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Historic, Archive Document Do not assume content reflects current scientific knowledge, policies, or practices. U.S. Department of gricultural Agriculture V v* Beltsville, MD ibraries NationalAgriculturalLibrary 20705-2351 National nformation Volume 19 Agricultural Numbers 3/4 DJ]otes March/April 1993 Library ISSN: 0095-2699 Annual Report of the NAL Regional Document Delivery System for Fiscal Year 1992 byTannerWray, Coordinator Introduction DeliverySystem (RDDS) hasprovided Regional Document DeliverySystem USDA scientistswith research related Document DeliveryServices Branch Since July 1973 the National Agri- documents. TheRDDSbeganasanet- National Agricultural Library cultural Library’s Regional Document work of 10 states in mid-1973 and has NAL Regional Document Delivery System (R.D.D.S.) Region 7 (Northwest&Intennountain) Region4 (NorthCentral) WA MT Region 1 ND MN i(Northeast) NY MI / OR ™ > t SD PA / ID / WY 1 I I 1 OH J Region 5 UT IL 1 Region2 ^ | (Illinois) MO Region8 (Western) Region6 Region3 (Southern) (Southwestern) Regional CoordinatingLibraries • Receiveservicevia Regional Coordinating Libraries The eight regions of NAL’s Regional Document Delivery System showing the states participating in each region and the level of participation for each. developedintoanationalnetworkof37 RDDS Participants land-grant university libraries serving USDAscientistsin36statesandPuer- toRico(Seethemaponthefirstpage). Region 1 (Northeast) Region 5 (Mid-Continent) Eight libraries serve as regional coor- *CornellUniversity(also serves *IowaStateUniversity dinators for the 29 other libraries. Pennsylvania) ColoradoStateUniversity NAL maintains cooperative agree- MichiganStateUniversity KansasStateUniversity ments with these eight regional coor- OhioState University UniversityofMissouri-Columbia dinators, which establish agreements OhioAgriculturalResearch and UniversityofNebraska with cooperating libraries in their Development Center Regions. Through these agreements, Region 6 (Southwestern) USDAemployeesandUSDAlibraries Region 2 (Illinois) *TexasA&MUniversity receive document delivery service *UniversityofIllinois UniversityofArkansas directlyfromlocalRDDS libraries. LouisianaStateUniversity Region 3 (Southern) NewMexicoStateUniversity Background *UniversityofGeorgia OklahomaStateUniversity AuburnUniversity Theidea ofproviding documentsto UniversityofFlorida Region 7 (Northwest- remote USDA researchers from land- MississippiStateUniversity Intermountain) grant universitylibrarieswas originally North CarolinaStateUniversity *WashingtonState University tested in the TRI-X project (July 1, UniversityofPuertoRico (also serves Oregon,Utah) 1972-June 30, 1973). In this project ClemsonUniversity UniversityofIdaho Louisiana State University (LSU) UniversityofTennessee UniversityofWyoming library staff coordinated a document deliveryprogramservingapproximate- Region 4 (North Central) Region 8 (Western) ly 2,000 USDA employees in the tri- *UniversityofMinnesota *UniversityofCalifornia, Davis state region of Louisiana, Mississippi, MontanaState University UniversityofArizona andeastern andsouthernTexas. NAL UniversityofMontana UniversityofCalifornia,Riverside frequently works with land-grant NorthDakotaStateUniversity UniversityofHawaii universities established in 1862 SouthDakotaStateUniversity UniversityofNevada (referredtoasLGUs) andHistorically UniversityofWisconsin Black Colleges andUniversities estab- *Coordinator lished in 1890 (referred to as HBCUs) on cooperative projects. The RDDS was established soon after requests is the same as for those sub- In the TRI-X project one HBCU the close oftheproject. mitteddirectlybyascientist. Thenum- library and one LGU library par- ber of participating libraries has ticipated ineach ofthe three states, as Document Request Routing remainedconstantoverthelastseveral didtwoUSDAlibrarieslocatedinNew years thereby generating user Orleans. Researchers submitted re- The RDDS network accepts and familiarity with the network and queststothenearestin-stateHBCUor refers requests much as in the TRI-X stabilizingroutingpatterns. USDA LGU. HBCUs referred unfilled re- project. scientists at remote quests to the in-state LGU. The LGU sitessubmit documentrequestsdirect- RDDS Participants RDDS referred unfilled requests to LSU. If ly to the library serving their not available locally, LSU borrowed state. The RDDS library provides re- Region 7 (Northwest-Intermoun- materials from another library or quested documents to the scientist. If tain) had two significant changes in referred the requests toNAL. the materials are not available, the participants during the past fewyears. RDDS libraryrefers therequest tothe The University of Wyoming joined as The TRI-X project provided cost regional coordinator. If the regional the newest member of the network. and effectiveness data to justify the coordinator is unable to provide the Wyomingbeganprocessing RDDS re- development of a regional document documents, the requests are referred quests during Fall 1989, and officially delivery network, to work with docu- to NAL. NAL sends documents from joined Region 7 during Fall 1990. mentdeliveryservicesreceiveddirectly itscollectiondirectlytothescientist,or Wyoming’sadditiontoRDDS notonly from NAL and USDA field libraries. obtains the materials from other sour- added a new library, but added a new Thepilotprojectprovedthatamajority cesin the U.S. and around theworld. state to the network. On January 2, of documents requested by USDA 1992, the University ofUtah withdrew employeesinthetestlocationscouldbe USDA libraries also submit re- from RDDS. As the Regional Coor- delivered faster, cheaper, and with quests for scientists at their installa- dinator, Washington State University girngeatmeercuhsaenrissamtisefxaicsttiionngtahtanthtahtertoiumte-. btriaornisesa.ndThseubremfietrratlheprmocteossRfDorDtSheslie- asebrsvoersbeUdSUtDahA’sswcoiernktiasntsdnwoowrkdiinregctilny ALIN, Vol. 19, Nos. 3/4 2 March/April 1993 Utah. Thenetresultofthetwochanges RDDS libraries are requesting an in- Actions in Response to Funding in Region 7 is that RDDS now serves crease in their fees. Shortfall another state, but the number of participating libraries remains 37. [For a During the last few years, regional In FY92, the difference between list of the participating libraries by coordinators have requested ever in- need and funding reached a breaking RDDS RDDS region, see the box 1 on page2.] creasing levels of funding. point. Inaddition,acutin fund- Meanwhile, the NAL RDDS funding ingwas proposed. Because ofthepro- Budget hasnotkeptpace. Forfiscalyear 1992, jected 10.5%shortfall inFY92andan- NAL regional coordinators requested ticipated future shortfalls, Eachsummerregionalcoordinators $390,363, which was 10.5% more than reduced the number of document re- confront the challenge of determining NALhadtoallocate. ThisFY92figure quests processed by RDDS beginning theleveloffundingrequiredtooperate was 8% higher than FY91, and 17% in December 1991. theregionforthenextyear. Cooperat- higherthan FY90. WhileRDDS funding libraries within each region es- ingrequests increased by over 8% per In early December 1991, Joseph timateanticipatedcostsfortheregion- year in the 1990s, the NALbudget did Howard,NALDirector,sentaletterto al coordinators, who incorporate this not, and RDDS funds increased more all USDA employees requesting that NAL NAL information into their budget requests slowlythem did need. fundingof they reduce their use of docu- to NAL. Funding is based on in-state RDDSgrewbyonly4%betweenFY90 ment delivery services, both through userfees fordocument delivery(setby and FY92. [See the table in the box RDDS and direct to NAL. Mr. the land-grant university and usually below.] Howard outlined other sources for documents and requested that scientists photocopy materials at their li- RDDS Budget braries and share documents when possible. Mr. Howard urged USDA FY90 FY91 FY92 scientists to be judicious in document BudgetRequest $333,327 $361,060 $390,362 requests. Limits on the volume ofre- RDDS Change inBudget Request +8.3% +8.1% quests processed at libraries FundsReceived $341,257 $344,062 $354,019 were set and NAL processed requests FundingShortfall none -4.7% -9.3% which exceededthose limits. TheseactionsreducedRDDScosts, keepingnetworkexpenseswithinavail- reflecting state-mandated salary and able funds. The details of the impact benefit levels), postage and tel- are described in the “Statistical Sum- ecommunication costs, and applicable mary” and “Discussion” later in this referral fees. Regional coordinators article. receive additionalfundingtocover the costs of coordinating the region, and overseeing financial and statistical re- ports. As a cooperative venture, NAL partiallysupports thework handledby network participants. As their contri- RDDS bution libraries absorb over- head costs. The budget is dependent on the numberofrequestsprocessed,therate charged to process requests, and administrative charges to coordinate the regions. From year toyearthevolume of requests submitted in a region can change dramatically. Many events result in changes in request volume. These include project initiation and termination, changes in research em- phasis, program transfer, and staff at- trition. Manystatesdid not request an photo: J.Swab increase in their fees for several years, Tanner Wray (left) welcomes RDDS Coordinators to NAL (from absorbing administrative costs and left to right): John Harer, Ted Sibia, Eileen Brady, Richard other increases. Because oflocal and Rohrer, Howard Raskin, Maria Porta, Steven Brown, Wayne state budgetary pressures, many Pedersen. ALIN, Vol. 19, Nos. 3/4 3 March/April 1993 Planning Meetings ship with Peggy Beavers, the ARS/ fromasmallunstaffedreadingroom,to NALCoordinator,tosupportherwork formalizedcollectionswithstaff,acard Inresponsetothebudgetshortfalls, inoutreachandprogramdevelopment, or computerized catalog, and CD- ROM NAL’s Document Delivery Services and to gather information to report in products. Outreach and peri- Branch held two RODS planning the,AssessmentofInformationServices odic explanation of NAL services, meetings in 1992. RDDS participants, to USDA ARS Scientists jointly con- especially RDDS, Current Awareness USDAlibrarians, andNALstaffcame ducted by the University ofCalifornia Literature Service (CALS), andrefer- together for an RDDS update at the at DavisandNAL. ence services are critical. TheAwejs- American Library Association annual mentwillproviderecommendationsto meeting on June 28, 1992. This meet- During FY91 and FY92 NAL staff NALandARS regarding usefulinfor- ingopenedupdiscussionandledtothe conducted site visits to 22ARS labor- mationservicesforremoteARSscien- first RDDS Coordinators Planning atoriesandthreeARSfieldlibrariesin tists. Meeting. support oftheAssessment. Wrayalso NAL visited oneForestServicefieldlibrary. staffalso conducted site visits Coordinators fromthe eight RDDS Meetings at laboratories were held to tothreeRDDSRegionalCoordinators regionsassembledatNALonSeptem- inform USDA scientists about how to (UniversityofCaliforniaatDavis,Tex- ber 17-18, 1992. Theunderlyingtheme use NAL. services, and to solicit feed- asA& MUniversity, andWashington ofthe meetingwas the impact ofbud- back about the effectiveness ofRDDS State University) and five cooperating getary pressures on services and how and other NAL services. Scientists libraries (University of Idaho, policiesand servicelevelscouldbead- have varyingexpectations ofNALser- LouisianaStateUniversity,Mississippi justedto meet newbudget constraints. vices, different levels ofexperience in State University, Montana State Uni- Discussions centered on refining and accessing information, and uneven versity, and Oklahoma State Univer- adjusting document delivery serviceto knowledge of information services sity). Discussions centered on service remote USDA sites, improving com- available to them. Some labs have levels,costs,volumeofrequests,proce- munication among RDDS partici- centralized library collections ranging duralandpolicyconcerns,issuesraised pants,formalizingsystem-widepolicies andprocedures,andcreatinganaction plan torevitalizethenetwork. Thetwo RDDS meetings are described in Figure 1. Document Delivery Activity greater detail in a companion article later in this issue ofALIN. Two major results from the meetings are the development ofanRDDS ProceduresManualandGuidelinesthat will formalize policies and procedures across the network. These documents are to be completed during 1993. In January, NAL and Cornell University RDDS established an Internet listserv to promote communication. The listserv is discussed in a second companion article later inthis issue ofALIN. Other action items are in progress: RDDS planningforthe second annual Coordinators Planning Meeting and biennial regional meetings/updates, and increasing communication between the NAL director and library directorsat participatinginstitutions. Remote Users and Site Visits Tanner Wray was appointed as the FY92 RDDS CoordinatorinJune 1991. Asa part of his orientation, Wray partici- pated in trips to remote ARS laboratories and RDDS libraries. This ED Filled by RDDS ED Filled atNAL ED Borrowed byNAL served to establish aworking relation- ALIN, VoL 19, Nos. 3/4 4 March/April 1993 by USDA scientists served by RDDS, and developments at NAL and the RDDS libraries. Summary Statistical Toaccomplishitsmissiontoprovide documentstoUSDAscientistsandthe world, NAL funds three major activities: documentdeliveryfromtheNAL collection, RDDS, and interlibrary borrowing ofdocuments. (See Figure 1 on page 4.) During FY92 NAL provided 117,680 documents from the USDA collection to libraries and scientists. This represents 63% of all NAL RDDS filled requests. paid librariestoprovide49,485photocopies and 2,230 loans from their collections toofUalSlDfAillsecdiernteiqsutess,tfso.r aAtdodtiatlioofna2ll7y%, During one of the site visits to land-grant and USDA libprhoatro:ieD.sStiarnr NAL borrowed 19,705 documents Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, Tanner Wray makes a from other collections around the presentation at the ARS Bee Lab, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. world for USDA scientists (10% of filled requests). Discussion WhencomparingFY92to previousyears,thestatistics show a drop in requests and a wide variation in fill rates. (See the RDDS statistics for FY92 differ from earlier years. table in the boxbelowand Figure2 on page6.) Theresultofhaving3monthsofroutinenetworkopera- tionfollowedby9monthsofdrasticserviceadjustments is evident in the figures and tables. The number of Requests Processed in FY requestsprocessedduringOctoberandNovember1991 greatly exceeded the number processed in the same FY91 FY92 Change periodforthe two previousyears. RDDS 78,711 65,433 -16.9% NAL 177,705 171,757 -3.3% ThenumberofUSDArequestsprocessedbyRDDS RDDS&NAL* 244,928 227,029 -7.3% andNALwasreducedgreatly(12% duringFY92,20% USDA only 175,657 154,954 -11.8% duringJanuary-September), because ofthe memoran- dum sent to USDAscientists. Beginning inDecember * RDDS and NAL totals both include those re- 1991,whenthememowasissuedandRDDSprocessing questsunfilledbyRDDS andthen referredtoNAL. capswere established, the number ofrequestshandled byRDDSwasgreatlyreduced (SeeFigure3onpage6). FromDecember1991throughAugust1992thenetwork The greatest drop in processed requests was observed after processed fewer requests each month than the same the December 1991 document delivery reduction actions. (See month during the two previous years. This drop was a thetable in the boxbelowand Figure3 on page6.) result of the reduction in USDA requests and also RDDS processing caps. In addition, requests processed at NAL dropped by over 3%, instead of an Requests Processed, Jan.-Sep. anticipated 4 to 7% rise (based on previous year in- NAL creases). This drop occurred even with greater Jan-Sep 1991 Jan-Sep 1992 Change referral of requests from RDDS to NAL. These an- RDDS 62,007 46,108 -25.6% ticipated drops ran counter to the trend ofincreasing NAL 138,736 129,035 -7.0% numbers of processed requests from FY89 to FY91. RDDS&NAL* 191,641 167,825 -12.4% NAL is grateful for the large effort made by USDA USDA only 138,678 111,700 -19.5% scientistsandRDDSstafftoreducedemandsonRDDS and NAL document delivery services. This effort as- * RDDS and NAL totals both include those re- sured that RDDS and NAL Document Delivery Ser- questsunfilledbyRDDS andthenreferredtoNAL. vicesBranch(DDSB)stayedwithinFY92budgetlimits. The cost per filled RDDS request rose substantially ALIN, Vol. 19, Nos. 3/4 5 March/April 1993 Figure 2. RDDS Requests Processed PerYear requests filled from the NAL collection, and is a source of revenue for RDDS libraries. 80,000 The very successful 1992 RDDS planning meetingsbuilt asense ofnet- workresponsibilityandincreasedcom- munication among participants. The participants left energized and en- thusiasticabouttheworkthatwascom- pleted and the work ahead that will improve the RDDS network. To continue building on network strengths and to improve services, the coordinators will hold a second RDDS Coordinators Planning Meeting on May 6-7, 1993, at Cornell University. The result of these meetings will be FY89 FY90 FY91 FY92 formal guidelines and a procedures FiscalYear manualtoassurethecontinuedsuccess RDDS A ofthe program. primaryob- jectiveofthemeetingwillbetoplanfor in 1992, andwill continue torise. While unit costs rise, the needfor documents maintenance of RDDS service levels, by USDA scientists will also increase. As more USDA scientists use alternate while keeping costs within budget sourcesfordocuments,itispossiblethatfillrateswilldeclineinthefutureasmore limits. spehloetcoticvoepyrieqnugeastnsdabroerrsoubwmiintgteeadsitloyRlDocDaSte.d mMaatenryiaUlsSaDtARDscDieSntilsitbsraarrieesaalrnedadiyn NALhopesthatthedrasticprogram reductions of FY92 will not be neces- theirlabs. Increasesintheseactivitiescouldlowerthefillratesinceonlymaterials USDA difficulttolocatewillberequestedthroughtheRDDSsystem. Reductionsinfill sary in the future. If scientists rates would raise the unit cost to fill a request, as NAL pays for work done on continue to be prudent in making re- both filled and unfilledrequests. quests for documents and use cost- saving measures to obtain documents, Future and Summary the document delivery program will benefit. The RDDS network continues to give USDA staff expedient document deliveryservice fromlocalsourcesand direct accessto materialsinmanycollec- RDDS USDA Additional Statistics tions. In addition, the uses localresources, ratherthan havingall Volume Figure 3. Number of RDDS Requests Processed Per Month A wide variation existed in FY92 (FY90-FY92) regionalfillratesandvolumes ofwork processed. (See thetable inthe boxat thetop ofpage7 and Figure4.) The largest percentage decrease in thenumber ofrequests processedbya region was 32.4% (a decrease of3,201 requests inRegion 7). Thelargestabsolutedecreaseinthe number of requests processed by a region was 5,591 (a 30.4% decrease in Region3). Costs The average FY92 network cost to Month NAL was $6.85 per filled RDDS request, a 28.5% increase in unit cost T ALIN, Vo!. 19, Nos. 3/4 6 March/April 1993 processedasteadilyincreasingpropor- Requests per Region RDDS tion of work. Requests Requests Fill Regions2and5 have not seenlarge RDDS Region Processed Filled Rate changesintheirworkloads,asaportion RDDS oftotal requests. Region 1 (Northeast) 4,304 3,592 83% Region2 (Illinois) 2,006 1,360 68% Region 3 processed a significantly Region 3 (Southern) 12,748 9,957 78% smaller percentage of RDDS work in Region4(North Central) 16,722 14,183 85% FY92than in previousyears. Region5 (Mid-Continent) 4,542 3,494 77% Region6 (Southwestern) 11,393 8,120 71% Region 4 processed an increasing Region 7 (Northwest-Intermountain) 6,650 4,798 72% portion ofRDDS work over the last 4 Region8 (Western) 7,068 6,211 88% years. TOTAL 65,433 51,715 79% Region 6 has seen a large range of overa threeyear period. Much ofthis increase occurred between FY91 and FY92. Average costs to NAL for filled RDDS requests ranged from $9.95 in Region 7 to $4.95 in Region 5 (See Figure 4 below.) There is no correla- tion between unit cost and volume of requests processed. Regional Fluctuations Over time there have been changes in what proportion ofthe RDDS work each region completes. (See Figure 5 on page 8.) Although it handles a small portion of RDDS requests, Region 1 has photo: D.Starr Among the site visits for RDDS Figure 4. Cost Per Filled RDDS Request By Region and for NAL’s services to ARS scientists at research centers (FYCost: $354,019.42 Average:6.85/Request) and laboratories was a visit to the ARS National Sedimenta- tion Lab at Oxford, Mississippi. Participating in this group of staff from the lab were Tanner Wray, NAL’s RDDS coordinator (3rd from left in the first row), and Peggy Beavers, ARS/NAL Coordinator (2nd from left in the first row). ALIN, Vol. 19, Nos. 3/4 7 March/April 1993 Several regional coordinators and Figures. Number of RODS Requests Processed By Region theRDDSCoordinatorwererelatively 23% 23% newto their RDDS roles. As a result, (3) (3) there were two important secondary 34%%((21)) 35%%((21)) o•bjetcotiivenst:roduce the RDDS Coor- dinatorandregionalcoordinatorsto 8%(8) 11%(8) one another; and • to bring network participants up to ^ito 13%(7) 12%(7) speed on a variety oftopics and is- FY89 FY90 sues. 23%(3) 20%(3) RDDS Update 4%(2) 26%(4) 3%(2) 5%(1) 7%(1) The first planning meeting was the RDDS Update. Twenty-three 9%(8) 7% 11%(8) librarians attended this update at the (5) American Library Association annual 15% 6 13%(7) 17% 10%(7) conference in San Francisco on June ( ] 28, 1992. NAL staff, RDDS coordinators and cooperators, and USDA (Regionnumbersinparentheses) librarians cametogetherfor anupdate of NAL and RDDS activities and to plan improvements to the network. variationinitsproportionofRDDSworkprocessed. The meetingprovidedabriefbutvalu- able exchange of information among Region7hasbeenprocessingashrinkingportionofRDDSworkoverthelast librarianswhouseandrunthenetwork. 4years. Meeting topics included an update Region 8 has processed a portion ofRDDS work that varied up or down by on the NALbudget and issues related 2% everyyear. to the smooth running of RDDS (in- cludingpreparationand deliveryofin- voicesandnetworkusagestatistics,and maintainingcurrentinformationabout A Regional Document Delivery vpiasrittiscibpyanNtsA).L andreUpoCrtDaovnisousttrafefactho Librarians Hold Planning Meetings remote ARS laboratories and RDDS librariesprovidedinsightsintothecon- cernsofRDDSusers. Mostimportant- ly, the meeting provided a forum to discuss proposed new policies for the byTannerWray network and set the stage for the Sep- Coordinator, Regional Document DeliverySystem tember Coordinators Planning Meet- Document DeliveryServices Branch ing. RDDS Coordinators Planning The USDA Regional Document Delivery System (RDDS) provides docu- Meeting ments to USDA employees in 37 states. To fund and provide this service, the NationalAgriculturalLibrarymaintainscooperativeagreementswitheightland- The first annual RDDS Coor- . grantuniversitylibraries. RDDSstaffattheselibrariescoordinatetheworkdone dinators Planning Meeting, held Sep- at their institutions and the work done at cooperating land-grant university tember 17-18 at NAL, provided an libraries within their regions. NAL’s RDDS Coordinator oversees work con- opportunityto: NAL ductedthroughout thenetwork. • orientcoordinatorsto services and projects, TwoRDDS planningmeetingswere heldduring1992. Theprimarypurposes • discuss the history and philosophy ofthe planningmeetingswereto: ofRDDS, • identifywaystoimprovedocumentdeliveryservicetoremoteUSDAscientists; • establish guiding principles for the • improve communicationamongnetwork participants; network, and • share ideas forformalizingsystemwide policies andprocedures; and • develop an action planfor 1992-3. • create a planto carryout improvementsto the network. ALIN, Vol. 19, Nos, 3/4 8 March/April 1993