electronic Collection Manager, Government Printing Office (GPO), on a GPO/OCLC project to archive government publications for permanent access; from Judy Russell, Deputy Director, National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, on the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) Phase Two study; and from Kenneth Nero, National Labor Relations Board, on FirstGov.

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FLICC Working Groups

FLICC Ad Hoc Bicentennial LC Working Group

In honor of the Library's Bicentennial celebration, the working group implemented programs for the federal library and information center community to participate in the Library's celebration and to increase recognition of federal library programs through a larger campaign to publicize the "Nation's Collections." In Fiscal Year 2000, the working group mailed a collection of materials, including a celebratory letter, bookmarks, blank letterhead, and a poster celebrating federal libraries and the Library's Bicentennial to more than 2,000 federal libraries. Recipients used these materials to supplement their local activities, and many requested the electronic files of the materials and additional sets of bookmarks to expand their activities throughout the fiscal year. The working group also released a virtual promotion tool kit available through the FLICC/FEDLINK Web site. Interested libraries and information centers downloaded a celebration overview, ideas for local activities, and a chronology of federal libraries. The Library's Bicentennial Web site created a link to the FLICC tool kit, and the Library included the poster and the chronology in its official time capsule. Although the working group was dissolved by the end of Fiscal Year 2000, members of the group will continue to offer help to the FLICC Preservation and Binding Working Group in their efforts to survey the historical holdings of federal libraries and information centers in the hopes of identifying those materials most in need of preservation and digitization.

FLICC Awards Working Group

To honor the many innovative ways federal libraries, librarians, and library technicians fulfill the information demands of government, business, research, scholarly communities, and the American public, the Awards Working Group administered a series of national awards for federal librarianship. The three awards are:

Federal Library/Information Center of the Year -- to commend a library or information center's outstanding, innovative, and sustained achievements during the fiscal year in fulfilling its organization's mission, fostering innovation in its services, and meeting the needs of its users;

Federal Librarian of the Year -- to honor professional achievements during the fiscal year in the advancement of library and information sciences, the promotion and development of services in support of the agency's mission, and demonstrated professionalism as described in the Special Libraries Association's Competencies for Special Librarians in the 21st Century; and

Federal Library Technician of the Year -- to recognize the achievements of a federal library technician during the fiscal year for service excellence in support of the library or information center's mission, exceptional technical competency, and flexibility in adapting work methods and dealing with change.

At the annual FLICC Forum on Federal Information Policies in March 2000, the Librarian of Congress recognized the following winners of the second annual awards:

Federal Library and/or Information Center of the Year (tie)--Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library, Los Alamos, New Mexico, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Central Library, Silver Spring, Maryland;

Federal Librarian of the Year--Year�Marion Jerri Knihnicki, U.S. Army Transportation School Library, Fort Eustis, Virginia; and

Federal Library Technician of the Year--Year�Rosette Risell, Naval Research Laboratory Library, Washington, D.C.

The individual award winners each received a certificate and an engraved crystal award in the shape of a book honoring their contributions to the field of federal library and information service, and the institutional winners each received a framed, hand-painted certificate for display. The working group then reviewed the program criteria in the summer of 2000 and initiated promotion efforts for the third annual awards program, including a redesign of the promotional brochure with an outside contractor.

FLICC Budget and Finance Working Group

The FLICC Budget and Finance Working Group developed the Fiscal Year 2001 FEDLINK budget and fee structure in the Winter quarter. When approved unanimously by the FLICC membership in May 2000, the final budget for Fiscal Year 2001 kept membership fees for transfer pay customers at Fiscal Year 2000 levels: 7.75 percent on accounts up to $300,000 and 7.00 percent on amounts exceeding $300,000. Direct pay fees also remained at Fiscal Year 2000 levels. FEDLINK training fees increased modestly. The Library approved the budget in the Summer of 2000.

FLICC Education Working Group

During Fiscal Year 2000, the FLICC Education Working Group developed or supported 28 programs for 1242 participants in the areas of knowledge management, evaluation, technician training, reference issues, cataloging and preservation. In addition, the FLICC Orientations to National Libraries and Information Centers and brown-bag luncheon discussions continued throughout the year.

The working group also pilot tested and released an online handbook of federal librarianship to serve as a resource tool for librarians new to the federal community and a quick reference guide for established federal librarians.

FLICC Information Technology Working Group

To encourage more consortial purchasing through FEDLINK, working group members served as "technical advisors" to FEDLINK staff in consortial negotiations with selected online vendors. Several of these efforts resulted in new FEDLINK consortial offerings for legislative branch agencies, with plans for expansion to executive agencies in Fiscal Year 2001. The working group also sponsored a multi-session luncheon discussion series and a technology update on distance learning technologies.

FLICC Nominating Working Group

The FLICC Nominating Working Group oversaw the 2000 election process for FLICC rotating members, FLICC Executive Board members and the FEDLINK Advisory Council (FAC). Librarians representing a variety of federal agencies agreed to place their names in nomination for these positions.

FLICC Personnel Working Group

The working group received a letter from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirming their assertion that the Library Equivalency Test is no longer being used. At the working group's request, OPM revised the GS-1410 Qualifications Standard, deleting all reference to the written test. Meetings with OPM representatives throughout the fiscal year focused on the need to substantially revise and streamline the qualification requirements for professional librarians. At year end, OPM implemented most of the working group's proposed revisions to the GS-1410 Qualifications Standard, now available on the OPM Web site. In the future the working group will work with OPM to expand and develop "core competencies" for the professional librarian series.

FLICC Preservation and Binding Working Group

The working group began preparing specifications for acceptable preservation procedures and containers and prepared a statement of work for preservation services that they submitted for consideration for the FEDLINK program. Their negotiations with the Government Printing Office resulted in binding contract modifications that include new requirements for small repairs and standard pricing for such repair work. The working group also sponsored a disaster preparedness educational program and established a link to the Navy Disaster Preparedness Manual through the FLICC/FEDLINK Web site.

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FLICC Publications and Education Office

Publications: In Fiscal Year 2000, FLICC supported an ambitious publications schedule producing seven issues of FEDLINK Technical Notes: October/November 1999 (8 pages); December 1999 (12 pages); January/February 2000 (8 pages); March/April 2000 (12 pages); May/June 2000 (8 pages); July/August 2000 (12 pages); and September/October 2000 (12 pages); and three issues of the FLICC Quarterly Newsletter: Fall 1999 (12 pages); and Winter 2000 (16); and Spring 2000 (12 pages).

FLICC expanded and enhanced materials to support the FEDLINK program, including the Fiscal Year 2001 FEDLINK Registration Booklet and six FEDLINK Information Alerts. FLICC also produced the minutes of the four Fiscal Year 2000 FLICC Quarterly Meetings and bimonthly FLICC Executive Board meetings and all FLICC Education Program promotional and support materials including the FLICC Forum announcement, Forum attendee and speaker badges, press advisories, speeches and speaker remarks, and Forum collateral materials. In addition, FLICC produced 23 FLICC Meeting Announcements to promote FLICC Education Programs, FEDLINK membership, vendor, and OCLC users' meetings, brown-bag discussion series, and education institutes, along with badges, programs, certificates of completion, and other supporting materials.

FLICC and FEDLINK staff members worked diligently throughout 2000 to continue to expand and update the FLICC/FEDLINK Web site. The site contains a variety of information resources, member information, links to vendors and other members, listings of membership and minutes of various FLICC working groups and governing bodies, access to account data online, award program information, event calendars, and an online training registration system that is updated nightly. FLICC staff members converted all publications, newsletters, announcements, alerts, member materials, meeting minutes and working group resources into HTML format, uploading current materials within days of their being printed. Staff members also began a link-checking initiative to keep its extensive number of links current throughout the Web site.

Through collaboration with the FEDLINK Network Operations staff members, the FLICC Web site continues to expand and offer resources including OCLC Usage Analysis Reports, pricing data, and many new documents, such as the Fiscal Year 2001 budget materials and training resources. Staff members also worked with the Library's Contracts and Logistics Division to make electronic versions of FEDLINK's Requests for Proposals available online for prospective vendors.

In Fiscal Year 2000, there were three special Web initiatives designed to enhance member and vendor access to FLICC and FEDLINK services. In honor of the Library's Bicentennial Year, staff members worked closely with the Ad Hoc LC Bicentennial Working Group on their Web page and collateral materials. Staff members also created the design and text for FEDLINK's FY2001 Online Registration/Online Interagency Agreement (IAG)system and developed additional instruction resources that members can link to as they use the online system. In addition, staff launched FLICC's first video offerings on the Web. By the end of the fiscal year, staff members completed plans to redesign the FLICC/FEDLINK Web page by the end of Fiscal Year 2001.

Education: In conjunction with the FLICC Education Working Group, FLICC offered a total of 28 seminars, workshops, and lunchtime discussions to 1242 members of the federal library and information center community. Multi-day institutes covered serials cataloging, technology planning, library technician training, and reference issues; one-day sessions offered hands-on and theoretical knowledge on online cataloging, and developing and managing Web sites. FLICC was also host to three General Counsel Fora.

FEDLINK staff members developed, coordinated and moderated the 1999 FLICC Symposium of the Information Professional. The theme was knowledge management and presenters included Joanne Marshall, Dean of the Library School, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and Susan DiMattia, President of the Special Libraries Association. Other notable speakers came from the federal sector, including representatives from the Navy, Army, National Security Agency, FBI, and Treasury.

During the winter months FLICC continued its commitment to librarians' and library technicians' continuing education by hosting satellite downlinks to a popular teleconference, "Soaring to...Excellence," sponsored by the College of DuPage. Following the success of previous programs, the working group held the fourth annual "Federal Library Technicians Institute." This week-long summer institute again focused on orienting library technicians to the full array of library functions in the federal context. Federal and academic librarians joined FLICC professionals to discuss various areas of librarianship, including acquisitions, cataloging, reference, and automation.

The newest FLICC institute, "FLICC Reference Institute: Reference Skills for the 21st Century," analyzed how traditional library reference skills work in a constantly changing information services environment by focusing on a variety of activities including conducting the reference interview via email, developing collections in a Web environment, providing non-traditional reference services, developing strategies and techniques for effective user education, maintaining bibliographic control of electronic resources, authenticating and archiving electronic publications, and evaluating reference services.

FLICC also provided organizational, promotional, and logistical support for FEDLINK meetings and events including: the FEDLINK Fall and Spring Membership Meetings; two FEDLINK OCLC Users Group meetings; the annual vendor briefing; and a program on "How and Why to Use FEDLINK in Fiscal Year 2001."

FLICC continued to improve its multimedia distance learning initiative through increased use of upgraded equipment and software to produce high quality, edited educational programs (with title pages, subtitles, voice overs, rolling credits, etc.). Through its ongoing arrangement with the National Library of Education, FLICC made these videos available for interlibrary loans to federal libraries throughout the country and around the world.

In addition, FLICC hosted its first cyber-broadcast of the 2000 FLICC Forum on Information Policies as a pilot test to 20 member agencies. Staff members also produced and uploaded downloadable video clips of the 2000 FLICC Awards ceremony, a staff presentation on model licensing, and "How and Why to Use FEDLINK in 2001" to a new section of the FLICC/FEDLINK Web site, "Educational Video Library."

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FEDLINK (Federal Library and Information Network)

In Fiscal Year 2000, FEDLINK gave federal agencies cost-effective access to an array of automated information retrieval services for online research, cataloging, and interlibrary loan (ILL). FEDLINK members also procured publications, technical processing services, serials, electronic journals, CD-ROMs, books, and document delivery via Library of Congress/FEDLINK contracts with major vendors and developed consortial methods for procuring these services.

The FEDLINK Advisory Council (FAC) met eight times during Fiscal Year 2000. In addition to their general oversight activities, the FAC approved the Fiscal Year 2001 FEDLINK budget and advised FEDLINK staff members in the creation of a fact sheet, "A Contracting Officer's Guide to FEDLINK," to outline the specific membership values of using FEDLINK services. The fact sheet appeared as an Information Alert and was also a feature in the FEDLINK Technical Notes newsletter.

At the annual Fall FEDLINK Membership meeting on October 28, 1999, participants had the opportunity to participate in a live national televideo conference on "Building Earth's Largest Library" with guest speaker Steve Coffman, Los Angeles Public Library. The annual FEDLINK Spring Membership Meeting held on April 27, 2000 featured a presentation by Martha Kyrilidou, Senior Program Officer for Statistics and Measurement at the Association of Research Libraries, a report from Louise LeTendre on the OCLC February Users Council Meeting, and an overview by Carol Bursik, of the U.S. Geological Survey and Chair of the FLICC Budget and Finance Working Group, on the FY2001 FLICC/FEDLINK budget proposal.

FEDLINK/OCLC Network Activity

Both the Fall and Spring OCLC Users Group Meetings featured updates on OCLC products and services, with special presentations. The Fall meeting featured Marcia Talley, U.S. Naval Academy Library, who reported on the OCLC Users Council, and Andrew Clements, OCLC, who updated participants on the OCLC Electronic Collections Online and WebExpress. The Spring meeting focused on OCLC services and new pricing.

FEDLINK staff members, in consultation with the Library's Contracts and Logistics Division, developed a new basis for a contract agreement with OCLC for Fiscal Year 2001 by revising the Statement of Work(SOW), reviewing other sections of the RFP and drafting a sole source justification. The new agreement is a sole source contract.

The FEDLINK OCLC team also participated in biweekly meetings with OCLC and other networks via the phone and the Web to obtain information about OCLC's new FirstSearch and its migration details, enhancements to PromptCat, a new service called WebExpress that provides an integrated user interface for Z39.50 connections to databases, improved authority control services, migration to the CORC production system, optional changes in pricing structures for Interlibrary Loan, AsiaLink, and other services.

FEDLINK staff members also worked to reduce the number of OCLC deficit accounts by contacting members by phone and letter, working with members to take action, and stopping members' access to OCLC when they failed to fund their accounts.

The FEDLINK staff members performed a variety of special activities during the fiscal year, including assisting the Library's Special Cataloging Unit with OCLC negotiations regarding batch processing of CD catalog records and related authority records, coordinating a satellite downlink at the National Science Foundation of the OCLC Users Council forum, and assisting FEDLINK libraries and information centers with flat fee cataloging and ILL renewals/orders, OCLC retrospective conversion agreements renewals and procuring archival records.

FEDLINK sponsored a meeting of the Federal Library OCLC CORC Project participants at the Library on October 22, 1999 and then hosted a meeting of CORC participants in Dublin, Ohio on November 3 and 4, 1999.

FEDLINK staff members also made site visits to the Marine Corps Research Library, Humphrey's Engineer Center Library, Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Justice, NOAA, Pentagon Library, the Marine Corps Museum, and the National Agricultural Library to help members and review new OCLC products and services.

FEDLINK Training Program

The 2000 FEDLINK training program included specialized training classes and customized workshops for members. OCLC's introduction of its new FirstSearch service provided continued reason and opportunity to conduct targeted training sessions for members converting to the enhanced retrieval service. FEDLINK met important training needs with special workshops, including a class on basic acquisition of library materials and an advanced acquisitions class developed for the Military Librarians Workshop in Williamsburg, Virginia in November 1999. Additionally FEDLINK conducted workshops for Air Force librarians at ALA in Chicago in June 2000.

During the year, staff members conducted 77 OCLC, Internet, and related classes for 738 students. Of the classes held, 46 were at field sites with 531 participants. FEDLINK staff members held training sessions in Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Dakota, Texas, and Virginia. They also traveled to Heidelburg, Germany; Osan, South Korea; and Misawa, Japan to train military librarians on OCLC, acquiring library materials, HTML coding, and Web research. FEDLINK also provided additional contract training through Solinet at Fort Gordon, Georgia, through the AMIGOS Network at Shepherd AFB, Texas, and by the Bibliographical Center for Research at Shepherd AFB, Texas. Federal librarians also continued to have access to training provided by other OCLC regional library networks through FEDLINK agreements; Capcon, the largest provider of non-FEDLINK training to federal libraries, and NYLINK signed training agreements with FEDLINK in Fiscal Year 2000. These network training contracts, established as separate agreements, have proven to offer members better customer service and contracts and account management. To complete the transition for training accounts, FEDLINK members will use their training accounts only for FEDLINK or FLICC training/events in Fiscal Year 2001 and continue to set up accounts with FEDLINK for specific networks whose training services they plan to use. FEDLINK staff members also began discussions with the Air Force regarding distance learning for OCLC and Internet services to streamline travel planning and expense and increase the timeliness of the information for participants.

Procurement Program

FEDLINK successfully re-competed its Basic Ordering Agreements (BOAs) for monographic publication services for Fiscal Year 2001. Staff members reviewed 26 proposals from book jobbers and publishers, and the Library's Contracts and Logistics Division made awards to current FEDLINK vendors, Academic Book Center, Alfred Jaeger, Inc., Ambassador Books and Media, American Overseas Book Company, Inc., Baker and Taylor, Inc., Blackwell North America d.b.a. Blackwell's Book Services, Brodart Company, Coutts Library Services, Inc., Franklin Book Company, Inc., National Law Resource, Inc., Rittenhouse Book Distributor, SANAD Support Technologies, Inc., and Yankee Book Peddler, Inc. d.b.a. YBP Library Services. New FEDLINK publications vendors are Book Wholesalers, Inc., BUSCA, Inc., Eastern Book Company, East View Publications, Follett Audiovisual Resources, Landmark Audio Books, and The Book House, Inc.

FEDLINK staff continued to compete and award members' serials subscription orders under the new Basic Ordering Agreements (BOAs) established for Fiscal Year 2000 with American Overseas Book Company, Blackwell, EBSCO, and Faxon. Approximately 166 serials accounts were competed and awarded during Fiscal Year 2000 alone. Also, staff members met with all four serials vendors to clarify procedures, learn about new product offerings, develop a better mutual understanding of needs, and ensure consistently excellent service to members.

FEDLINK also created new vendor arrangements to create consortial access to online full text information retrieval/electronic publications products and services for current and potential members. By the end of the fiscal year, FEDLINK had several active consortia including the Personnet Consortium with 25 transfer pay accounts with more than $310,773 in service dollars and $24,085 in new revenue.

FEDLINK worked with Library offices to improve use of FEDLINK agreements by the Library and other congressional agencies; FEDLINK staff assisted the Library's Collections Policy Committee Subcommittee on Electronic Databases as well as representatives from the Congressional Research Service and House and Senate staff in negotiations with UMI ProQuest, West Group and CCH, Inc., regarding consolidating the Legislative Branch purchases. The Congressional Research Service and Library Services registered and moved money to FEDLINK to begin service; the General Accounting Office registered for the service and is reallocating funds; and the Congressional Budget Office has indicated that they are interested in participating in the Legislative Branch Consortium for UMI ProQuest.

The Law Library, the Copyright Office, Library Services and the Office of the Librarian are participating in the Library's FEDLINK consortium for enterprise-wide access to Lexis-Nexis. Library staff members and the vendor are working through the evolving process as internal routines generate fiscal paperwork, process money moves and issue delivery orders.

FEDLINK representatives also began discussions with OCLC regarding additional FirstSearch consortial purchases, negotiated with the Copyright Clearance Center to add new services, requested that Jane's modify their agreement with FEDLINK to include network and enterprise-wide pricing, and worked with MCB University Press to provide its consortium package for electronic publications.

FEDLINK coordinated vendor demonstrations in the Library's Digital Library Center of UMI Chadwyck Healy's newly released research databases, "Know UK" and "Know Europe"; CCH Online's alternative to loose leaf print products on taxes and human resource issues; and Bureau of National Affairs' online access to information on environmental, safety & health, employment, trademark and copyright issues. Demonstrations were open to all members, and 30- to 45-day free trials were available for Library staff members. FEDLINK staff members also briefed the Deputy Director of the National Agricultural Library on consortial negotiations; developed a report of USDA offices using FEDLINK online agreements; developed a strategy and a survey for potential INSPEC customers and distributed it via listservs; and worked to develop methods for the Library Lexis-Nexis consortium and other future consortia.

FEDLINK staff members also established links to new vendors, encouraged old vendors to create FEDLINK specific areas for pricing and services, asked both old and new vendors to offer comprehensive services as seen on their Web sites, added Web information on the vendors' individual Fiscal Year 2000 pricing pages, and linked to sites that offer scanning services.

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FEDLINK Fiscal Operations

During Fiscal Year 2000, FEDLINK processed 9,248 member service transaction requests for current and prior years, representing $53.5 million in current year transfer pay, $4.1 million in prior year transfer pay, $53.2 million in current year direct pay, and virtually zero in prior year direct pay service dollars, saving members more than $12 million in vendor volume discounts and approximately $6.3 million more in cost avoidance. Staff members issued 52,927 invoices for payment of current and prior year orders and earned $14,879 in discounts in excess of interest penalties for late payment of FEDLINK vendor invoices. FEDLINK also completed Fiscal Year 1995 member refunds to close out obligations for expired appropriations and remaining account balances and successfully passed the Library of Congress Financial Audit of Fiscal Year 1999 transactions performed by Clifton Gunderson, LLP.

During the year FEDLINK worked with the General Counsel's Office to streamline and finalize policy recommendations for collecting OCLC customer billing and cost overruns and deficits. FEDLINK Member Services, supported by the Library's Information Technology Services (ITS), led program efforts to implement Online Registration/Online Interagency Agreements including forms and processes. FEDLINK procured software and support services to initiate work on two other e-business projects: electronic invoicing with selected high volume FEDLINK vendors based on the ANSI ASCX-12 EDI standard; and online access to financial information for member agencies and vendors. FEDLINK also continued to support the Library's procurement planning efforts for a financial management system intended for all congressional agencies. Because this system is scheduled for implementation in 2004, FEDLINK established plans to test new accounting software purchased in 1999 as an interim response to immediate requirements for the program's subsidiary financial system.

FEDLINK Vendor Services

FEDLINK vendor service dollars totaled $53.5 million for transfer pay customers and $53.2 million for direct pay customers. Electronic information retrieval services represented $16.5 million and $41.3 million of the service dollars spent respectively by transfer pay and direct pay customers. Within this service category, online services comprised the largest procurement for transfer pay and direct pay customers, representing $16.3 million and $40.9 million, respectively. Publication acquisition services totaled $30.5 million and $11.8 million respectively for transfer pay and direct pay customers. Within this service category, serials subscription services comprised the largest procurement for transfer pay and direct pay customers, totaling $23.3 million and $11.5 million respectively. Library support services represented $6.5 million and $74 thousand respectively for transfer pay and direct pay customers. Within this service category, bibliographic utilities constituted the largest procurement area with $5.1 million and $74 thousand spent by transfer pay and direct pay customers respectively.

Accounts Receivable and Member Services

FEDLINK processed 628 signed interagency agreements for Fiscal Year 2000 registrations from federal libraries, information centers, and other federal offices. In addition, FEDLINK processed 2,637 IAG amendments (1,234 for Fiscal Year 2000 and 1,403 for prior years) for agencies that added, adjusted, or ended service funding. These IAGs and IAG amendments represented 9,248 individual service requests to begin, move, convert, or cancel service from FEDLINK vendors. FEDLINK executed these service requests by generating 9,007 delivery orders for the Library's Contracts and Logistics Division to issue to vendors. FEDLINK processed $53.5 million in service dollars for 2,353 transfer pay accounts and $53.2 million in service dollars for 150 direct pay accounts. Included in these member service transactions were 674 member requests to move prior year (no-year and multi-year) funds across fiscal year boundaries. These no- year and multi-year service request transactions represented an additional contracting volume of $7.0 million comprising 1,114 delivery orders.

The FEDLINK Fiscal Hotline responded to a variety of member questions ranging from routine queries about IAGs, delivery orders, and account balances, to complicated questions regarding FEDLINK policies and operating procedures. In addition, the FLICC Web site and email contacts continued to offer FEDLINK members and vendors 24-hour access to fiscal operations and account data. Staff members also met with many FEDLINK member agencies and FEDLINK vendors to discuss complicated account problems and to resolve complex current and prior year situations. FEDLINK online financial service system, ALIX-FS, maintained current and prior year transfer pay account data and continued to provide members early access to their monthly balance information throughout the fiscal year. FEDLINK also prepared monthly mailings that alerted individual members to unsigned IAG amendments, deficit accounts, rejected invoices and delinquent accounts, and issued the Year End Schedule for Fiscal Year 2000 IAG transactions.

Transfer Pay Accounts Payable Services

For transfer pay users, FEDLINK processed 52,927 invoices for both current and prior fiscal year orders. Staff members processed these vendor invoices swiftly and efficiently to earn $14,879 in prompt payment discounts in excess of any interest penalties for late invoice payments. FEDLINK continued to maintain open accounts for three prior years to pay publications service invoices ("bill laters" and "back orders") for members using books and serials services. Staff members issued 95,732 statements to members (22,435 for the current year and 73,297 for prior years) and generated current fiscal year statements for electronic information retrieval service accounts on the 30th or the last working day of each month, and publications and acquisitions account statements on the 15th of each month.

FEDLINK issued final Fiscal Year 1995 statements to close obligations for members with expired Fiscal Year 1995 appropriations and quarterly statements for members with prior fiscal year obligations. FEDLINK also supported the reconciliation of Fiscal Year 1996 FEDLINK vendor services accounts and issued the final call to vendors for Fiscal Year 1997 Invoices.

Financial Management

FEDLINK successfully passed the "Library of Congress Financial Audit of Fiscal Year 1999 Transactions" performed by Clifton Gunderson, LLP, and completed vulnerability assessments of program financial risks for Library Services' approval and for the Inspector General's Office audit review. In the third quarter, staff members also completed a subsequent limited review of its automated financial system for submission to Library Services for the 2000 financial audit that included: financial systems briefings; documented review and analysis of financial systems; testing and verification of account balances in the central and subsidiary financial systems; financial statement preparation support; security briefings and reviews; and researched and documented responses to follow-up audit questions and findings.

FEDLINK staff members also met with representatives from the Library's General Counsel's office to streamline and finalize policy recommendations for billing and collecting OCLC customer cost overruns and deficits. Because OCLC deficits are the legal obligations of FEDLINK, the agreed upon policy requires collecting current year deficits through the normal IAG amendment/billing process for member agencies eligible to participate in FEDLINK. Collection and payment of prior year deficit accounts will not require a ratified IAG because the payment reimburses FEDLINK for monies the program already paid.

Financial Management Systems

Member Services staff members created an inter-divisional team with the Library's Information Technology Services staff members and created FEDLINK's interactive Online Registration/Online IAG system including its forms and basic financial processes. Using this Oracle system, members were able to register for Fiscal Year 2001 FEDLINK services online and receive their IAGs electronically within 72 hours. FEDLINK's traditional financial system, SYMIN, receives data from the new database and processes both delivery orders and member account transactions automatically for staff member review and approval.

FEDLINK collaborated with the Library's Contracts and Logistics Division to revise the statement of work for software development for electronic invoicing by an approved Library contractor. The task revision streamlined the scope of work and outlined specific requirements for the contractor to work with selected FEDLINK vendors to provide invoicing data based on the format using ANSI ASCX-12 EDI Standard. The contractor will also provide conversion software for importing and exporting invoice data for FEDLINK's financial system, SYMIN. The contractor is expected to complete its work with the selected vendors in early Fiscal Year 2001.

Staff members also developed strategies for providing additional Web access to online financial information for member agencies and vendors. As a first step, FEDLINK established a contract with another Library contractor, to acquire, install and support software to add onto FEDLINK's current document management system. FEDLINK's financial management system generates more than 90,000 statements for member agencies and more than 50,000 payment advices for vendors; in the future, FEDLINK plans to archive this information electronically in a document management system and establish a Web gateway for members and vendors to search and retrieve information via a standard Web browser. FEDLINK is already pilot testing electronic invoicing with its largest vendors so that in the future, the need to mail paper documents to members will be eliminated. The success of this initiative will reduce non-personnel costs for the program and allow FEDLINK to redeploy staff resources from these manual processes to higher level program work.

As part of the Library's financial management system acquisition, staff members joined the Library-wide working group as program representatives. By the end of the second quarter, staff members had completed a detailed review of system requirements and provided comments. FEDLINK then contracted with a vendor to provide support for implementation planning to implement off-the- shelf accounting software. This accounting software will serve as an interim solution for FEDLINK financial requirements until the Library migrates to its new system in Fiscal Year 2004.

Budget and Revenue

Although FEDLINK earned just 91 percent of its targeted Fiscal Year 2000 operating budget in fee revenue from signed IAGs, attrition in program staffing reduced administrative expenditures and obligations to allow for a balanced budget. As Year 2000 ended, FEDLINK fee revenue was approximately 1.8 percent above Fiscal Year 1999 levels for the same time period.

The slight rise in fee revenue is attributed to a 5.4 percent increase in transfer pay service and a 21.1 percent decline in direct pay procurement activities compared to the previous fiscal year. The higher fee contributions associated with transfer pay procurement more than offset the loss associated with the decline in direct pay procurement.

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