Delivery Services Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes 2006

The meeting of the statewide Delivery Services Advisory Committee was held February 2, via video-conference with sites at Madison, Eau Claire, Ashland, Wausau, Green Bay, Burlington, and Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Committee members present: Jan Adams, Linda Bailen, Mark Blackman, Wendy Cramer, Lorie Docken, Charles Elfman, Peggy Shaffer, Juanita Thomas, Maureen Welch, Louis Williams, Mary Williamson (for Bob Shaw)

Committee members absent: Liisa Eyerly, Joyce Huang, Bob Shaw, Karen Showers

DLCL and SCLS Staff members present: Sally Drew, Bob Blitzke, Bruce Smith, Stuart Ciske

Maureen Welch convened the meeting and welcomed new members. All members introduced themselves. Maureen asked if there were any corrections to the minutes. Maureen said that the date of the study mentioned under the measurement section should have been April, 2004 and Linda Bailen said that under the Northern Waters report it should read WALCO plane rather than plan. Mary Williamson moved approval of the minutes with corrections and Mark Blackman seconded the motion. The minutes were approved with corrections.

Sally Drew noted it was time for elections and volunteered to run this part of the meeting. Maureen Welch was nominated for chair and Linda Bailen was nominated for vice-chair. Both nominations were approved unanimously.

Introduction and review of statewide delivery services

Sally Drew provided an overview of statewide delivery services for both old and new members. She described the purpose and historical background of the Delivery Service Advisory Committee, how and to what extent various types of libraries participate, costs of public library system delivery services, the costs of the statewide backbone service, and volume and charges made to various types of libraries. Bob Blitzke pointed out that technical colleges are mostly a part of the route because they cooperate with public library systems. Maureen Welch pointed out that the WALTCO costs were not part of the summary Sally provided. There was some discussion on how to measure volume statistics including those for the four northern systems served by WALTCO. Maureen said that she would check with the four northern systems on volume and costs.

Bruce Smith showed the group the SCLS delivery service website. It was also noted that the SCLS site does not have complete information on the four northern systems. Bob Blitzke said it would be useful to have the route structure for these system deliveries.

Issues for 2006 meetings

Maureen Welch suggested moving the discussion of the issues for 2006 to the end of the agenda to give people more time to think about this.

Delivery Services budget

Sally Drew said that the David Weinhold had written to the LSTA Advisory Committee requesting $17,000 in additional funding for the statewide delivery service. Eleven thousand would be for SCLS and six thousand for Northern Waters Library Service. Sally reported that the LSTA Advisory Committee awarded $83,600 total for the delivery service.

Sally Drew said that the committee needed to begin to think about what kind of a budget to request for the state's 2007-2009 biennial budget. She said that in the past the committee had recommended a separate budget request item for the state's budget and needs to determine if this should be done again. This separate request sometimes is in competition with system funding for legislators' attention. If a separate request is not made, it is still necessary to come up with an amount that will need to be charged back to public library systems and other libraries. The University of Wisconsin budget is already set by contract. Bruce Smith said that he would look at the routes and costs, but thinks the structure is fairly stable for now without adding new routes which can be costly. SCLS is working to adapt vehicles to increased traffic so that new routes are not needed.

Best practices committee report

Maureen Welch discussed the need to develop a best practice for library and public library system websites that deal with delivery. She provided a list of topics that should be included on all public library system websites. Topics included were lists of libraries on the courier route, a link to SCLS website, information on when and how materials are picked up and delivered, materials needed for sending items via the courier, guidelines for sending items via the courier, and how to report problems with a courier. Bruce had done a survey of system websites and was able to find complete information on only four system websites. Five system websites did not seem to have any information about delivery. Linda Bailen said that some systems probably rely on written instructions that are not on the website. The purpose of the model website would be to let people know how delivery works at the regional level.

The committee discussed how to disseminate this information. It would be important to send to system directors and perhaps also to system delivery contacts. Stuart Ciske asked if the request to develop delivery website information should come from Rick Grobschmidt.

How the efficiency and cost of current delivery services can be accurately measured.

Sally Drew shared the information she had collected from systems on public library system level delivery cost and volume. Cost information is collected as a part of the annual report, and she distributed the information Al Zimmerman had compiled. Sally had asked systems to indicate what volume they handled at the system level. Nine systems responded, but of these, only six provided estimates on volume.

Five systems said that they operated delivery service with system staff and six said that the system contracted with a commercial courier service. Only one system (a single county system) had done a recent cost comparison and found the courier more costly. Some systems paid for the delivery service from state funds and some received funding from participating libraries.

South Central Library System report

Bob Blitzke reported that the hiring process for a new director is underway. He expected that interviews would be held in March and that staff is hopeful that there will be a new director in May. Phyllis Davis is serving as the interim director.

University of Wisconsin report

Lorie Docken said that during the summer (July-August) the UW campuses will go through a Voyager upgrade which will take two-three weeks. During this time, the volume will be down. The upgrade does not have significant enhancements to the Universal Borrowing functions.

Northern Waters Library Service report

Linda Bailen reported that the problem related to using the WALTCO plane due to volume increases had not materialized. Bob Blitzke wanted to know if the plane was dedicated to library delivery or if it also delivered other materials. Linda did say that some other materials were on the plane, but that it was the library materials increase that was the potential problem.

Issues for 2006

Issues that the committee members said would be of interest for 2006 were:

• To track any progress made towards development of a UW storage facility.
• Work to continue to add new members to the network
• Develop more information on total statewide delivery volume, including the impact of NetLibrary, OverDrive, electronic delivery and downloading of electronic materials, BadgerCat, and other programs.

Next meeting date

The next meeting date was set for May 23, 2006 at the Reference and Loan Library.

For questions about this information, contact Sally J. Drew (608) 224-6161

Last updated on 2/25/2008 12:27:39 PM