Council of Federal Libraries Consortium

Annual Report
April 1, 2005- March 31, 2006

Memberships
Consortium membership now stands at 57 members up from 56 last year. A new high!

Highlights:

Welcome to 4 new Members - Canadian Museum Of Nature, National Energy Board, NSERC/ SSHRC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) , Parks Canada

• 1 Cancellation Revenue Canada Calgary
• Savings to members, estimated at well over $600,000
• Netlibrary up to 1843 titles, accessible by over 100,000 public servants in 55 departments. Total Accesses for the year: 18,877 'hits' on the collection. All maintenance fees paid in perpetuity allowing for no interruption of service.
• Continued strong relationship with Consortia Canada and the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC)

The Consortium wishes to thank the Library and Archives Canada for its continuing support. The CFL Consortium is located within the Government Information Management Offices in Gatineau, QC. Address: 550 Place de la Cité, Gatineau, QC K1A 0N4 Tél:819-934-7426 Télécopieur /Fax :819-934-7534


This has been a great year for the Consortium and I hope that the next one is even better. This was a year of growth and of major projects. The Consortium now has an excellent Project Plan, and is working on a matching Business Case (see below) for a government wide governance structure that would negotiate and oversee site licences for electronic resources. The entire project will be posted on the Consortium pages. This is the year that Federal Libraries pull together and really show the government what IM looks like. Thank you all for your help and support. A special thanks to Suzanne Léger-Miville who has done a wonderful job with our membership renewals, invoicing, updating web pages, and troubleshooting. She is the heart of the Consortium. And a Big Thanks to Natalie Verdon for all the help she gave us with our finances.

Ross Gordon - Consortium Coordinator

Advisory Committee: (thank you for your hard work)

Luc Ainsley - Public Service Commission of Canada
Anna Fiander - Bedford Institute of Oceanography
Rosalie Fox - Courts Administration Service
Michele Sura - Statistics Canada
Alison Whiddon - Natural Resources Canada
Ronald Bentley - Canadian Agriculture Library
Jean-Eudes Bériault - Library and Archives Canada (Ex Officio)

Consortium Finances

• Salaries are for Ross Gordon, Janet Martin (interim coordinator), Christiane Woods, and Suzanne Léger-Miville
• Normally all monies are spent, usually on a netlibrary order to finish off the year. This surplus was unforeseen due to salary fluctuations and US dollar weakness. As well the LAC was generous in its contributions to day to day funding.

OCLC FirstSearch
38 Libraries participated in the 2005/2006 group subscription.

Statistics: 35 Renewals
3 Cancellations (Defense Research & Development Canada - Suffield, Fisheries & Oceans -Sidney, Transport Canada)
3 New members (Public Service Commission of Canada - Department of Justice - Environment Canada (Canada Centre for Inland Waters)

NetLibrary - ebooks

There are now 55 participants; there were 2 Cancellations

357 new titles have been added to the NetLibrary e-Book collection, bringing the total to 1843 books. This is due to the salary of the Consortium Coordinator being paid for only part of the year and the remainder used to buy books. Now all publishers are demanding that consortia purchase multiple copies of each title. In our case we negotiated a deal to buy 4 copies of each book from Netlibrary (they had wanted us to buy 6). Many books were accessed over 50 times so they may have a point. From now on it will become more difficult to purchase large amounts of books together and libraries may wish to purchase more on an individual basis. We can discuss whether the model still works for us, or whether we should look at other electronic resource purchases with our share budget. Total Accesses: 18,877 for the year.

OED & ANB
25 Libraries have subscribed for 2005/2006 - up from 23 last year.

Statistics:
25 renewals 1 cancellation (CIDA) 2 new members (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Parks Canada)

Oxford Reference On line (ORO)
8 Libraries have subscribed

Statistics:
8 Renewals
1 Cancellation (National Film Board)
No new members

AccessScience
7 libraries have subscribed for 2005/2006 7 Renewals
2 Cancellations
1 New member (Canadian Space Agency)

Britannica Online 20 Libraries have subscribed

Statistics:
20 Renewals
1 Cancellation (Environment Canada)
3 new members (CDIC- Canadian Museum of Nature - NR Can (Northern Forestry Centre)

CISTISOURCE: For 2006-2007, CFL Consortium members who purchase a group license to CISTI Source now get a 20% discount. And the members purchasing a site license now get a 10% discount. These discounts are outlined in the agreement and are based on volume.

Consortium Database Directory Database is still on hold while LAC staff test it. In the interim, steps are being taken to update both the current Directory and the new Directory in parallel.

Presentations Presentations of products to member librarians, in Ottawa. (Webex was used on two occasions to allow regional libraries to log in for presentations but those were not well attended.)

• WorkingFaster
• Web of Science - May 10, 2005
• D&B; - May 30, 2005
• Scopus - June 10, 2005
• A-G Canada - Oct. 24, 2005
• Springer Library Zone Oct. 12, 2005
• MyiLibrary - Oct. 24, 2005
• RefWorks - Nov. 1, 2005
• Serial Solutions /Micromedia ProQuest - Nov. 9, 2005
• Ebsco - Dec. 8, 2005
• Scopus - January 16, 2006
• Ebsco (International Security and Counter-Terrorism Reference Center) - February 13, 2006
• Blackwell April 3, 2006
• Ebsco May 1, 2006
• Ebrary
• Accesscience

News:

• Gale - Canadian Parliamentary Guide - It now appears that the Guide will not be published in 2006.

Session MGI funded project - Electronic Resources to the Desktop: An Operating Concept for a Shared Services Approach to Delivering Commercial Electronic Resources to the Desktops within the Government of Canada

Ross Gordon received $45,000 from the MGI fund (Treasury Board) to carry out a proposal to create a Project Plan for sharing electronic resources via the federal libraries throughout the government of Canada. This would not just save money, it would save time, effort, address the 'shared services' initiative and most of all offer access to information resources to a much larger clientele in the government. Researchers would find no differences between regions or departments for core resources and for specialized e-resources a committee structure would ensure negotiations, implementation and access rights for all who needed them. The idea behind it is for libraries to run these licences because librarians know how to best disseminate information in their respective departments and agencies. Rather than re-invent the wheel with some sort of mega virtual library, use the network of embedded libraries in a more dynamic way, to "Light up" the network with more e-resources that will be directed to the policy makers and researchers who need them. Libraries offer training and help and more than just a link on an intranet.

Vision:The Shared GoC e-Resources to the Desktop initiative provides federal libraries and their clients with a range of specialized shared services for electronic desktop resources. Its value lies in making access to these resources more equitable, cost-effective and productive for federal employees serving Canadians, while contributing to the government's information policy goals and objectives.

(See the complete report for more details. Available upon request or on the CFL Consortium website.)

The money was spent on the following:

Brainstorming Session - Nov 7, 2005
MGI Session - January 13, 2006
Report and business case - Report ready, translated and circulated for comments (Business case will be completed in Q1 2006-7.)
Mockup of Intranet page - This is an idea for a website that all Federal Libraries could use, either by putting their brand on it and using it throughout their dept, or setting links to it. Clients would then have a similar look and feel no matter what dept. they were working in and would always know where to seek electronic resources. Libraries would have admin rights to set access limits to certain products depending upon licensing or need. (see attached)

Consultants were used and IM specialists and Librarians were involved in every step. The LAC also funded some of this work and is interested in its implementation.

Cluster groups: There are four cluster groups of government libraries organising around shared licensing proposals. Justice/Legal libraries; Central Agencies; International; Science. The Science and International groups have both run pilot projects to demonstrate the capabilities for offering shared electronic products between departments. The CFL Consortium is working with all of these clusters and hopes that we can all work together as a force for change within the government of Canada. Our proposal would seek to create a structure where no library is left behind, whether in a cluster or not. Access to all clusters should be negotiable in an easy fashion. Core resources should be made available to all libraries to be disseminated throughout the Government of Canada, subject specialized resources could be implemented through the clusters.

Ross gave presentations: At NRCan, LAC and various locales on the MGI project for desktop delivery of Electronic Resources in the Government of Canada.

Examples from the report:

Conferences:

• ICOLC (paid for by the LAC) Philadelphia
• CLA

Scopus Elsevier report

The Scopus trial continues, free until October 2006 at which time those who wish to purchase this product will be asked to make a commitment. Others can simply cancel without penalty. There is an additional discount introduced to those who decide to purchase before the deadline. Marwa is now the contact.

Communications/Advocacy/Marketing

• The Consortium maintains a closed ListServ for staff of member libraries. There are currently 256 users subscribed to the list.
• The Consortium belongs to:
• Consortia Canada
• International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC)
• The Consortium Coordinator is a member of:
• Federal Government media monitoring interest group
• The Strategic Alliance of Federal Science and Technology Libraries
• The Information and Knowledge Management Forum
• Canadian Library Association and CASLIS
• The Heritage IM forum