Delivery Services Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes 2007

The meeting of the statewide Delivery Services Advisory Committee was held May 23, 2007 at the Reference and Loan Library.

Committee members present: Jan Adams, Linda Bailen, Mark Blackman, Phyllis Davis, Charles Elfman, Gary Flynn, Peggy Shaffer, Bob Shaw, J. P. Slater, Juanita Thomas, Maureen Welch, Ann Welniak

Committee members absent: Liisa Eyerly, Wendy Cramer, Louis Williams

DLCL and SCLS Staff members present: Stuart Ciske, Tim Drexler, Sally Drew, Stef Morrill, Bruce Smith, Terry Wilcox

Committee Chair Maureen Welch welcomed the members and asked for introductions. There were no additions or changes to the agenda. Welch asked if there were any changes to the minutes from the September meeting. Bruce indicated that on page two, the cost model should be 25%. Jan Adams moved and Peggy Shaffer seconded the motion to approve the minutes as amended.

Delivery Services Budget

Sally Drew discussed various aspects of the budget for delivery services. She explained that it is funded from a variety of sources. The Division uses Library Services and Technology Act funds to subsidize the cost of the public library system portion of the budget. For 2008, the LSTA Advisory Committee recommended $60,000 for the SCLS statewide delivery and $15,000 for the Northern Waters Library Service.

Bruce Smith provided information on how the statewide delivery service budget is put together. Smith reviews the route structure and determines if any changes need to be made to it. He also analyzes the mileage and number of stops attributed to group such as academic, public library system, etc. He determines direct costs and indirect costs and allocates those. The total costs are "postalized," meaning that libraries are not charged based on their distance from Madison.

The UW System Libraries have a separate contract with SCLS which will run through 2009 and has a built in 4% per year increase with a volume trigger. The public library systems have agreed to a uniform formula for dividing the funding among systems. Some public library systems include other types of libraries such as technical colleges, schools, and institutions on their internal system delivery routes allowing these libraries to be served by the statewide delivery service. Some libraries are served directly by SCLS and Smith allocates costs based on a percentage increase of the total budget. There have been unsuccessful attempts to get the technical colleges to participate as a group. Smith estimates that the total cost will go up approximately 5% for 2008. Smith works with the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to purchase biodiesel at the wholesale cost plus overhead.

Smith does not think it will be necessary to split any routes in 2008. Smith does not think it is necessary to meet further with any of the groups on the 2008 budget. Peggy Shaffer wondered if Lakeshores and Mid-Wisconsin Library Systems would receive a drop as a result of picking up the intersystem delivery volume that used to be handled by SCLS. Bruce said that this change would show up in 2009 and about $12,000 would shift to other systems as more is handled locally. Shaffer said that that may help generate the discussion of whether the base level should be changed. Drew commented that public library systems that share an automated system need to find a way to handle the intersystem traffic as there is a danger that the volume between two systems could be high enough that SCLS could not handle it without a route restructure. Drew wondered if this should be the subject of a "best practice" statement and Shaffer agreed saying that the impact had not been considered enough at this point. Davis thought that this issue should be considered on a case-by-case basis. Stuart Ciske suggested that systems considering merging automated systems should contract with SCLS separately.

The committee discussed LSTA funding. Smith said due to the LSTA subsidy funding share remaining flat, the actual cost increase to the public library systems as a group in 2008 is 6%. Phyllis Davis said that she regretted that the LSTA Advisory Committee had not recommended more funding. She pointed out that public library systems will only get a 4% increase if the Governor's budget amount is passed. She said that perhaps a letter of support could result in an increase when the final amounts are set in the fall of 2007. Shaw asked about the LSTA penalty and Sally explained that the state had not met the maintenance of effort level for several years, but that the Department had been able to get the penalty waived for 2008. Shaffer moved and Gary Flynn seconded the motion to petition the LSTA Advisory Committee to add more funding for delivery when grants are considered in the fall. The motion passed unanimously and Welch said that she would draft a letter. Morrill and Adams suggested that the Division should build in a future increase.

Drew also said that the Reference and Loan Library pays WALTCO for the route between Madison and Minneapolis for the MINITEX delivery and for the processing of materials in the all library mailing. This amount is $2,200 for 2006-2007.

Drew shared the state budget request for funding public library system delivery services. This request was forwarded to the Governor's office by the Department of Public Instruction, but was not included in the Governor's budget request. Drew thought that it would be unlikely that it would be added in by the legislature.

Statistical trends

Drew pointed out that the SCLS website contains statistical information on the number of "red buckets" picked up during sample periods. Smith said that the UW system volume is growing at about 10-11% and is larger than for public library systems. The volume level for various groups is University of Wisconsin (48.8%), public library systems (45.2%), Reference and Loan Library (1.5%) private academic libraries (2.6%), state agencies (1.7%), and technical colleges (0.1%). Drew passed out a chart comparing delivery service volume for the public library systems and private colleges. The volume has fluctuated slightly over this time frame going up for some systems and down for others. The overall increases do not seem to be substantial enough to cause a route change. Smith also stated that the switch in types of vehicles will allow SCLS to absorb the growth.

Use of delivery slips from various automated systems and manual systems: Issues and best practices

Drew invited the committee members to look at the display of different delivery slips she had prepared. The display shows the wide variety of slips used and some of the problems caused by inaccurate labeling. She suggested the committee may want to develop some best practices around development and use of shipping slips. Bruce said that on Madison campus there are 10 different slips. There was discussion about listing the main information that should be on all slips and discussion about using a numbering system for agencies which Colorado is currently developing. There was consensus that a best practice document should be drafted. There was some discussion about having everyone use the same slip. Drew pointed out the difficulty of doing this due to automatic output of slips from some automated systems. Having the same slip would make manual filling out of slips the norm and lose the advantage of being able to print them out with the correct information on each slip taken from the request itself.

The group listed the information that should be on all slips:

Other issues listed included:

Things to avoid doing:

The following people volunteered to be on a subcommittee:

Automated materials handling (AMH) systems

Smith is monitoring what is happening in a few other states. There are only a few vendors in this business. The AMH systems are able to work with multiple ILL/ILS systems. It is doubtful if the vendors can handle the different types of systems that we have. King Co. uses a custom developed system (developed by FKI Logistics) with a belt moving at 45 MPH that reads barcodes and routes the materials. They have six people who feed the belt and six people who monitor bins. They spent $2.8M. Seattle has a Tech Logic AMH system in place using RFID. Massachusetts is looking at moving to AMH. Their initial plan is to have two AMH sorting hubs strategically located in the state to sort the materials for their 6 regional systems. Smith thinks costs would need to come down and the functionalities improved to make it worth the investment.

Patron-generated interlibrary requests and impact on delivery

Drew said that she did the statistical trends document in part to determine the rate that public library system delivery counts were increasing. There are about 50 public libraries allowing patrons to send mediated requests. Most only train core patrons who make a lot of requests. Staff looks at most of the requests from patrons. The WISCAT software also allows staff to set limits on individual patrons. Welniak said that universal borrowing had increased workflow. A patron must check their account to find out what is not coming.

UW/WHS storage facility

Smith said that there was no real news on this item at this time.

Home delivery to patrons

Smith said that OCLC is doing a pilot project in Montana which was supposed to start in November, 2006 but has not yet started. The end users would pay for the service and it is not clear whether they would be willing to do so. Smith also suggested looking at http://rethinkingresourcesharing.org. Libraries in Florida, Kansas, and Illinois are doing home delivery. Bailen said that NWLS mails books to patrons who can drop them in book drops placed in strategic rural areas. WALTCO empties the book drops weekly. Welniak said that libraries are having postage issues with supplying materials through distance education programs. Welch asked how lost materials are handled. Are the patrons liable for the costs. Davis said that Amazon appeals to library patrons.

Participation by various types of libraries

Drew showed the group charts for institution library and technical college library participation, which has improved. She also showed a map from the SCLS website. Flynn said he would discuss the technical school participation at a periodic meeting. He also said that postage comes from a central account so libraries are less worried about using delivery. Blackman asked if common school funds could be used to pay for school delivery and if not suggested changing the law so it is possible. Maureen pointed out that many schools are losing library staff and perhaps the volume would not be high enough to justify the cost. Some committee members were skeptical that the chart was accurate and suggested that the Division conduct a survey. Ciske said that there could be questions added to a school survey that is done periodically. Adams pointed out that this is a continuing issue and there always seems to be a wall that gets hit with this topic.

Best practices committee

Drew said that so far the committee had developed best practices for information to be included on public library system websites. She is unsure that all systems made changes, but some did.

SCLS report

Smith said that he is making a presentation at ALA with people from Colorado. ALA has appointed an ASCLA committee on delivery services. He is also working on a WLA program on delivery services.

University of Wisconsin report

Shaw said that UW-Madison is starting to use "Rapid ILL" with 24 hour delivery for articles. He expected use to start in the fall. He anticipates use to be less than 5,000 per year.

Northern Waters Library Service report

Bailen said that four libraries had been added to their shared system. No April volume study was done, but they will gather WALTCO data next year. Drew noted that delivery study statistics do not now capture WALTCO data and that is why they were thinking of gathering this data.

Welch asked if there were any problems with volume on the WALTCO plane from Ashland to Wausau, and Bailen said that there had not been recently.

The next meeting date is September 20, 2007 at 10:00 a.m.

The meeting of the statewide Delivery Services Advisory Committee was held September 20, 2007 via videoconference with sites at Madison, Wausau, Racine, Eau Claire, Ashland, and Oneida.

Committee members present: Jan Adams, Wendy Cramer, Phyllis Davis, Charles Elfman, Bob Shaw, Juanita Thomas, Maureen Welch, Ann Welniak, Louis Williams

Committee members absent: Linda Bailen, Mark Blackman, Liisa Eyerly, Gary Flynn, Peggy Shaffer, J. P. Slater

DLCL and SCLS Staff members present: Tim Drexler, Sally Drew, Bruce Smith, Terry Wilcox

Committee Chair Maureen Welch welcomed the members and asked for introductions. There were no additions or changes to the agenda. Welch asked if there were any changes to the minutes from the May meeting. Juanita Thomas pointed out that the starting time in the May minutes was 10:00 instead of 9:30. Jan Adams moved approval of the minutes and Ann Welniak seconded the motion. The minutes were then approved unanimously.

Use of WISLINE instead of video-conferencing for DLAC meetings

Noting the ongoing difficulties experienced trying to get all sites up at the beginning of meetings, Sally said that she wondered if the group wanted to consider using WisLine instead of video-conferencing. Using WisLine each person could remain at their desk, decreasing travel costs. However, there would be a cost for the WisLine service so it might come out about the same. The group indicated that it would be worth trying once to see if the lack of video presence was a problem to the cohesiveness of the meeting.

SCLS Website Redesign

Tim Drexler showed the committee the proposed website redesign and described what he hoped to achieve. There was a lot of discussion on how to display the various library lists. Juanita Thomas asked if there was a need for “see references” for library list when names are not obviously associated with a community. Tim said he would continue to work on the redesign of the website.

Best Practices

The committee discussed the draft best practices document. Terry Wilcox thanked Linda Bailen, Ann Welniak, Bob Shaw, and Tim Drexler for their enthusiasm and hard work on this project. She said that the ideas came from the brainstorming session at the last delivery meeting, existing content on the SCLS delivery services website, and relevant sections of the Wisconsin Interlibrary Loan Guidelines 2005. Maureen Welch led the discussion about the draft. She suggested that there needed to be some discussion of how the intra-system and inter-system/statewide delivery services overlap and the relationship to each other. There were some questions about the ability to print the master delivery list. Tim and Bruce confirmed that there will be a printable delivery list for those interested in printing one out. Terry indicated that there would be examples of the various delivery labels in the final document and acknowledged the need for a printable copy online for delivery labels that are manually filled out and most frequently used.

Maureen Welch asked if there was a need to include any information about costs in this document and Sally Drew said this was best practices only and costs could be addressed separately.

For those libraries that join shared systems or make arrangements with a public library for delivery, Bruce said that there needed to be a process of notification of SCLS so that he could add them to the website. Maureen Welch asked if there needed to be a list of hubs and the associated libraries. Terry Wilcox agreed to be the contact for the alternate shipping address information and pointed out that the Auto-Graphics delivery slips clearly showed the relationship between a library and its hub.

Jan Adams suggested that approved abbreviations be included for schools. Bruce suggested that additional information be added on how to get information out to all libraries about items that appear on the lost in delivery list. It was suggested that additional training needed to be provided for current and especially new delivery service personnel in libraries. There are problems related to actions by personnel in all types of libraries and there is a fair amount of turnover. Bruce Smith suggested development of a slide show like that used in Minnesota. Tim Drexler reviewed many of the system web sites and found some that could improve placement to aid their member libraries. Juanita Thomas feels that there still is a need to improve delivery information on the WVLS system web pages and that the best practices document is what is needed for her to request that it receive more prominent placement.

Committee members discussed the individual labels in more depth, pointing out issues and problems with them. Bruce Smith said that there would be more information on labels as a part of the SCLS web redesign. He said that in Colorado, they had managed to require only one form for everyone, while Wisconsin had many forms. The committee discussed the difficulty of having one form, when automated systems produced forms that offered the advantage of not needing to be filled out manually. The committee agreed it was still a goal to have the forms contain the same information and look more alike.

The committee members also made editorial changes and other suggestions. Terry will work with the subcommittee to redraft the best practice document for further discussion at the next meeting.

South Central Library System Report

Bruce Smith said that in the last count, the UW-Madison volume was dropping somewhat. Public Library System volume remains about the same. South Central has noticed an increase in requests from MINITEX. Academic and technical colleges are increasing at 3-4% per year. Material delivery between Lakeshores and Mid-Wisconsin has dropped since these systems now handle their own intersystem delivery.

Phyllis Davis noted that the Library Emporium project has been discontinued.

University of Wisconsin System Report

Bob Shaw described the Rapid ILL service which delivers articles with 24 hour turnaround time. Bruce Smith spoke about home delivery to patrons.

Northern Waters Library Service Report

There was no one present from Northern Waters, but Juanita Thomas provided some information. She said that some delivery times were changing because WALTCO was no longer using the plane. She thought this might lengthen the delivery time by a day.

Advisory Terms ending 2007

Sally Drew noted that the following delivery terms were ending. She would be considering new appointments and perhaps some reappointments.

Liisa Eyerly
CESA 12

Charles Elftmann
Alverno College

Bob Shaw
Wisconsin Library Services

Juanita Thomas
Wisconsin Valley Library Service

Louis Williams
Oneida Community Library

Maureen Welch
Indianhead Federated Library System

Peggy Shaffer
Lakeshores Library System

Next meeting date

The next meeting was scheduled for January 31, 2008. Drew will schedule the meeting as a WisLine session.

The meeting was adjourned.

For questions about this information, contact Shiela A. Pollock (608) 224-5395

Last updated on 2/25/2008 12:27:40 PM