The Council of Fisheries and Oceans Librarians / Conseil des bibliothèques

de Pêches et Oceans :Twenty five years and still going strong

Gordon Miller – Head, Library Services & Scientific Archives, Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Nanaimo, BCPamela L. Olson – Librarian, Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Sidney, BCAnna Fiander – Chief, Library Services – Maritimes Region, Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, NS

COFOL – what is it?

• committee of Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) librarians

• manages the DFO national library network

DFO regions: Newfoundland and

Labrador, Maritimes, Gulf, Québec, National Capital, Central and Arctic, Pacific

National Capital

• 1979/80 Department of Fisheries and Oceans established

• no national support for coordinated library service

• DFO librarians wanted to establish computer based systems

COFOL - why was it established?

Library world – 1980• main frames • off-the-shelf integrated library

systems were rare• online access to bibliographic

databases available • dialup • library mediated

• hints of the future • Apple computer • OCLC expanding• MELVYL testing online access

COFOL – characteristics• promote discussion of matters of mutual concern• promote collective action• investigate and discuss new technologies• make recommendations about library service within

DFO• meet as least once a year• Chair is elected annually• decisions are made by consensus• cooperative activity – each library, each COFOL member

contributes as time and resources permit

WAVES – model of COFOL activities• financial resources for software and database

maintenance – provided by Ottawa library• WAVES database manager – provided by Ottawa

library• cataloguing standards, policies and procedures –

WAVES committee (librarians from 5 libraries)• cataloguing of core bibliographic record – first library

to acquire item• cooperative cataloguing agreements• copy records – all libraries• authority control – all libraries • thesaurus – 2 libraries

Other COFOL accomplishments

•digital archive•virtual library (ejournals)•collections•primary resource centre

COFOL challenges

• financial resources

• WAVES

• other information management activities

• organizational change

COFOL as model

• cooperation

• sharing

• consensus

• distributed participation

Thank you for your attention

Merci de votre attention

Gracias por su atención