A Report on the FIL Conference, University of Exeter, 1-3 July

Citation

Robinson, P. and Lowery, B. (2002), "A Report on the FIL Conference, University of Exeter, 1-3 July", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 30 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilds.2002.12230dac.001

A Report on the FIL Conference, University of Exeter, 1-3 July

All change: future scenarios for information provision

Keywords: Interlending, UK, Document supply

FIL is the Forum for Interlending in the UK. As its name implies it discusses ILL and document delivery matters, primarily at an annual conference but also at seminars and workshops. It publishes a newsletter. It also holds special general meetings which the Editor knows to his cost, when confronted by 300 angry librarians over changes to the payment system at BLDSC a few years ago! It is cross-sectoral and can be contacted via the URL at the end of this report.

Although driving rain obscured some of the beauty of the city of Exeter, its cathedral and surrounding countryside, this year's FIL conference was, as usual, stimulating, thought-provoking and enjoyable.

Sheila Corrall's opening address painted a picture of the continually shifting information landscape in which we work. Now, more than ever, political, economic, social and technological change impacts on almost every decision we have to take as information providers. The Government has funded myriad initiatives for social inclusion through DCMS and DFES, to enable end users to gain access to the information they seek. But although the intent is to include, the price of information continues to increase.

The day Natalie Ceeney gave the keynote speech with her paper "All change" at the conference was one year to the day that she was appointed Director of Operations and Services at the British Library. Reviewing the rapidity of not just technological but social change since 1960, she said that it was already clear that many users were highly sophisticated and IT-literate. Increasingly they sought specifics rather than generalities, and digestible bites rather than huge quantities. A broader and deeper range of content delivered by high speed, high bandwidth data transfer, accompanied by rapidly decreasing technology costs would be an expectation rather than a hope. Existing publishers would dominate the market but would offer more and differentiated e-products. The librarian of the future would be a highly skilled facilitator, who would advise and enable users in the best way to navigate the Web to find information pertinent to them. In conclusion, Natalie said that the British Library had a proven track record of innovation and had always been committed to developing user-focused services.

Three workshops enabled delegates to debate topics of interest to them. Pennie Street from the University of Liverpool ran the session "International interlending". She provided an overview and discussed (among other issues) its continued relevance, the barriers to its success, and the role of IFLA. Jean Bradford, University of Bristol, and Joan Lowe, University of Manchester, provided a workshop entitled "Contributing to change". Topics covered included reminiscences about the days before photocopies (when lending was the norm) and the challenges of managing arcane filing systems and complex transport schemes. All this was a huge contrast to the sophisticated, tailored services users expect (and often demand) today, including the maintenance of a balance between lending to remote users and serving local ones. Katie Anstock, Fretwell Downing Informatics, and Margaret Van Mellaerts, Essex Libraries, presented the third workshop, entitled "Requests direct". With the "Requests direct" model implemented at Essex County Libraries in mind, participants were asked to discuss how they would deal with a similar project in their own working environments. "Requests direct" uses Fretwell Downing Informatics' VDX software.

Following the move away from acting as a back-up to BLDSC, Barry Eaden, Head of ILL at Cambridge University Library, talked about how the role of the library had changed in "Cambridge: from back-up to independence – a year of challenge", which included an explanation of how the new procedures were introduced. He outlined the complexities of dealing with four libraries dependent on the main library, 55 faculties, each having their own library and servicing the information needs of thirty colleges! The success of the project will be evaluated in the coming months. This will include a review of charges for documents to students, locations and other services.

Nick Fox, Assistant County Librarian at Hampshire County Library, talked about how the role of the region had changed in "Towards the unknown region" [a nice reference to one of Ralph Vaughan Williams' lesser known works, Ed.]. The Internet has created a global information marketplace in which the region is not obviously relevant. Issues such as"What is the role of the region and of regional interlending, if any, in the UK library and information service of the new millennium?" and "What kind of mindset and strategy are required to rise to the challenge?" were covered. Nick explored the regional territory and concluded that the new Re:Source, the British Library and CILIP (the new professional body for librarians formed from the merger of the Library Association and the Institute of Information Scientists) agenda deserved full support and that the L&I sector would flourish and develop through the regional dimension.

In "Change in national libraries", his overview of the sweeping changes that had taken place at the Document Supply Centre at Boston Spa, Ian Henderson, Manager for Change at the British Library, described what the future document supply centre would look like and how it would service users in the digital age. Ian also outlined the scope of the work ahead, how it would be approached and illustrated how success could be maximised and measured. Most important, the customer was at the centre of the organisation, continuing a tradition of forty years of success in ILL.

Pauline Palmer, Head of Libraries and Heritage for Wiltshire County Council, discussed the enormous changes facing the public library service and sounded a call of encouragement for the work being done in the sector. In her talk entitled "Changing libraries: new approaches to partnership with public libraries", Pauline outlined some of the issues – such as social inclusion, access, education and participation – which drive the public library agenda. She strongly asserted that if colleagues were able to respond to these challenges and opportunities, a sense of "well-being" would result.

Peter Wynne, Docusend Project Manager, King's College London, gave an overview of "The Docusend Project", which (with zetoc, ZBLSA and XGrain) comprise the Join-Up programme of Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER) projects funded by JISC. A progress report was given and Peter included a detailed description of Docusend's functionality; its connection with LAMDA, the co-operative resource for document delivery within the UK higher education community was also outlined.

To summarise, the most rapidly moving area for the librarian today is undoubtedly technological change. The development of portals is being watched with interest. In the academic sector, it is hoped that students can be weaned off Google and persuaded to study peer-reviewed research rather than some of the dubious (although undeniably attractive) materials on the Web. The trend towardse-journals continues, although the infatuation with them may be waning. There are signs of discontent with "bundles", which are not always good value, as they might include some titles of limited use. However, user expectations are firmly fixed on "free", full-text online resources. But as there is no such thing as a free lunch, the biggest myth to be exploded in our profession is that there is such a thing as a free journal. Someone, somewhere has to pay - whether it is at board, regional, local government or central government level, or by revenue gleaned from click-throughs or advertising. Within this kaleidoscopic environment, we are still waiting for the fragments to settle into an integrated pattern. So, skills in adapting to change - and the acceptance that the only constant is change - are an essential requirement for today's library professional.

On a personal note, it was ironic that, in our work environment, where instant access to information is the norm, those of us who stayed on campus were completely cut off from our usual contact with the outside world, such as the TV or the radio. Those who had forgotten their mobile phone chargers looked especially disconsolate. Total strangers were accosted and information about Wimbledon, "Eastenders" and sometimes even the news was eagerly sought by desperate, information-hungry librarians - "Tell us of what you have seen!", we would plead.

Solace was sought in social contact. Cream teas (necessitating the occasional lie-down), incessant rain (requiring clothing normally reserved for holidays in the Lake District), an indoor barbecue (which somehow managed to break the tradition for a fire alarm at almost every FIL), a formidable hill to climb (requiring another lie-down and enabling the authors of this report to force the metaphor below for coping with change) all contributed to a thoroughly enjoyable FIL.

Within the Forum for Interlending, there is a spirit of co-operation where somehow our differences bind us together. It was, as always, a pleasure to meet with friends and colleagues from the UK and Ireland interlending community. At the end, after the rain had finally ceased, everything in the garden was beautiful, at least botanically speaking. It remains to be seen how the seeds of co-operation sown at the conference will grow into prizewinning blooms!

Some full presentations and abstracts of most of the papers are available at: www.cilip.org.uk/groups/fil/conf2002.html

More information about FIL is available at: www.cilip.org.uk/groups/fil/introf.html

Peter RobinsonUKHE Account Manager, The British LibraryBetty LoweryCustomer Services Manager, The British Library