Federal Libraries Consortium

About the FLC

Annual Report

April 1, 2007 - March 31, 2008

Highlights

• New Staff: Administrative Assistant and Electronic Resources Officer
• Vendor Fair
• Factiva Pilot
• New Resourcing Model

Memberships

Consortium membership numbered 60 as of March 31, 2008. As of April 1, 2008, Consortium membership is opened to all federal libraries (and library-like entities) with no shared service fee (see New Resourcing Model, below).

Financial Statement 2007-8

Revenue		Expenses
Membership fees	$124,100.00	Salaries	$120,145.12
Subscription	$98,469.43	O&M	$10,116.16
Opening Balance	$8,890.35	Subscription	$95,533.73
Total Revenue	$231,459.78	Total Expenses	$225,795.01
Total Surplus	$5,664.67

Staff

In 2007-8, Library and Archives Canada acted on the recommendation of the Consortium Advisory Committee to increase Consortium capacity by recruiting Anne Chartrand, on secondment from Statistics Canada, as Electronic Resources Officer. With Pierre Lacombe, on secondment from the Department of Canadian Heritage ably providing administrative support, and the addition of a summer student, Chantal Lemaire, who continued to work one day per week during the winter, staffing during the year was stable. Work on establishing indeterminate administrative support and electronic resource expert positions continued; job descriptions were drafted and classification is being sought.

Consortium Advisory Committee

The Consortium Advisory Committee (CAC) met regularly to receive updates from the Coordinator and to provide advice. Members participated in a Federal eLibrary visioning exercise and the CAC took an active role in overseeing the Factiva Pilot.

Many thanks to the Committee members for their support:

Diane Rudzevicius (chair) - Industry Canada
Helen Apouchtine - Social Development Canada
Anna Fiander - Bedford Institute of Oceanography
Beverly Graham - Bank of Canada
Barbara Porrett - International Development Research Centre
Michele Sura - Privy Council Office

NetLibrary

The collection now contains 1,942 titles, with 56 titles added this year thanks an end of year donation from Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness to purchase updated editions of some items. The eBooks are accessible to over 100,000 public servants in 58 departments. Total accesses for 2006-7 year were 16,468 'hits' on the collection.

The planned NetLibrary usage survey was undertaken during the summer of 2007. A general report was distributed to the Consortium listserv; all participants received customized reports of the activity generated in their own departments. The study highlighted difficulties with the statistics provided by NetLibrary; Consortium staff worked with OCLC to regulate this.

Vendor Fair

On November 1, 2007, the Consortium hosted a day-long Vendor Fair in the foyer of the National Arts Centre. The following vendors were represented: CCH Canadian; CEDROM-SNi; CISTI Source; Factiva (Dow Jones); East View Information Services; EBSCO Canada Ltd.; Micromedia ProQuest; MyiLibrary (Ingram Digital Group); OCLC Canada; RefWorks; Safari Books Online; and, Springer.

111 federal library e-resource specialists attended the event which provided an opportunity to explore vendor products and to learn from each other during a varied program composed of vendor demonstrations and presentations from community members as well as a keynote address on Knowledge Ontario, a provincial initiative to provide enterprise access to electronic information resources to public libraries.

Evaluation form returns from both federal library and vendor participants demonstrated that the Vendor Fair had been a positive experience. Respondents expressed a hope that similar events would be offered in the future.

Factiva Pilot

Library and Archives Canada sponsored a pilot project with a major electronic resource provider, DowJones, to deliver access to a premium electronic resource, Factiva.com, via federal libraries in the National Capital Region and in the regions. The pilot was conducted to determine the feasibility and value of providing expanded access to electronic information resources to GC knowledge workers.

Libraries from 24 departments invested staff time in attending Steering Committee meetings, marketing the tool to their clients and providing on-site training. Factiva devoted 1.5 FTEs to getting the project up and running. Consortium staff acted as project manager, coordinating interface and survey design activities and on-line training with Factiva staff. The Consortium Advisory Committee provided project oversight, meeting bi-weekly from November to January to assure success by keeping the project on track and providing advice on strategic direction.

The project provided solid evidence that supports the concept of collaborative purchasing to leverage buying power to deliver efficient and cost-effective access to electronic content to a broader group of users. A final report will be available after the conclusion of the pilot, slated for May 31, 2008.

New Model for Consortium Resourcing

The Consortium, which has been self-sustaining since 1995, thanks to annual membership fees paid by participating federal libraries, and ongoing support from the membership, was formally incorporated into LAC operations as of April 1, 2008. The services of the Consortium are now available without membership fees to ALL federal libraries or library-like entities. Consortium operations are being folded into LAC operations as part of its renewed commitment to that community and to fulfilling its legislated responsibilities under the LAC Act, Sections 7(e) and 8(h). In practical terms, this new model is being adopted because it will significantly reduce administrative overhead both at LAC and in the departments (and ultimately prove more cost-effective for the Government of Canada).

Acknowledgements

The Federal Libraries Consortium is located in Recordkeeping and Federal Library Coordination, Government Records Branch.

The Consortium Advisory Committee thanks Library and Archives Canada for its continuing support.

LAC recognizes the federal library community investment in money, time and people over many years. This investment has made the Consortium a valued service. LAC also thanks Coordinators for their dedication: Deane Zeeman, Ross Gordon, Emil Daniels, Rosalie Fox and Janet Martin.