StaffWeb Index

Cornell University Library
Goals and Objectives
January, 1998 to December, 1999

Annotated with Accomplishments and Activities
Through December 1999

Cornell University Mission:

Cornell University Library Mission:

• Provide services that support physical and intellectual access to information resources in fulfillment of the present and anticipated needs of Cornell students, faculty and staff and, as appropriate, to alumni and the broader public.

• Provide assistance and instruction on how to locate and use these resources.

• Provide facilities and space to accommodate the library’s collections and services as well as research and study.

Vision:

Cornell University Library Priorities

1. Service to the Public
   Provide outstanding service to the University in support of Cornell's information needs by integrating traditional and digital resources and services.
2. Collection Development and Preservation
   Build and preserve the collections required of a major university according to a rational collection policy.
3. Organization
   Organize the collection for effective use.
4. Staff
   Foster a productive and collegial work environment in which staff have the flexibility and support to achieve their assigned responsibilities.
5. Funding
   Promote more efficient use of existing Library resources and add new resources to advance the Library's mission.

Goals and Objectives

1. Provide outstanding service to the university in support of Cornell’s information needs by integrating traditional and digital resources and services.
   1. Work with faculty, students, and staff on their needs for the library of the 21st century.

      • The Library regularly consults with the Cornell community on issues of planning and policy and is in the process of planning a survey of the Cornell community to obtain input.

      • As part of the CALS Undergraduate Academic Program Review, a survey questionnaire was mailed to all CALS undergraduates. Included on the questionnaire were seven questions which were submitted by the Mann Library Advisory Committee. These questions related to the services and facilities of the library. The survey showed that students are generally satisfied with the Library's services (i.e. the lending policies, the number of hours that library is open, the number of computer terminals), and that they find the staff helpful and accessible. Undergraduates also expressed a preference for electronic access. The only question on which Mann fared poorly was in response to the statement: "Mann Library is one of my favorite places to study." It is expected that this response will improve with the new addition and renovation! Results from the faculty/staff survey and an alumni survey will be available soon.

      • Mann staff worked with the emeriti association to develop and present instruction programs on web searching, the Gateway, and electronic journals. A survey of emeriti faculty, which will be conducted in 2000, will include a question related to the kinds of instruction that would be helpful to the emeriti community.

      • Collection Development librarians maintain ongoing contact with faculty and students to determine their needs for print and digital materials in their research, study and teaching. Bibliographers and selectors continue their close relationships with faculty and graduate students, e.g. Sarah How's recent survey of the English Department, to insure that Cornell's collections-- both print and digital-- meet current and future needs.

      • Through its web site, in particular the Legal Research Encyclopedia, the Law Library is creating mini-guides on US, foreign and international law, that represent the collection both in electronic and in print form. The electronic sources include commercial ones, such as Lexis and Westlaw, and the Internet, with direct links to full-text sources. Using these guidelines, a current project is the review and assessment of the foreign law collection.

      • The University Faculty Library Board and other unit library boards are an ongoing source of information about faculty concerns and interests.

      • LMT and CIT hold joint meetings on a quarterly basis to discuss issues.

      • The Cornell Institute for Digital Collections is collaborating with faculty, staff and units on several projects related to this goal:
        Karen Brazell, Asian Studies - Japanese Theater and Performing Arts databases
        Geri Gay, Communications - Frick Library project
        Johnson Art Museum curators and staff - Museum online project
        Johnson Art Museum, Architecture, Art and Planning, and History of Art slide collections - IMAG/CU Multi-Mimsy database implementation
        Salah Hassan, Africana Studies – Contemporary African Artists African artists database
        Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Architecture, Art, and Planning – American Studies visual collection

      • The Rare and Manuscripts Collections Division is collaborating with University units on several projects:
        1. Development of a Cornell University Photo Hub to provide online access to information about university photographs
        2. An electronic records research project with College of Human Ecology, College of Arts and Sciences, and central administration
        3. RMC, CIDC, and Preservation staff gave a presentation on electronic records issues to the University Auditors’ Group.

      • CUL hosted a special meeting for Cornell emeritus faculty on 25 May 1999, with a presentation on rare books and manuscripts, to inform them of Library activities and plans, and to obtain their input.

      • Pat Schafer represented CUL on the Cornell North Campus Committee, which is part of the Residential Initiative.

      • After consultation with the Library Board and with CUL staff, the decision was made to reduce the cataloging backlog, which had been a feature of CUL for over a decade, so that only a working backlog will remain. This will make many more materials of all types directly available on the shelf. CTS has thoroughly revised its procedures to achieve this ambitious goal, and expects to complete this project ahead of schedule in the spring of 2000.

      • The Management Library has added business websites and subscription services to the Library Gateway and has doubled its instruction effort by reorganizing priorities within the department. It now offers extensive classroom instruction in addition to a regular series of business information workshops. It has developed email reference service and business information guides, which are available through our website. Finally, it has launched a book delivery service for Johnson School faculty and will be adding an article delivery service shortly.

      • The Music Library is developing a digital audio system for reserve listening. A prototype for one course will be in operation in spring 2000. A production version should be available as part of the listening facility when the new music library opens in summer 2000.

      • OKU Access Services reserve unit completed the second successful year of electronic reserve service in Uris Library. 1,476 articles (21,719) pages were scanned. These scanned documents were printed 2,575 times and viewed 22,424 times.

      • OKU Access Services staff set up an Electronic Document Delivery service for materials housed at the Library Annex. This service will allow patrons to request digital documents without the limitations of paper copies.

      • In July 1998, the hours of availability for the Library Annex reading room were expanded from 9 am-1 pm to 9 am-4 pm Monday – Friday.

      • In response to user needs, Uris Library hours were extended by 10 hours per week. These extended hours include integrated access to all services and collections in Uris.

      • Through its web site, the OKU Reference Services Division, is creating bibliographies, webliographies and skill guides in a wide variety of subjects

      • Michael Engle, OKU Reference’s Electronic Text Center Coordinator, is working closely with Molly Hite of the English Department to strengthen Cornell’s offerings in hyperfiction.

   2. Continue to provide and enhance information services as appropriate to the broader community in support of our extension and land grant mission.
      • With support from the Rockefeller Foundation, Mann Library created and made the first shipments of TEEAL (The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library), a library containing the full-text of more than 130 core agricultural journals that is available to the developing world. The basic set (on 172 compact disks) includes journals for 1993-1996 with annual updates now available as well. Many institutions already have purchased the set including Edgerton University in Kenya, Hanoi Agricultural University in Vietnam, and the Institute for Agricultural & Animal Science in Nepal.

      • On September 1, 1998, Mann Library became an official FGDC (Federal Geographic Data Committee) node for metadata and data in NYS. The CUGIR (Cornell University Geospatial Information Repository) site is an active online repository providing geospatial data and metadata for New York State, with special emphasis on those natural features relevant to agriculture, ecology, natural resources, and human-environment interactions. CUGIR provides free, global access to environmental, agricultural, and natural resources data for New York State. New files added in 1999, such as “Freshwater Wetlands Data” and “Land-Use and Land-Cover Data” provide valuable information to researchers, planners, wildlife biologists and agronomists who can use the information to create maps and analyze trends. Mann Library submitted a successful grant proposal entitled “AgMaps” to enhance the service by providing interactive mapping capabilities and to support outreach and GIS-training services to the extension community.

      • The USDA Economics and Statistics System, which has subscribers throughout the world, received a major facelift in summer 1998 with a redesign of the interface and system architecture. Use of the system continues to increase—each day more than 7,000 users come to the website and download an average of 3,700 files. This past year Mann Library emailed more than 600,000 publications to 5,000 subscribers to this service. In recognition of this unique partnership between the Library and the economic agencies of the USDA, Mann Library and the agencies were presented with the Secretary’s Honor Award by Secretary of Agriculture, Dan Glickman.

      • Mann staff worked with Merrill Ewert, Director of Extension Services to introduce the CALS/CHE extension community to the electronic resources now available to the extension community. With the proxy server in place and the Gateway resources available, presented instruction sessions at extension in-service and orientation programs.

      • The Flower-Sprecher Veterinary Library provides ongoing reference service for members of the general public with veterinary questions and fee-for-service document delivery for members of the national and international veterinary medical community

      • The Law Library's mission statement includes the provision of "outstanding and innovative information services to the law school, university, and the worldwide research community." It fulfills this larger role primarily through the information provided on our content-rich law library web site (www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library). A particular service of interest is inSITE, a regular compilation of annotations to new legal web sites, with a search engine, and free email subscription (currently over 900 subscribers).

      • Sarah Thomas was named to The New York Regents Commission on the Future of Library Services, a statewide group that will hold hearings with New York citizens and recommend services that will meet growing information needs. A final report will be issued in 2000.

      • CUL has made an agreement with the Ithaca City School District whereby individual teachers may borrow materials from CUL for purposes of curriculum development.

      • With funding from the New York State Documentary Heritage Program, staff in RMC and outside consultants completed a survey of documentation pertaining to migrant agricultural workers in New York State and compiled a guide “Migrant Farmworkers Records in Upstate New York: Survey and Guide.”

      • Brenda Marston, RMC, taught a series of three day workshops on Archival Fundamentals for the New York State Documentary Heritage Program, and conducted a site visit and report for the DeWitt Historical Society. Course topics: "Basic Elements of an Historical Records Program," "Appraisal and Selection," and "Arrangement and Description." Brenda Marston also taught a "An Introduction to Appraisal and Selection of Historical Records," in Binghamton for the Documentary Heritage Program.

      • Staff fromRMC have provided classroom demonstrations for K-12 students, including students from Lansing Central School, Syracuse High School, the Cornell Day Camp, and a summer law class for area high school students’ career exploration program. RMC staff have also presented lectures on the History of the Book, the rare book collections, and various exhibits at venues around central New York.

      • The Department of Preservation and Conservation, with support from the Division of Library Development of the New York State Library, provides libraries in the Central New York region with the means to establish the basis for preservation programs through the training of staff in standard preservation techniques.

      • The Nestle Library provides a fee based reference service to practitioners in the hospitality industry and is the leading member of THIP-SIG, a subgroup of the Counsel on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Educators (CHRIE) that brings together hospitality librarians from the northern hemisphere. It also hosts THIS-L, a listserv that accommodates the needs of these librarians worldwide.

      • During 1998, Catherwood Library accelerated development of Workindex.com, an electronic information product developed as a joint business venture with LRP Publications, Inc. of Philadelphia, PA. The staff selects sites on the Internet of special interest to those with information needs in human resource management and industrial and labor relations. Abstracts are written for each site, and they are categorized among 40 broad groupings. Access is also provided via a search engine on the home page of Workindex.com. Each site is periodically reviewed to ensure currency. Any changes are ported to the publisher's server on a weekly basis. There is no charge for web access to this file of over 2,500 sites which provides quick access to the best of the Internet for practitioners in the HR and IR fields.

      • Catherwood Library reference staff promoted Internet training initiatives throughout the state and nation in two ways. In collaboration with the school's Extension Division, staff provide content for Internet training programs targeted at human resource professionals and offered nationwide in over 14 cities in 1998, including three locations in New York State. The reference staff also offers a separate initiative for members of labor organizations. These Internet training programs were offered in 1998 in Ithaca and New York City reaching over 60 attendees, all of which were sold out to capacity. Programs in Rochester, Albany, and Washington, DC (a joint initiative with the U.S. Department of Labor Library) have been scheduled based on the success of these programs to date. One reference staff member at Catherwood focuses primarily on improving service to Extension Division staff at the school's five off-campus locations throughout the state.

      • An important step towards making resources of the Kheel Center more widely available over the Internet was taken with release of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire electronic exhibit http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/. For many years, requests for information on this historic event have come from high school students across the country and now they are able to view photographs, contemporary cartoons, and eyewitness accounts of the tragedy including audio excerpts from oral histories provided by survivors of the fire. In a relatively short time, this has become one of the more heavily used pages of the school's web site.

      • Catherwood Library continues to select and mount documents for viewing on its "Electronic Bookshelf". These are primarily government documents for which there are no copyright restrictions. Examples include the report of the National Commission on Retirement Policy, "Can America Afford to Retire?" and the AFL-CIO's "Public Policy Position Papers" by special arrangement with the union. The integrity of many of these documents is assured by providing them in Adobe PDF format so that they appear as exact replicas of the originals.

      • Members of the Library staff serve on a number of regional, national and international professional organizations' governing boards.

      • OKU Reference Services Division presented Instruction sessions to groups from the broader community including Walton High School, Lansing High School, Academic Boot Camp, Ithaca College Model UN, etc. OKU Reference continues to fulfill UN and US Government Documents Repository responsibilities by providing documents-related information and reference service to the community. A webliography, developed by Susan Szasz Palmer, on Selected Reference Sources in Government has been mounted on the OKU web site.

      • In late May 1999, Ms. Jay Zitter made her third annual visit to Uris Library with her fifth graders from Lansing Middle School.

      • On February 5, 1999, Pat Schafer and Susan Currie met with the SCRLC Board of Trustees and toured them through the Library Annex. The Board was interested in Cornell’s approach to high-density storage. On December 1, 1999, Schafer and Currie hosted a half-day session on high-density storage for staff members from Binghamton University.

   3. Assess information needs to support lifelong learning.
      • TSEG, PSEC, IRPC and CDExec each have discussed this topic. An e-mail survey of NERL institutions was done to determine the extent to which these institutions have tried to include alumni in their database licenses. (None do now, but some are thinking about whether this might be possible.) The possibility of producing an information paper which would define lifelong learning and consider its impact on Library operations was discussed, but has not yet been acted upon. LMT, at its retreat on 3 November 1999, set a goal to increase access of CUL digital resources to K-12 and alumni, while improving or increasing access for primary clientele.

   4. Assess distance learning needs, undertake a systematic evaluation of the costs to the Library of establishing an effective distance learning program, and develop a strategy for Library support.
      • In January 1998, the University Librarian appointed a Distance Learning Working Group to write a white paper outlining the Library's position and needs with regard to distance learning and how the Library "can best support distance learning in all its variations. The paper identified the key issues impacting the Library and made nine recommendations. The report was presented and discussed at meetings of the Council of Librarians, the Library Management Team, an open meeting hosted by the Professional Development Committee, the Faculty Library Advisory Board, and the Cornell University Distance Learning Advisory Committee. In response to the recommendations in the White Paper, the University Librarian in May 1998 appointed a Distance Learning Task Force to advise her on the issues, to recommend actions the Library should take to anticipate demands that will be made, and to develop a model for providing effective library services to distance learning students using a distance learning course as a test case. The Task Force received a $7500 grant from the Office of Distance Learning to support the provision of access to print and licensed digital library resources to students in the Cornell Entrepreneurship Certificate Program, a "library-intensive" distance learning course that served as a test case for developing the model for providing effective library support. The CUL Distance Learning Task Force issued its Final Report on January 21, 2000. In supporting the Cornell University Entrepreneurship Certificate Program, the Task Force experienced “fewer participants, higher dropout and far less demand for library services than expected.” The Task Force made the following recommendations:
        1. The library should continue to provide resources and services to distance learners.
        2. Cornell’s proxy server should be used to provide access to registered Cornell University members.
        3. Access to electronic resources should abide by CUL’s licensing agreements.
        4. Document delivery of print journal articles should be done on a cost-recovery basis. Since the library does not provide free document delivery to residential students, the library should not subsidize access to its print collection for those who choose to learn off campus.
        5. To facilitate the use of research materials outside of the library, CUL should continue to actively pursue subscriptions to electronic resources.
        6. The Library should take a proactive role in promoting its services to faculty developing distance-learning courses.
        7. The Library should appoint a standing distance-learning committee with representation from all functional library units. This standing committee should be responsible for tracking developments at Cornell (i.e. eCornell) and abroad.

2. Improve cooperation between CUL Ithaca and the Cornell Medical School Library.
   • Staff of Cornell Medical Library and counterparts met on July 13-15, 1998 to identify areas of common ground. Recommendations included adding Cornell Med to all appropriate negotiations with vendors for databases, and continuing to include Mark Funk telephonically in all Science Selection Team meetings. During the 1998-99 academic year, proposals put forth at the July 1998 meeting were put into effect. The Preservation Department did an analysis of the Medical Archives in New York, and received a grant to begin work on their preservation. Mark Funk continues to participate telephonically (we have purchased our own conference phone), and Cornell Med is included in all of the science collection decisions, including new database licensing.

   • CUL Ithaca and Cornell Medical School Library reference staff worked out a protocol to refer or confer about reference questions, when appropriate, via IRPC-L

   • Staff in RMC work with staff in the Medical Archives on archival reference and cataloging issues.

3. Review and systematize processes by which we distribute information about Library services; decide which information should be distributed in paper, and which online.
   • The Instruction/Reference Program Committee (IRPC) Documentation Subcommittee was created in the fall of 1998 in order to keep such information distribution up to date. Access Steering has also reviewed its handouts. PSEC collaborates with the Gateway Committee on the issue of alerting users to database changes.

   • Partially in response to input from the Gateway focus group study, a working group of the Documentation Subcommittee undertook a massive revision of the Gateway help pages. IRPC has now raised the conscience of all reference staff that the Documentation Subcommittee needs to be consulted or included on all public services projects.

   • The LMS Implementation Management Team has decided that it needs to include documentation among its responsibilities, and will work with the Documentation Subcommittee to create the public information needed for the migration.

   • The Management Library is in the process of reviewing its WebPages in order to improve the user-friendly aspect of this information. A site map and search feature will be added. All Management Library user guides are available online along with instruction materials and Frequently Asked Questions.

4. Increase the gathering of information about CUL user needs and perspectives; improve methods of disseminating that information within CUL; review services to ensure that they are responding to identified needs.
   • Planning is underway for a survey of library users. There have been thorough discussions in the functional groups about the kinds of information that might be collected. An initial group collected data from other institutions and presented recommendations for a broad- based user survey. A second group is now evaluating those recommendations and is considering a process for implementation.

   • Karen Calhoun and Zsuzsa Koltay conducted a focus group study of the Library Gateway in November 1998. Groups of faculty, staff and students were interviewed. The results of this study have been used to make adjustments to the Gateway, to spur the development of a new personalized library service, MyLibrary, and will continue to be applied in the new Voyager environment.

   • The Uris Reconceptualization Committee completed a survey of Uris users and conducted focus groups as part of the Uris Reconceptualization Project.

   • Working with the faculty. Mann Library staff analyzed the results of the CALS undergraduate survey, which included nine questions related to library, services. Also conducted a user survey of the Entomology community. As a result of the Entomology survey, hours of the library were extended.

5. Increase emphasis upon innovative instruction and outreach programs; increase collaboration in teaching among staff in different units, and between staff and faculty.
   • IRPC Steering is creating a subgroup to look into this. Its first action will be to create a union calendar of instruction for the CUL system.

   • Olin and Fine Arts reference staff have assumed joint responsibility for teaching class sessions in architecture, art, history of art, and city and regional planning. This collaborative effort has resulted in the freeing of a .5 FTE academic line for reallocation in conformity with our larger Goals and Objectives.

   • The Veterinary Library worked with the Veterinary College faculty to plan and implement instruction sessions as part of the core curriculum. In addition, the Library developed new instructional sessions on topics, such as finding electronic medical and veterinary science journals.

   • The Geneva Library substantially increased the number of workshops and the number of participants in the Library Technology Center workshops. In addition, Open Lab and Open Forums have been instituted to provide informal training opportunities in the LTC.

   • RMC staff conducted 103 instructional sessions in cooperation with Cornell faculty for graduate and undergraduate students (FY1998-1999) and 63 tours for the Cornell community and visitors. Jeanne White, Jennifer Conklin, and Noni Korf Vidal created the award winning “Beautiful Birds” Web site and Exhibit. RMC staff gave presentations and curated exhibits in support of various courses and university programs. Elaine Engst worked with staff from across the university on the Chimes Rededication program. RMC also sponsored several lectures:

     Dr. Jonathan Bloom: "Paper Before Print: The Origins and History of Paper in the Middle East and Europe" with Department of Near Eastern Studies, the Society for the Humanities, the Art History Department, the Medieval Studies Program

     Dr. Theodore M. Andersson on “Orientalism in Medieval Iceland” with Quodlibet, the Medieval Studies Program, and The Department of German Studies

     Patrick Stevens and Thorsteinn Hallgrimsson (Deputy National Librarian of Iceland) presented a version to CUL of the session on the SagaNet project originally given at the annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists

   • EMPS Libraries staff, with assistance from Mann librarians, taught Chemistry 602, a one credit graduate course in scientific literature searching. Classes were held in the Academic Computing Center in the Engineering Library (ACCEL).

   • Collection Development librarians regularly lecture to classes giving both bibliographic orientation and subject content.

   • For the past year, the Collection Development Division of OKU has created monthly "Significant New Acquisitions," reviews on the Library's website. http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/cornelllibreviews.html

   • Catherwood publishes its Internet training materials on the school's web site to make them available for follow-up after each seminar. Examples include "Labor Unions and the Internet" manual [http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/reference/guides/LUI_Manual/] and the "Human Resources and the Internet" manual [http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/reference/GUIDES/HRI_Manual/default.html] These training seminars are offered at a variety of locations throughout the state.

   • Stuart Basefsky continues to collaborate with Professor John Boudreau in teaching "HR Online Research and Reporting Methods." Students learn advanced methods for finding and organizing electronic and hardcopy sources of the Martin P. Catherwood Library. Deborah Joseph and Professor Kate Bronfenbrenner have received department approval to present a course, "Information and Data for Labor Policy Analysis," offered in the spring 2000 term. This course is designed to help students develop research skills relating to issues faced by the trade union movement today.

   • The Management Library offers training on business information resources to Executive MBA students (offsite students.) In addition we advise these students on access to the Library Gateway through the new proxy server. Management Library staff has worked with faculty to develop course integrated instruction programs for finance courses in the Johnson School. These courses are taught in the Johnson School's Parker Center (financial research lab.) Darcie Mersereau in the Management Library has developed an Entrepreneurship workshop for students in Entrepreneurship classes. Next semester she will be teaching this workshop in the Engineering Library to Engineering students taking Entrepreneurship. Anglea Horne is the Management Library’s liaison to the Johnson School’s Career Services Office. She has developed webpages on Venture Capital to help identify Venture Capital firms for entrepreneurial activities and job searches.

   • Through November 12, 1999, in cooperation with Cornell faculty, OKU Reference Services Division presented 651 tours and instructional sessions reaching 10,482 participants. While most participants are members of the Cornell community, many of our instructional offerings are open to the general public, e.g., Walton High School, Lansing High School, Academic Boot Camp Project, Ithaca College Model UN, Michael’s group.

   • OKU Reference Services Division frequently receives requests from other libraries around the country to use Michael Engle’s Error! Bookmark not defined.

   • OKU Reference Services Division collaborated with Reference Staff from ILR and Mann in planning and providing Library Instruction for Econ 101, HSS 315 and PAM 380.

   • OKU Reference Services Division re-designed its web site substantially enhancing its usefulness. Many additional links to Internet Resources were added as were many new Skill Guides and Webliographies.

   • O*K*U Reference Staff helped plan and implement the CUL/CIT/Graduate School Symposia Series on Humanities Computing.

6. Take steps to ensure continued interaction between staff and users despite the increasing use and provision of remote access to Library services.
   • Work is underway to expand the Robison electronic information kiosks in Olin to include Uris and potentially other units as well

   • Both the Veterinary Library and the Entomology Library designed and put into production web pages that described the library’s services and linked to library resources. Mann Library introduced a virtual tour of its collections and services for alumni and friends of the library.

   • The Management Library has added workstations and provides network access at all seats in the library. We offer email reference support and we continue to staff a reference desk in the middle of a computer learning facility within the library.

7. Continue efforts to assist users in assisting themselves, such as user-initiated recalls, renewals, annex requests, ILL requests and requests for materials purchase.
   • Users can currently initiate all of these activities online, although staff interaction is still required. Voyager, the Library's new management system will provide a rich suite of patron empowerment services when it is implemented in June 2000.

   • Access Services has put in place a pilot program that allows users to request articles from journals held at the Annex for delivery by fax or online.

   • Howard Raskin and Susan Currie spearheaded an effort to select, license and implement the ILLiad interlibrary loan management system which will be put into production in all six interlibrary loan units (including the Medical College.) CUL worked closely with ILLiad throughout 1999 to ensure that the ILLiad software can be used with RLIN. That work has now finally been completed, and we plan to implement ILLiad on 3 January 2000. ILLiad will bring increased efficiency to the interlibrary loan borrowing process, improving service to thousands of users. The software also allows user-initiated ILS requests. In addition, access services staff redesigned the current ILS request form, which is available on the Library Gateway to make it easier for patrons to request ILS material.

   • The Management Library now emails recall and overdue notices. With the introduction of Voyager, all units will e-mail circulation communications to patrons.

8. Provide for the maintenance of the Library Gateway, and allocate resources for that purpose.
   • The Gateway Committee has been meeting regularly since the Gateway was implemented in January 1998. The Committee has prioritized the many recommendations for improvements to the Gateway and has assigned work for those with the highest priority. The Library has identified funding for ongoing support.

9. Implement an effective Web-based Z39.50 interface to the library catalog and to other core networked bibliographic resources.
   • George Kozak from Library Systems has worked to improve the NOTIS Z39.50 server and to configure WebPac, the Web-based Z39.50 interface to the library catalog. The Web interface was put into production in January 2000. The system, however, is not robust. It needs regular attention, and has too many outages. With the implementation of the Voyager system in June, 2000, WebVoyage, a Web-based interface will be the default interface to the library catalog. The committee configuring WebVoyage for use at Cornell expects to point the Voyager Z39.50 client to a number of Z39.50 compliant databases and is evaluating how to integrate the Library Gateway's Networked Resources catalog into Voyager.

10. Continue and accelerate the development of digital resources and services, where content is fully integrated with bibliographic finding tools, within the context of campus-wide, intercollegiate, national and global initiatives; such resources and services should be available 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
    • The Database Review Task Force (DRTF), composed of librarians from collection development, public services and technical services made decisions, in consultation with IRPC, on key databases for 1998/99 and 1999/2000. DRTF has been reorganized (see Goal 2.3 below) to select and evaluate subscription databases more effectively. The Task Force designed a template for evaluating electronic resources submitted to it.

    • The Electronic Resources Committee (ERC) reviews the many facets of requests for networked electronic resources and makes policy recommendations where appropriate.

    • Programmers at Mann Library and CIT implemented a proxy server. The proxy allows off-campus users to connect to electronic resources which are IP-restricted. With the proxy server, students in the Cornell in Washington program or faculty on sabbatical leave at another institution can connect to resources available through the Library Gateway.

    • Sarah Thomas secured a grant from the Library of Congress to integrate material from CUL’s Making of America collection into LC’s American Memory collection. Library Technology and CIDC staff worked to convert the image files to text files, encode it using new metadata, and make it broadly available. Internet users “discovered” the collection even before its official release, and have prompted reference questions about support of electronic resources.

    • Technical Services staff in CTS, Mann, and ILR collaborated to catalog the 1720 full-text electronic serial titles in the ProQuest Direct databases. At the request of the Gateway Committee, a searchable list of these ProQuest serial titles was created in the Library Gateway. This searchable title list can now be used for other electronic journal aggregations to provide title level access to the specific journals.

    • The Law Library is participating in the Internet Scout's Project Isaac, based at the University of Wisconsin Computer Science Department. Project Isaac links geographically distributed metadata collections into a single, virtual metadata collection. The Law Library contributes information about legal resources (from its own InSITE database of annotations of new legal web sites). The Engineering Library is providing space on its Unix server for the project, as well as technical expertise

    • The Law Library is involved in a project to digitize early law reviews in collaboration with CIT (Rich Marisa) and the Hein Publishing Company. Cornell law librarians are providing user feedback and help in developing a user-friendly interface, metadata, and a search engine.

    • The Library participates in the Digital Library Federation. Sarah Thomas serves as chair of the Executive Committee.

    • CUL is one of the few research libraries participating in the planning for an international cooperative digital reference service, which is being led by the Library of Congress. It is important for CUL to do this, not only to learn more about the potential of cooperative reference online, but also to represent the needs and values of research libraries in this project.

    • CUL is cooperating with Columbia, Dartmouth and Middlebury to acquire permanent access to approximately one thousand current electronic monographs. One copy (i.e., simultaneous user) of each of these e-books will be jointly owned by all four institutions.

    • OKU Reference continued to provide E-mail Reference, answering more than 2,500 e-mail queries.

    • OKU is planning a digital, interactive reference service using e-commerce customer support software.

    • The Uris Library Reconceptualization Committee is planning a “new Uris” which will accelerate the development and provision of digital and traditional resources and services.

11. Select and implement a library management system that adheres to evolving standards.
    • The Library Evaluation Committee unanimously selected the Voyager system from Endeavor Information Systems, Inc., Des Plaines, IL as the next Cornell Library management system. The Implementation Steering Committee appointed an Implementation Management Team and charged them with making the strategic, workflow and configuration decisions necessary to implement Voyager at Cornell. IMT members were trained in the system functionality of the Voyager system by Endeavor instructors, and then began making the decisions necessary for use at Cornell. Subcommittees of specialists were formed to address specific issues. During January and February 2000, the first test migration of Cornell data to Voyager will take place. Trainers from within CUL will be appointed and then trained by Endeavor. IMT will work with the trainers to integrate Cornell workflow decisions as they build training materials. Beginning in March and continuing through June, a massive in-house training program will be conducted to teach library staff the new system. Voyager is a technically state-of- the-art computer system. It operates on the UNIX operating system running on computers from Sun Microsystems. Based on the Oracle database management system, it is a three-tier client server application. Significant learning has occurred within Library Systems to prepare the staff to support the new environment.

12. Explore electronic publishing options and recommend viable alternatives for Cornell.
    • The University-wide Electronic Publishing Committee, chaired by Sarah Thomas, presented a report and recommendation to the Provost in October 1999. The recommendations include infrastructure development, training or hiring of staff to advance electronic publishing by faculty and students, and outreach to faculty on important electronic publishing issues such as intellectual property rights.

    • Marty Crow wrote an analysis of options for electronic thesis and dissertations which served as the basis for a meeting with the Dean of the Graduate School to see what Cornell's direction should be.

    • The Cornell Institute for Digital Collections hired an Electronic Publishing Specialist to assist faculty in e-pub projects.

    • The California Digital Librarian Richard Lucier spoke to EPSC and LMT members about a California/Ivy Digital Press initiative. Sarah Thomas and Lucier coordinated a meeting in the fall to continue discussion and feasibility planning.

    • The Library joined SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Research Coalition), an ARL-launched endeavor to offer more economical alternatives for publication.

    • The Engineering Library, with CUL support, has agreed to support a portion of the development of the Association of Computing Machinery electronic publishing efforts.

    • Zsuzsa Koltay, David Ruddy and Steven Rockey have collaborated to produce a Web presence for Project Euclid, Cornell University's initiative to advance scholarly communication in theoretical and applied mathematics and statistics. Peter Hoyt and Zsuzsa Koltay worked together with German colleagues to install a mirror site for mathematics journals as part of the general Euclid initiative.

    • Don Schnedeker moved the College and University Business Library Statistics annual publication from paper to a website (http://cubl.johnson.cornell.edu).

    • The Library's proposal to facilitate the scholarly communication of journals in mathematics and statistics has been funded for a three-year period by the Mellon Foundation. The Library will partner with the Duke University Press to create a portal for journals with functionality for preprint editors, and online access to full-text peer- reviewed journals.

13. Upgrade and provide for the ongoing maintenance of public computer workstations and other equipment needed to access information in electronic form.
    • The Networking and Desktop Support Department (NDS) installed 65 Pentium machines in public service areas. 20 Power Macs that had been in public service areas were redeployed in the stacks, thereby enabling old Mac LCIIs to be retired.

    • Upgraded public access computing facilities in Veterinary, Entomology, Geneva, and Mann Libraries. Developed a proposal with CIT to incorporate a new computing facility in the renovated Mann Library building.

    • Worked closely with the architects and staff to complete the interior designs for the new addition to Mann Library and began planning the renovation. New York State has approved funding for the renovation and rehabilitation of the existing Mann Library structure.

    • The Engineering Library expanded services to include Academic Computing Center in the Engineering Library (ACCEL), a group of teaching classrooms that are also used as student computer centers.