Visit us at the WLA Annual Conference in Appleton!

The WiLS booth is # 67 in the exhibit hall; hours are Wednesday, October 21, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday, October 22, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Check out the program for details on sessions presented by WiLS staff.

WiLS' administrative and personnel functions are handled through UW-Madison, so along with other university and state employees, WiLS is required to take 8 furlough days over the next 2 years. We will follow the UW-Madison established dates (Office closed) of November 27, December 30, April 2 and May 21. In addition, the WiLS office will be closed on December 23 and another date to be determined. Other dates are up to the individual staff member.

With a goal of expanding our reach through cooperation, the regional Midwest library consortia met in September to share information about projects of significance, discuss the impact of the economy on consortial services, and to consider opportunities to leverage the resources, expertise and relationships each of us have cultivated for the benefit of libraries and readers in the region. Organizations represented included "ex-OCLC networks" such as WiLS, individual statewide consortia and the CIC Center for Library Initiatives (Libraries of the Big 10). Many of the initial ideas for Midwest collaboration are developments already under discussion or in development by various library communities in Wisconsin. Of course, we all have million dollar plans and only nickels to spend. The question is do we have key interests in common where working together could make the dreams into reality. Before making any commitment for WiLS, my question to WiLS members is, what are your top priorities? Which of the following items do you believe to be important and appropriate for us to pursue as part of this regional planning process?

• Shared print storage facilities
• Regionalized government document depositories
• Linking statewide delivery systems
• Electronic archives (dark archives and/or accessible archives)
• Resource sharing systems (such as IN-Reach, URSA, Relais, Open Source)
• Discovery Layer development/implementation/testing
• Bibliographic record sourcing
• Digitization

Send your comments to Kathy Schneider
at schneid at wils.wisc.edu

Please alert your Business Office that WiLS is instituting a Late Payment Penalty. Approved by the WiLS Board in July, there will be a 1.5% penalty applied to unpaid invoices or assessed to a negative deposit account balance after 90 days and again after each subsequent 30 day period while the account remains in the red. A statement to this effect will start appearing on all WiLS invoices within the next month.

It is our fervent hope that we never actually have to impose the penalty — the real goal is to catch the attention of business offices around the state so they take care of WiLS invoices promptly. It is not often that we have a problem with late payments but it does occur and the amount overdue adds up quickly. And, under our new partnership with OCLC, WiLS is obligated to notify OCLC of any accounts delinquent more than 90 days.

The Statement tab from the My WiLS Account has been replaced with the Detail History tab. Detail History is live data. You are able to limit your search by any time period you choose by filling in the dates of the activity you would like to view. If you do not fill in any dates and then Search you will see all of your history since WiLS back to 2007. You can also print or export your Detail History to Excel to sort and file for your own records.

• I am still working through the FY10 replenishments and a few accounts have gone negative with this billing. I will be issuing replenish invoices to those accounts first and then will go back to see who still needs a replenishment. If you notice that your account either has a negative balance or is running low on funds, please don't hesitate to email me a replenish request, as WiLS will now be charging a finance charge on accounts that have negative balances for over 90 days.
  
  
• The FY10 annual WiLS Membership or the WorldCat/BadgerCat invoices will be posted to your accounts (if applicable) this month.

Shirley can be contacted at sschenning@wils.wisc.edu, or 608-263-5051.

WiLS is going to be running the following database trials for academic libraries in early October. More details will be coming. If you have questions, please contact Kirsten Houtman khoutman@wils.wisc.edu or 608.265.2728:

• Accessible Archives
• Adam Matthew
• Ageline
• Greenr
• Health Policy Reference Center
• Opinion Archives
• Political Science Complete

We're going to be running a series of E-book trials for academic libraries come late Fall. Are there any E-book vendors you'd be especially interested in trialing? Please send me an email and let me know. Thanks. Kirsten, khoutman at wils.wisc.edu

Facts On File, an award-winning publisher of print and online reference materials, is now offering its collection of online resources to WiLS members at a special discount. Engaging videos, comprehensive essays, original maps and charts, colorful images and diagrams, today’s news, and more are offered in core subjects such as history, science, literature, geography, career guidance and health.

Facts On File is offering WiLS members a free trial from (10/1/09-10/31/09). Orders placed by November 15, 2009 will receive an additional 5% discount from WiLS’s member pricing. To register for the free trial go to: www.factsonfile.com/trial

Facts On File offers WiLS members special discounts the following products. Click on any title for further product information.

• Issues & Controversies
• Issues & Controversies in American History
• World News Digest
• Today's Science
• Bloom's Literary Reference Online
• Science Online
• Health Reference Center
• Ferguson's Career Guidance Center
• American History Online
• African-American History Online
• American Indian History Online
• American Women’s History Online
• Modern World History Online
• Ancient and Medieval History Online
• World Atlas
• Curriculum Resource Center: Junior Edition
• Curriculum Resource Center
• U.S. Government Online

For pricing information, please contact WiLS. or Bob Bridges at Facts On File (800-322-8755 ext. 4379) for further product information.

This fall, the acclaimed 17-volume Grzimek's (pronounced Chimek's) Animal Life Encyclopedia — considered the best and most comprehensive animal reference available today — will be transformed into an interactive, media-rich, community-oriented, online interface. Look for these fascinating features:

• Animals A-Z: unparalleled coverage of more than 4,000 species (evolution, habitat, behavior, range and more)
• Authoritative content: up-to-date information written and reviewed by the world's experts
• Intuitive and credible: letting kids explore and learn while supporting serious academic research
• Media rich: photos, maps, videos, interactive gadgets and more linked to periodicals, real-time news and websites
• User-friendly interface: engaging features such as Search Assist, Animal Finder, Read Speaker and the ability to create citations and to print, email and download content

Link: www.gale.cengage.com/AnimalLife

Pricing for Grzimek's is $495 per school. Early adopters may qualify for additional discounts. Please contact Andy Durren at Gale for more information. 800.877.4253 x2165 or andrew.durren@cengage.com

EasyBib provides online bibliography formatting and citation management tools to all levels of students. Users have access to MLA, APA, and Chicago styles, as well as parenthetical and footnote formatting, and the ability to save, share, and export their citation lists. Founded in 2001 by students, over 15 millions students today use EasyBib. Thousands of teachers and librarians endorse EasyBib because of its accuracy, and as a way to teach students the importance of referencing while allowing them to focus on research. Schools can receive up to a 1-month free trial of the service, and the EasyBib team will personally walk educators through it. Please see for more information www.easybib.com/products/bib4school

To sign up for a free trial see: www.easybib.com/products/bib4schoolpricing and in the Comments section indicate you are a WiLS member.

For more information on EasyBib or help setting up a trial, please contact Emry Downinghall at emry@imagineeasy.com or 212.671.1275

For Pricing information please contact Sara Gold For more information or if you have questions please contact Sara Gold at sgold at wils.wisc.edu or 608.265.4167.

Enhance your collection and satisfy your patrons' demands for premium news, business and legal content. LexisNexis Library Express is a powerful, easy-to-use, Web-based service providing access to over 9,500 individual sources. Wisconsin public libraries have an exceptional opportunity to take advantage of a special discount. LexisNexis Library Express is one of the richest resources in the library and includes:

• News—Over 1,000 national, regional, and international news publications
• Business—LexisNexis Company Dossier provides coverage of over 44 million U.S. and international companies, with data drawn from over 60 sources
• Legal Research—Primary source material includes case law, statutes, and regulations; secondary source materials contain legal news and law reviews
• Biographical Information—From both consumer press as well as Biographical Directories

Offer Details
• Access to over 9,500 news, business and legal sources
• Discounted pricing
• Easy, library-wide access using IP authentication, with unlimited simultaneous users
• Access for use On-Site as well as Remote Access for your patrons
• Legal content provided for on-site users only
• Free Training and on-demand support for librarians

If you would like more information or would like a free two week trial, please contact: Tammy Walford, Account Executive, LexisNexis, tammy.walford@lexisnexis.com or 1-800-227-9597 ext. 51667

The August 2009 Access Newsletter is available on the WiLS web site.

WiLS is posting to Twitter! Follow WiLS at twitter.com/wilsill

In the past, WiLS and Reference and Loan have held separate fall ILL meetings, but we are experimenting this year by combining the two meetings into one. The theme of this year's meeting is: Today's User Services and Needs which will be addressed in the two morning sessions.

The keynote entitled Offer a Library Service That Will Win Users' Hearts! will be given by Lan Yang, a tenured professor at Texas A&M and Head of Direct Services. Her recent publications have focused on user satisfaction of the interlibrary loan/document delivery services. (Register here)

The 2nd Annual Upper Midwest CONTENTdm User Group Meeting will be held at the Pyle Center on the campus of the University of Wisconsin—Madison, October 29-30, 2009. This is a great event for anyone interested in digitization. Sessions include CONTENT Outside of CONTENTdm, Metadata Standards: Three Examples of Implementation and Using CONTENTdm to Compliment K-12 Curriculum. For registration, the final agenda, hotel information and more, see details.

We hope to see you there!

Wisconsin Heritage Online is the featured collection in American Libraries Direct: link.ixs1.net/s/ve?eli=q442672

Past and Present: A Digital History of Wisconsin Independent Colleges and Universities: one of the featured collections in OCLC CONTENTdm Collection of Collections featured on the OCLC Web site.

The images in this collection have been selected from the archives of Wisconsin independent colleges and universities, and their affiliates, see archives.exchange.viterbo.edu. Representing only a small portion of the available resources, the selection details the history of these institutions through photos, documents, and objects created between the 1800s and early 1900s. Later content will include history from the mid-1900s to the present. A collaborative effort, Past and Present was designed and produced by archivists and librarians from these participating Wisconsin institutions: Alverno College, Cardinal Stritch University, Carthage College, Concordia University, Edgewood College, Lakeland College, Lawrence University, Marian University, Marquette University, Nashotah House Ripon College, Silver Lake College, St. Norbert College, Viterbo University.

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

In preparation for the transition from cataloging standard AACR to RDA (Resource Description and Access), OCLC implemented the changes related to the OCLC-MARC Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings Formats Update 2009. This includes MARC 21 Updates No. 8 (October 2007) and No. 9 (October 2008), MARC Code List changes since July 2008, and user and OCLC staff suggestions.

Other details about the MARC format changes from OCLC's Jay Weitz:

• OCLC's Documentation area is currently working on incorporating the changes documented in Technical Bulletin 257 into Bibliographic Formats and Standards. In that process, OCLC and LC have encountered some unanticipated issues that have delayed the update, which is now planned for October. Remember that the Technical Bulletins for OCLC-MARC Updates are intended to supplement BFAS during the period between implementation and the updating of BFAS.

• As is noted briefly in the 440 section of Technical Bulletin 257 ... the implementation of the OCLC-MARC Update, 440 fields will be converted into the appropriate 490/830 combinations. The exact specifications of this future conversion are still under discussion, but they will be based on LC's recommendations in the MARC format at http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd440.html, in the "Conversion to Current Fields" section. As part of this effort, we will also begin catching 440s coming in through batchloading processes and convert them. At some point in the future when conversions are completed, we will make 440 invalid. There is currently no reliable projection for how long a conversion might take or when field 440 can be made invalid.

2009 marks the 30th anniversary of the WorldCat Resource Sharing service. Since the service began operation in 1979, libraries have built it into one of the world's foremost networks with more than 10,000 libraries now using the system to arrange 10 million interlibrary loans each year.

• 204 million requests since 1979
• 10,719 current users in 46 countries
• 8.1 million Interlibrary Loan Fee Management (IFM) transactions processed since 1995, saving libraries approximately $500 million in administrative costs
• 2.4 million ILL requests deflected and automatically rerouted since 2006, saving libraries an estimated $29 million in staff time
• 94,305 requests to USA from 29 countries (fiscal year 2009)
• 85,231 requests from USA to 42 countries (fiscal year 2009)

September was national library card sign-up month for libraries in the United States, so there's no better time to take advantage of the latest new field added to the WorldCat Registry—?the Library Card Form page.

The new library card field lets you add the URL for your library card sign-up form to your Registry profile. Find it in the "Name and Location" section of your profile. Once you add it, soon new users who find your library through WorldCat.org will be able to apply for a library card immediately.

Add your library card sign-up form URL to your WorldCat Registry profile now < <

The WorldCat Registry is a Web-based directory of libraries and library consortia. This authoritative service allows any institution to do three things:

1. Create and maintain a comprehensive institutional profile in a single, secure, Web-accessible location
2. Share this profile internally between branches or consortia members, and externally with vendors and other third parties, electronically automating the exchange of information common to these relationships
3. Enhance the visibility of institutional services and content, moving them closer to consumer point of need through Web services such as WorldCat.org

Virtually attend OCLC's Distinguished Seminar Series. The next one is October 9, 9:30-10:30 (CDT) and will be given by Helene Blowers,

“Finding the Phoenix: Feathers, Flight & the Future of Libraries.”

As public libraries continue to evolve to meet customers' needs in a rapidly changing culture, great concerns remain over the future of print and the "book." However, in looking at current trends, there is evidence to suggest these concerns may be unwarranted. The future of libraries may not be dependent on the creation or evolution of new service delivery models, it may actually reside in something more "deeply local." Join Helene Blowers in a lively conversation about the library phoenix. As old formats and service models decline, a new bird is rising from their shadows.

To register to attend online via WebEx, click here: oclc.webex.com/oclc/j.php?ED=125805312&RG=1&UID=1090890847

OCLC's Distinguished Seminar Series

Many of the previous programs in this series have been video recorded and are available at www.oclc.org/programsandresearch/dss/default.htm.

Sign up for a live Web session about the no-charge Odyssey Standalone scanning document delivery software, Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 1:00—2:00 pm CT

Join OCLC and Brian Miller from Ohio State University to learn how Odyssey Standalone can help improve your library's article delivery capabilities. Be part of the growing community of Odyssey users across the U.S. who are discovering this sophisticated, yet easy-to-use software that comes at the best-possible price—there's NO CHARGE!

Odyssey Standalone allows library staff to send and receive documents from both ILLiad libraries and other Odyssey Standalone sites. Whether a requested journal article comes from your own remote storage unit or from somewhere else, Odyssey helps you electronically receive a document and create an easy-to-read PDF at no extra charge.

This OCLC Web seminar is a no-cost, live presentation viewable via the Web with audio provided by WebEx. Register now.