In order to allow sufficient time for feedback and discussion, implementation of the Policy will be delayed until the third quarter of the 2009 calendar year. If you have not been following this issue, the proposal, an FAQ and related materials are all available on the OCLC website.

Reaction to this whole matter depends very much on your perspective. If you believe OCLC is a membership organization, then you are likely to support the policy, at least in concept, as necessary to protect our collective asset. WorldCat is a valuable resource, developed collaboratively by thousands of libraries; it requires a solid economic model if it is to be sustained. There are, however, aspects of the policy that give most people cause for concern. Primarily it is language giving OCLC sole discretion for decision making now and into the future. That concern is articulated most clearly in a message crafted by the UW Madison and recently delivered to OCLC (pdf).

Whatever your attitude about the proposed policy, the creation of the Review Board is very good news. OCLC heard the negative reaction from the membership and agreed that the matter warrants further consideration. The Board will be chaired by Jennifer Younger, Library Director at Notre Dame (and previously at UW Madison). There will be a preliminary report presented at the February Members Council meeting.

- Kathy Schneider

We handled 109,323 ILL requests, 541 OCLC related support queries, presented and or sponsored 51 events (workshops, conferences, webinars etc) with at least 1,267 attendees. (It is not always possible to know how many people attend webinars—only the number of sites participating). We also made 31 site visits to member libraries. All with a staff of 20.9 FTE. And we managed to end the year in the black.

Take a look at the full report—it does include some nice photos and charts—including the winner of the Best Hawaiian Shirt contest!

Two important figures in WiLS history passed away in recent weeks.

JERRY DANIELS, retired director at UW Platteville, was a key player in the early days of WiLS, going on to serve several terms as Board chair. That was in the days when the WiLS governing board was the Council of Wisconsin Libraries (COWL). Whenever a difficult issue would come before the Council, Jerry could be counted on to say "COWL is an action organization and action organizations must be willing to take risks!" That spirit is embedded deep in our organization and continues to serve us well.

SHIRLEY JOHNSON, long time director of the library at UW Extension, retired since 1996, served as WiLS Treasurer for nearly ten years. During her tenure, being treasurer was not a matter of oversight; the job was actually making deposits and writing checks! She used to carry the COWL checkbook around in her purse, frequently made deposits while running her Saturday morning errands, and devoted many hours to reconciling accounts.

The Computers in Libraries conference will be March 30-April 1, 2009 in Arlington, VA. MLNC (Missouri Library Network Corporation) is pleased to be able to coordinate registrations for WiLS members! The cost is $234 for the full CIL 2009 conference program. This is more than 50% off the regular price, a savings of up to $250! Registrations must be received at MLNC no later than Friday, February 20, 2009, with a check for the conference fees made payable to Information Today, Inc., the conference sponsor. If using a credit card, please fill out the information on the registration form and fax your registration form to the MLNC office at 314-918-7222.

Network Education Exchange Courses for Spring
The Network Education Exchange is a cooperative program of the education services of Amigos, BCR, FEDLINK, INCOLSA, MLC, MLNC, NEBASE, NELINET, Nylink, OHIONET, PALINET, SOLINET and WiLS with the networks offering member rates to one another for designated online courses. Check out the Exchange's offerings on the WiLS web site.

WiLS is pleased to announce the Cooperative Purchasing Program will begin to conduct database trials and handle vendor negotiations for the South Central Library System's member libraries. Libraries wishing to trial a database can now request a trial by contacting Sara Gold, at sgold@wils.wisc.edu or 608-265-4167.

WiLS will be conducting a trial of Global Road Warrior, Culturegrams, Global Issues in Context and Europa World Plus during the month of February. These trials will be made available to all public libraries in Wisconsin. Discounted group pricing will be available to all WiLS member public libraries. Not sure if your library is a member of WiLS? Contact Sara Gold.

We welcome the opportunity to expand our relationship with public library systems in Wisconsin and are pleased at the cost-saving opportunities these relationships will bring to libraries around the state.

MARIS ASSOCIATES is Wisconsin's leading independent educational publishers' rep group, exclusively serving the schools and libraries of the state of Wisconsin. We have been in business for 31 years and are Wisconsin-based. By working with Cheryl and Sara at WiLS, we are able to provide Wisconsin schools and libraries access to top-line national resources, with great service and advantageous pricing.

Currently our Top 3 online programs available through WiLS are:
1.) Teen Health and Wellness by Rosen Publishing (Audience: Grades 7-12)
2.) Marshall Cavendish Digital (Audience: Grades 4-12)
3.) PebbleGo by Capstone (Audience: Grades K-3)

Free 30-day Trials and demos are available ANYTIME on demand through WiLS, or directly at our websites. Please contact Sara at sgold@wils.wisc.edu

Why order from WiLS?
Cheryl and Sara provide outstanding service and follow-up, tracking of your subscription history, and a competitive pricing advantage with one-source ordering.

Attending WEMTA?
Check out 3 top online database programs at the MARIS ASSOCIATES booth or the WiLS booth.

We are Maris and Martin Dambekaln--please call us Morey and Marty

What we do: work exclusively with Wisconsin schools and libraries to provide the best online resources from top national publishers, offered through WiLS.

Who we do it for and for how long: Maris Associates is the leading independent educational publishers' rep group in Wisconsin. Maris and Mary started the organization in 1978, and Marty joined our group in 1994.

Our favorite part of the job is: working with Wisconsin educators, librarians, and media specialists to help provide our state's kids the tools to become successful students and lifelong learners. Providing customized local solutions through the best available instructional materials from quality national publishers.

The database/product we are most excited about and why is: Teen Health and Wellness from Rosen Publishing.

Recently selected by WiLS as "Dazzling, Don't Miss Database of 2008," it is truly the only health and wellness program designed specifically for teenage students. The database is getting heavy use in a large number of libraries throughout the state.

Something most people don't know about us is: Our office assistant is a very friendly, very large, black and white cat named Mario.

You can reach us at:
MARIS ASSOCIATES, 3175 Willowgate Pass
Phone (262) 628-1926;
Toll Free (800) 522-2135;
FAX (262) 628-2662;
E-Mail maris@wi.rr.com

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The January 2009 Access Newsletter is available on the WiLS web site. Included this month: ShareILL, Reference Service News, QUICK (Better World Books) and more.
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Where can you go to enjoy the ocean and boardwalk without tons of tourists, watch the sunrise and dolphins frolicking from your balcony, catch up with old friends, make new ones, attend interesting and informative classes and be among the first to get a personal, in-depth introduction to ILLiad 8? Virginia Beach in March, of course!

The 2009 ILLiad International Conference will be held at the Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront on March 19 and 20, offering over 20 diverse, informative classes. Attend the Pre-Conference on March 18 and choose two half day in-depth training sessions from six course offerings, taught by Atlas staff.

The Conference fee is $150; the Pre-Conference is an additional $300. For more information, see the listing of the course offerings and registration.

Email questions about the conference or the website to illiadconference@atlas-sys.com. See you there!

The Lending services on campus for both the GLS and the Historical Society have been contractually operated by WiLS for some time for the University of Wisconsin, while the lending of materials from Ebling and Primate libraries have been handled by their internal staff separately. The extensiveness of the University and Historical Society collections have placed the lending operations of WilS in the top 5-10 institutions nationally in regards to requests received. There has been a small decline in the annual volume received, particularly because of limitations of the use of electronic resources for lending, and because of the large number of journal title cancellations.

This annual decline of 6-8% of requests received over the last 4 years, have been reversed with the purchase of RapidILL. We have since seen a jump in the lending requests received back to lending levels seen 5 years ago. Regardless of volume, the fill rate of the requests received continues to be higher for our lending operations compared to the national rate of 58%. WiLS fills at a rate of 72%, primarily to our reciprocal partners. On average, 64% of our campus fills are for these partners. The top ten institutions for whom we fill lending requests are all reciprocal partners.

The turnaround time for lending on campus is on par with national averages currently, but is starting to tip towards superior numbers as a result of meeting RapidILL's 24-hour turnaround requirements. The ARL National average in 2002 for articles was 1.2 days; the average for lending on campus is currently 3 days for OCLC based requests with our Rapid fills at .5 day. The Rapid rate is impressive considering that 32% of the total articles lent on campus meet this average. The average turnaround time for all articles will gradually climb as more requests continue to be filled through RapidILL. The disparity in our OCLC versus RapidILL turnaround time is understood with relation to our extremely high fill rate. Traditionally, an OCLC request is given 4 days to work on, so WiLS will utilize that time to "run" to campus libraries, and work with bibliographers and technical support staff to solve complex requests while many other lending operations simply cancel the request. So, since more time is spent on these requests, the turnaround time is a little higher, but we have a higher fill rate for articles. The RapidILL turnaround time numbers are vastly better as a result of forced cancellation for complex requests. The 24 hour window to fill these requests does not allow for any special care in the requests. The national average for loans in 2002 was 1.8 days, with our current average at 1.9 days. As long as reliable, trackable shipping services continue to be utilized, loan materials should easily stay at this constant turnaround time.

The cost to operate lending is exceptionally low. As of FY 07-08, the average cost to the University of Wisconsin for WiLS to provide its lending services was $5.52 per request. This "per item" cost is exceptional seeing as the national lending cost is $10.86 per ARL statistics. The fact that the university received 118,000+ lending requests last year makes for an average savings of around $630,000 per year compared to other ARL institutions. As long as WiLS remains the contracted lender, and Ebling and Primate continue to fill their lending requests with their own ILL staff, it is likely that these cost savings will continue.

- Eric Robinson

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Let's show just how far ahead Wisconsin libraries are when it comes to Resource Sharing!

The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative was started to advocate for a complete rethink of the way libraries conduct resource sharing in the context of the global internet revolution. In order to showcase resource sharing innovation, the Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative has created an award to encourage libraries and librarians all over the world to make changes in how they do resource sharing and improve service to users.

Up to three winning submissions will be awarded a cash prize of $1,000 each. Recipients will be announced at the Rethinking Resource Sharing Forum 2009 on May 13 and 14, 2009 in Dublin, OH. Funding for the 2009 Innovation Awards is provided by the Alliance of Library Service Networks www.librarynetworks.org, a group of U.S. independent regional networks that includes Amigos, BCR, FEDLINK, ILLINET, INCOLSA, MINITEX, MLC, MLNC, NELINET, Nylink, OHIONET, PALINET, SOLINET, and WiLS. The Nebraska Library Commission is also a member.

To be considered for the award, please submit a description of the user-centric service change you have made that has improved resource sharing in your library, consortium or state. Full details for submission can be found at www.rethinkingresourcesharing.org.

The deadline for applications/nominations is March 5, 2009. (post-mark or date of e-mail).

Submissions are sent to the chair of the Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Awards Committee: Beth Farmer, Assistant Director
Tampa Bay Library Consortium
1202 Tech Blvd., Ste 202
Tampa, FL 33619
farmerb@tblc.org

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Registration is now open for the 4th Annual Meeting of the Midwest CONTENTdm Users Group at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana from March 18-20, 2009. This is a great opportunity to learn about CONTENTdm 5 as Geri Ingram of OCLC will be leading two half-day pre-conferences on the newest CONTENTdm version. There will be another pre-conference on copyright. For more information, go to www.lib.purdue.edu/spcol/mug.

The Upper Midwest CONTENTdm Users Group will be meeting in Madison from October 28-30. Please save these dates on your calendar.

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The featured collections for January 2009 were the A. B. Nichols Panama Canal Collection from Linda Hall Library; Sulphur Springs Collection of Pre-Nickelodeon Films from Southern Methodist University; the Mississippi Digital Library; and the Lethbridge Cenotaph Collection from the university of Lethbridge Library.

Also of interest is the clay tablet collection of University Library of the VU Amsterdam University that is now on CONTENTdm.

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For complete OCLC news, see the OCLC news archive.
WiLS members may find these articles of particular interest.

OCLC NetLibrary has launched the next round of quarterly Subject Sets! Libraries that purchased Subject Sets in FY07, FY08 or FY09 receive a 25% discount on all Subject Set purchases, and there is no minimum order required. This promotion expires February 28, 2009.

Each new Subject Set contains quality frontlist content with no title duplication from set to set, or from previously introduced Subject Sets. There will be ten new eBook and five new eAudiobook Sets in the following fields:

• 2009 Taxes & Personal Finance Resources
• General Education & Business
• Hot Topics & Special Interest
• Personal Growth & How To
• eAudiobooks

For more information, contact Nichole Fromm, nfromm at wils.wisc.edu.

OCLC has released the new NetLibrary Media Center, a full-featured desktop application that allows library patrons to easily search, manage, transfer and listen to downloadable eAudiobooks. The free software application allows users to connect to NetLibrary, and then download and begin listening to eAudiobooks with just one click. For those libraries familiar with the OverDrive Media Console, the concept is similar. For more information, read the full press release.