A target of opportunity: Creation of the louis network

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/eb047948
Pages87-107
Date01 January 1995
Published date01 January 1995
AuthorJennifer Cargill,Sammie W. Cosper,C. Landon Greaves,Carolyn Hooper Hargrave,Ronald D. Hay,Nancy Nuckles,D.M. Schneider,Jill Fatzer
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Library & information science
A TARGET OF OPPORTUNITY:
CREATION OF THE LOUIS NETWORK
Jennifer Cargill
with contributions from Sammie W. Cosper, C. Roland Haden,
C. Landon Greaves, Carolyn Hooper Hargrave, D.M. Schneider,
Ronald D. Hay, Nancy Nuckles, Jill Fatzer, and Jennifer Cargill
Three different governing boards of higher
education in Louisiana joined together to create
the Louisiana Online University Information
System (LOUIS). Key players in this endeavor
describe progress from an idea formulated in
1990 to the 1993 reality of an effective statewide
online system. Improved services to users and
more effective use of collections are examples of
what the various libraries throughout Louisiana
are expecting to realize from this collective
action. Various lessons learned are detailed.
Budget components are addressed openly. In
1993,
the state of Louisiana was awarded a
federal $2.48 million grant that enabled the
completion of this statewide infrastructure.
Other states contemplating a statewide library
network may want to look closely at the planning
for and implementation of LOUIS.
.Cargill
is dean of
libraries,
Louisiana State Universi-
ty and A&M College (LSU);
Cosper
is former commis-
sioner of higher education, board of regents, State of
Louisiana; Greaves is former director of libraries,
Southeastern Louisiana University; Hargrove, professor
of quantitative business analysis and special assistant to
the chancellor at LSU, was formerly vice chancellor for
academic affairs and provost at LSU, and chaired the
board of regents' task force on libraries; Schneider is
associate dean for public services at LSU; Hay is execu-
tive director of
the
office of computing services at LSU;
Nuckles is assistant dean for automation and systems at
LSU; Fatzer is dean of library services at the University
of New Orleans.
INTRODUCTION
The methods of access, storage, and delivery of
information are changing rapidly today and will
continue to do so. The academic library as the central
source of information for the university community will
continue; however, the role of the academic library is
also
changing and becoming more electronic. Participa-
tion of academic libraries in networking activities is
critical. It is no longer a question of "if libraries will
automate but of "how soon."
In Louisiana, at the beginning of this decade, few
academic libraries were automated, and for the unauto-
mated ones the possibility of automation looked bleak.
The three managing boards in Louisiana were strug-
gling
to
effectively use available resources. Louisiana's
state-assisted institutions of higher education are
organized into three systems: the Southern University
system; the Louisiana State University (LSU) system;
and the trustees' system. The managing boards report
to the board of regents, which is the coordinating board
for higher education. The main campus of Southern
University had NOTIS; some LSU campus libraries
were automated with NOTIS; one of the trustees'
schools had automated; and others had rudimentary
automation to handle some processing.
The "most automated" of the three systems was
LSU. The main campus of LSU, located in Baton
Rouge, had acquired NOTIS in
1985,
had subsequently
added the LSU Law Center's Library as another
institution on the same software, and had also automat-
ed the LSU Veterinary Medicine Library as part of the
main campus online catalog. The two libraries of the
LSU Medical Center, in New Orleans and Shreveport,
had a separate NOTIS system. The libraries at other
LOUIS:
A
TARGET
OF
OPPORTUNITY
ISSUE 49-50
13:1-2 (1995) 87
LSU system institutions that were not automated were
the
University of
New
Orleans,
LSU
in
Eunice
(though
it had a CD-ROM catalog), LSU in Alexandria, and
LSU in Shreveport.
Then, as the last decade of
the
twentieth century
got
under
way,
two critical events took place that were
catalysts to making automation a reality: 1) the board
of
regents,
the coordinating board for
the
three univer-
sity systems, appointed a task force on libraries; and
2) the annual meeting of the academic library directors
in the fall of
1990
featured automation
as
the
program.
Those two events led the task force on libraries
to
focus
much
of
its
activities
on creation of
an
academ-
ic library network. The task force evolved into an
ongoing organization,
the
Louisiana
Academic
Library
Information Network Consortium (LALINC), which
made the network its high profile project and led to
the creation of
the
Louisiana Online University Infor-
mation System (LOUIS), which is one of the first
applications to run on the Louisiana Telecommunica-
tions Network, LaNET.
Though the state was in dire
financial
straits, the
environment was right for the design and implementa-
tion of
LOUIS.
In 1991 as the newly arrived dean of
the
flagship university's library system, I
was
impressed
with the risk taking and "can do" spirit of the task
force on
libraries.
I
was
quickly drawn into
the
network
project since the software and hardware at LSU were
to
be the
basis
of
the
statewide online system. The 1990
idea led to successful grant writing in 1991, which in
turn led to the project team beginning work on the
network
in
1992.
It
finally
culminated
in
four academic
libraries joining LSU and the LSU Law Center online
in 1993. Strong leadership, collaboration among a
number of
entities,
and effective cooperation were all
necessary. To paraphrase one major player, Carolyn
Hargrave, there are always targets of opportunity; it
is important to know when and how to use them.
However, the story of how an idea formulated in 1990
led to reality in
1993
is best told by some key players.
In this article, several network participants share their
insights into the project and their perceptions, and
describe the events leading to the LOUIS network.
SETTING
THE STAGE FOR A
LIBRARY
NETWORK
Sammie W. Cosper
[The chief
executive
officer for higher education
is the commissioner of higher education who reports
to the board of regents. It is this individual whose
support of the network concept
in the
gloomy financial
climate
was
so
essential.
Sammie
W.
Cosper, commis-
sioner of higher education from 1990 through 1993,
caught
the
vision of
the
network early in his tenure and
has continued to support and promote it. The board
of regents were excited by the project and have lent
their support. Cosper describes the climate in which
the network idea originated.]
A Brief History of Louisiana
Public Higher Education
As everyone
who
is
connected
in
any
way
to
post-
secondary education in the United States is aware,
funding levels of the last two to three years have left
higher education with severe financial problems.
Louisiana, like other states, is participating in the
national reduction of funding for its public higher
education institutions. There is one major difference,
however; Louisiana higher education began experienc-
ing funding shortfalls in 1983-84 when its primary
industry, the
oil
and
gas
businesses, began
to
collapse.
This funding shortage has continued for Louisiana
higher education institutions for
ten
years.
For example,
there have been 15 budget cuts to Louisiana higher
education during the last ten
years,
ten of
which
came
in mid-year. In 1982-83, funding per student in
Louisiana higher education was 97.5 percent of the
Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) average.
In 1987-88 the level had dropped to 66.4 percent of
the SREB average and in 1993-94 the level was about
65 percent.
When the Louisiana higher education budget
reductions started, we did what almost every state in
the nation has done during the past two to three
years—we put off needed maintenance and major
repairs
to
our
buildings,
we postponed both instruction-
al and research equipment
purchases
(including library
books and journals), and we reduced staff in our
support
services.
We attempted to consolidate available
resources in academic programs to insure that they
maintained high quality. These efforts have created
some long-term problems for Louisiana higher educa-
tion, but that is another story for another time.
It is a well-known fact that a prolonged shortage
of financial resources will cause increased competition
for
those
remaining funds. Higher education in Louisi-
ana was particularly susceptible to the effects of this
old adage since its campuses are managed by three
different constitutional
managing
boards, which are in
turn coordinated by one constitutional coordinating
board.
The
power and responsibilities are spread among
the institutions,
the
managing
boards,
and the coordinat-
ing board in such a manner that no one group is in
control of any given situation.
88 LIBRARY HI
TECH
JENNIFER
CARGILL
AND
OTHERS

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