Mansifeld Library Decides Not to be Part of Pilot Project

Barry Brown wrote us a gracious e-mail today, indicating that the Mansfield Library has decided not to be part of this pilot project. Barry wrote that "...The Mansfield Library remains an interested observer of this project. Thanks again for your invitation..."

While we are sorry that UM won't be an initial particpant in this project, we respect their decision and hope that the Mansfield Library will rejoin this effort at some future date.

We will send an invitation to all NCIP capable Montana libraries, inviting them to participate. In the meantime, we are hoping that the other initial partner to our early conversations, the Hi-Line Shared Catalog, will be able to participate in this exciting pilot project.

What Might a MT Lib Card Mean for Users?

What Might This Mean for Montana Library Users?

If a majority of Montana libraries boast being a MLN library and honoring the (presumed now real) Montana statewide library card, what would this mean for Montana library users? Let's play 'let's pretend' and outline one possible scenerio--

• It becomes true to say, as did Jamie Grant, a Bitterroot Public Library Trustee, that “…I can use my library card anywhere in the State.” This is true for online users as well as using it in person…library users can get stuff from most any Montana library.
• It is easy to find and request books from libraries other then my own; essentially, from my perspective as a library user, Montana libraries are sharing so transparently that I get to select from one big library, which just happens to have storefronts spread from Thompson Falls to Plentywood or Ekalaka.
• Finding and requesting books (or magazine articles, reports, maps, movies, etc.) is pretty easy. One easy search lets me chose from a variety of formats—for instance, my search for information about the Dearborn River let me chose between:
• 15 books
• 11 maps
• 27 appellant briefs and court opinions
• 1 film
• 2 oral histories
• 5 magazine articles
• 473,000 items on the open Web, and
• 3 articles in various encyclopedias
• When I request a book (or whatever) on Monday, I usually get it by Wednesday, even though it was sitting on a library shelf 300 miles away.
• Through my library I have access to a broad array of electronic books and magazines. This goes a long ways toward leveling the playing field between libraries in ‘big’ cities like Missoula or Billings, and those in little towns like Circle, Plentywood, Browning, Plains, or Darby.
• There are collections of materials owned by all Montana libraries, supplementing local collections. This means, for instance, that we have movies and DVDs our library would never be able to afford on its own.
• I can find my story, and tell my story, at my library. A wealth of Montana-related material means that I can find:
• Pictures of Sluicebox State Park from the early-twentieth century
• Records about the Fort Peck Reservation, including photographs of tribal elders from the nineteenth century
• Lumber company records from small mills in the Yaak and see how many pounds of chalk and dozens of picaroons they went through in a year
• Maps and pictures of Philipsburg from the last 125 years and see how it grew, declined, then started growing again
• Perhaps best of all, I can contribute pictures, interviews, diaries, etc. of my own—which may help future family members and researchers learn about life in today’s Montana (which, tomorrow, will be yesterday’s Montana.)

Montana Illiad Libraries

I think these are Montana's Illiad-using libraries:

Montana Tech
U of M, Western
MSU Great falls
MSU, Northern
MSU, Billings
MSU, Bozeman
U of M, Mansfield

Thanks Barb Conger for your help with this list.

What is the "Montana Library Card"

The Montana State Library, working with any willing Montana library, is planning to create a “Montana Library Card” (or its functional equivalent).

Our plan is to build systems and relationships between libraries that allow:

1. Users, in
   
2. Participating libraries, to have
   
3. Convenient,
   
4. Lawful access, to
   
5. Quality library content and services,
   
6. In every participating library in the state

The Montana Library Card may not be an actual card, but may be a set of functional relationships and underlying infrastructures. We imagine libraries sharing integrated library systems allowing 'Montana Library Card' activities within their respective catalog and between participating libraries. We imagine libraries, in dispirate library systems, to use (perhaps OCLC-facilitated) NCIP and Z39.50 servers to allow a seamless and convenient means for patrons to discover and request items, without mediation.

There is a Montana Library Card on the books. MCA 22-1-301 describes a non-voluntary public-library only version. For the purposes of MSL's strategic planning discussion, we are playing with the idea of changing the statute from public-only to all types of libraries, and adding the concept of voluntary participation.

The Montana Library Card is closely tied to fulfillment and authentication processes, which are described below.

Montana Library Card Project Blog

This Montana Library Card blog is being created Monday, March 20, 2006, to help manage a joint project involving partner libraries from the Montana Shared Catalog, Jennifer Pearson's work group from OCLC's Group Services, the Mansfield Library at the University of Montana, and Bonnie Williamson of the Hi-Line Catalog which is served from the Havre-Hill Public Library.

This pilot project's goal (from the State Library's perspective) is to see if we can extend the functionality enjoyed by patrons of MSC's Partner libraries (unmediated discovery and request, rapid materials delivery) to Montana library users being served by other integrated library systems.

We'd like, for instance, a patron at the UM to be able to discover and request an item from anywhere in the UM or MSC bibliographic databases, from within her UM Endevour system's catalog interface, and have it delivered (without interlibrary loan-type library staff mediation) to either the UM Mansfield Library, or directly mailed to the user.

While we know that the MSC could work with UM to build a peer-to-peer (P2P) connection, using NCIP (Niso Circulation Interchange Protocol), we think that these P2P relationships won't scale well, maintenance-wise, in libraries with already busy small information technology staffs. We're interested in NCIP-enabled P2P relationships between many Montana library systems, and we think that OCLC, acting as a sort of Babel Fish, will enable us to provide MSC Partner-like service between disparate ILSs.

We understand that OCLC has parallel but slightly different goals. I understand Jennifer will e-mail these to me shortly, and I will post her thoughts here for your review and comment.

So this is the beginning of a pilot project that may, or may not, point the way to establishing a Montana Libary Card. What is a Montana Library Card? See the next blog posting.