1. Member Libraries, Cooperative Collection Management Program
2. Individual Members, Cooperative Collective Management Coordinating Committee
3. ICCMP Home Page (http://libws66.lib.niu.edu/ccm/)
4. A Plan for Collaborative Collections Management Among Illinois Libraries
5. List of Electronic Resources Available Consortially Through the ICCMP
6. Principles for Collections Partnerships
7. Collection Partnership Proposals for FY 2000
8. Letters of Support

The primary goal of the Illinois Cooperative Collection Management Program (ICCMP) is to enrich and strengthen the collective information resources available to the users of academic libraries in Illinois, and by extension, to all the citizens of the State of Illinois. The ICCMP seeks to achieve this by collaborating on electronic resource development, by reducing unnecessary duplication across academic library collections, by bringing unique information resources into the state, and by assessing user needs and actual use of collections.

The main objectives established to pursue this goal include encouraging librarians to think about the collections in the state as one metacollection, helping member libraries to provide local access to e-resources (the building blocks of emerging digital libraries), serving as a facilitating agency for innovative collection development and collection assessment activities, and working with other Illinois-based cooperative groups (e.g., ILCSO, the IL State Library, NILRC, and the CIC) on the cost-efficient development of academic information resources, particularly electronic resources. The organizational body that oversees this effort, the Cooperative Collection Management Coordinating Committee (CCMCC) (Appendix B) coordinates the efforts of participating member libraries.

The basic activities of the ICCMP include: collaborative negotiations for electronic resources in a period of budget constraints; a competitive grant round to fund pilot projects and new programs in response to specific needs articulated by librarians at member institutions; continued development of the ICCMP's collections partnerships program (formerly known as model disciplines); support for innovative projects to assess collection strengths, weaknesses, and use, including the information needs of the service population; and continuing education and networking opportunities for librarians directly involved in collection management.

ICCMP's membership has increased this year to 87 libraries serving almost 534,000 students. Each member library also serves a community of faculty, staff, administrators and the public.

The ICCMP, with its diverse array of newer members, strives especially to attend to the needs of smaller academic libraries, which tend to have smaller library budgets per capita, and which are more likely to be located in rural areas far from the major research libraries of Illinois. It similarly strives to serve the needs of its growing community college library membership. As the mission of all community colleges is to serve the higher educational needs of the non-traditional student, be they racially, culturally or demographically diverse, the ICCMP is indirectly benefiting those populations.

The ICCMP emphasizes cooperation and collaboration among Illinois academic libraries in order to improve and enrich the information resources available to students, faculty, staff, and the general public. The skills and techniques of electronic resource and digital library development, collection assessment, innovative collection development projects, and interlibrary communication and collaboration are fostered. The ICCMP also facilitates the creation of professional partnerships among Illinois academic librarians.

In an exploding universe of information, users of academic libraries need more resources than any single library can provide. The Illinois Cooperative Collection Management Program is founded on a commitment to a shared statewide academic collection. The consortium works to meet the diverse needs of faculty, students, and other library users in Illinois by encouraging cooperative library activity in order to make the best use of scarce resources.

In order to achieve this vision the ICCMP pursues three primary goals:

1. Cooperative Collection Management
2. Resource Sharing
3. Professional Education

And four secondary goals:

1. Communication
2. Resource Development
3. Political Advocacy
4. Member Development

These goals assume and encourage certain fundamental core values: (see Soete plan in appendix)

• Universal Benefit
• Selective Participation and Universal Input
• Local Sufficiency

• Ease of Access to Shared Resources
• Enduring commitment to the goal of shared collection building
• Recognition of the contribution of all member libraries
• Dependence on the commitment and participation of individual librarians.

Since the late 1970s, academic libraries in Illinois have actively cooperated in developing and managing their collections. Driving this cooperation has been a combination of factors:

• a desire to make a broad spectrum of information resources accessible to citizens across the state;
• increasing inflation in book and journals prices;
• flat or minimally increasing materials budgets;
• the pressure to include a broad spectrum of electronic resources in our collections.

The ICCMP helps to mitigate these factors by providing a structure for formalized cooperation among academic libraries of all sizes and types.

1. Foster and refine the concept of statewide collaboration and the support, not only of individual library collections, but of a state library "metacollection," accessible to users throughout Illinois.
2. Define new concepts for cooperation that transcend the traditional ownership model.
3. Capitalize upon the strengths of all library collections and the expertise and experience of librarians in academic libraries of all types and sizes.
4. Seek out and support innovative projects that take advantage of existing resources and professional expertise in Illinois libraries.
5. Coordinate the cooperative purchase of, and access to, e-resources and print-based materials to enrich the library collections of Illinois.
6. Continue to negotiate lower consortial rates for purchases.

Task: Continue to develop negotiating skills and knowledge of copyright law among the members of the coordinating committee.

7. Exploit the power of the Internet and the WWW to share information resources.

Task: Assist libraries in developing electronic access to selected special and research collections on the World Wide Web.

Task: work with the ILCSO Electronic Resources Committee, IDAL and other groups to facilitate consortial pricing for specialized e-resources that become available throughout the fiscal year.

8. Encourage grant applications for the development of Web sites that publicize and provide access to local collections of long-term interest and value.
9. Continue to review and assess the efficacy of the Collaborative Collections program currently in place, including planning for future subject areas, and the development of more specific guidelines and procedures for this program.
10. Implement policies and procedures for a last copy/storage center.
11. Review major documents of the consortium in order to update, expand or refine as needed.
12. Promote and support the evaluation of library collections (both in individual libraries and in the state as a whole).
13. Identify and support new or ongoing collection analysis projects:
14. Using appropriate authoritative sources, evaluate the impact of the Collection Partnership projects on the statewide library collection.
15. Work with the statewide union catalogs to facilitate cooperative collection analysis in Illinois.

The Illinois Cooperative Collection Management Program was formed with the primary goal of enriching and strengthening "the collective information resources available to the customers of the consortium libraries and to the citizens of the State of Illinois." (Soete Plan, 1996). This goal of providing and sharing library resources remains at the forefront of our values. Although the impetus for resource sharing was an environment characterized by rising costs for materials, the explosion of new resources in both traditional and electronic forms, and relatively flat library budgets, member libraries have come to view resource sharing as a positive value for libraries, librarians, and the students and faculty members who form the learning communities which we serve. By sharing our collections, and our intellectual and financial resources, libraries can provide better services and more services to our users. The process of sharing strategically also has the added benefit of helping libraries to define and refine their own particular missions and strengths. In the pursuit of effective resource sharing, the member libraries of the ICCMP share the following objectives:

1. To create a statewide collection which serves the range of needs of our users--from undergraduates to faculty.

Task: Assess collection strengths and weaknesses in Illinois academic libraries, both statewide and in individual libraries.

Task: Continue to develop and strengthen the goals and strategies for sharing collections as outlined in the "Principles for Collection Partnerships."

Task: Continue to emphasize the importance of formal, long-term written agreements and a statewide commitment to cooperative collection building.

Task: Develop a plan for statewide cooperative collection development and management based on local and regional collection strengths.

Task: Develop a plan for the identification of new serials (both print and electronic).

Task: Formalize methods for purchase of, or providing access to, these serials in Illinois.

Task: Educate college and university administrators and faculty on the goals and advantages of resource sharing in Illinois.

2. To provide users with rapid access to library resources at any academic library in the State of Illinois.

Task: Continue to monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of the statewide delivery system.

Task: Facilitate meetings of interlibrary loan and circulation personnel in Illinois academic libraries in order to maintain and build upon their already high level of service.

Task: Examine interlibrary loan and document delivery patterns in order to determine user needs in Illinois institutions of higher learning.

3. To provide widespread access to specialized resources (especially in electronic form) at a cost-effective price.

Task: Survey member libraries annually on consortial needs.

Task: Negotiate the purchase and/or the licensing of electronic resources that complement consortial activities elsewhere in the State.

Task: Support the creation of new resources based upon the specialized and/or research collections held by individual libraries in the State.

4. To strengthen library services in Illinois by facilitating the sharing of the professional skills and experience of individual librarians.

Task: Provide educational and networking opportunities for bibliographers in Illinois academic libraries.

Task: Share information about new purchases, cancellations, deselection, evaluation of new information products, web sites, etc.

Task: Work together to create resources such as bibliographies or indexes, web sites, union lists, as well as to provide subject and reference expertise.

Task: Maintain close working relationships with other library consortia in Illinois.

Task: Encourage and facilitate shared assessment and evaluation projects among Illinois librarians.

5. To serve as good stewards of taxpayer dollars through cost saving and cost avoidance activities such as consortial purchasing and reduced duplication of specialized resources.

Task: Make efficient use of librarian time and expertise through cooperative activities such as sharing the work of web page design and maintenance, database creation, etc.

Task: Work with the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) and publishers in guiding pricing models and structures for electronic resources.

6. To assist libraries with their need for physical facilities to store older and/or little-used collections.

A core value for the ICCMP has always been the continuing education of collection development professionals. Collection management is a professional responsibility that is also a craft, and possibly an art. In most cases, it is an activity learned largely through the example of one's peers and colleagues, and it varies greatly depending on local situations and needs. There are few organizations within the profession, which provide the training to help librarians keep up with the technically demanding and fast moving state of the building and management of library collections. This is especially true in academic librarianship where not only are the methods and techniques changing, but also the very state of scholarly communication itself is in flux. The ICCMP has a role to play in several areas of the continuing education process.

1. Educating the Beginning Subject Specialist or Bibliographer. New librarians take at most one course in collection development in library school. They come to their first jobs with basic library skills, but not the specialized skills needed to manage a subject collection. ICCMP provides basic training in many areas -- selection of various formats of material, collection development policy writing, managing funds, assessment and evaluation of collections, preservation, weeding and storage.
2. Forming a support network across the consortium. Both experienced and new subject specialists or bibliographers can benefit from association with their peers at other institutions. Bibliographer Meetings, Annual Meetings, workshops, ICCMP Partnerships and other opportunities for association -- all of these offer the occasion for forming support networks for collection development professionals.
3. Providing the new manager, at the department or administration level, with the tools for training their own bibliographers. Materials presented at meetings, model training plans, ideas about assessment and evaluation, ideas about statistics that can be helpful -- these are some of the many ways in which ICCMP provides tools to the supervisor or manager of collection development personnel.
4. Keeping experienced bibliographers abreast of the changes in the field. In a consortium as large as the ICCMP, there are a number of leaders in the field of collection development. These forward-looking individuals have much to teach even the most experienced collection development professional. As we move to provision of full text journals electronically, to digitization of materials, to new pricing models for journals, to ebooks, and so on, we have to work together to keep abreast of the changes and make rational selections for our institutions. ICCMP is an important player in that effort. As coordinator of continuing education ICCMP is in a unique position to identify these individuals and promote programs using their talents.
5. Making continuing education affordable. An important role that ICCMP can play in making continuing education affordable is to work to contain the cost in time and money of traveling to continuing education workshops. ICCMP works to move workshops closer to home and to time them well so that professionals can participate. ICCMP will also work towards making videoconferencing available for some of the programs to make them even more accessible.
6. Including training in other consortium activities. Assessment projects offer many opportunities for training in assessment methodologies and tools. The joint purchase of electronic products offers opportunities for training in selection of electronic resources, training in tracking usage of these materials, and training in the provision of bibliographic instruction using these tools. All of these opportunities are available to ICCMP in fulfilling its vision of continuing education.

In addition to encouraging communication among its constituent groups (directors, bibliographers, partnerships), the ICCMP can play a crucial role in maintaining communication and coordination among the various groups and agencies that comprise Illinois' "alphabet soup." It is in the best interests of these groups and every Illinois user to streamline the process of acquiring library materials (including and perhaps especially e-resources) and making them accessible.

1. Support and participate actively in the effort on the part of the Illinois State Library to create a statewide "consortia of consortia". The Illinois Electronic Resources Partnership (IERP) will facilitate the sharing of information among Illinois library groups and prevent duplicative efforts.

Task: Contact the state library to determine the status of its clearinghouse project, and volunteer ICCMP participation in whatever way seems most appropriate.

2. Continue to maintain and upgrade the ICCMP website.
3. Continue to moderate and host the ILCCM-L listserv discussion group.
4. Investigate the feasibility of using web-based technology such as chat rooms or netmeetings as other forums for communication.

The ICCMP has had the good fortune to receive funding from the Illinois Board of Higher Education in the form of Higher Education Cooperation Act (HECA) Grants for over a decade. The amount of funding has been consistent within a small range. This is both good and bad. The funding has kept the consortium in business and has allowed it to maintain a steady program of activities through many years. Without the HECA funding, the ICCMP may have ceased to exist. Alternatively, it may have had to recover its costs directly from the membership thereby restricting the nature of its programming and possibly suffering some attrition among its smaller institutions. The fact that the funding has remained static for many years despite the consistent growth pattern and record of accomplishment of the consortium means that we have had to do more with less.

It stands to reason that any future growth or expansion will necessitate additional funding. If that funding cannot be provided by the IBHE, the consortium will have to seek it elsewhere. There are several options that have been discussed internally:

1. Seeking grant funding from other state agencies such as the LSTA grants awarded by the state library. This may be done in conjunction with distinct projects that meet the guidelines for LSTA projects.
2. Impose a membership fee to be paid annually by each member library. The ICCMP remains one of the only consortiums within the state that does not yet charge any membership fee. A taskforce within the CCMCC has investigated this option and proposed a sliding scale of fees. The consortium has not yet felt the need to implement the fee, but is prepared to do so when it does become necessary.
3. Apply a service surcharge on all database deals coordinated by the consortium in an attempt to recoup some of the costs involved in administering a large number of subscriptions (vetting offers, negotiating the fee and license agreement, coordinating subscriptions, dealing with the vendor, record-keeping, billing and payment, etc.).
4. Increase the registration fees for any conferences, workshops or seminars hosted by the consortium in order to recoup any administrative overhead.

The ICCMP must seriously consider the feasibility of pursuing each of these options, make a decision, justify it to the membership and implement it.

The ICCMP seeks to undertake a new political advocacy role. By pursuing partnerships with library groups throughout the state and demonstrating leadership in fostering better communication among those groups, the ICCMP will adopt a higher political profile in the state of Illinois.

1. Seek partnership ventures with various library groups and entities within the state such as:

Illinois State Library/IERP (Illinois Electronic Resources Partnership); IDAL/ILCSO - Illinois Digital Academic Library; Illinois Library Association; NILRC - Northern Illinois Learning Resources Centers; PALI - Private Academic Libraries Illinois; and ILSDO - Illinois Library Systems Directors Organizations

2. Seek partnership ventures with groups and entities outside of the state including other consortia such as: ICOLC - International Coalition of Library Consortia; CIC - Center of Interinstitutional Cooperation; SOLINET - Southern Library Network.

The ICCMP must reach out to all academic libraries within the state of Illinois to make them aware of the benefits of membership both to their own institutions as well as to the statewide metacollection. Our primary objective is to have 100% membership among the IBHE recognized academic institutions in the state. Our secondary objective is to encourage and facilitate active participation by all members of the consortium.

1. Continue to recruit new member institutions among the smaller colleges, both private and public throughout the state.

Task: Selective and personalized mailings

Task: Site visits by the consortium director and members of the CCMCC

Task: Invite non-members to participate in continuing education opportunities sponsored by the consortium

Task: Work with system directors (ILSDO) to identify potential members and recruit them.

2. Encourage greater participation in ICCMP activities, especially among newer members (i.e., community colleges and smaller private institutions).

The first immediate objective of the ICCMP is to speed the development of e-resource collections within the state, through cooperative pre-agreement assessment of a rapidly changing field, consortial negotiations for the best pricing and licensing terms, and subsequent collaborative assessment of the use of e-resources. The second immediate objective is to work with the Illinois State Library, ILCSO, NILRC, the CIC, and other groups to rationalize and maximize the formation of digital library collections in the state. These e-resources will complement the curricular content outlined in The Illinois Century Network: New Dimensions for Education in Illinois.

The first long-term objective is to increase the percentage of academic information needs that can be met with statewide resources. The second long-term objective is to shift the thinking of academic librarians as a group from local collections (but not necessarily local needs) to consortial and statewide collections. Budget projections, economies of scale, and the digitization of academic resources all indicate that local collections will play a diminishing role in meeting the information needs of the higher education community in Illinois, while the role of collaborative collections will increase.

Governance and guidance of the ICCMP falls to the Cooperative Collection Management Coordinating Committee (CCMCC). The governance structure provides for broad involvement of all academic libraries in the consortium, and includes the Program Director; the Consortium Director; a representative from the Illinois State Library, Illinois library systems, and Illinois community colleges; and twelve directors and collection development officers from among the member institutions. A five-person Executive Committee, consisting of the Project Director (Arthur P. Young from Northern Illinois University), the chair (Allen Lanham, EIU), the vice-chair/chair-elect (Charlotte Johnson, SIU-C), the immediate past chair (Doris Brown from DePaul University), and the Consortium Director (Maria Otero-Boisvert), serves as a planning group and sounding board for the larger group.

The overall aims of the ICCMP include focused evaluations of the library collections held by colleges and universities in Illinois. Additionally, the CCMCC, the governing body for the Program, requires each grant recipient to submit a report at the end of the grant period detailing the results and success of individual projects. This short-term evaluation performed by grass-roots personnel, in combination with the long-term evaluations administered by the Committee, is a vital part of the work of the ICCMP.

The anticipated outcomes of the ICCMP can be assessed in terms of costs avoided or dollars saved, but ultimately the most pertinent desired outcome is increased access to academic information. Early usage statistics of ICCMP-supported e-resource development projects are very encouraging in this regard. Group-wide access to full-text e-resources seems to increase access and generate much more use than multiple copies of the print-based equivalent content distributed in academic libraries throughout the state.

Personal Services

Director $ 42,000.00

Graduate Assistant $ 8,000.00

Benefits (32 percent) $ 13,440.00

Contractual services $308,031.00

Commodities $ 0.00

Travel $ 4,000.00

Printing $ 500.00

Equipment $ 0.00

Telecommunications/Internet $ 4,050.00

Audit $ 1,500.00

Meetings $ 8,000.00

Personal Services. After a year and a half in this newly created position, the consortium director has found that the workload has grown exponentially. The increase in membership, the addition of several new database deals (coupled with the renewal cycles of the existing deals) as well as the expansion of the consortium's program of activities and projects all have a direct impact on the workload of the central office. Membership services, database negotiations, billing activities, continuing education program planning and event coordination, not to mention general consortium administration can easily justify a full-time position. The CCMMC will explore the feasibility of increasing the directorship to a full contract. For the purposes of this proposal, though, the director position is maintained as a .75 FTE contract. A 5% rate increase is recommended in accordance with the increase approved by Northern Illinois University for SPS (Supportive Professional Staff). This brings the amount requested to $42,000.00.

With the same extenuating circumstances in mind, the consortium director is recommending the addition of a line item in the amount of $8,000.000 to pay the salary of a graduate student assistant position. This administrative assistant-type position would be paid at the rate of $8.00 an hour and work approximately 20 hours per week. The assistant would perform many clerical, secretarial and billing functions such as: the coordination of mailings to the membership which occur with some frequency, general correspondence, coordination of database participants when an offer is being vetted, and conference/event registrations. In addition it functions as a billing clerk in that it handles vendor invoices and tracks payments.

Benefits: Benefits for this salary level were calculated at 32% of the consortium director's salary, or $13,440.00.

Contractual services. $308.031.00 (80% of the proposed budget) will cover the funding of all projects and activities described in the grant proposal. Approximately $248.031.00 will go to fund innovative new cooperative collection management projects that have been selected via an internal competitive grant round open to all academic member institutions. The collection partnerships selected for funding this year are: Statewide Assessment, Women's Studies, Enhanced Access to UIUC Serials, Administration of Justice, Biological Technology, and Environmental Studies (see partnership proposals in appendix).

$50,000.00 is requested for funding of a pilot project, which will subsidize one year's subscription to a specialized, full-text electronic resource such as JSTOR. The consortium has undertaken this kind of project in the past in an attempt to help member libraries experience a specialized, expensive database or resource that they may not have felt was financially accessible. In FY 99,the ICCMP funded a one-year subscription to Project Muse for the community colleges in a successful introduction to that product.

$10,000.00 is requested to fund a pilot project that will continue the work of the Central Storage Taskforce begun in the current fiscal year. The taskforce is investigating the need for a last copy center or central storage facility in the state of Illinois. A survey has been created and disseminated to all academic libraries in the state. Survey results are currently being analyzed. Next year's funds would be used to pay a consultant to continue the exploratory groundwork.

Internet. The ICCMP Web site needs to be further developed and maintained constantly. Northern Illinois University will contribute the computer space, technical support, necessary hardware and software, and the ICCMP will pay $3,500 toward the overall expenses of Web site design and development.

Telecommunications: The $550 requested for telecommunications reflects a portion of the monthly maintenance cost for data line and telephone (modem) charges for the Consortium Director. This will support the work of the director from a home office. All other home office costs will be borne by the director (fax line and calls, utilities, capital equipment and office supplies, etc.).

Travel. The ICCMP must support the travel expenses of the Consortium Director .The Coordinating Committee meets approximately six times per year at different locations throughout the state in meetings convened by the director. In addition, the Consortium Director attends all ICCMP-sponsored workshops and events. The presiding chair and the Consortium Director also attend at least one yearly meeting of the International Consortium of Library Consortia (ICOLC). All other travel expenses are borne by member institutions and individual librarians.

Printing. In FY01 the ICCMP will need to redesign and/or reprint various brochures and documents. $500 requested.

Audit. This $1500 expense covers the audit required by the Illinois Board of Higher Education on the administration of the grant program.

Meetings: The ICCMP plans on offering a Fall Bibliographers' Meeting, a Winter Summit Meeting of Library Directors, and a Spring Workshop. In addition, small group meetings will be held and other subject-based groups monthly for the collection partnerships. Registration fees are sometimes charged to help defray costs. The sum of $8,000 is requested.

The ICCMP does not currently receive any outside funding.

The ICCMP has been in continuous existence since 1984. Each year that HECA funding has been approved, the consortium has met all reporting and audit demands of the IBHE. The final report presented to the IBHE each year includes copies of the individual partner reports submitted to the consortium by funded member libraries. Our record of accomplishment may be traced through these reports as well as all of the internal documents accessible through our official web site. The site includes minutes of coordinating committee meetings, internal governance documents, membership lists, committee lists, lists of projects funded over the years and much more.

The ideological, fiscal, and programmatic commitment from member institutions remains very strong. Continuation funding plans are being articulated both at the overall program level and at the specific project level. At the program level, librarians affiliated with member institutions contribute much of the expertise and labor required for ICCMP projects and activities. Many of the administrative costs are borne by the host institution. The coordinating committee of the consortium (CCMCC) is currently developing a membership fee algorithm to present to member institutions for comments and suggestions.

At the specific project level, the CCMCC never undertakes a project without first addressing the continuation funding needs of the project. For example, the collections partnerships, which involve an ongoing commitment by participating member institutions, are funded centrally at 100 percent during the first year, at 50 percent centrally during year two, then the participating member institutions bear the cost for year three and beyond.

For seed and start-up projects, the ICCMP typically funds only the first year. Consortial pricing for Project Muse (a Web site containing the full text of journals published by Johns Hopkins University Press) is an example of a successful start-up project that received grant funding for year one, followed by complete financial support from participating member institutions. Project Muse is entering its fifth subscription year as a ICCMP consortial pricing project.

A third type of ICCMP project never involves centralized funding from grant money. This type of project attempts to reap the benefits of consortial collaboration and negotiation without any centralized funding.

The Illinois Cooperative Collection Management Program is enjoying a year of expansion, productive activity and self-assessment. In it's ongoing effort to better serve the needs of the academic library users in the state of Illinois, the ICCMP has partnered with other state library agencies, convened important statewide meetings of library leaders, negotiated very favorable license agreements with vendors of electronic databases on behalf of its membership and supported the strategic development of the state's metacollections.

1. Membership

The membership of the ICCMP continues to grow. We now stand at eighty-seven member institutions. Among the new libraries that have joined this year are:

1. McKendree College Helen Gilbert, Director
2. Principia College Daphne Selbert, Director
3. Keller School of Management Rick Bean, Director
4. Lake Forest College John Brandt, Director
5. Harold Washington College William Locke, Director
6. Harper College Valerie Harley, Director
7. Lincoln Trail Community College Juanita Martin, Director
8. Robert Morris College Sue Dutler, Director
9. Parkland College Ana Maria Watkin, Director

Please see the full list of member libraries in the attachments or visit:

http://libws66.lib.niu.edu/ccm/ccmlibr.html for a list of members with hot links to their institutions' web sites.

While the coordinating committee of the consortium is pleased with our expanding membership, we are very aware of the consequent responsibility to facilitate the active involvement of as many members as possible each year. Our goals for the coming year include an explicit focus on this challenge. We would like to see every member library regardless of its size or location within the state Illinois, participate in as many ICCMP activities and opportunities as possible. We have already begun to see many of the smaller libraries become involved in Collection Partnership proposals and register for our conferences and workshops.

1. Meetings

Two of the goals of the consortium are that of communication among our membership and continuing education. The ICCMP strives to create opportunities for librarians and library leaders to come together in a structured environment for the purpose of collaboration and cooperation. This year we have sponsored and coordinated two major meetings:

1. The Bibliographers' Meeting hosted by Northern Illinois University in DeKalb on November 18-19, 1999 brought together approximately 70 participants. Meeting attendees ranged from rank and file librarians with subject selection responsibilities to library directors. The keynote speaker for the conference was Anthony Ferguson, Associate Director for Collections at Columbia University in New York. Mr. Ferguson's presentation was entitled, "Life Beyond E-Resources: The Future of Cooperative Collection Management". This two-day conference also offered a panel session on writing successful grant proposals and another that presented a historical overview of the consortium and its activities. As the consortium continues to expand and as librarian positions within our member institutions turn over, bringing in new members, it is important that we educate them as to our history and our enduring purpose.

The conference schedule offered several opportunities for bibliographers to break into small, self-selected groups to brainstorm ideas for future collaboration. It also included moderated discussions on the future direction of the consortium. Much useful and important feedback was culled from these sessions. It was a highly successful conference.

2. The Summit Meeting of Library Directors, hosted by the Newberry Library in Chicago on December 9, 1999 was attended by over 50 participants. Adrian Alexander, Executive Director of the Big Twelve Plus consortium joined us as keynote speaker. Mr. Alexander's presentation was entitled, "Fear and Loathing in the Land of Oz: Consortia and Cooperative Collection Development in the Brave New World." Arthur Young, Dean of Libraries at Northern Illinois University, gave an informative report from the Illinois State Library, Network Advisory Committee. Sue Stroyan, Library Director at Illinois Wesleyan University, led a very active discussion of the whole group on the future of the ICCMP. Once again, we had created an opportunity for the membership to speak to us directly on their hopes and concerns for the consortium and to engage in an open exchange of ideas. Three major themes defined the discussion:

1. Alphabet Soup in Illinois

Many of the directors made reference to the existence of so many library groups in the state of Illinois. Some participants expressed dismay at the proliferation of these groups. As the conversation progressed, though, others expressed the opinion that the existence of these groups was "healthy" and that it reflected well on library cooperation in the state. They felt confident that the truly redundant and inactive groups eventually disappeared leaving only those with unique missions and active membership. There were many calls for an authoritative document of some sort that would clearly outline each of the groups, their missions, their organizational structure, etc. Some called for a statewide steering committee of the directors of these groups. Although the moderator raised the possibility of merging the ICCMP into another existing structure, the group rejected that option. The library directors voiced strong support for the ICCMP and its mission. Participants spoke of the consortium's unique purpose and its valuable history.

2. E-Resources

3) A Spring Workshop is scheduled for May 15, 2000 at Loyola University's Water Tower Campus. Three presentations are planned for this continuing education opportunity. Dr. Gary Brown, Director of Library Services in Latin America for Blackwell's Book Service, will be speaking on, "E-Books: Present Realities and Future Challenges". Diane Perushek, Assistant University Librarian for Collection Management at Northwestern University will be presenting on "Creative Funding for the New Millennium" and a team of library experts from Urbana (Tom Peters, Karen Schmidt, Lynn Wiley and Tina Chrzastowski) will be offering a panel presentation on "Approaches to Assessment". This presentation will touch on several important issues in collection assessment: tools and methodologies, evaluation of electronic resources, statewide interlibrary loan usage and periodical use studies. The members of the coordinating committee felt this workshop to be valuable enough to merit opening up registration to non-members of the consortium. The registration process is presently underway.

4) Congressional Information Services (CIS) Training Workshop - The ICCMP is currently planning yet another continuing education event for librarians in Illinois. Pam Rebarcak, Regional Library Representative for CIS, Lexis-Nexis, will be offering a one day workshop on June 16, 2000 featuring advanced training on several CIS products such as Academic Universe, Congressional Universe and Statistical Universe. Members of the consortium hold subscriptions to many of these databases. This training will assist them in providing better reference services and also in offering enhanced user training in the use of these information resources. The consortium director is coordinating this event with Barbara Alexander of the Illinois State Library in order to offer it as an interactive video teleconference. Five library systems offices across the state have agreed to allow the use of their VTEL facilities in order to bring this workshop to the widest possible audience. In addition to the Illinois State Library, the consortium director is working with the Alliance Library System, The Chicago Library System, the Lewis & Clark Library System and the Lincoln Trail Library System in the coordination of this event.

1. Statewide Cooperative Activities

It is of paramount importance to the ICCMP that the consortium work cooperatively with other groups within the state of Illinois as well as groups in other wider arenas. The cooperative nature of the workshop described above is an excellent example of how the consortium seeks out opportunities for these kinds of activities.

Another cooperative venture which has taken on great importance this year is that spearheaded by the Illinois State Library. The Illinois Electronic Resources Partnership (IERP) is an effort by the state library to create a clearinghouse for information about the various library systems, networks, consortiums, etc. that engage in license negotiations on behalf of their membership. The goal of this effort is to facilitate communication among these groups in order to minimize overlap. The clearinghouse will take the form of a web site that will eventually be accessible to the public as well as a listserv for the administrators of the groups involved. The ICCMP is an enthusiastic supporter of this project and has already participated in key constituencies meetings and in electronic surveys posted by the state library.

The consortium also supports the work of the IBHE/IACRL Liaison Committee. The current chair of the CCMCC attends meetings of this committee, convened by Dr. James Forstall, Associate Director of the IBHE. When the chair cannot attend, the consortium director attends in their place. A report of consortium activities is always offered at these events. These are invaluable opportunities to share and gather information with others in the state's academic library community.

As the Illinois Digital Academic Library (IDAL) continues to establish itself by planning its future governance structure as well as its programmatic development, the ICCMP has been an enthusiastic supporter. Both consortium director, Maria Otero-Boisvert, and Art Young, the ICCMP's HECA Project Director have attended and participated in planning meetings convened by IDAL. Through our participation in this process, the consortium has become even more certain of the value of its own contributions to academic libraries in Illinois. Despite its far-reaching goals with respect to e-resources, IDAL will never be able to meet all of the electronic resource needs of all of the academic libraries in the state. There will continue to be a need for a partner consortium, which will assist academic libraries by negotiating favorable license agreements for specialized databases at discounted prices.

At the national and international level, the ICCMP is always represented at meetings of the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC). Both the consortium director and the presiding chair of the CCMCC attend the annual meetings of this influential group. The ICOLC has become an important market factor for many publishers and aggregators as it sets standards for licensing and statistical reporting and advises on pricing models. This year, ICOLC held a Fall meeting in the Chicago area and a Spring meeting in Orlando, Florida. These meetings are an important source of information on upcoming multi-consortial deals with electronic resource vendors. They also provide an opportunity to meet with vendors and hear their presentations.

The consortium also supports the work of its sister consortium, NILRC. Maria Otero-Boisvert communicates frequently with John Berry, executive director of NILRC and shares information concerning vendors and electronic resources. This year, the director attended the Vendor Fair sponsored by NILRC and the Illinois State Library at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn.

Additional information on statewide activities will be given in the following sections.

2. Projects

1. Core Values Taskforce - A taskforce of CCMCC members from Illinois State University, Northern Illinois University, National Louis University and University of Illinois has been convened to draft an updated set of goals and objectives for the consortium. This small taskforce will review existing consortium documents, gather and process input from the membership and create a new set of documents for the CCMCC's approval. The coordinating committee is planning a strategic planning retreat during this coming summer during which it will review these documents and plot the course of the consortium for the next three to five years.
2. Central Storage Facility Survey - The CCMCC convened a taskforce to investigate the need for a Last Copy Center to serve the academic libraries in the state of Illinois. Karen Schmidt of UIUC, who chairs the taskforce, was charged with creating and distributing a survey to all academic libraries in order to gauge the need for a central storage facility to house last copies of volumes weeded from local collections. The taskforce will also consider the need for cooperative arrangements between libraries to house the last copies in a particular discipline. The survey has been distributed and responses collected. The information is yet to be analyzed. A preliminary report on findings will be presented to the IBHE/IACRL Liaison Committee in late April.

1. Databases

The ICCMP has been very active this year in negotiating favorable licenses to many electronic resources on behalf of its member libraries. Consortial cost savings come in many forms. Vendors appreciate the ease of having one designated contact for a large group of libraries. They also appreciate the convenience of sending one invoice to a consortium office and receiving one payment for many subscriptions. For this they are often willing to negotiate either a flat discount rate or offer a pricing model which results in cost savings to participants. One example of such a model is the establishment of a "minimum participation threshold" which either results in free subscriptions or reduced rates. For example, if the consortium signs up 10 libraries at full price, the vendor will provide 10 free subscriptions. The consortium is then free to reallocate the cost of the ten paid subscriptions across 20 libraries thereby lowering the cost for all involved. Sometimes the vendor is willing to acknowledge the different types of libraries in our consortium by offering a pricing model that lowers the price for community and smaller liberal arts colleges. Consortiums, in general, represent the largest segment of the academic market for all electronic resource vendors. This gives our membership a distinct advantage.

The ICCMP negotiates these deals, coordinates the subscription process and then serves as a central billing agency for all subscribers. The billing and payment process involves the management of well over one million dollars each year.

Some of the databases for which we have negotiated either new subscriptions or renewals this past year are:

1. Encyclopedia Britannica
2. American Chemical Society
3. Blackwell Science / Munksgaard
4. Congressional Universe (CIS)
5. New Groves Dictionary of Music - In process.
6. Academic Universe, Statistical Universe, History Universe, State Capital Universe, Paratext Pooles (SOLINET)
7. GaleNet
8. Historical Abstracts, America: History and Life and Art Bibliographies Modern (ABC-CLIO)
9. STAT-USA
10. Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University Press)
11. IDEAL (Academic Press)
12. MathSciNet (American Mathematical Society)

1. Website and Listserv

In our ongoing efforts to facilitate communication within our organization, the ICCMP maintains an informative website. The consortium director is responsible for the content of the site. She is assisted with the design and html programming by members of the systems office staff at Founders Memorial Library. Several valuable changes and additions have been made to the site this year. A list of all subject bibliographer and selectors in the state has been compiled for all member libraries and posted on the website. This list will be reviewed and updated periodically. The intended use of the list is as a referral document for librarians needing to consult a colleague. The site also now carries links to other web sites developed as components of ICCMP funded projects or collection partnerships. The School Reform Resource Locator and the Pet Database are two examples. Further design changes and upgrades are planned for later this year.

The ILCCM-L listserv is moderated by the consortium director and resides on a server at Northern Illinois University. The list boasts approximately one hundred subscribers. It has been very active this year and functions very well as a tool for communication.

2. Collection Partnerships FY 2000

A total of five collection partnerships were funded in this fiscal year. Allocations totaling $180,000.00 were distributed to the individual institutions participating in each partnership. In order to receive the funding, the library directors of each partner was asked to sign a "Commitment of Responsibility" form which stipulates the terms of the grants. Each partner will submit a report indicating resources selected and purchased and the selection method used by the bibliographers. Those reports are due in by the end of this fiscal year.

Independent Films by Women
Columbia College, Chicago	Kimberly Hale	$9,900.00
DePaul University	Susan Clarke	$9,900.00
University of Illinois, Urbana	Martha Zarate	$9,900.00
Travel & Web Development	Held at NIU	$1,800.00
Total Distributions		$31,500.00

Business
Augustana College	Allison Pirri	$2,250.00
College of DuPage	Judy Wagner	$2,250.00
Columbia College	Kimberly Hale	$2,250.00
DePaul University	Shannon Asaria	$2,250.00
Eastern Illinois University	Carl Lorber	$2,250.00
Illinois State University	Katherine Weir	$2,250.00
Loyola University	Yolande Wersching	$2,250.00
National-Louis University	Kathleen Walsh	$2,250.00
Northeastern Illinois Univ.	Mary Jane Hilburger	$2,250.00
Southern Illinois Univ., Edwardsville	Paul Anthony	$2,250.00
University of Illinois Chicago	Joan Fiscella	$2,250.00
University of Illinois Springfield	Jan Peach	$2,250.00
University of Illinois, Urbana	Elizabeth Claradge	$9,750.00
Meeting Expense	Held at NIU	$750.00
Total Distributions		$37,500.00

Administration of Justice
Danville Area Community College	Sally Duchow	$2,000.00
Moraine Valley Community College	Nancy Hessler	$3,000.00
Southern Illinois University,Carbondale	Darrell L. Jenkins	$5,000.00
Western Illinois University	Carol Covey	$5,000.00
Total Distributions		$15,000.00

Environmental Studies
Illinois Natural History
Survey Library	Beth Wohlegemuth	$8,300.00
Loyola University Chicago	Daniel Blewett	$8,300.00
Illinois Institute of Technology	Charles Wenger	$21,000.00
University of Illinois, Chicago	Deborah Blecic	$8,305.00
DePaul University	Marilyn Browning	$2,000.00
University of Illinois, Springfield	Linda Kopecky	$8,625.00
University of Illinois, Urbana	Priscilla Yu	$4,150.00
University of Illinois, Urbana	Mary Beth Allen	$3,000.00
Eastern Illinois University	Johnson Kuma	$6,000.00
Eastern Illinois University	Carl Lorber	$2,000.00
Eastern Illinois University	Virginia Baldwin	$3,320.00
Total Distribution		$75,000.00

 

3. Collection Partnerships FY 2001

The call for proposals for next year's grant competition was issued this past Fall. The consortium was very pleased to receive twelve proposals representing a broad spectrum of member libraries as well as a variety of important subject areas. The review process involved not only the members of the CCMCC but also that of six volunteer library directors who read and graded each proposal. Eastern Illinois University tallied the results and produced a report on the findings. The coordinating committee met in early April to review the proposals and select those that will be funded pending the outcome of our grant proposal to the IBHE. Below is a list of all proposals received. Those in bold face were selected by the committee. The consortium director has been asked to meet with the partners involved in the unsuccessful proposals in order to provide them with feedback on how to improve their proposals for future resubmission.