Participants Agreement

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Excerpt from the funding application

Vision: To Create the Anywhere-Anytime Virtual Library for TBLC member participation

Philosophy:

• Be on the cutting edge
• Move in realistic leaps from a few to the whole
• Start with one major breakthrough and add functionality incrementally
• Remain flexible and be ready to move to a different software platform after a one to three year test
• Encourage all member libraries to use the catalog to locate materials
• Enable access to the Virtual Catalog via the World Wide Web to showcase this demonstration
• Expand the number of libraries participating in the Virtual Catalog to include all TBLC member libraries with on-line local catalogs
• Develop group and joint licensing mechanisms to enable all member libraries to provide increased access to commercial databases

Goal I: Provide a Virtual Union Catalog

Objective:

Create and provide access to a working Virtual Catalog of materials owned by TBLC member libraries

Actions:

A. Utilize a planning team of potential immediate and future partners

B. Identify vendors with turnkey products that can be tested

C. Eliminate products that have these fatal flaws:

1. Require programming by TBLC or participant partner staff
2. Lack patron authentication feature
3. Lack direct request function
4. Require multiple servers for initial group
5. Lack scoping
6. Do not show shelf status for items
7. Require users to search each catalog separately

D. Seek vendor quotations

E. Interview beta sites and existing customers of potential vendors

F. Develop a plan for funding initial and continuation stages

G. Work with prototype pilot partners to implement virtual union catalog demonstration project

Goal II: Coordinate group licensing of databases

Objectives:

Identify databases to jointly or regionally license

Negotiate joint or regional licenses

Goal III: Enable patron authentication for access to commercial databases

Objective:

Provide databases as part of the virtual library to authenticated registered patrons of libraries which are paying for external access to specific products

Actions:

Select a front end product that provides for patron authentication Implement this feature relative to databases which are available to clients of one, some and/or all participating libraries

Goal IV: Utilize patron authentication for patron initiated interlibrary loan management

Objective:

Enable registered clients of participating libraries to place unmediated patron initiated interlibrary loans

Actions:

A. Select a front end product that provides for patron authentication

B. Implement this feature for libraries participating in the patron authentication aspect of this project

Goal V: Provide for regional fulfillment of interlibrary loan requests prior to forwarding to OCLC

Objectives:

Demonstrate patron authentication, interlibrary loan maintenance and patron initiated requesting capability

Enable listing of OCLC as the library of last resort within the virtual library

Actions:

A. Select a front end product that provides for interlibrary loan management

B.Implement this feature for libraries participating in the regional interlibrary loan portion of this project

Goal VI: Establish linkages between locally mounted library created databases

Objectives:

Provide access within the gateway to databases created by participating libraries

Actions:

A. Plan to add this feature in the second or third stage of the project

B. Identify locally mounted library created databases

C. Evaluate vendor capability to support this functionality and flexibly move to another platform or to add software with this capability to the system