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The SUNY Borrowing Task Force held a one day pre-conference on June 11, in conjunction with the 2008 SUNYLA Conference at SUNY Potsdam. The purpose of the pre-conference was to review the Task Force's recommendations to date. In summary, those recommendations include:

• use of ILLiad and LAND;
• 72 hour turnaround time for traditional materials; 48 hours for electronic;
• minimum loan period of 28 days;
• one renewal for 28 days;
• SUNYConnect libraries are encouraged to loan materials in various formats;
• SUNY-based support via Nylink;

Please see the Task Force report for more complete details and a comprehensive list of recommendations.

Currently, over 90% of SUNY libraries are utilizing ILLiad. This includes 29 libraries that have taken advantage of discounted pricing as a result of the SUNY Borrowing initiative.

In addition the Task Force sought input for two items that still need to be reported to SAC:

• ongoing support / professional development
• rewards / incentives for resource sharing

The Task Force’s utilized the pre-conference to test two assumptions:

• There is existing support infrastructure for resource sharing within the state and that these structures should be utilized more fully;
  
• Building a diversified and expanded SUNY collection is an appropriate incentive for resource sharing.

The Task Force specifically targeted resource sharing librarians, acquisitions librarians and collections librarians for participation. Julia Gammon, from Akron University and Sherry Buchanan from Portland State University were recruited to present to the participants on their activities in cooperative collection development and purchase on demand.

The pre-conference was designed to allow for significant time for discussion and interactive exchange of ideas. Participants were actively engaged and contributed many interesting ideas and perspectives. From the Task Force perspective, the major themes coming out of the pre-conference were:

• There were no concerns voiced about the recommendations to date, or where we currently are, however, the audience might not have included enough current implementers of Illiad. The Task Force will need to poll them to get more information on future support needs;
  
• There was an understanding that support for the SUNY Borrowing initiative should not be centralized;
  
• There was consensus among participants that trying to enrich and diversify the SUNY collection was an appropriate reward mechanism for resource sharing;
  
• In order to make this happen library leaders / librarians will need to think differently;
  
• Collections and resource sharing people are working on the same things but are using different language, e.g. Purchase on Demand vs. Just in Time Purchasing;
  
• There was concern that this level of change needs to be inclusive of all appropriate parts of the library, i.e. resource sharing, collection development and acquisitions. Doing it within one area without bringing in the others will be ineffective;
  
• We can not wait for every library to be on board, it only takes two to collaborate;
  
• Discussion needs to be reframed to a future focus due to library services being in migration and need to start thinking about developing a plan for this migration that will allow us to grow and diversify the SUNY collection in that context.

SUNY Borrowing Task Force is comprised of Community College Representatives, Amy Hillick (Orange) and David Moore (Schenectady); Comprehensive College Representatives, Nancy Alzo (Potsdam) and Michelle Parry (Oswego); College of Technology Representative, Gregg Kiehl (Cobleskill); University Center Representatives, Carol Clemente (Binghamton) and Karen Senglaup (Buffalo); Other Doctoral Representative, Juanetta LeGree (Downstate Medical); Nylink Consultant, Jon Penn; and OLIS Representative, Carey Hatch (ex officio).

The discussion continues on http://sunyborrowing.ning.com/. The SUNY Borrowing Task Force will be submitting its final report to the Advisory Council soon. Thanks to organizers, presenters and participants of "We're All in this Together: Building, Sharing and Delivering the SUNY Collection."