HKALL/InnReach Experiment

1. HKALL - Hong Kong Academic Library Link 港書網 - 香港高校圖書聯網 HKALL/InnReach Experiment 1 December 2004

2. HKALL - Hong Kong Academic Library Link 港書網 - 香港高校圖書聯網 Technical Issues David Palmer Systems Librarian Technical Services Support Team Leader The University of Hong Kong dtpalmer@hkucc.hku.hk

3. HKALL - Hong Kong Academic Library Link 港書網 - 香港高校圖書聯網 HKALL is - • a pilot project in accelerated resource sharing jointly undertaken by the academic libraries of three Hong Kong tertiary institutions, City University of Hong Kong, Lingnan University and The University of Hong Kong. • a union catalogue based on the INNReach software from Innovative Interfaces which allow staff and students of participating libraries to initiate borrowing requests while they search.

4. HKALL - Hong Kong Academic Library Link 港書網 - 香港高校圖書聯網 How does InnReach work?

5. INN-Reach Components • Union Catalogue • Automatic de-duping • Automatic updating in real time from members to Union • Choice of exclusion of certain records, certain fields • Choice of how to handle 856 e-resources • Patron-Initiated Circulation

6. millennium millennium INN-REACH SERVER Bibliographic Bibliographic Bibliographic Authority Authority Institution Patron Patron Item Item Order Order Course Course Checkin Checkin Architecture

7. Lending/Borrowing Patron Patron Request Options: via own system or via central server Item Circulated HKALL Central Server Item Request Patron Verified Local System Local System Request Filled Item Sent Record Contribution Local System Local System

8. Step - by - step • User at HKU requests LU bk • LU prints paging slip • LU retrieves from shelf • LU institutional checkout • Courier, from LU to HKU • HKU institutional checkin • HKU email notice to user • HKU normal checkout to user • HKU normal checkin from user • Courier, from HKU to LU • LU inst. checkin • Return to shelf

9. Request Load Balancing Multiple Pickup Locations allowed Paging Slips Notices: pickup, etc. Email, etc. of various. Patron renewals at either borrowing library or owning library Owning library recalls Borrowing library cannot make holds or recalls on non-owned items Statistics In development: NON-Returnable Module i.e, journal articles Resource Sharing Features & Options

10. Patron Interface

11. 2. Click on HKALL button to automatically search INN-Reach catalogue 1. Title Not Found at your library

12. 3. Click link to request item

13. 4. Patron selects/ indicates which is their library

14. 5. Information verified at patron library

15. 6. System Selects Copy and Confirms Request

16. Some Technical Problems • How to display e-resource URLs • Resolved • Courier service • Agreed to use existing service, 48 hours • Merge rate: 2%  17.91% in November • CJK in 880 & in 245 etc. Practices differed. • November rebuild, new algorithm • Nov Rebuild • Unicode is internal code • Some cleanup needs to be done • TSVCC, or synonymy of CJK variants soon • 台湾 vs. 臺灣 still working on this.

17. HKALL Circulation Policies Alice Tai Circulation / Reserve / Interlibrary Loans Librarian City University of Hong Kong lbatai@cityu.edu.hk

18. Some Basic Principles • Make the policies as simple as possible. • Minimize policies that interfere with local circulation practices while still trying to maximize use of the mega collection. • Policies should not undermine the interest of users in the owning libraries.

19. HKALL Basic Policies • Strive to circulate to others what you circulate to your own users.* • Circulate to all classes of users. • Users get 10 books for 15 days (undergraduates) and 30 days (postgraduates) and they have 5 days to pick up their requests. A single renewal is allowed for the same number of days. * Excepting AV, short term loan materials, and other collections you dictate.

20. More Basic Policies • Local patrons are given priority, e.g., local patrons can place recalls and holds but the other library’s patrons cannot. • Normal and recalled overdue fines are HK$2.00 and HK$4.00 per item per calendar day respectively and are collected and held by the borrowing library. • Book replacement and penalty policies per the owning library. • Decision to not display URLs in e-resources in HKALL to avoid licensing problems.

21. HKALL Statistics

22. What our use statistics tell us: • There are net borrowers and lenders. • Users at 2 of 3 libraries borrowed significant numbers of books owned but checked out. • Undergraduates were the largest user group irrespective of the size of their own library. • 2/3rds+ of the items borrowed were non-CJK. • Three subjects dominated the borrowing/lending activities of these three libraries. • HKALL increases the amount and speed of borrowing. • Unique items borrowed were frequently out of scope.

23. Net Borrowing/Lending

24. Borrowing What Is Owned

25. Borrower’s Status

26. Language of Titles Borrowed

27. Subjects Borrowed Three subject clusters dominated the borrowing and lending scene during the experiment. • Social Science /Law/Education • Science/Technology • Language/Literature

28. HKALL Increases the Speed of Borrowing # To avoid overweight charges, sometimes we need to hold up some non-urgent items for dispatch the day after. This will lead to some delay. Hiring Youth Outreach as our courier service supplier which offers a larger weight allowance compared to DHL has eased the situation to a great extent though not 100%. * These figures are for HKU only and reflect the experience during the year prior to the introduction of HKALL. + Except Lingnan University

29. HKALL increased the amount of borrowing but decreased the amount of traditional ILL between participating libraries

30. Collecting Scope of Titles Borrowed HKU librarians reviewed the non-duplicate titles to determine what percent fell within HKU’s collecting policies.

31. HKALL User Survey Tommy Yeung Associate Librarian (Reader Services) Lingnan University tyeung@ln.edu.hk

32. Objectives of Survey • To find out users’ general comments on the HKALL service • To find out comments from specific groups of users • To enable users to express their own opinions • To compare HKALL with ILLiad • To identify areas for future improvement

33. Methodology • Online questionnaire • 19 structured questions on a 5-point scale • Open-ended questions • 9 focus group meetings for academic staff, library staff and students

34. Online Questionnaire • Comments on the general features of HKALL • Rating of performance, e.g. fulfillment, turnaround time, etc. • Future expectations • Comparison of HKALL with ILLiad • Other comments

35. Users Like HKALL Because It: • Acts as a source of obtaining materials not available in your own library. (80%*) • Enables users just to click a few buttons and easily make a request instead of typing the item information into the borrowing system again. (80%*) • Generates email notices, e.g. pickup, overdue, cancellation, etc. to inform users of the request status. (76%*) • Integrates with the library’s online catalogue so that separate searches of other library catalogues are not required. (73%) *Chose either good / excellent

36. Comments on HKALL Performance • Fulfillment rate (67%*) • Turnaround time (62%*) • HKALL and ILLiad are considered the same by 50% of respondents • Detail result available at: http://obelix.lib.hku.hk/cgi-bin/survey/hkall2004/stat.cgi * Chose either good / excellent

37. Users Wish HKALL Would • Include more libraries so that more items can be made available to users (88%*) • Allow users to self-renew items more than once (82%*) • Remind users to return the loan items before the due date (74%*) • Handle requests for journal articles (70%*) *Chose either important / extremely important

38. Positive Comments • “Excellent on the whole.” • “I would say this scheme has been excellently carried out. with this scheme, resources in the universities can be better utilised …” • “HKALL simply makes life easier. thank you …” • “A convenient system for academic exchanges.” • “it would be great if the collaboration can extend to …” • “It should include all eight institutions in HK.”

39. Complaints / Negative Comments • “loan period is too short, why not allow longer period in case no one request it.” • “I think giving us a larger quota is better …” • “the turnaround time is a little bit long …” • “Sometimes I was a bit confused, as HKALL services are processed by the ILLiad counter.” • “Books in our HKU libraries should be sufficient … I don’t see there’s any needs for collaborations with other U’s libraries.”

40. Focus Group Meeting • Including external customers and internal staff • Individual sessions for academic staff, students and library staff • Opportunity for interaction

41. Focus Group Meeting - Students • Learned about HKALL through different channels • Liked the service a lot • Considered that wider access would not be a good alternative of information access • Wished more libraries could join HKALL

42. Focus Group Meeting – Academic Staff • Learned about HKALL through different channels • Opined that HKALL had good integration with Web-OPAC • Considered that JULAC Card was not a convenient form of information access • Wished more libraries could join HKALL

43. Focus Group Meeting – Library Staff • Service became more complicated • Impact varied from section to section • Believed that users liked ILLiad more • Worried on work pressure if more libraries were going to join

44. HKALL Will Become More Successful If: • Strategic Level • More member libraries • Better promotion strategy • Operational Level • Loan quota and period extended • More renewals • Hold requests become possible • Due date alert • Handle journal requests

45. HKALL - Hong Kong Academic Library Link 港書網 - 香港高校圖書聯網 Thank You !