ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries December 1989 / 997 Providing a statewide citation/ location service in New Jersey By Margie Epple Coordinator f o r Circulation and Interlibrary Services Rutgers University Libraries and Carol Paszamant Citation/Location C enter Librarian Rutgers University Libraries Rutgers provides a fu ll range o f document delivery services to members o f the New Jersey Library Network. L ibraries of all types in New Jersey now have a place to tu rn when local library resources are inadequate to m eet the informational needs of th eir patrons. Through a contractual agreem ent with th e New Jersey State Library, a Citation/ Location C enter (C/L C enter) was established in 1988 within th e Alexander Library—the Rutgers University Libraries, social sciences and hum ani­ ties research library—to provide citation verifica­ tion and location information to the over 1,800 m em ber libraries of the New Jersey Library N et­ work. W ith the addition o f this new service, New Jersey Library Network m em bers now have access to “total” docum ent delivery services—w hether the item is locatable in the RLIN or OCLC data­ base or through other more specialized docum ent delivery services. T h e N e w J e r s e y lib r a ry n e tw o r k an d s ta te w id e se r v ic e s T he New Jersey Library Network was estab­ lished in 1986 with the purpose of improving access to library materials and information for th e resi­ dents of New Jersey. At that time, six multitype library cooperatives were established to coordinate delivery o f network services on a regional basis, and a program of statewide services was established to offer network mem bers access to unique library resources on a statewide basis. Seven State C ontract Libraries provide supple­ mental reference support and interlibrary loan services to Network m em ber libraries. The P rince­ ton University Library, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark Public Library, New Jersey State Library, Stevens Institute o f Technology, the University of M edicine and D entistry o f New Jer­ sey and the Rutgers University Libraries loan m ate­ rials to New Jersey Library Network members and/ or handle reference inquiries in specified subject areas. In addition to these regional and statewide serv­ ices, two o th er new services were introduced to improve access to interlibrary services for all n e t­ work members: th e New Jersey OC LC Access C e n te r and th e C ita tio n /L o ca tio n C e n te r at Rutgers University. In S eptem ber 1985 th e New Jersey OCLC Access C en ter began operation. Through the Ac­ cess C enter, non-OCLC m em ber network libraries were provided access to th e OCLC database and interlibrary loan subsystem. By calling a toll-free telephone num ber, libraries throughout the state may request photocopies o f journal articles and/or book loans. While the caller is on the telephone, Access C enter staff search and place interlibrary loan requests, with materials sent directly to the borrowing library. It is th e borrowing library’s re ­ 995 / C&RL News sponsibility to inform the Access C en ter when items are received from or re tu rn ed to the lending library so that the C en ter may update the OCLC transaction record. T he borrowing library also absorbs all charges and costs associated with b o r­ rowing. The Access C en ter is heavily used by the New Jersey Library Network m embers. D uring the first m onth of operation in 1985, fifty-seven interlibrary loan requests were initiated by th e Access C enter on behalf of m em ber libraries. By 1989, betw een 5,000 and 6,000 requests w ere initiated each month. As Access C en ter use grew, it becam e evident that a certain num ber o f Access C en ter requests could not be filled either because of inaccurate citations or the lack of locations in th e OCLC database. Similarly, OCLC libraries in the State often sought materials that could not be located in the database. To m eet this need beyond OC LC the C ita tio n /L o c a tio n C e n te r was e s ta b lish e d at Rutgers University. Before th e Citation/Location C en ter was estab­ lished, most New Jersey librarians had no recourse beyond OCLC. Now, if the citation cannot be verified or the materials located on OCLC, the Access C en ter staff refers th e librarian to the Cita­ tion/Location C enter. Likewise, w hen librarians in OC LC m em ber libraries cannot verify or locate materials via OCLC, they too can call the C enter. T h e C ita tio n /L o c a tio n C e n te r W hen th e Citation/Location C en ter opened in O ctober 1988, libraries from throughout New Jer­ sey began to call the C en ter librarian for higher level searching and th e verification o f questionable citations. T he C en ter now acts as the agency o f last resort, verifying bibliographic data for incomplete or inaccurate citations, identifying locations from which specific items may be obtained, and placing third party IL L requests on behalf of the originat­ ing library or obtaining docum ents from com m er­ cial docum ent delivery sendees. S ta ff a n d C e n t e r o r g a n iz a tio n The C en ter is a separately staffed, state-funded departm ent within the Rutgers University Librar­ ies. It is currently staffed by one librarian who has direct access to the RLIN and O C LC databases and dial-up access to other online databases such as Dialog. A toll-free 800 line was installed to receive in­ coming calls. As with the Access C enter, the C/L C en ter is reached most frequently via th e toll-free telephone line, but requests may also be sent by telefacsimile machine. Librarians may call anytim e during th e hours 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and may also leave requests on an answering m achine con­ nected to th e toll-free line. In any case, C enter staff will respond to the request within 48 hours of receipt (or two working days) by supplying th e item from the University Libraries, collections, placing an ILL request on behalf of the requesting library th ro u g h O C L C o r R L IN , o rd e rin g th e item through a commercial docum ent delivery service such as NTIS, UM I Article Clearinghouse, Dialog, etc., or supplying an OC LC local library with the correct citation in order to initiate th e request themselves. All requests are responded to in detail either by telephone, delivery service, or telefacsimile. W hen an item cannot be found, the C en ter librarian will provide information on sources searched. The C e n te r has separate (from any o f the Rutgers libraries) I.D .’s and symbols on RLIN (NJCG) and OC LC (NJZ) and is a borrow er only on the two ILL subsystems. As with the Access C enter, th e borrowing library accepts responsibil­ ity for returning the material to the lending library and for notifying the C enter to provide for updating of online records on OCLC or RLIN. Unlike the Access C enter, however, all costs for borrowing— le n d in g fees, p h o to c o p y c h a rg es, d o c u m e n t costs— are ab so rb ed by th e C itation/L ocation C enter. D uring th e first six m onths of operation, the C en ter received 609 requests for verification of citations and/or location of materials, and th e n um ber o f requests received p e r m onth continues to grow as th e service becomes an integral part of Library Network services in New' Jersey. D uring O ctober 1988, the first m onth o f operation, 36 requests w ere processed, while in March 1989 C en ter staff responded to 154 inquiries, an in­ crease o f over 400 percent. C e n te r c lie n ts The types of libraries contacting the C en ter for assistance ru n th e full sp e c tru m — academ ic, school, public, special, and institutional. W hen the C en ter was first conceived, Rutgers, staff involved in th e planning for the C en ter had th e notion that public and school libraries would dom inate use of th e C enter, with m oderate use anticipated by spe­ cial libraries. They anticipated minimal use by academic libraries, which they thought would rely on th eir own collections. Tim e has confirmed some o f these expectations, but not others. R equests from public libraries have indeed aver­ aged 43% o f total usage, m ore than requests from any o th er type o f library. However, requests from school libraries have not am ounted to th e num bers anticipated, averaging 10% of total requests over th e first six months o f the service. At the same time requests from special libraries have surpassed pro- D ecem ber 1989 / 999 jected figures and amount to 38% of total activity during the same time period. Academic libraries have initiated 9% of the requests handled by the Center. C enter staff will continue to monitor origi­ nating library statistics to determine if these trends will continue over longer periods of time and what impact the requesting library type may or may not have on C enter policies. T ypes o f req u ests The requests range in difficulty from simple RLIN title searches and the placement of interli­ brary loan requests to the in-depth searching of print and online sources. Staff have found unpub­ lished conference proceedings by locating authors through parent organizations, have located printed sheet music by a 19th-century composer by dealing directly with a German publisher, and have called institutes and associations to verify and obtain publications. Although most of the libraries call in their re­ quests via the 800 number, use of telefacsimile has been on the increase and has been especially help­ ful for long, multiple, or difficult to describe cita­ tions. Mail and delivery service have been em­ ployed to a lesser extent. Precise figures are not yet available, but most libraries want actual documents if possible, not just citation verification or location. In some instances, however, library staff seek only locations of known items that they have not been able to locate on OCLC through the Access Center or by directly searching OCLC themselves. The many types of materials requested have included books, journal and newspaper articles, manuscripts (locations or microform editions), state and federal documents, conference proceed­ ings, technical reports, music scores, essays, plays, and poems. While most material is in print format, microforms, kits, and audio and videocassettes (difficult to find and borrow) have also been sought. In January 1989 the C enter began keeping rec­ ords of the general subject area of each request: humanities, social science, science/technology, or medicine. To date, requests have been distributed fairly evenly among the subject areas, with humani­ ties requests slightly predominating. Examples of three requests follow, along with actions taken to locate the materials. A special library was looking for a paper from the 1985 Conference on Coal Gasification Systems and Synthetic Fuels for Power Generation (Proceed­ ings) by the American Gas Association. A check of the Rutgers’ online and card catalogs was negative. The two entries for the American Gas Associa­ tion in the New Jersey Union List o f Serials and Rutgers Union List o f Serials had been discontin­ ued prior to 1985 and did not have the conference title either. RLIN and OCLC searches were also negative. In the British Lending Library’s Index o f Conference Proceedings Received, the title ap­ peared in the 1986 volume, but the sponsor shown was the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), rather than the American Gas Association. A call to EPRI led to aproject manager who verified that the paper was in their proceedings. He sent a copy of the paper along with current updates directly to the requesting library at no charge. A medical library requested an item from the N ational R ehabilitation Inform ation C e n te r (NRIC) database. The citation provided appeared complete with the author, title, year, number of pages, and corporate sponsor but could not be located by the Access Center. Searches of RLIN and OCLC yielded no record. The report was located in Government Reports Announcements and Index, and, with the report number obtained, the item was ordered from NTIS. A public library patron wanted printed sheet music, a particular piece by a 19th-century com­ poser, Julian Fontana. The composer’s existence had been verified in Grove’s Dictionary o f Music and Musicians, but neither he nor the piece title were in the OCLC or RLIN database. The Laurie Music Library at Rutgers was able to find the composer and piece listed in an index which gave the publisher but no other information. Upon call­ ing the American distributor for the German pub­ lisher, the C enter was informed that the work was no longer in print, but that archival copies could be made. This information, together with copy costs, were supplied to the patron via the requesting library. P ro c essin g o f req u ests Statistics are kept on the number and type of requests received and are reported to the State Library on a monthly basis. In analyzing the dispo­ sition of requests, items sought are considered to be either located (with or without placement of an ILL request), not located, misdirected/canceled, or still pending a final outcome at the time of evaluation. The “not located” category includes documents which have not yet been published, as corroborated by the publisher, as well as those which cannot be verified or located. The C enter has obtained some unpublished material directly from authors, and has considered these items “lo­ cated.” When a librarian merely seeks additional locations for a known item, the C enter considers the item located only if at least one new location is discovered. The C enter has located between 70% and 82% of requested materials each month, excluding mis­ directed and canceled requests. Misdirected re­ quests—those for which the C enter does not as- 1000 / C&RL News sume jurisdiction— comprise reference questions, general subject searches, and situations in which an appropriate OCLC search had not been conducted by the Access C en ter or a regional contract library. W hen feasible, C enter staff does attem pt to answer m isdirected requests. Over the six-month period, m isdirected and canceled requests have ranged betw een 5% and 7% o f th e total. No m ore than two requests have rem ained unresolved beyond the report tim e for any one month. The program guidelines call for a reply, w hether final or interim, to be provided for 85% o f requests within two working days from th e date of initiation. To date, response tim e has averaged about one work day, with betw een 84% and 99% of requests receiving a reply within two working days. The requests range from the general to the highly technical. The more technical requests usu­ ally originate in the academic and special libraries but may also com e from public libraiy sources. The am ount of information initially provided by the requesting libraries varies from a com plete citation to only a title, and the information that is provided is often incorrect. O ne patron of a public library could not rem em ber if th e book h e wished to re ­ read after 20 years had been in English or H ungar­ ian, and rem em bered only the subject and one w ord from the title (the C en ter was unable to locate this item). C u r r e n t is s u e s a n d th e fu tu r e So far, the n um ber o f requests has rem ained at un d er 500 requests p er q uarter as projected in the original agreem ent with the State Libraiy. With 419 requests processed in th e second quarter of operation, however, it seems quite possible that dem and will exceed the 2,000 request level pro ­ jected for 1989. If the service can be m aintained or even improved, traffic will most likely continue to increase as m ore Network m em ber libraries b e ­ come aware of and familiar with the C en ter’s serv­ ices, and as interlibrary loan transaction levels in­ crease in the state. Patron requests which had been abandoned for m onths can now be directed to one last resource; indeed, many of th e requests the C en ter receives are quite old. C ertain policies still need to be refined, as recur­ ring issues dem onstrate. O ne such issue has been the exact dem arcation betw een the Access C enter and th e Citation/Location C en ter services. Since b o th have O C L C , m e m b e r libraries beco m e understandably confused about which one has en tered an IL L request on th eir behalf, and which one to call if only partial information is available, as the Access C enter can often locate an item using partial information. The line betw een interlibraiy loan and reference service represents another recurring issue— many times the boundary betw een a reference request and a citation request is unclear. The Citation/ Location C en ter is funded to provide sophisticated docum ent delivery services and is limited in its ability to provide in-depth reference searching. From the n um ber and types of questions in the “m isdirected” statistical category each month, it is obvious that it is often difficult to distinguish b e ­ tw een reference and citation queries on a local li­ brary level. A third issue has been when the C enter should assume docum ent delivery costs, and when the requesting library should. The contract calls for the C en ter to cover these costs; however, in order to stay within its budget, staff m ust exercise discretion and avoid abuse by a library which needs many d o c u m e n ts av ailab le only from c o m m ercial sources or seeks to augm ent its collection at the C en ter’s expense. As issues em erge, so will resolutions. In the meantim e, p resent and future trends seem to indi­ cate that reliance on the C enter is sure to continue and grow. ■ ■ Labor records saved The University at Albany, State University of New York, has announced that it is preserving the records o f the Hudson Valley Area Joint Board of th e Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union through a generous N ew York State grant in support of th e ongoing Harry Van Arsdale Jr., Labor History Project. These are th e first records saved through the project. Dating from the 1930s to the 1980s, th e more than 30 boxes of historical records include minutes of meetings, contract negotiations, arbitrations, scrapbooks, photographs, and memorabilia. Also included are records o f labor councils and joint boards from Newburgh to Troy. The records were selected from hundreds o f boxes of records stored at th e H udson Valley Area Joint Board’s offices in Hudson, New York, with the help of R obert L. Redlo, m anager o f the Joint Board and vice-presi­ dent of th e U pper H udson Valley Labor Council. As part of the project, the University is surveying hundreds o f labor organizations in th e Capital District. F o r more information contact Geoffrey H uth, F ield Archivist, University Libraries, B-49, University at Albany, State University ofN ew York, 1400 W ashington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222; (518) 442-3541. ■ ■