In reviewing potential Caribbean partners, it became evident that no single library contains journal holdings that cover the entire Caribbean region comprehensively. The Project Advisory Committee expressed particular interest in identifying a Cuban library as a partner, but the U.S. Department of Education grant officer confirmed that present embargoes regarding Cuba ruled out the use of federal monies for the purchase of some equipment that is required for participation in the Project. Thus my attention turned to two libraries. After spending the beginning months of 2001 considering either the University of the West Indies or the University of Puerto Rico as a potential partner, the project budget was modified to allow the creation of two Caribbean partners.
The University of the West Indies has three campuses: St. Augustine in Trinidad, Jamaica, and Barbados. After an initial review, I determined that only St. Augustine has an adequate regional collection needed to meet the Partners Program's objectives.
My trip to Trinidad was scheduled for the week of September 17. After enduring the initial shock of the events of September 11th, I determined that I would still make the trip unless the airlines had not reinstated international flights by my departure date. While the flight down involved considerable delays, I successfully arrived in St. Augustine on the planned date.
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Agreement: Dr. Margaret Rouse-Jones, the UWI Library director, accepted the agreement with only some slight revisions regarding the coordinating librarian's progress reports and more detailed terms regarding the project fee. I was able to make the revisions to the agreement in situ so that she could sign both copies by the week's end. They have since been mailed to Duane Webster for his signature. Training: Hannah Francis, director of the Indexing Unit, will be responsible for coordinating LAPTOC inputting with the library's subject librarians. Each librarian will be responsible for the journals in their subject area that are part of UWI's assignment. Ms. Francis and the other librarians met with me Tuesday morning for training on entering tables of contents data into LAPTOC. Since the same group of librarians is also responsible for indexing Carindex, the locally produced periodical index (currently inactive due to technical problems), they easily understood the more streamlined approach of entering LAPTOC TOCs. (Note: As of January 2, 2002, Ms. Floris Fraser of the UWI Library assumed responsibility for coordination of LAPTOC inputting.) |
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Journal Selection: The UWI Library limits its subscriptions to Caribbean journals to those published in the English-speaking islands, Belize, and Guyana. Ms. Francis sent a preliminary journal list of the current subscriptions so I could prepare a beginning journal assignment list. During my visit it was also necessary to examine some titles not found in OCLC to determine their suitability for inclusion. Presently the UWI Library has 48 journals assigned from the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Nevis, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. A few more in agriculture and the sciences that only came to my attention during my site visit may be added later. Though there appear to be no journals published in any English-based Creole or indigenous language in the region, two titles in their assignment, Bustraa, and Caribbean Window focus on the Indo-Trinidadian population and its concerns. Neither journal is held in the United States so they will provide research material for this ethnic component. UWI's assignment includes several other journals in various disciplines not found in OCLC and presumably not available in US libraries.
Computer Equipment/OCLC ILL Subsystem: The Advisory Committee chair and I agreed that the purchase of computer equipment specified in the grant should not take place until the new version of the Ariel software program (3.01) was released in case of changes in hardware specifications. Also, getting the computer equipment to this new partner took on the complexity of dealing with university bureaucracies. The UWI Library did confirm that they would be able to order the equipment and supply ARL headquarters with their receipts for reimbursement. They nonetheless still provided me with my own computer and printer to work with during my site visit. This provision was important since I have to take care of some administrative duties online during my site visit.
The first technical data I received for the library indicated that they are OCLC member libraries and have authorization for use of the OCLC ILL Subsystem though it has not been implemented. Subsequent communication with Dr. Jones created some confusion on this point. Initially she thought they did not have the authorization set up at all and would not be likely to get it. The library is currently looking for a new online system to replace their online catalog and provide a new server configuration that will allow Carindex to operate again. This new system would include an interlibrary loan module but their identification process is still under development and it will be a few years before there is a new online system. During our first meeting, I stressed to Dr. Jones the importance of using the OCLC ILL Subsystem in order for the UWI to comply with LAPTOC's document delivery component. She suggested that I meet with Ms. Karen LeQuay, the Systems Librarian, and Ms. Claudia DeFour, the Public Services Department head (the librarian in charge of interlibrary loan was on semester leave) to provide information and discuss strategies. Owing to schedule constraints I met separately with each. Ms. LeQuay confirmed that the library's OCLC membership does include authorization for ILL and merely had to be activated (their current interlibrary loan system is manual). I assured her that LAPTOC's programming has added the international protocol for sending and receiving so that using the OCLC ILL Subsystem is not mandatory in the event that they still want to use a separate interlibrary loan module in the future. Ms. DeFour had just begun her promotion to head of Public Services and was very interested in understanding how document delivery in LAPTOC takes place. As with Dr. Jones and Ms. LeQuay, she was agreeable to implementing their OCLC ILL authorization on an active basis.
Conclusion: The UWI Library will be an able partner in meeting Project objectives. Their library's organizational structure is akin to that of a US academic library, and they are eager to enter in this type of partnership. We recognize that the journals they are entering into LAPTOC duplicate most of the journals indexed for their own Carindex but this should not be regarded as a superfluous effort of labor. As stated earlier, the online version of Carindex has been unavailable for several years due to server failure and now the wait until a compatible library system has been implemented for successful migration will make it unavailable for an even longer period of time. LAPTOC's records and document delivery component can be thought of as a substitute Carindex. When available again, Carindex's fully analyzed records can be used to assist LAPTOC users in determining if they need an article.
Gayle Williams
ARL Coordinator of Latin American Partnerships