Awards

STARS is excited to report on the success of the RUSA Award Banquet at this year’s ALA Annual. Cyril Oberlander, the director of Milne Library at SUNY Geneseo, was recognized for his exceptional contributions to resource sharing and received the Virginia Boucher-OCLC Distinguished ILL (Interlibrary Loan) Librarian Award on Sunday, June 24. This award recognizes a librarian for outstanding professional achievement, leadership, and contributions to interlibrary loan and document delivery through recent publication of significant professional literature, participation in professional associations, and/or innovative approaches to practice in individual libraries. The banquet was attended by the Executive Board Members, the Committee Chair, and Cyril’s family and friends.

Hot Topics Discussion Group

This year’s Hot Topics Discussion Group was held on Saturday, June 23 in the Hilton Anaheim from 4:00-5:30 PM and covered Electronic Licensing, ILL Article Delivery Methods, the GPO OCLC Holdings Project, the Future of ILL, the OCLC Symposium/Cost Sharing Taskforce Report, and mailing address for shared ILLiad sites.

Attendee tips and insights included:

  • Recommendations on using PDF “printer” programs and researching institutional Electronic Rights Management packages to determine best practices for electronic article sending.
  • Best practices on obtaining statistics and how they can be used to advocate for ILL
  • OCLC should consider alternatives to the elimination of credits.
  • ILLiad libraries should take extra care when determining “Ship To” addresses. Efforts should be made to identify which lender address number by changing preferred address format or using other indicative markings.

STARS Legislation and Licensing Committee

Georgia State Copyright Case
The final court opinion the Cambridge University Press. Press; Oxford University Press; Sage Publications v. Georgia St. University case was given on May 11, 2012. It largely upheld most of the uses of Georgia State, and considering the context of Judge Evan’s ruling according to ARL’s issue brief prepared by Brandon C. Butler, the opinion creates a “very comfortable safe harbor for fair use of books on e-reserve. Educause has a wide range of information about the case for anyone who wants a more in-depth analysis.

The Center for Copyright Information Alert System
The committee reported on 6/28/2012 regarding the partnership between content producers and ISPs who came to their own agreement on how to monitor, regulate, and penalize certain internet behavior. Touted as part of a “progressive educational system to help subscribers understand the significance of protecting copyright” (see http://www.copyrightinformation.org/alerts), it is also part of a behavioral intervention and mitigation system that raises important questions about internet rights, anti-trust practices and due process. Considering how unaware those on STARS have been to this implementation of a new “Copyright Alert System,” it is important to get the word out and start a conversation about one of the largest raw exercises of concerted private power on internet behavior we’ve yet seen.

Welcome Shannon O’Grady (Colorado Library Consortium) as incoming chair and offer thanks to Robin Moskal as she assumes the responsibility of Secretary for RUSA STARS, and Joseph Sharpe as he rotates off to contribute to Assessment related functions.

Joe Sharpe, Chair

STARS Rethinking Resource Sharing Policies Committee

The RUSA STARS Rethinking Resource Sharing Policies Committee met at ALA Annual in Anaheim to discuss current projects and initiatives. The most pressing was a revision of the Rethinking Resource Sharing STAR Checklist, which serves as a compilation of best practices in resource sharing that libraries can use to gauge how they are providing such services to their local communities and to their library partners. The committee completed revisions on two-thirds of the Checklist and are busy scheduling times to finish reviewing it. Emerging best practices in resource sharing are under consideration as the committee weighs how to expand the Checklist beyond its 60+ items.

Evan Simpson, Chair

STARS Cooperative Collection Development Committee

This committee did not meet at Annual in Anaheim, but we are looking forward to our program at ALA Annual 2013 in Chicago, which has been approved. The topic is on mergers of acquisitions and ILL departments; title and speakers are still to be finalized. The program will be on Saturday, June 29  from 1:00-2:30 PM.

Sydney Thompson, Chair

STARS Cooperative and Remote Circulation Task Force

Our committee hosted a very successful program at ALA Annual titled, “Sharing Our Collections: Looking to the Future.” The program featured a “floating collections” project undertaken by a public library consortium, a shared eBook collection in an academic library consortium, and a vendor introduction to how next generation, cloud-based integrated library systems (ILS) will support collection sharing. This program is scheduled to be offered again, this fall, as a webcast.

The committee has taken July to indulge in a collective sigh of relief. We anticipate regrouping in August to begin forming our plans for the next year.

Peter Collins, Chair

STARS Codes, Guidelines, and Technical Standards Committee

The Committee’s major project for the year was finalizing the “Guidelines for Interlibrary Loan Operations Management,” which has been under development since 2006. The guideline was approved at the ALA 2012 Midwinter Meeting in Dallas by the RUSA Standards and Guidelines Committee. The new guideline is available on the RUSA website.

Current guidelines that the committee maintains are the following:

Code Timeline Notes
Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States Explanatory Supplement Review in 2016 as part of the Interlibrary Loan Code
Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States Review in 2016 Approved by S&G Midwinter 2009; approved by RUSA Board 2009 (according to RUSQ)
Guidelines for Interlibrary Loan Operations Management Review in 2019 Approved by S&G Midwinter 2012; approved by RUSA Board 2012
Resource-Sharing Response to Natural Disasters Review in 2017 Approved by STARS Annual Midwinter 2009; approved by RUSA Board Annual 2010

Each guideline is reviewed every seven years and the committee had no other guidelines or standards to maintain this year.

Jen Bartlett, Chair

STARS Research & Statistics Committee

The RSS sponsored program for 2013 annual has been approved by RUSA. The title is “Does Your Data Deliver for Decision Making? New Directions for Resource Sharing Assessment.” We have three speakers confirmed.

Congratulations to Charla Lancaster and Susan Buzzell, who will be joining us as the incoming co-chairs.

RSS plans to continue work on compiling a resource sharing glossary project and updating ShareILL.

Amy Boucher, Chair

STARS Section Review Task Force Committee

The Section Review Task Force Committee came together at the ALA Annual meeting to discuss our progress and review what needs to happen for the remainder of the year. This committee is charged with preparing a section review for the RUSA board by March 2013. We have been meeting monthly via conference call over the past year. We have gathered preliminary information from the STARS committee chairs as well as historical information on programming and membership.

Sherri Michaels, Chair

STARS Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Committee

ALA programming changes that will take effect at the Annual Conference in Chicago 2013 have limited the number of program slots and designated that all conference programs will be held at the Conference Center. Our committee was asked to consider having our RUSA STARS ILL Program proposal: “How Will the Current Climate/Trends in Libraries Influence/Impact the Future of Resource Sharing?” moved from a program to a presentation at the RUSA STARS ILL Discussion Group. The committee agreed with this proposal.

This program will focus on trends and reasons for changes in ILL requests and how these may affect resource sharing as a whole. The committee will use data from a survey of the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA), conducted in spring 2012. Members of the GWLA plan to complete another follow-up study in the spring of 2013. The committee discussed and identified potential speakers for this upcoming program, as well as its format and options for engaging participants and marketing strategies.

Jeanne Voyles, Chair

STARS Education and Training Committee

STARS welcomed Natalie Beam, Head of Access Services at University of Hawaii at Hilo and recipient of the 2012 STARS-Atlas Systems Mentoring Award, to the all-committee meeting.

The Education and Training committee will hold its 6th annual “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About ILL” pre-conference workshop on January 25, 2013 in Seattle. The University of Washington has generously donated space in Odegaard Library; OCLC and Atlas Systems are providing additional support.

Our video series exploring careers in ILL has received positive feedback and over 1,000 total views on YouTube. We will continue to add content and welcome participation. Please contact Lars Leon (lleon@ku.edu) if you are interested in filming a one-to-two minute video.

Finally, the Education and Training Committee will partner with ShareILL administrators to update the ShareILL wiki. We hope that other STARS committees can contribute their own expertise and make this resource as accurate, current, and useful as possible. Please contact Committee Chair Jen Jacobs (jjacobs3@luc.edu) if you are interested in helping with this project.

Jen Jacobs, Incoming Chair

STARS International Interlibrary Loan Committee

The International ILL Committee is in the final stages of completing a report on the survey of international libraries conducted in 2011. We hope to have it to the Executive Committee for approval in a month or two. The Committee plans to write an article with further analysis of the survey. The Committee will also assist the Education and Training Committee in updating ShareILL by creating a page regarding international ILL.

Congratulations to the new chair of the International ILL Committee, Tom Bruno.

Tina Baich, Chair

STARS Membership Committee

The RUSA STARS Membership Committee completed revisions for their initiative-in-progress, titled “RUSA STARS’ 5 Things Every New Resource Sharing Librarian Should Know,” and are in the process of submitting it for final review to the Executive Committee. Membership is also moving forward with a program that will highlight a RUSA STARS member before each ALA conference. “Star Gazing” is a program being designed to share more information about STARS members at a time where new librarians/members might enjoy learning more about a friendly face they may run into at the conferences.

Congratulations to the new chair of the Members Committee, Micquel Little.

Micquel Little, Incoming Chair

STARS Vendor Relations Committee

The Vendor Relations Committee sponsored a presentation at the ILL Discussion Group meeting at ALA this year. The description of the presentation was:

“The Changing Landscape of e-delivery: Hear how libraries are using Atlas Systems Odyssey, BSCAN from Image Access , Relais Express from Relais International, and OCLC’s Article Exchange for electronic delivery in their interlibrary loan offices. You’ll learn about the key features of each product to determine whether they fit your e-delivery needs.”

Each presenter described their ILL environment, including the number of articles sent and received via this system; why they chose the system they are using, features, ease of use, technical requirements, and any pertinent limitations.

The Vendor Relations Committee members also decided to put forward a presentation that we hope to include in the Midwinter  ILL Discussion Group meeting. The topic would be an update on the review of the ISO ILL standard. We are waiting for confirmation that that will be included on the agenda for the meeting.

Becky Ringwelski, Chair

STARS Organization Committee

The Organization Committee discussed whether the committee should be dissolved or combined with another group. A possible merger would be considered with the Membership Committee, as our committee functions have been combined in other RUSA sections. The Committee also discussed a need to update the STARS handbook, regardless of a merger or dissolution decision. These decisions will be postponed until after the Section Review is completed.

Sarah McHone-Chase, Chair

Message from the Past Chair

History

Laura Hibbler, Editor

It’s been a productive time for the History Section. The RUSA Board has approved a new Gale Cengage History Section Research and Innovation Award. We have gotten to this point through the diligent efforts of Agnes Widder. The monetary award is intended to promote and further research relating to history and history librarianship. We are still awaiting approval from the ALA Executive Council before advertising the award this fall.

The History Section annual program this year was sponsored by the Genealogy Committee and entitled “Mining Gold from the 1940 Census.” The main speaker was Joel Weintraub, a volunteer at the National Archives and Records Administration, Riverside. A panel discussion followed and included Amy Crow of Archives.com, Michael Hall from Family Search, and Bill Forsyth from ProQuest. Over 100 people attended the program. The Genealogy Committee meeting discussed getting youth involved in genealogy research and what to do with donated genealogy research papers.

One of the communication avenues available to History Section members is History-L. This listserv has 279 subscribers with eighty-nine messages sent to the list from July 1, 2011 to June 20, 2012. If you are not a member of the History-L, you can subscribe you can do so by going to http://lists.ala.org/wws/info/history-l. You can also find out about History Section events and activities by “liking us” on Facebook.

The Genealogy & Local History Discussion Group had a presentation by a representative of Fold3 who talked about their military content. There was also a discussion about Family History Books, a free website containing free digital genealogy books.

The Historical Materials Committee finalized their list of Best Historical Materials for publication in RUSQ. The committee also started planning the 2014 History Section program.

The Instruction & Research Services (IRS) Committee had a discussion on history standards for college students. They are developing a set of guidelines on this topic. The guidelines were brought before the RUSA Standards & Guidelines Committee prior to the Annual Conference. A few changes are needed. IRS is planning the 2013 History Section annual program. The topic will be Digital History.

The Local History Committee updated Guidelines for Establishing Local History Collections. It was approved by the RUSA Standards & Guidelines Committee prior to the Annual Conference as well as being approved by the RUSA Board prior to the conference. The major discussion in the meeting centered on how to find new publications of county histories.

Membership in the History Section committees is open to any RUSA History Section member. You will find a link to the volunteer form at http://www.ala.org/rusa/about/divisioncommittees.

Janice Schultz
History Section Past Chair