Resource Sharing at the American University of Beirut

Resource Sharing at the American University of Beirut: Challenges and Opportunities Carla Chalhoub, M. L. I. S Head of Access Services

OVERVIEW v Founded in 1866, the American University of Beirut is a teaching-centered research university. v AUB has around 800 instructional faculty and serves a student body of around 8, 000 students. v The University was granted institutional accreditation in June 2004 by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in the United States and reaffirmed in June 2009. v AUB offers more than 120 programs leading to the bachelor's, master's, MD, and Ph. D degrees.

University Libraries Consist Of the main Library and 4 branch libraries: • • • Nami Jafet Memorial Library Saab Medical Library Engineering and Architecture Library Science & Agriculture Library The Agricultural Research and Education Center (AREC) in the Beqaa Valley

Document Delivery Services OVERVIEW v Prior to 2006 circulation department was in charge of the Document Delivery services. v In July 3 rd, 2006, the Document Delivery Services Department became a separate entity in the University Libraries. A DDS librarian and a support staff were hired to take over. v 2008 the DDS department was merged with circulation department to form what was named the Access Services Department. v Until 2011 -2012, the Document Delivery Department was serving our faculty members only by purchasing their items from DDS suppliers.

RETHINKING DDS? v Serials cancellations increase in number of DDS requests. v Budget cuts, decrease in DDS budget. v Launching of 6 PHD programs in 2006. v Hiring faculty members who conduct systematic reviews. Number of requests especially in the medical field raised significantly. v As a result of the Syrian war in 2011, researchers became more and more interested in Middle Eastern Studies and AUB libraries couldn’t keep up with purchasing all needed materials.

COOPERATION A. RECIPROCAL AGREEMENTS with local institutions: 1. Orient Institute of Beirut (OIB) 2. Bibliotheque Orientale - Centre Louis Pouzet d'étude des civilisations anciennes et médiévales (BO) Why OIB and BO? Ø Rich in the field of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. Ø Gave access to books that are rare to find.

B. LOCAL CONSORTIUM 1. LIDS CONSORTIUM v. LIDS is a resource sharing group of Lebanese academic & special libraries. v 11 members : 9 academic libraries and 2 special libraries. v. Positive: Easy, fast and free resource sharing. Rich collections in Middle Eastern Studies. v. Negative: filling an ALA interlibrary form. Plans: Developing management tool to facilitate the lending process. Open to regional libraries to join.

B. INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION 2. AMICAL CONSORTIUM Founded in 2004 AMICAL is a “consortium of American international liberal arts institutions” located outside the United states and working together on advancing technology and learning. Collaboration in resource sharing through OCLC World. Share, loans and photocopies. Out of 25 members, 6 are cooperating in resource sharing: 1. AUB - Beirut 2. AUC - Cairo 3. AUS - Sharjah 4. AUA - Armenia 5. LAU – Lebanese American University 6. HAIGAZIAN University

2. LVIS CONSORTIUM After acquiring OCLC World. Share, AUB joined Libraries Very Interested in Sharing (LVIS) consortium that provides free exchange of documents. Results: 1. Removed the limit on the DDS requests for the graduate students. 2. Opened the ILL/DDS services for the whole community. 3. increase in ILL/DDS requests and decrease in costs. DDS became ILL/DDS

LLL/DDS Transactions 3000 2649 2500 2137 1810 2000 1802 1433 1488 1500 2020 Borrowing Lending 1150 1000 283 500 0 0 2010 -2011 -2012 -2013 -2014 -2015

BORROWING 1200 1048 1000 911 906 800 600 400 200 710 522 Filled for a fee Filled free 545 490 465 332 177 300 237 220 134 142 106 0 2011 -2012 -2013 -2014 -2015 Unfilled Available/free

B 0 rrowing Fill Rate 1089 for a charge free 3387 75. 67% of the requests were filled free of charge after signing agreements and joining consortiums 1. Number of borrowing requests increased. 2. We started borrowing free of charge.

Lending 1600 1445 1400 1167 1200 1064 1000 845 891 Supplied free 800 Supplied for a fee 511 600 Unfilled 400 200 103 150 30 77 55 37 0 2 O 11 -2012 -2013 -2014 -2015

Lending Fill rate Unfilled 51% Filled 49% Percentage of filling the lending request is 51% and this is due to : 1. Requested electronic items not licensed to fill. 2. Lacking volume/issue of requested item. Number of lending requests is expected to rise as we opened our lending returnables service worldwide.

Cost Reduction ILL/DDS TRANSACTIONS 2011 -2012 -2013 2013 -2014 2014 -2015 Total Borrowing 1488 1810 2137 1802 Free 522 911 1048 906 For a fee 332 220 237 300 DDS Expenditures $5, 200. 32 $1, 434. 18 $3, 122. 01 $3, 687. 39 Average cost per article $6. 16 $1. 26 $2. 42 $3. 05 2002 -2003 we have purchased 749 articles and paid $10, 519. 08. The average cost per article was around $14. Note: This data excludes the purchases done through IFM.

DDS Services Prior to joining consortiums and signing agreements, we use to purchase all our requests from DDS suppliers. For example: 1. Subito 6 Euros per article. 2. NLM 9$ per article. 3. Publisher. Especially when it comes to E-PUB articles.

RETURNABLES Challenges: 1. Time 2. Cost 3. Shipping method Solutions: 1. International Lending or Borrowing: shipping via FEDEX or DHL. 2. Lending local if possible. Observations: 1. Receiving international requests to borrow items from our Middle Eastern collection especially the Arabic and the French books.

CONCLUSION One library is never self sufficient in terms of providing access to needed resources to its community. Resource sharing allowed us to: 1. Reduce cost allocated to the DDS unit. 2. Provide unlimited DDS services to the whole AUB community. 3. Open our lending services on the local and international levels, thus becoming more visible.

AUB joined the Arabic Collection Online (ACO) project to digitize and make accessible worldwide over 100, 000 volumes of Arabic content. Funded by NYU Abu Dhabi and with the help of the libraries of NYU, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, and other major research institutions in the U. S.

So let’s get outside the box!!! Collaborate and share our resources free of charge!!! LIDS MEIDS IIDS Yes why not?

Thank you Q&A Carla Chalhoub Head, Access Services Department American University of Beirut cc 05@aub. edu. lb