Advancing Multi-type Library Service:
LSCA Title III Projects

LSCA as an acronym for library expansion is usually associated with public libraries because of the Title I programs that provided for the "C" for "construction" in the Library Services and Construction Act. The "S" for "services," however, also extended to academic libraries through multi-type cooperation, which benefited all libraries and resulted in partnerships among academic, special, public and school libraries. ILLINET Online, the statewide resource-sharing program described in Bernie Sloan's article in this issue stands as a premiere example of a statewide product that received partial funding from LSCA. This statewide resource sharing system brought not only an automated catalog and circulation system to 44 academic libraries and the Illinois State Library, but also allowed Illinois libraries to use a state-centered inter-library loan system for all libraries in the state, without the cost of an external system.

The spirit of sharing embodied in ILLINET Online also underlies all the other projects that were allowed to germinate and take root with LSCA funds. As with any idea, some of the seeds withered and died after several years, but because so many were based on rapidly changing technology, the demise was to be expected with developments in software, equipment and telecommunications. Some LSCA projects have stood the test of time, evolving to adapt to technological changes and the concomitant shifts in library services. Others were great ideas for their time, but were phased out when newer technology bypassed what was state-of-the-art when the project was introduced. Others were implemented locally but never progressed enough to have made an impact on library services in the state, whether through lack of publicity or simply inability to replicate the project in another setting.

The Illinois Library Delivery System (ILDS) is a stellar example of LSCA funds applied to a service that has become a bedrock of Illinois' libraries ability to share materials and information among libraries. ILDS was funded in 1980 through the Illinois State Library with an LSCA grant to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Its initial purpose was to deliver library materials among the major academic libraries, the Illinois State Library, and the then 18 regional library systems. The plan was to use ILDS to link the independent delivery systems, which had been established in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the regional library systems. With the successful implementation of ILLINET Online (then called LCS) for the academic library community, there was a growing need for such delivery to link the various regional library system delivery methods to allow successful interlibrary lending.

The initial delivery system began with six delivery loops to cover the state with 29 direct stops, including 12 of the 18 regional library systems, nine academic libraries, the Illinois State Library and several other key traffic stops. ILDS functioned in effect, like a giant web, overlaying the local delivery systems of the regional library systems. That function has continued, even after the regional library systems were consolidated into 12, and more direct stops were added to accommodate heavy lenders and borrowers of ILLINET Online. ILDS is funded through the state now, but LSCA funds were essential first for introducing the system and then for nurturing it through years of tight state library monies.

Delivery of library materials was furthered with the purchase of fax machines, when that technology became cost-effective. The project to provide libraries with fax machines could not solve the problem of the phone line and its cost, but it did push libraries toward further incorporation of practical technology into their daily routines.

Fax machines were seen as just one means to link Illinois libraries because there also was a need to link the disparate automated library systems used by Illinois libraries. ILLINET Online was the automated catalog and circulation system for all the publicly supported academic institutions, along with many private colleges and universities, some community colleges, the Illinois Math and Science Academy and the Illinois State Library. Many academic libraries, however, from the large research institutions in Chicago to the small liberal arts colleges downstate, were not direct participants

* Doris R. Brown, Director of Libraries, DePaul University, Chicago.

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in ILLINET Online, which would have allowed direct borrowing from their collections. The regional library systems' automated online catalog, know by the curious acronym of LLSAPs (Local Library System Automation Programs) were not linked to ILLINET Online or even among themselves, even though they included large numbers of public libraries. Standalone systems used by some public libraries also had no connection to any other library. The Linked Systems for Resource Sharing Project was introduced to overcome that lack of connectivity by interconnecting ILLINET Online with the other major automated library systems in Illinois.

The project got underway in 1990, discussing the technical, political and procedural issues that would underlie linking the various automated systems in Illinois. The project moved along through multiple discussions of the same technical, political and procedural issues, and a system was set up for an academic library to dial into an LLSAP to identify holdings to the item level, with availability status. The reality, however, was that the process simply took too long and was too cumbersome. It remained easier and faster for the interlibrary loan staff member to look in ILLINET Online first, to borrow from a direct participant if held in 10 and, if not in 10, go to OCLC to borrow either from another Illinois library or from out of state. The idea of the Linked Systems Project lives on now that libraries enjoy the ease of Internet access. The WebZ project presently underway in the regional library systems will allow the very linking of the LLSAPs with the new DRA software, which will replace the antique software of ILLINET Online, In effect, LSP may have been an idea before its time or before technology was advanced enough to make it easy and, therefore, widespread.

The Electronic Government Information Project (EGIP) venture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) also began with the idea of using a new technology — in this case CD-ROM — to allow Illinois libraries to share information. CD-ROM technology was so new in the early 1990s that the acronym was spelled out as "computer disc-read only memory," rather than being used as the household word it is today. The project was designed to provide centralized access to federal government information, allowing users toll-free dial access to networked CD-ROM readers at UIUC. The plan was seen as particularly advantageous because smaller libraries of all types that did not receive government documents would have access to this information simply by using their PC and modem to give users access to the electronic information provided by the federal government. EGIP was implemented at UIUC, but never reached a wide audience, either because of the necessary equipment requirements, the slowness of accessing a CD-ROM network remotely, or simply because the demand for such information did not outweigh the procedural difficulty of getting it. The idea of EGIP has now been superseded, of course, by the ready availability of much federal information on the Web.

Cooperation in sharing collections has been a cornerstone of Illinois library services for many years, so the expansion into cooperation at the point of selection and purchase was a natural extension for an LSCA project. Various projects moved this goal forward, with varying results even today. The OCLC union listing of serials function was especially attractive to Illinois libraries because it allowed the elimination of separation databases or paper lists that tried to track serial holdings, either for borrowing through interlibrary loan or for deciding to buy/not buy based on local availability of the title in another library. The Illinois Valley Library System, for example, received an LSCA Title III grant in 1988 to add all its member libraries' serial holdings to the Serials of Illinois Libraries Online (SILO) listing in OCLC. The goal of that list was to advance cooperative collection development in the system using the OCLC data to produce a user-friendly union list, with software to manipulate data and allow libraries to make serials acquisitions decisions in a cooperative mindset. The Chicago Association of Law Libraries also received an LSCA grant to produce their union list of serials via SILO, as did Western Illinois Library System libraries. LSCA funds have provided the means for Illinois libraries to "put their serials in the SILO," thereby promoting this statewide union list as the means to find journals, newspapers and periodicals to assist with interlibrary loan either through 10, OCLC or requested directly from the holding library.

The cooperative collection development management program was nurtured for many years in the early 1980s among an interested group of academic libraries. LSCA funds gave these libraries the seed money to start projects that brought together collection development officers and subject bibliographers from all sizes of academic libraries to determine lacunae in subject areas or to identify significant titles lacking in the state of Illinois. Early projects consisted mainly of purchases of microform sets and title fill-ins, as well as some subject strengthening in designated geographic areas of the state and in selected subjects. The subject areas of the microform sets varied widely, as demonstrated by this sampling of titles: Slavery: Catalyst to Conflict; American Poetry, 1609-1870; Fashion Costumes and Uniforms: Jewelry Gallery in the Victoria and Albert Museum; and U.S. Military Intelligence Reports: Surveillance of Radicals in the United States, 1917-1941.

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These early ventures provided the foundation for a statewide cooperative collections development plan, which was written in 1990, but which never really has penetrated deeply into the daily activities of Illinois libraries. The Illinois State Library has spent much effort trying to advance the idea of cooperative collection development on a regional library system basis, with some success in some systems, usually on the public library level. LSCA funds paid for the position of coordinator of cooperative collection development, which led to the current Cooperative Collection Management Program (CCMP), a consortium for Illinois academic libraries, now numbering 67. CCMP continues the work of the early LSCA project, arranging joint purchases of electronic databases, holding continuing education workshops on collection development issues, and continuing development of shared collections, sometimes with small seed money grants (e.g. $5,000 to six academic institution of philosophy books), but usually just by providing the mechanism for cooperative action. The proposal to establish and maintain a "last copy" center for Illinois libraries was also studied through an LSCA grant, but that idea has never moved beyond the discussion stage, with some informal arrangements among some libraries to move collections to the more appropriate locale (e.g. Polish materials to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

Conservation of library materials was another project funded by LSCA, with the Illinois Cooperative Conservation Program (ICCP) to be modeled along the lines of the cooperative spirit underlying its sister cooperative collection development. ICCP was based at Southern Illinois University, but was intended to be a statewide effort concentrating on consciousness-raising, education programs and products with a limited treatment facility for conservation of library materials. The plans for ICCP were practical and pragmatic, calling for development of new workshop formats, encouraging the development of workstations and promoting disaster planning. Success was welcomed during the first phase of the project, with workshops for training about conservation of library materials and a broad awareness about disaster planning throughout academic libraries in the state. Over time, though, the conservation effort did not expand as cooperative collection development had, remaining as a local concern for most libraries. The initial programs, however, stimulated libraries throughout the state to devise their own disaster pans and their own conservation programs to protect their library materials, benefiting collections throughout the state.

Another type of LSCA projects flourished in a number of communities through funding for community information networks, which brought together public, school and academic libraries with other local agencies. Some networks provided a means for libraries to gain access to the Internet, others built a community opportunity to share information, and still others provided specific subject information for libraries, other community organizations and citizens.

The LSCA projects described above reflect major ventures that promised much and in most cases delivered much for library service for all types of libraries, In some cases the project was ahead of its time, and the LSCA monies allowed the participating libraries to introduce a service or a technology that would otherwise have had to wait until it became popularly accepted. In other cases, technological advances made the project obsolete as new technology moved the idea of the project into the mainstream, with access far beyond the participating libraries. Some projects simply died on the vine, never flourishing as the grant writers had expected, even though similar projects took off and are continued today in some form. Some projects flourished for years and then ended, leaving a local residue of what had been intended as a statewide venture. All the projects helped Illinois libraries build and strengthen a cooperative spirit that has helped both the libraries and their users develop and maintain better services today.

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