FY 2007 Annual Report Lincoln Trail Libraries System Significant

							                                     FY 2007
                                     Annual Report
                                     Lincoln Trail Libraries System
                                     Significant Accomplishments


During FY 2007 the theme of Libraries at the Crossroads of Change was
foremost in the minds of the system staff. Change was discussed in every
aspect of library service. Some change topics were the future of the Online
Catalog, the future of digitized content, the future of the Integrated Library
System with open source and company mergers, the future of school libraries,
the future serving our new immigrant populations, the future of communications
between the user and the library -- Facebook, My Space, Second Life, Blogs,
Instant Messaging, and more. Clearly the time of looking at all of the crossroads
for changes that were coming together was now.



     COMMUNICATIONS

The redesign of the LTLS Website was long overdue and the launch of the new
site in November 2006 was welcome by the staff and the membership. The new
design features a futurist city with quick links for visitors to get to many of the
services that LTLS supports. Visitors can search the LINC catalog and Open
World Cat from the front page. An important new part of the website is the
monthly features section on the home page. These are topical in nature and
provide an opportunity for LTLS and member libraries to focus on important
events and library issues. Another very successful addition to the site is the
incorporation of topical blogs. In eight months the blogs have had over 24,710
visitors.

                              Blog Name                    Visits
                              Quick Connections           12,235
                              LINC Update                  4,120
                              Library Jobs                 3,903
                              Youth Source                 1,380
                              LTLS Services                1,317
                              About LTLS Members             962
                              Working Together               664
                              Trustee Connection             129




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A fun, educational and informational feature of the site is a weekly poll or survey.
An early poll question:




The site is constantly changing and work is underway to make it friendlier for all
users. It has however allowed the staff to easily update the site and keep the
information much more current than our previous site. A side note is that the
design allows some creative visitors to play around with the moving delivery
vehicle and actually make it crash into the space ship. Anything to make it fun
and useful to the public.



       OPERATIONAL SUPPORT

Operations of many of our services were at a crossroads in FY 2007. Our ability
to support quality services was being challenged and the staff addressed this
challenge to turn this into major accomplishments.

At the beginning of FY 2007 in July the LTLS Cataloging Center operations was
not close to meeting the promised quick turnaround on returning materials from
the cataloging center to member libraries. The delay was approximately 18
working days, a totally unacceptable time
lag. By the beginning of January the delay
had been decreased to 5-days a major
improvement and by the end of June the
staff had eliminated any delay. It was a
team effort with everyone contributing. We
did an internal review of operations and
procedures and we made some changes
in staffing patterns. This success has
been a great boost to the moral of the staff
and the support that we are receiving from
libraries with the getting many appreciative
notes.

The business operations were also on a downward slope at the beginning of FY
2007. Our ability to provide timely reports to the administration and the board
was unacceptable as was the general service operation. By December 2006, the
operation was functioning at an adequate level and by March of 2007 everything
was up-to-date and the staff took on a new project to transfer the OCLC
accounting from one software system to another. A change that took place in

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less than six months with yet another change in staffing patterns and support.
The staff met the challenge and made changes and turned a downward slope to
a major success.

Two of the major expenses of LTLS were increasing at double digits and it was
essential to slow the rising costs of gas and electricity. The gasoline increases
were slowed by a partnership with the University of Illinois. LTLS is an affiliate
agency of the U of I and therefore we were able to work with the U of I Motor
Pool. LTLS is able to save between 20 and 60 cents per gallon with this
partnership. The electricity rates have also gone up and LTLS joined the
Electricity Co-operative organized by the Champaign County Chamber of
Commerce. This partnership allows for group purchase of electricity, which will
reduce the rate of rise of this cost.

Another operational accomplishment was the major upgrade in the LTLS
headquarters network infrastructure. Two additional T-2 data circuits were added
to the existing T-1, which tripled the available bandwidth for our connection to the
Illinois Century Network and improved the service performance of the LINC
operation.

A final operational project that began in FY2007 was the upgrade of the LTLS
internal database that is used to support our programs. The tool which is
referred to “in house” as LTDB has been in existence since 1996. Because of
improved functionality in new versions of the software, Filemaker, LTLS decided
to move from FileMaker 6 to FileMaker 8. Two consultants were hired to move
all of the functionality of LTDB to the new version of FileMaker 8 and this will
make it easier for the LTLS staff to track their contacts with individuals, add
trainings and CE events, and automate some statistical processes that are now
manually completed. This project will be continued during the next year with
completion expected in several phases.




       SHARING SERVICES

The crossroads of change met the demand for core services in the mainstream
programs of LTLS. Once again resource sharing and circulation of materials was
at an all time high. The borrowing of books ad other physical materials from
libraries using LINC was 4,496,286 in FY 2007 compared to 10 years ago when
2,815,076 local library items circulated by member libraries of LINC. As with the
previous year the circulation increase is not as dramatic as Online ILL. In FY
2007 ILL was 637,698 compared to 146,081 ten years ago. This increase in the
number of physical items being borrowed between libraries and the increase that
the users are making of this service is wonderful. However, comparing those
numbers with the delivery needs with them with no funding to support that
increase it poses a service dilemma for the system. It is interesting to note that

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the increase in ILL continued even though some libraries implemented a more
conservative approach to sharing new
resources. New materials (as defined by the
library) were not as available to ILL users,
yet the ILL numbers went up significantly
and Reciprocal Borrowing stayed
relatively stable. These numbers
represent an accomplishment of the LTLS
membership and the staff. Together we
encourage sharing and LTLS wants our
constituents to think of LINC as a single
resource available to all. By the numbers
again, ILL circulation as a percentage of
total circulation has increased from
5.19% ten years ago to 14.18% in FY 2007.

The growth of LINC membership is always a time for celebration. Because of a
grant made to LTLS at the end of FY 2006, LTLS had the opportunity to work
with 8 new libraries to prepare them for becoming online members of LINC. At
the end of FY 2007 there were a total of 105 libraries that were members of LINC
and 93 were circulating online, 9 pre-online and 3 union list libraries. These pre-
online libraries added more than 63,000 items to the resource sharing pool of
LINC and to WorldCat. Several of the new libraries previously had in-house
small circulation systems and were happy to eliminate the management part of
this operation and become resource sharing partners in a much more direct way.

The LTLS cataloging center was at a crossroads as was described previously.
The question was – do we continue the service or change it completely? We
choose to revitalize the service and in FY 2007 30,879 new items were added to
LINC and WorldCat through the Cataloging Center and another 6,523 items were
added for the libraries coming online. Note that of the 63,000 items added by the
retroconversion libraries, 6,523 required LTLS cataloging assistance. This
means that 10.3% of the items added by the new libraries are new to LINC -- a
terrific contribution to the LINC.



               SPECIAL PROJECTS
During FY07 the Polytalk Library Interpreters Network expanded participation to
75 volunteer interpreters, and 300 registered users from 145 Illinois libraries. An
example of how this service was useful comes from Jennifer Groth at Ela Area
Public Library Here is one of her stories:

        An elderly man approaches the reference desk with a piece of fabric and a
        metal ring. He does not speak English, but is clearly trying to
        communicate something with the fabric. He gestures to his shoe with the
        fabric. Jennifer does not understand what he is trying to convey, but does

FY2007 LTLS Annual Report – Significant Accomplishments                       Page 4
        realize that he is speaking Polish. She recalls a service she is registered
        for: PolyTalk. After doing her best to make it know to the patron she is
        calling for help, she jumps on her computer and logs into the database of
        interpreters. Success! There is a Polish interpreter available!

        As it turns out, the man is looking for a shoe repair shop that could help
        him fix his old military boots. He is restoring his old uniform, and the boots
        are an intricate part of the whole. He is ecstatic to be understood and get
        the information he needed. Jennifer even calls the shoe repair shop to let
        them know that the man will be coming and what his needs are. He
        leaves, in a very happy state, to go to the repair shop.


In addition to the basic service program Lincoln Trail has been recognized
locally, statewide, nationally and internationally for our work. It is gratifying for
the staff to experience this recognition and even more important that that the
word is spread about PolyTalk so that we get more users and more volunteers in
the program. Recognitions include:

 Lincoln Trail Libraries System was honored on October 18, 2006 by the cities
    of Champaign and Urbana for the PolyTalk Library Interpreters Network
    project. The International Humanitarian Award honors individuals and
    organizations for significant contributions to international understanding,
    cooperation, friendship, and development in the areas of hospitality,
    humanitarian relief, and research and education.

 PolyTalk won first place prize at the Illinois
    Library Association Diversity Fair held at the
    ILA Conference in Chicago on October 5,
    2006.

 PolyTalk was selected from over 100 applying
    libraries as one of 14 exhibitors from around the country featured during the
    ALA Washington Office Library Day on the Hill at the Rayburn House Office
    Building in Washington during the ALA Conference on June 23, 2007. That
    program highlighted innovative library projects that benefit from federal library
    grant support and legislators from across the US were given an opportunity to
    ask questions about the program. Another benefit was the contact with
    librarians from other states who were interested in joining our program or
    establishing a service of their own.

 On June 25, 2007, PolyTalk was awarded the 2007 Sirsi-Dynix Building
    Better Communities Award. The award recognizes libraries using technology
    in innovative ways to improve library services for their communities. LTLS
    was initially selected as one of 15 international finalists for the award. The
    award included a cash prize of $10,000.


FY2007 LTLS Annual Report – Significant Accomplishments                           Page 5
The PolyTalk initiative will continue in FY 2008 with the focus of getting more
libraries participating and more interpreters to increase use of the interpreters
network. Our goal is to make PolyTalk a core service for libraries in Illinois.

WorldCat Local is an example of “good timing.” The Illinois State library offered
library systems to collaborate on statewide iniativies and at the same time OCLC
was beginning a project to test the idea that WorldCat might be a solution for
local discovery and delivery of resources. Illinois systems in cooperation with the
Illinois State Library, have invested much effort into ensuring that the holdings of
the shared automation systems were represented in OCLC. At the same time in
the change crossroads the question of the future of the online catalog was being
discussed and the catalogs were criticized because they lacked tools that the
Googles, Amazons and Yahoos of the world had. OCLC intended to include
relevancy ranking of search results, “faceted browse capability,” automatic
citation formatting and enhanced content in its test project. With the investment
and the opportunity it was a natural that LTLS should participate in a pilot.

LTLS received an LSTA grant to begin the process of testing WorldCat Local in
Illinois during FY2007. Much of the work for FY 2007 involved soliciting pilot
participants, working with OCLC/ISL staff to determine the process for
configuring and setting up WorldCat Local in Illinois, and database cleanup. Pilot
libraries agreed to update holdings in WorldCat daily, have an OCLC number
index in their automation system, and have bibliographic records with OCLC
numbers. This project utilizes direct OCLC patron requests, integrates link
resolver products for those that have them, and provides integrated search
results that include ContentDM, NetLibrary, and FirstSearch article citations as
well as local catalog results. OCLC project staff performed the configuration and
setup necessary to integrate local automation systems with WorldCat Local and
worked on production of public relations materials for the pilot libraries.

There are 32 pilot libraries from around the state participating in the project.
While the actual testing did not begin in FY 2007 the difficult process of getting
buy-in, reaching agreements and determining all the
steps necessary to begin were completed. This is
an enormous accomplishment and during FY 2008
It is expected that WorldCat local will be in
operation for all of the 32 libraries and more. See
the search box for WorldCat local that was released
in August for LTLS.




     MORE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The previously described accomplishments are only part of the picture for the

FY2007 LTLS Annual Report – Significant Accomplishments                        Page 6
year. Staff developed and implemented a Continuing Education and Training
program of 70 separate events. This year for the first time, LTLS utilized online
training via a service that LTLS supports iLINC. We did not have as many
libraries participate in this type of educational opportunity that we would like but it
was an accomplishment to actually do this and in FY 2008 it will be part of a total
evaluation of the Continuing Education and Training service of LTLS.

LTLS received a third year of funding for the Diversity Program and that program
and its successes are described in the Inter-System Cooperative Projects section
of this report. LTLS continued its partnership with the Mortensen center for
International Librarianship. During the year we welcomed 48 associates to LTLS
and provided a training on the “Fish Philosophy of Customer Service” and an
orientation to cooperation Illinois style.

FY 2007 was a watershed year in some ways in that we improved our internal
processes to provide better service and began some projects that will radically
change the face of our LINC catalog and other services in the future. As the
Director I am proud of the hard work of the staff and the dedication of the
members, but remember that we all need to commit to this cooperative
environment to keep it strong.




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