AARL

Unilinc - 25 years on

Rona Wade

The year 2003 marks a quarter of a century of successful co-operation amongst the libraries that make up the membership of the library network UNILINC. Formed in 1978 and originally known as CLANN Limited, the not-for-profit company held its 25th Annual General Meeting on 21 May 2003.

UNILINC was established for the benefit of member institutions with a responsibility for education and for the purpose of supporting library needs through the provision of services to facilitate resource sharing.

Assisted by an initial grant of $30 000, UNILINC has operated on an entirely cost recovery basis since it started operations in 1978. With an annual membership fee of $1000 across 15 current members, it achieved a turnover in 2002 of $1.8 million, from which it funded state of the art systems for members and employed some 25 library and related staff. This revenue was derived entirely from fees for services and products provided to members and many clients Australia wide and overseas.

There was something in the air in the 1970s that brought the right people together to enable CLANN to become a reality in New South Wales. At much the same time similar forces were at work in Victoria resulting in the creation of CAVAL and Technilib (a victim of changes in legislation governing public libraries in Victoria in 1988).

The key driver in the formation of CLANN was Dorothy Peake who, along with Carmel Maguire, carried out a study on the sharing of catalogue data in 1974. Dorothy was later to become the Chair of CLANN, a role she held for the ten years to 1989. The political will required to transform the idea into reality came from many sources and included Ron Parry (Chair of the NSW Higher Education Board); Vincent Delaney and Garth McKinnon (senior staff of the Education Department) and John Williams, also from the Department, who worked behind the scenes on the legal issues; Cliff Blake, Sam Phillips and Graham Swain (just some of the College Principals who threw their weight behind CLANN); Ken Gee, Owen Carter and Bob Gillam (among other senior college administrators who became enthusiastic supporters and kept an eye on financial matters); Margaret Macpherson, James O'Brien, John Cummings and Joanna Spark (College Librarians who worked on committees and behind the scenes and along with Dorothy generously made staff available to work on standards and related cataloguing issues).

The first task of the co-operative was to create a machine readable database of library cataloguing records available for reuse by all members. The idea was not new as OCLC had shown this was possible in the early 1970s. In Australia, we were very fortunate to have the services of Jan Gatenby of Libramatics who designed a cataloguing system that enabled the sharing of data, was easy to use, was inexpensive to support and took account of data communications costs and limitations at the time.

I know there are many other names from the 1970s I have not mentioned. Then there have been many, many wonderful people in the 25 years since 1978 who have played a vital role as staff, as Directors, as committee members, as suppliers and as friends and supporters of UNILINC.

The shared database had its first record input well before CLANN was incorporated and was immediately successful. Within months cataloguing backlogs were eliminated and retrospective conversions completed without libraries needing to increase staff. Wonderful resources were on the shelves and ready for use within days instead of months and for the first time users could find out not only what was in their library but in all the colleges in NSW. At the end of 1979, the database held 174 000 records as a result of cataloguing effort as well as the loading of the computer files of two member libraries. It now stands at ten times that.

That UNILINC has continued to be relevant in the 25 years since those heady early days can be attributed to many factors. One factor has to be that it has never taken financial or other support for granted and has worked to remain relevant by seeking and encouraging ideas for innovation in service, products and resource sharing. Co-operative endeavours are ideal environments for innovation in that many ideas come from the members or arise from conversations with members about this need or that problem. Further in meeting the needs of one, some or all members, it is possible to leverage the resultant service or product so that it is useful to a wider group which in turn supports the ongoing viability of the innovation. UNILINC's history is one born of innovation and sustained by it.

1982 was a milestone year in that regard. In response to a plea for help from one small library, UNILINC entered into what may be the first consortium database deal in Australia when it negotiated discounts with Ausinet and Dialog. This activity expanded as the technology evolved and in 1986 the first CD ROM products were sourced and offered. The next big change came in 1994, when UNILINC and the US based Ovid Technologies worked together to provide site licence arrangements for databases that were just becoming available over the internet. In recent years, in recognition that members now have other avenues for preferential deals, UNILINC has limited its activity to certain key services; nevertheless in 2002 close to $450 000 worth of databases were provided to members under favourable conditions.

Contract cataloguing was another service undertaken at the behest of a member library in 1982. Who would have foreseen how cataloguing outsourcing would take off in the 1990s? Today UNILINC's clients come from far beyond the membership. Over 30 libraries - state, university, public and special - avail themselves of this service directly or through library book suppliers. All types of cataloguing are catered for across a broad range of interfacing technologies, client systems and Kinetica. Specialities of the service include reports and other research items, music and other non-book materials and community languages (some 50 different languages) as well as the more regular library accessions.

Another innovation from 1982 was the Reciprocal Borrowing Scheme, the first such scheme in Australia. The scheme covers students as well as staff, is free of charges and includes all types of libraries. This was followed with free interlibrary lending between members. In the same year the network voted to contribute its holdings to the then National Union Catalogue operated by the National Library of Australia, something UNILINC has continued to do ever since. Indeed, in 2000, UNILINC was the largest contributor of holdings to the now National Bibliographic Database.

In 1984 the network implemented the online version of the Idaps cataloguing system (LION) having worked with Idaps on the specifications. The next year saw the implementation of a shared OPAC and Circulation system (the Shared System). The Shared System went on to incorporate Acquisitions and, after a change in ownership of Idaps, Cataloguing. Today the Shared System has over 30 library sites connected and over 100 000 new cataloguing items are added per annum. The shared cataloguing and systems activities of UNILINC constitute a story in themselves and have involved UNILINC and its suppliers in seeking new and better ways of achieving this result or that. Some examples of technical and service innovation over the 20 years of the Shared System include the network patron card using technology developed by Leigh Mardon for the network in 1984, the first Z39.50 handshake in Australia, KINSER, borrower history and the use of call centre software to support help desk services, to name a few.

The bicentennial year gave rise to the CLANN CD CAT, Australia's first library database on CD ROM developed to meet the needs of some of CLANN's more remote libraries. This has remained in regular production for fourteen years and it is hoped that once adjustments are made to the output from the new software used in the Shared System, it will resume production this year. Over the years, the original software and its various upgrades have been licensed to other libraries in Australia and overseas.

With the Dawkins amalgamations and changes, in the early 1990s some of UNILINC's university members were keen to exploit the new technology of the internet. Access to the university catalogues in UNILINC and some other university catalogues was now possible with the internet but users had to learn the various interfaces. So began the process of looking for a means of providing a single user interface. The eventual result was the development in 1991 of Liblink, a system to link the disparate library catalogues of the universities in NSW. Funded by DEET, Liblink was developed by UNILINC working with an Australian company, CPS Systems, on behalf of the NSW Vice-Chancellors' Conference and their library advisory committee, UNISON. Liblink continued in use for nine years until 1999 at which time the promise of broadcast searching using Z39.50 was thought to be imminent. The technology developed for this project and its associated user initiated interlibrary loans and request system has gone on to considerable commercial success in the United States.

The next year (1992) saw another project involving UNILINC and CPS Systems, who were the software providers for the Self Check system developed and owned by 3M Australia and which has gone to world wide success. UNILINC undertook the prototype testing and a member library was the site of the world's first implementation.

In the mid 1990s UNILINC attracted commercial clients to its system and network management services. In 1994 UNILINC worked with Ovid to win the tender with CAUL to provide the Current Contents database service. UNILINC initially borrowed a computer and then purchased one from IBM for the purpose. At the same time UNILINC, on behalf of five members, had purchased its own hardware and was implementing the Ovid software in order to provide online access to ten core databases. Upon success in winning the Current Contents tender, Ovid approached UNILINC to host and manage what became the Ovid Australia Service. This service, which for a while included nearly all of the university libraries as well as health agencies, offered over 50 databases online over the Internet. It was a real innovation in service delivery. It proved the value of a 'hosted' approach and provided the model for Ovid to rapidly extend its market by establishing servers in Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and several European countries, as well as the service out of Utah. These were exciting years, but by 1999 Ovid Australia clients had begun to migrate to the Utah server in order to access e-journal services only available there and it was decided that UNILINC would migrate its members to the Utah server in order to take advantage of these growing resources. 2004 will be its 10th anniversary year and the Ovid Australia Service will continue to be provided for as long as it is needed.

The next major service initiative was in 1997, when the Western Australian Group of University Librarians (WAGUL) commissioned UNILINC to undertake an investigation into the feasibility of a collaborative approach to cataloguing for the four publicly funded universities in WA.

The background as to why UNILINC was in a position to take on this role for WAGUL was once again member driven. One of CLANN's original objectives was to 'reduce the rate of rise of per unit cataloguing costs'. Member libraries were keen to demonstrate success in this and over the years requested advice from UNILINC as to how they could improve workflow and change practices to continue to achieve this. As a result, UNILINC developed considerable knowledge of what worked best where and under what circumstances and how to cost the process. In the WAGUL case, the brief was to verify the base line costs of cataloguing, assess the feasibility and costs of replacing the existing processes in all or some of the libraries and provide estimates of the costs and benefits of the various options. Since the success of the WAGUL study, UNILINC has gone on to complete numerous reviews of technical services and other operations for many libraries, including the National Library of New Zealand. In 2002, the National Library of Australia invited UNILINC to draw upon the knowledge gained from these studies to advise upon best practice in cataloguing.

In early 1997, at the suggestion from one member library, UNILINC began to explore discount arrangements with major suppliers for books ordered through the Shared System. Five suppliers responded positively to these approaches. As with so many other initiatives of UNILINC, the arrangements give priority to flexibility for members and are free of costly contract overheads or restrictive conditions. These arrangements continue successfully to this day.

The next innovation came in 1999 when UNILINC celebrated its 100th Board Meeting by committing funds to the development of an interactive information literacy program. The idea for this initiative arose from the knowledge that such a product was needed for remote students such as those served by UNILINC member institutions as well as in support of class based tutorials but that the development required was expensive. A senior librarian working in a member institution had had experience in other libraries which had attracted grants for the purpose and approached UNILINC to see if we would be interested. From this approach the idea of developing a software shell which could be used across many libraries was born. Three years from its release, Web-ezy is in use in ten libraries - six universities, a school, a state education system, a TAFE network and the National Library of Australia. As shell software, Web-ezy is 'populated' to accommodate each client's library systems and databases, with examples relevant for each client group. It is individually badged for each client and goes under such wonderful names as Teach Yourself Online, Smart Searcher, Library e-Tutor and InfoSkills, to name just a few.

This year of 2003 sees yet another new initiative once again driven by three of the members. This time it is not a first, but it is important nevertheless. That is the implementation of the portal software (Metalib) and the resource linking software (SFX) on a consortium basis by three members. Both products hold considerable promise for new library and information service delivery opportunities and who knows where that will lead.

So where is UNILINC 25 years on? It is still here! This is despite many predictions to the contrary voiced to me over the years. UNILINC is a vibrant and innovative organisation. The strength provided by its membership ensures that UNILINC dares to take on new challenges and will hopefully continue to do so.

There have been and still are times when finances are tight and paying the rent has been a minor miracle. Remaining in business for 25 years is no mean feat for any company, as attested by the continuing collapses of major corporations and the bankruptcy rates amongst small operations within their first five years.

Sustaining a collaborative endeavour is even higher on the 'here today gone tomorrow scale'. In the educational sphere formalised co-operation and collaboration over such a long period is rare indeed. On the world stage, too, co-operation is falling victim to the pressures of competition and the ambitions of the most powerful.

The library sector seems to be singularly blessed with success stories in this area. Possible reasons for this would be the subject of much debate and close analysis but whatever the reason, as a profession, librarianship can be proud of what it has achieved.

For details of UNILINC today, its members and its services please see www.unilinc.edu.au

Rona Wade is the executive director and CEO, UNILINC Limited. E-mail rona@unilinc.edu.au.nospam (please remove '.nospam' from address).