Military Librarians Workshop, 18-20 Nov 97, Dayton Marriott Hotel, Dayton, Ohio

• studied FEDLINK's cost allocation methodology to validate the Direct and Transfer Pay cost centers and adjust our cost allocation formulas accordingly;
• studied the costs vs. benefits to members of the major FEDLINK service categories-- serials, books, and database services;
• and developed the broad outlines of a multi-year FEDLINK Business Plan.

All these studies were conducted between November '96 and June '97 at the same time we were undergoing the annual financial audit--this time a full audit of FY96. This has been pretty exhausting for managers and staff, but we've learned a great deal and believe we know enough to make significant improvements in the FEDLINK Program for the future.

The immediate change that was introduced for FY98 was an increase in the Direct Pay fees. Abacus' studies revealed that more staff time was spent assisting Direct Pay members than had previously been calculated. For FY99, we and the FLICC Budget and Finance Working Group will be considering how we can complete the necessary adjustment between Direct and Transfer Pay revenue, possibly by decreasing certain categories of Transfer Pay fees, based on information gained from Abacus cost studies.

At the same time, staff have begun grassroots discussions on streamlining, as recommended in our Business Plan, and we are hoping to realize additional economies from those efforts that we want to translate into stable or decreased fees.

There are two other areas of focus from our Business Plan for which small group activity has begun:

• the establishment of consistent criteria for determining what new products and services FEDLINK takes on and what products and services FEDLINK continues to support.
• the development of measures to study procurement patterns of current FEDLINK customers in order to provide better service for the future.

• Improving customer service
• Raising LC's awareness and support of the FLICC/FEDLINK program.

Just as there has been a lot of constructive energy flowing within the FEDLINK staff this past year, we have also enjoyed a great deal of support and assistance from the membership governing bodies.

As Fred Rettenmaier, this year's Chair of the FEDLINK Advisory Council, can attest, the FAC has worked very hard on your behalf in 1997--in the first few months to help us focus and develop goals for the Business Plan, and during the past couple months, to put the final touches on a FEDLINK MISSION STATEMENT. The approved mission of FEDLINK is "to serve federal libraries and information centers as their purchasing, training and resource-sharing consortium." It seems rather simple and obvious (I hope), but any of you who have ever developed a one-sentence mission statement know how hard it is to clearly state the obvious!

One thing that this year has taught me is that there exists a great deal of confusion--even among our long-term members--about FLICC and FEDLINK, their relationship and their respective roles.

So, I want to take a bit of my time today to try to pass on to you my understanding of these two vital and complementary operations that I have had the privilege to direct for a full 3 years now.

FLICC--originally FLC, the Federal Library Committee, and now the Federal Library and Information Center Committee--came first, in 1965. It's purpose then, as now, was to improve federal libraries and information centers through: 1) promotion of service, 2) development of staff, and 3) coordination and sharing of available resources.

FLICC is comprised of representatives from each of the four national libraries--yes, there are now four since the National Library of Education was legislated in 1994--from each of the central libraries in the cabinet-level agencies, from the courts libraries, and from selected independent agency libraries and information centers. To this are added 24 elected rotating members. As a FEDLINK member, you directly elect 9 of these rotating members, who also serve as your FEDLINK Advisory Council. With the recent bylaws change, FEDLINK members also join the FLICC membership in voting for the remaining 15 rotating members. The total membership of FLICC is 55, but a lot more library and information center staff contribute to FLICC's purpose through their work on the various FLICC Working Groups. [See chart.]

FLICC initiated and staffed FEDLINK in the 1970s to serve as the federal libraries network for OCLC automated bibliographic and ILL services to promote resource sharing and efficiencies in federal libraries. Because FLICC staffing was limited to only two Library of Congress appropriated positions, all additional staff needed to run the network had to be paid for with FEDLINK fees. Once the centralized staff and member governing structure were in place, it was only natural to expand to other procurements, other training classes, other member support activities. Now the FEDLINK program has basic ordering agreements with nearly 100 vendors, including OCLC and the other bibliographic utilities, but also including database services, serials, books, document delivery, microforms, technical processing services and copyright licensing.

In FY97, FEDLINK members purchased over $127 million worth of products and services through FEDLINK BOAs. Abacus' analyses indicate that using FEDLINK saved members over $9 million in cost avoidance and millions more in vendor discounts.

CHART: The FEDLINK fees support a staff of about 50 librarians, accounting technicians, accountants, editors, computer specialists and managers at our office; plus 9 in a separate FEDLINK procurement unit; 4 in central financial services, and one attorney. (CHART indicates only the staff in our offices.) This staff, headed by me, is answerable to FLICC, to the FLICC Executive Board and to the FAC for operation of the FEDLINK program. Although FEDLINK is big enough to survive on its own, its identity as a major program of FLICC helps keep the program focused on the welfare of federal libraries and the goal of serving them effectively. It also allows for a critical mass of library specialists, who, when they aren't writing FEDLINK RFPs or training OCLC users, can provide expert consultation for member libraries, can support the FLICC working groups, and can plan high quality educational programs. Recently we have also been able to negotiate with LC for the time of some of their expert cataloging trainers to provide instruction for federal cataloging librarians.

During FY97, FLICC staff supported 50 working group meetings, 31 seminars for 1400 participants, and 113 OCLC and Internet training classes for 820 students, many of the latter on-site at Air Force libraries. For those of you who cannot come personally to our 31 educational events, our videotape ILL program through the National Library of Education is now in full gear. I'd be really interested in feedback from any of you who have borrowed these tapes and used them with staff. We will also be working with the Air Force to pilot the use of distance learning technologies to broadcast FEDLINK courses.

In FY98 we are anticipating notable improvements in the FEDLINK program as a result of our initiatives on

• streamlining
• customer service
• customer analysis, and
• systematic product/service selection.

A good way to keep up with our new vendors, and services, your representatives' names, program policy, etc., is to visit our new improved website at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/flicc.

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