the first five years

• The right time to collaborate
• TUG today
  • 1995
  • 1996
  • 1997
  • 1998
  • 1999
• The search for a new storage facility
• Aquiring a new library system

• The end result: Better service
• The next priority
• Text-based electronic resources
• Electronic data resources
• The first five years
• Lessons on team building
• Looking forward

In the ’90s, a time when universities in Ontario were experiencing unprecedented fiscal constraint, the three libraries found themselves facing a number of common problems. There was increasing pressure to replace ageing or inadequate computer systems. Space was an issue at all three libraries: Laurier was packed to the roof and Guelph and Waterloo were well on their way to filling both their main buildings and additional rented storage space. The weak Canadian dollar and soaring prices were necessitating major serials cancellations. Librarians at the three institutions agreed that the best way to move forward was to collaborate.

Their timing was right. Technological advances were making greater collaboration among institutions possible. The provincial government had begun to offer financial incentives to encourage inter-institution collaboration. There were new presidents at all three universities: Mordechai Rozanski at Guelph, James Downey at Waterloo, and Lorna Marsden at Laurier. In February 1995, the presidents of the three universities signed an agreement to collaborate on a series of joint library projects and initiatives. The goal of the TriUniversity Group of Libraries (TUG) is to work toward an integrated programme of library collections and services.

The plan called for collaboration in three areas: information resources and services, joint storage, and library systems. Six projects were identified:

1. building or acquiring a joint storage facility easily accessible from all three libraries
2. exploring the feasibility of purchasing a single integrated library system
3. facilitating the sharing of data resources
4. networking information resources
5. facilitating the sharing of paper-based information resources and making information available electronically
6. rationalising collection development

TUG’s most visible accomplishment is TRELLIS, a shared, integrated library system which offers access to the combined catalogues of all three university libraries and acts as a gateway to a large number of electronic information resources. Selecting and implementing the new system was a major undertaking, but the effort was rewarded when TRELLIS went live in April 1998, providing users on all three campuses with easy access to over 7 million items.

A tangible sign of TUG’s success is a shared storage facility purchased jointly by the three universities in July 1996. Located on Malcolm Road in Guelph, a 25-minute drive from each campus, the TUG Annex serves as a secure storage facility for low-use library materials. Jointly purchasing a library system has allowed the TUG partners to avoid thousands of dollars in hardware, software, and conversion costs.

Jointly purchasing and operating the Annex has helped members of the TriUniversity Group of Libraries avoid millions of dollars in construction costs. In terms of rationalising collection development, reducing duplicate journal subscriptions has avoided additional costs. The costs avoided by sharing electronic information and services have yet to be calculated.

the first five years

building the infrastructure

After an extensive search, in July 1996 the three universities jointly purchased a building on Malcolm Road in Guelph. A task group including representatives from each of the three universities was formed to plan the interior. Another group was charged with determining collection management policies, including ownership agreements and weeding policies.

Renovations had to be done to the building, originally a bottling plant. Air conditioning, phone lines, a security system, and new shelving were installed and computer equipment and furniture brought in from all three institutions. In late fall the collections were moved in, and shortly afterwards the TUG Annex was open for business.

The three libraries share operating costs, including staffing the Annex and shuttling materials among libraries. These costs are more than offset by the benefits of the new joint storage facility. The TUG Annex, which is large enough to accommodate years of growth at all three libraries, is providing storage space for low-use materials at a fraction of the cost of constructing additional space on any of the three campuses.

TRELLIS, the Endeavor Voyager system containing the catalogues and client databases of the libraries at Guelph, Waterloo, and Laurier, offers seamless access to over 7 million items. Circulation policies have been harmonised so that borrowers can access collections in any of the libraries without needing to be familiar with three different sets of protocols, policies, and regulations. A recent upgrade to TRELLIS allows users to renew books at any of the three libraries online. Interlibrary book and document delivery services have improved dramatically, and TUGdoc, a service that allows users to request copies of journal articles not available at their home library, is now available online.

expanding information resources

Text-based electronic resources

Through the TUG home page, users now have access to a large suite of electronic journal indexes and abstracts which provide full citations for journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, books, book chapters, and other useful materials. Some of these indexes include a "Check for holdings" feature which allows users to determine whether or not a particular journal is available at one of the member libraries. Though licensing agreements vary from title to title, TUG users now have access to over 4,200 full-text electronic journals.

The TUG home page also provides access to selected Internet search tools and to a wide range of subject guides which lead users to resources in print and electronic formats. TUG’s Electronic Reference Shelf provides users at all three libraries with instant access to dictionaries, directories, encyclopedias, and style manuals and up-to-the-minute information about the weather and currency exchange rates.

Prior to the establishment of TDR, the use of large data sets on the three university campuses was limited to a relatively exclusive group of users with the necessary expertise and resources. Rich information sources such as Statistics Canada’s Survey of Consumer Finance or the National Population Health Survey were not available to most users. Access was limited to researchers with large budgets and the ability to write statistical programmes to generate useful results.

To address this problem, members of individual centres for data resources at Guelph, Waterloo, and Wilfrid Laurier and representatives from Computing and Communications Services at Guelph and Information Systems and Technology at Waterloo joined forces to create a centralised online data service. The main focus of this new service, based on the highly successful Data Resource Centre at the University of Guelph, is a joint web site where all data licensed to be shared is mounted and maintained. Data is purchased collaboratively and agreements are negotiated for all three campuses.

A web-based interface allows users to select a data set and variables and run statistical analysis on the data from their desktops. The centrally located and staffed TDR office fields requests, acquires data, and mounts it quickly on the system. TDR staff members are available to consult with users on all three campuses, though individual institutions continue to offer support and service to local users and to maintain data licensed only to members of their community.

Together, the TUG partners are able to acquire and distribute more data than would have been possible for any single institution, given the current fiscal climate. Users benefit from this pooling of data resources and from the sharing of expertise at the three institutions. As the concept of regional centres for university data resources gains currency in North America, TDR stands as a model of successful collaboration.

reflections

Much of what has been accomplished during TUG’s first five years—jointly purchasing a storage facility, implementing an integrated library system, sharing information resources and services—can be attributed to TUG’s team-based approach. Senior administrators from the three libraries direct high-level planning, but it is teams drawn from the staff of the three libraries that accomplish tasks, achieve goals, and provide services.

The long-term investment has not been in hardware, which will wear out, or in software, which will be replaced, but in people. Knowing that collaboration will save time and money in the long term is not enough to make it work. The university librarians understand that investment in human resources is required if collaboration is to succeed.

Lessons on team building

To this end, events were arranged that brought staff from all three libraries together. In the fall of 1995, for example, the staff of all three circulation departments spent a full day together talking about collaboration and change. Several important and interesting ideas emerged from these discussions, laying the groundwork for the collaboration that followed. Since then, a TUG-wide set of circulation policies and procedures has been developed, a feat requiring an unprecedented level of inter-institutional team work and group process. Looking back, it’s easy to see the importance of that initial workshop in establishing the relationships which made this accomplishment possible.

Learning is another important part of successful collaboration. The organisation that emerges from a collaborative venture is different from any one of the institutions involved. Staff members learned to come to terms with ambiguity and uncertainty, to accept that, in many undertakings, there are more questions than answers.

The learning continues. As TUG continues to explore new territory in the area of multi-institutional collaboration, staff in all three libraries participate in seminars, workshops, and institutes, jointly and separately, formally and informally, to learn more about the art of collaboration.

Equally important to successful team building is leadership. Team building is a difficult, time-consuming venture, and not the traditional work of administrators. It’s the work of leaders. It requires a commitment to a new approach to getting work done. Staff members at all levels have been given the responsibility and authority to make things happen. For example, a group of people drawn from throughout the three libraries was responsible for the evaluation and selection of a new library system. They managed this process with considerable independence from the university librarians and achieved an important objective: they demonstrated that leadership is the responsibility of all staff members.

Empowering teams to lead TUG initiatives has encouraged commitment to and ownership of the collaboration. Now when a question arises, the first question is more likely to be "What does this mean for the TriUniversity Group of Libraries?" than "What does this mean for my department?" or "What does this mean for my library?"

Looking forward

As well, the TUG partners will continue to participate in consortial purchases through the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL), a group of 19 university libraries in the province of Ontario working to increase their buying power by sharing resources and purchasing materials collectively. Also through OCUL, the TUG partners will continue to participate in the development of a regional shared interlibrary loan and document delivery system.

The TUG libraries will benefit from a new initiative, the Canadian National Site Licensing Project (CNSLP), a consortium of 64 Canadian universities that negotiates with journal publishers and vendors to obtain Canadian site licenses for electronic versions of scholarly journals primarily in scientific disciplines. The consortium received a $20 million grant from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation to help fund this initiative, which will increase the quantity, breadth, and depth of research literature available to Canadian scholars.

"A major accomplishment would be remaining abreast of evolving information sources and resources and continuing to provide a good, comprehensive array of information for our users," says Virginia Gillham. "That’s our job as librarians: to make informed decisions and provide the right selection of information."

Developing and maintaining the infrastructure to serve the changing needs of the faculty, staff, and students at the three universities will also be a challenge. "We’ve made a big investment in the TRELLIS system," notes Mike Ridley, "but we’re going to need other kinds of servers, and other kinds of access devices, network computers and workstations and printers and scanners, just to keep current."

"Perhaps our biggest challenge," notes Murray Shepherd, "will be to continue to celebrate our successes, to nurture the collaborative spirit, and to understand and respect our different cultures."