Digital Reserve meeting 6/13/2000

Blocker made observations on the comparison of a standard PDF scan and an OCR scan on the Digital Reserve test web page. The OCR scan was easier to navigate, and easier to read, however the OCR process omitted some periods.

Jordan submitted the reserve statistics for fall that reflects the number of lists per department separated by new, updated, and added. The statistics reflect that 205 new lists were processed, 208 lists were updated, and 295 lists required material added. These statistics do not reflect the total number of lists processed for fall. An average of 400 faculty submitted lists for processing in the fall semester of 2000.

 Wiseman provided insight on LSU's transition to digital. They were beginning the transition as she was leaving the university. However, she recently explored their online documentation. They are currently processing according to interested faculty submitting materials for digitization. They had intended to discard all paper copies of digital materials, but they are currently keeping fiscal copies. Wiseman believes that it is more prudent to attack the workload by a departmental basis.

Britten believes that we should identify perminant materials and we should begin scanning this summer to get a jump on the fall rush.  The group could only scan materials that should go on reserve for the fall semester of 2000. He also thinks a central scanning location in ILS using the new cannon photocopier/ scanner is a good idea.  Branen interrated that the fall timetable is a good place to get a current course list, however, the instructor is not always available. The group may need to contact the department for current instructors.

Bayne stated that identifying who would teach this fall is a good place to start. The goal is to identify the permanent lists. Then ascess the photocopies per list.  New materials for these courses will also be added.  Bayne thinks that targeting departments is also a good path to follow.

Britten believes that returning materials to faculty is a good way to weed unwanted or unused materials for spring 2001. Reserve could only digitize what returning and new materials for spring 2001.

Bane stated a tentative start date of June 20 to begin scanning what is certain to go on reserve for fall 2000

Wiseman announced that we are now able to map gila with the same username and password as FTP.

The tentative process for digital reserve material is:

List the photocopies on the reserve form.

Place the barcode file name next to its item on the list.

Send to ILS via for process.

A SLA then scans the material according to the set perimeters.

SLA's move the files to a central folder on gila.

The list is processed in the reserve bookroom.

It is possible for all the digital reserve files to stay in a central folder on gila. That would shorten the URL to "gila/39029000567882". The addition of SLA scanning would reduce the workload in reserve to processing short bib records per file and special scanning, like images.

The library will not retain paper copies of digital files, so the group discussed the options for dealing with the scanned materials. The reserve staff can recycle paper copies or return the articles with a congenital form letter. Miller stated that the faculty that provided the material owns it, and therefore it should return to them. An offer of creating a check box on the paper form that reflects the preference was entertained until Durman pointed out that it is less time consuming to return all materials than to track the preference of selected faculty.

The group was surprised that the reserve staff photocopies a large amount of requests for the faculty. Reserve will no longer photocopy materials for the faculty unless it is necessary.

The management of permanent reserve files is currently a primary concern to the group. Copyright common practice is not to allow material to remain on reserve permanently. Horizon can reactivate files for another semester, however the record will keep only one reactivation date and will have to be updated annually. Georgia Tech automates digital reserve withdrawal with a mirror server that stores the files until the next semester. Bayne introduced the idea of creating a file folder for permanent request forms. Georgia Tech relies on a system of electronic mail announcements that chime the call for reserve requests. If the UT libraries adopt this procedure, the remaining unused files could then be singled out, and retained for future requests. 

In the future, staff will require title and author access to inactive materials. Exploration of locating inactive online materials in horizon is underway.