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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CHAIRPERSON
2001

Launched in 1996 to foster regional library collaboration and currently chaired by Dr Judy Henning, GAELIC remains the largest FOTIM project. GAELIC is managed by structures to which FOTIM delegates authority in respect of the project. The Steering Committee provides leadership to GAELIC, its teams, workgroups and sub-projects. The Strategic Management Team manages the ongoing business of GAELIC on behalf of the Steering Committee and delegates operational functions to the four focus area teams and their many workgroups.

Focus Area Teams

1. Business Management

This team facilitates and promotes a client-centred focus and sound business practice within GAELIC, and has established three workgroups to realise these strategies. 

In 2001, the Finance Workgroup finalised two documents: Guidelines on the Selling of Products, Services and Expertise and The Role of the GAELIC Office Bearers, and initiated a GAELIC Contracts Register. The group also arranged a course on Financial Management for Non-Financial Managers, which took place from 29 to 31 January 2001. It is currently investigating possible strategies for the cost-effective maintenance of the INNOPAC library system, as well as insurance options, in view of the depreciating rand exchange rate.

The workgroup facilitates the GAELIC budget process annually.

- Marketing Workgroup

This workgroup has created a new GAELIC website which will become operational in early 2002. At the same time the GAELIC newsletter will be revived.

The Marketing Workgroup hosted the first GAELIC and Friends Marketing Day, at which institutions were invited to explore ways of making the most of information products and services. This fair is expected to become an annual event.

This workgroup was formally constituted on 26 July 2001, and will be responsible for the compilation of statistical reports that will enable GAELIC teams to make informed decisions at various levels. A questionnaire has been compiled to gather statistics for possible benchmarking within the GAELIC community. Questionnaires will be sent to all member institutions on an annual basis. A software package has been identified for the administration of all GAELIC reports on the website. The group will request participation in FOTIM’s Management Information Systems project in order to limit duplication and facilitate co-operation.

The workgroup has started compiling a glossary of library terms used within the institutions, to be published on the website.

2. Information Resources

The team facilitates optimum utilisation, access to and sharing of information resources within GAELIC and on a national level.

It organised two very successful workshops this past year. Participants in the eIFL Direct Project: Quo Vadis workshop (31 July 2001) discussed future South African access to databases available at the host site. Issues investigated at a workshop on the Licensing of Electronic Information Resources (1-2 August 2001) included international trends, legal foundations, and licence terms and conditions. Dr Alicia Wise of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the United Kingdom was the guest speaker. Her knowledge contributed to a most interesting workshop.

This workgroup realises the goals of the focus area team by evaluating, selecting and acquiring access to information resources for GAELIC. A major task is the negotiation of affordable prices to ensure a reasonable return on members’ investments. 

Several consortium full text electronic journal agreements exist currently:

• Ten GAELIC libraries and one FRELICO (Free State Library Consortium) library participate in the General Business File International agreement and the Emerald (MCB University Press) agreement.
• Five libraries have renewed the DIALOG agreement (Academic Gold Plan).
• Seven libraries will be participating in the MathSciNet agreement.

New consortium agreements currently being assessed include British Medical Journal (BMJ), Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, American Institute of Physics, Oxford English Dictionary.

The workgroup is responsible for the establishment of a cost-effective infrastructure for the rapid and reliable delivery of library material. In response to a letter submitted to SABINET Online and the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) on the ReQuest inter-library lending system, a representative from OCLC visited South Africa and a new, more user-friendly release of ReQuest will be launched in February 2002.

GAELIC’s Name Authority Co-operative (NACO) participants created 1 721 new name authority records and corrected 575 name authority records for the Library of Congress's fiscal year 2001. All new and corrected authority headings are published on the workgroup’s listserv and SABINET Online's SABICAT web page, for the benefit of all cataloguers in South Africa. 

The workgroup’s core bibliographic records have been accepted by SABINET Online’s standards committee as the standard for all libraries contributing to the South African Union Database (SACat). The group has also worked closely with SABINET Online on improvements in the INNOPAC software, and has compiled a list of proposed system enhancements for consideration by the vendor. 

A collaborative cataloguing project took place to transfer full records from WorldCat to SACat of all Emerald titles. Libraries may now download these titles into their own library catalogues. The ScienceDirect project (1 200 titles) is in progress.

Refresher cataloguing training was presented to the GAELIC Phase 3 libraries.  

Fa-Fiwa (give and be-given), a swap and shop session on user education practices at the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) annual conference on 26 September was organised by the User Education Workgroup. UNISA, University of Pretoria, Technikon Pretoria, University of Potchefstroom and Technikon SA libraries exhibited displays and gave presentations on user-education/information literacy programmes.  

The INNOPAC Users Group: South Africa (IUGSA) conference was held on 6-7 November 2001. International visitors were Aaron Blazer and Graham Woodruff of Innovative Interfaces Inc. and Carolyn Jones of the University of Queensland.  

The implementation of the INNOPAC system in the Phase 3 institutions is nearing completion. Staff at all four sites have been extensively trained on all INNOPAC modules.

In 2001 a framework was formulated for an Internet, Intranet and e-mail Policy, to be used in conjunction with each institution’s campus policy. The framework addresses issues such as misuse of facilities, privacy and conduct. 

In the latter part of the year a three-day UNIX training course was held for library systems staff.  

The ICT infrastructure questionnaire has been improved and sent to all member institutions. The data from the survey will be available on the GAELIC website. 

This team is responsible for co-ordinating regional support, training and staff development within GAELIC. The following training workshops took place in 2001:

• Train-the-Trainer
• Re-engineering/Change Management
• Information Services

 The team is focusing on streamlining training within GAELIC to avoid possible duplication of effort.

GAELIC is actively involved in the national Coalition of South African Library Consortia (COSALC). COSALC’s vision is to enhance access to information and the sharing of resources to benefit the clients of library consortia in South Africa through national co-operation.

A marketing and communication strategy was implemented, aimed at establishing and enhancing the profile of library consortia in South Africa, particularly with regard to their role within higher education and government structures. COSALC is presently working on the establishment of a South African Site Licensing Initiative (SASLI) with a view to negotiating national electronic journal subscriptions with vendors.

DR JC HENNING

CHAIRPERSON: GAELIC

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