RLG news

Walter,
Because preservation people have had a number of questions related to
RLG's restructuring, I am forwarding this condensed press release in
case you think it is appropriate to post.
Thanks,
Patti

FORWARDED MESSAGE 06/24/91 10:53 FROM BL.JLH "Jennifer Hartzell":
postable press release

CONDENSATION of an RLG press release.  (The complete release and a
background paper on "RLG92" are available via U.S. mail from Jennifer
Hartzell, 415-691-2207 or bl.jlh [at] rlg__bitnet.)

            RLG ANNOUNCES NEW ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE;
   CREATES COMMISSION TO EXPLORE LIBRARY PROCESSING IN THE 1990S

                  RLIN to Remain Fully Supported;
                 Negotiations with OCLC Terminated

June 24, 1991 -- Following the June meeting of the Research Libraries
Group's Board of Governors, RLG president James Michalko announced a
series of actions that inaugurate the corporation's transition into
"RLG92."

                         Restructuring RLG

     Effective September 1, 1991, RLG will have only two categories of
membership -- "general" and "special" -- open to not-for-profit
institutions with an educational, cultural, or scientific mission. All
current and prospective members are eligible for general membership;
smaller institutions can opt for special membership. All members will
have unrestricted access to the corporation's projects and cooperative
activities as their needs and interests dictate.

     This summer, all members will elect a new, 15-member Board of
Directors to take office on September 1.  RLG's standing program
committees will be disbanded on August 31, to give way to electronic
conferencing and small task forces addressing specific projects. The
corporation's business and collaborative activities will be conducted
through these means as well as quarterly board meetings, an annual
membership meeting, and central staff operations.

     The board also set annual membership dues for RLG92, effective
September 1, 1992, at $25,000 for general members and $3,000 for special
members.  With a balanced budget for the transitional year beginning on
September 1, 1991, RLG management expects to accomplish other changes
needed in fee and cost structure, plus new revenue sources, by the
beginning of the following fiscal year.

                       New commission formed

     In conjunction with this initial restructuring, Michalko has
created a special commission to consider how RLIN can be improved to
meet the current and future technical processing needs of RLG member
libraries.  "Part of transforming RLG into RLG92 requires restructuring
the way in which RLIN provides processing support," Michalko said.
"Universities and other research institutions have invested in local
information management systems and communication networks.  RLG will
develop RLIN to acknowledge and leverage these significant institutional
investments."

     The commission will report to Michalko at the end of September. RLG
program officer Linda West chairs the group, whose members include:
Emily G. Fayen, assistant director of libraries - systems, University of
Pennsylvania; Tia Gozzi, director of technical services, Stanford
University Libraries; Gerald R. Lowell, associate university librarian
for technical services, Yale University; Carol Mandel, director,
technical services group, Columbia University Libraries; Lucia Rather,
former director for cataloging, Library of Congress; and Jennifer A.
Younger, assistant director for technical services, Ohio State
University Libraries.  Working with the commission will be: Kathleen
Bales, RLG software development manager, Ed Glazier, RLG bibliographic
quality assurance officer, and Lennie Stovel, RLG intersystems
applications manager.

              Continued support for current RLIN uses

     As he made his other announcements, Michalko assured present RLIN
users that RLG will continue to maintain the system as a full, current
resource for processing, shared resources, preservation, and other
cooperative activities.  "In mapping out RLG's future course, we looked
hard at the real nature of RLIN features and the needs they meet,"
Michalko said.  "Two facts are quite clear: a resource like RLIN is
essential to the collaborative activities of RLG members, and RLIN can
provide needed support for bibliographic processing.  RLIN's present
functionality will be modified only as superior alternatives are found."

                RLG Board rejects OCLC proposals for
              linking systems and transfer of support

     For many months, RLG and OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) have
been discussing an intersystems link between the OCLC and RLIN
databases.  RLG's initial proposal was to implement a fully functioning
link in about a year.  The transparent connection RLG proposed would
have enabled users to refer searches done in their customary system
environment to a file in the other system, and to pay for this usage as
part of normal, single-system invoicing. RLG's Board of Governors voted
unanimously at their June meeting that the final features,
administration, and three-year development time table for the link
offered by OCLC would not serve the users of either system as desired
and would not be pursued further.

     Other negotiations to transfer RLG members' current cataloging
activity from RLIN to OCLC also fell short of early expectations, and
OCLC's offering was unanimously rejected.  "OCLC's declared inability to
accommodate the business of a group of RLIN-using libraries in less than
'two to three years' -- together with their unwillingness to commit to
the kind of intersystems link we needed to take this step -- left us
with nothing further to discuss," said Donald W. Koepp, university
librarian of Princeton and a member of the negotiating team representing
RLG's largest RLIN-using members.

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                   Conservation DistList Instance 5:7
                   Distributed: Sunday, June 30, 1991
                        Message Id: cdl-5-7-005
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