Anglia Connect: a Norfolk perspective
| Published date | 01 March 1994 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040538 |
| Pages | 7-10 |
| Date | 01 March 1994 |
| Author | Miriam Robbins |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Anglia Connect: a
Norfolk perspective
by Miriam Robbins, Senior Librarian,
Bibliographic Services, Norfolk County
Council Library and Information
Service
Anglia Connect was set up initially as a pilot
scheme in April
1992.
It provides an
interlending network between the Public
Library Authorities of
Essex,
Norfolk and
Suffolk.
This article describes the background
to the system and the logistics of its operation.
The statistics show that it provides an effective
local service at relatively low
cost.
Disaster!
I am writing this just one week after the Great
Fire of Norwich Central Library. The total open
shelf lending stock of Norfolk's largest library
has been destroyed. Much stack material has
been saved but will be inaccessible possibly for
months.
Our library environment has been turned upside
down and we are starting to learn to cope and to
plan for the future. What has not changed is the
needs of our customers. Norfolk County Council
Library and Information Service has been over-
whelmed by the sympathy and generosity of
colleagues in other authorities. It is at times like
these that co-operative interlending networks
really prove their worth.
Background
Regular user surveys in Norfolk have consistently
produced comments concerning the range of stock
available. It has become clear that Norfolk library
users would welcome access to a wider range than
can be purchased by the limited budget available.
Inter-library lending is one obvious way of helping
to meet this need and in 1993/94 Norfolk bor-
rowed over
6,700
items.
While progress is being made by leaps and bounds
in the speed and efficiency of supply of journal
articles, many of the problems connected with
the efficient retrieval of monograph material via
ILL have still to be solved, for public libraries at
least.
There are now various methods of tracking
down a possible location for the desired item.
However, the means of finding out whether that
item is actually available as opposed to being
missing, withdrawn or on a waiting list are still
limited.
The whole question of how to keep stock location
information up-to-date is slowly being addressed.
However, unless online access is achieved to
ascertain the status of an item before a request is
made, then all inter-library loan applications
remain speculative and supply times are unlikely
to be improved.
It is this gap in the mainstream ILL systems
which Anglia Connect has filled by achieving
online access to the stock of the three participating
Public Library Authorities of Norfolk, Suffolk and
Essex.
Local cooperation
Norfolk has long had a history of close coopera-
tion with Suffolk, both as member of the East
Midlands Regional Library System and as neigh-
bour. With Cambridgeshire included, the three
counties had set up SCANDALS (Suffolk,
Cambridgeshire and Norfolk Direct Application
Loan Scheme) in the 1980s. This involved the
exchange of library catalogues on microfiche
which kept the three members as up-to-date with
stock holdings as possible and facilitated
interlending.
In the late 1980s when the three introduced
online library systems the exchange of fiches
continued but began to seem out-dated and cum-
bersome.
The Geac connection
That there were now three Geac sites laid neatly in
a row in East Anglia did not go unnoticed. Agree-
ment was reached between the three chiefs that
cooperation would be beneficial and Geac was
approached. From these beginnings Anglia Con-
nect emerged.
VINE
96
(September 1994)
— 7
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