A National Document Supply Co-Operative among Healthcare Libraries in Ireland

Anne M. O’ByrneLibrarian

• Health Science Libraries Group

♦ Founded in 1982 under the auspices of the LAI.

♦ To provide a forum for healthcare libraries to

communicate and discuss common issues

and needs.

♦ 1st Edition: Standards for Irish Healthcare Libraries,

1993.

♦ By the end of the 1990s this document required

revision.

Background

Changing Environment

• Developments in

communication technology.

• Evolution of evidenced-based

practice.

• Number of key publications:

emphasising the need for

access to information as

a knowledge base in health.

• Role of the librarian became

central to accreditation

processes.

• The 2nd edition: Standards for

Irish Healthcare Library and

Information Services (2005).

• Service Management :

Section 4 Clause 8: Provision

required for inter-library loan

and document supply

service.

• Access to materials not held in

the library is made available

through effective inter- library

loan.

Standards Revision

• Libraries were experiencing difficulty in meeting the financial

demands of supplying evidence based resources to their staff.

• There were increases in inter-library loan costs from suppliers.

• There was a lack of mechanism to facilitate co operation

between healthcare libraries.

• Commercial delivery of urgent inter-library loans was very high.

Eff ects at Local Library Level

• Inter -library loan requests supplied directly from our own

sector.

• Quicker

• At less cost

• Librarians in health

sciences at the time felt

that a percentage of their

requests might be supplied

by other

Irish health science

libraries.

What was Needed?

• A sub group of HSLG decided to meet this challenge.

• 1991: The Irish Healthcare Libraries Inter-Lending Co-Operative

was established as a non profit making document supply

service.

• There were 11 founding libraries ranging from “one-person”

libraries to large hospital

and university libraries.

• Scheme was

administered through

meetings of the HSLG

organising committee.

Irish Healthcare Libraries Inter-Lending Co-

operative

• The scheme commenced on a trial basis using the holdings

information from the print Index to Irish Healthcare Libraries:

- known as the Red Book

• Requests for articles were made by fax and phone. There was

no charge. Each library carried the production costs.

• From the outset it was designed as a reciprocal scheme:

- Each library agreed to Supply and Receive.

Scheme Commencement

• Copyright under the Irish Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000

was the responsibility of each participating library.

• It met the requirements of Standard no 4.8.1 - 4.8.4 in the

provision of an appropriate inter-lending document supply

scheme.

• The need for LIS

services that

would provide

access to

inter-lending

and

document supply.

Copyright

• The scheme was successful from the start.

• Documents were supplied at a faster response rate and at a

lower cost.

• 1990’s saw a growth in the development of nursing and

medical libraries to support changes in medicine and nurse

education.

• There was a need for LIS services to support continuing

education, research and postgraduate study.

Ongoing Scheme

• Reputation of the group as an inter-lending consortium grew.

• In 1991 the consortium had 11 members with access to 1009

journal titles.

• In 2008 the consortium had grown to 70 members with access

to 7412 journal titles.

• The administration of the scheme could no longer be met by

the work of the organising committee and the use of the print

index required revision.

Group Development

• Functions

o To ensure equity of access to the

scheme.

o To monitor statistics and regulate

access.

o To handle complaints.

o To review new and existing

members.

Development of the Journal Holdings Co-operative Committee

• Criteria for entry

o Library must hold minimum of 20

health science journals.

o Library must be managed by a

full-time or part-time librarian.

o Library must supply as well as

receive and supply statistics of

use.

• Jean Harrison, Regional Librarian , HSE

• Muriel Haire, INMO, Librarian and Web Administrator

• Gillian Doran, Librarian, ICGP

• Anne M. O’ Byrne, Librarian, DDSH and Rotunda Hospital

• Breda Barrett, Librarian , St Michael’s House

• IT Support Consultant

Committee Members

• The terms of reference for the committee.

• All libraries knew that not all of their inter-lending

requests would be satisfied by the consortium.

• Requests to other commercial inter-lending agencies

would continue in tandem.

• No single library should be overburdened by excessive

requests.

Issues Agreed

• The Print Index was quickly out of date and not allow

amendments.

• 2006, the online version was made available with the print

copy. It became online only with members agreement

in 2007.

• It allowed members to input their own holdings information and

monthly statistics.

• It was available at http://ihslg.org

• Access rights were assigned to each library and log-in details.

Online Index of Holdings

• Statistics filed online between 2003 - 2005 suggest 50% supply

from consortium.

• 2005 - present suggest a decline in these figures due to the

following factors:

– Open access policy for journal articles

– Access to journal back runs from the publishers

– Availability of full-text online/ PDF delivery

– Consortia purchasing

Statistical Analysis

• Loss of Members and holdings

- 57 organisations - current list

o No staff to administer statistics monthly

o Deletion of print holdings and space issues.

o Changes to copyright and licensing

o Libraries should be aware of their individual licensing with their

publishers and how inter-library loan is covered in this context.

Can PDFs be re-distributed under the licence?

o “ I would like to check if anyone has a licence agreement with their

relevant electronic supplier......”

Current Constraints

• Group licensing to replace individual licensing.

• Archival issues: group acquisition policy.

• Group retention policy.

• Copyright policy statement.

• Incorporation with other co-operative groups, i.e. IreL.

Initiatives of Co-operatives

• Catherine Breslin - HSE Galway RIP

• Timothy Collins - UCG Retired

• Gay Doyle - St Lukes Hospital Retired

• Suzanne Feeney - Crumlin Hospital

• Tony Linnane - HSE, Galway

Acknowledgement to past Co-Operative Members

• Retain co-operative elements:

– Spirit of goodwill and continuity.

– Motivation to help each other.

– Motivation to share resources.

Bibliography

upon request

Future

Anne M. O’Byrne Librarian

Rotunda Hospital

amobyrne@rotunda.ie

01 8171795