Meeting of CAUL/CONZUL and CREPUQ Sub-Committee of Libraries Montréal, Québec, October 10, 2001

1. Meeting of CAUL/CONZUL and CREPUQ Sub-Committee of Libraries Montréal, Québec, October 10, 2001 A Research Digital Library : a Proposal by Quebec Academic Libraries to Develop a common Information InfrastructureSylvie Belzile October 10, 2001

2. Environment • Change impacting canadian academic libraries in the past 10 years: • Increase in quantity and cost of publications (serials in particular); • Expansion of digital information resources; • Change in scholarly communication; • Development of the Internet and Web; • Access of digital information from desktops; • Mass cancellation of serial subscriptions; • Cuts in funding of post-secondary institutions by regional governments; • Increase in collaboration and resource sharing.

3. Digital Environment : Quebec Academic Libraries Initiatives • Local initiatives: • Subscriptions to digital databases and journals through the Internet; • Purchase of resources on CD-ROM (stand-alone and/or networked); • Evaluation and organization of external resources on the Web.

4. Digital Environment : Quebec Academic Libraries Initiatives • Some joint initiatives : • Consortium negotiation and purchasing or licensing of digital scholarly information resources (now 26 products); • Hiring of a project officer to negotiate with vendors and manage licenses; • Agreement to share cataloguing of digital resources; • Evaluation of ILL softwares for a joint purchase; • Staff training; • GIRI and Sherlock.

5. Limitations of Current Model • Access of digital resources from several gateways; • Journal titles volatile • Search languages and interfaces vary according to vendors and products; • License management; • Lack of statistics and analysis of products usefulness; • Updating of online catalogues; • Scattering of expertise.

6. The Beginning of a Research Digital Library • Project « Toute la science du monde » in 1999 • Stage I : consortium licensing of scholarly digital resources • Stage II : development of integrated tools to search and exploit resources • CNSLP project

7. Research Digital Library : Task Force Mandate • Created in September 2000 • To prepare a business plan on the development of a common information infrastructure in order to : • maximize shared investments of Québec academic libraries; • develop a common portal that will give access to digital resources and tools to integrate and exploit them; • promote partnership among institutions to facilitate use of IT in libraries; • define needs for human and financial resources; • determine possible sources and level of funding. • Members :5 library directors (Sylvie Belzile, Gilles Caron, Jean-Pierre Côté, Frances Groen, Richard Dumont), director of Main Library at UQAM ( Diane Polnicky) and CREPUQ research officer (Onil Dupuis) with the collaboration of Laval Dubreuil.

8. Regional Digital Libraries : Earlier Canadian Projects • BC Electronic Library Network (ELN) : www.ola.bc.ca/eln • Partnership between the Province of British Columbia and its post-secondary libraries (64 colleges and universities) • System-wide access to research databases, including full text and full image sources : negotiations of site licences and consortium discounts • Single point of entry to the collections of libraries : 3 union databases • Online document requesting and rapid delivery services • Resources • ELN Steering Committee • Staff : 4.6 FTE (mostly professionals) • Project funding on a year-to-year basis

9. Regional Digital Libraries : Earlier Canadian Projects • The Alberta Library : www.thealbertalibrary.ab.ca • Responsive integrated network of partnerships linking all types of libraries and other information providers (post-secondary, regional and public libraries) • Services : • Resource sharing, joint licensing of electronic resources; • Interlibrary loans; • Information service infrastructure- support and management; • Library staff development; • Advocacy: communication with partners, government; • Unique library card • Funding • One time government funding of 4M$ • Membership fee • Staff • 13 (director, project coordinators, programmers etc.)

10. Regional Digital Libraries : Earlier Canadian Projects • Ontario Digital Library : www.ocul.on.ca • To leverage the content provided by CNSLP by developing an information infrastructure for Ontario researchers • Services • Implementation of an index, search tools and journal contents on a central server and database at University of Toronto; • Integration of consortium purchases by OCUL; • Integration with information system of each participating library : authentication and access control; • Interlibrary loan and document delivery; • Implementation of Fretwell-Downing software; • Scholar ’s portal. • Funding • 7.6M $ over 3 years by Ontario government (CFI match) • Staff • 2-3 with U. of T.

11. Steps Towards a Research Digital Library • Meetings with colleagues from the California Digital Library, the Alberta Library and the Ontario Digital Library in October, November and December 2000; • Research and writing of a proposal explaining the need to fund a study on a future Research Digital Library in February- April 2001; • Approval of the study proposal by the CREPUQ Committee of Vice-Principals Teaching in May 2001; • Funding requested to carry a study on the Quebec Research Digital Library : 80 000 $ to the Quebec Ministry of Research, Science and Technology in June 2001; • Meeting with representatives of Ministry in October 2001.

12. Research Digital Library : Study • Step I • To analyse needs and expectations of Quebec academic libraries for a common Research Digital Library; • To identify other potential partners, their needs and expertise; • To analyze Canadian and international models; • To define goals and principles of a Research Digital Library; • To present a few options towards the implementation of the Research Digital Library.

13. Research Digital Library : Study • Step II • To define services and products available to members; • To define collective tools to develop; • To determine the technological infrastructure; • To describe steps towards the realization of the plan; • To propose milestones for each implementation stage; • To evaluate human and financial resources needed for each stage; • To propose funding model and cost sharing.