The Michigan Research Libraries Triangle (MRTL)—a consortium of the U-M and Michigan State and Wayne State university libraries—has been awarded a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Title II-A program to link electronically their online catalogs and related files.
The $300,000 grant has been used to purchase licenses from NOTIS Systems, Inc. for the PACLink software, which is composed of two parts: a PACSearch module for searching the libraries’ online catalogs and an interlibrary loan module called PACLoan. A seamless interface will be established, allowing library users on each campus to search the library catalogs of the other participants. Once PACSearch is successfully implemented, the three libraries will install the PACLoan function to enable user-initiated borrowing among the three institutions.
“The combined resources of the three libraries will provide access to approximately 12 million volumes, some 122,000 journal titles, and the many electronic data bases held by the three university libraries,” according to University Library Dean Donald E. Riggs. “This will be the most significant resource-sharing endeavor in the history of these Michigan libraries.”
Virtually all materials in the participating libraries are bibliographically accessible through their online catalogs, thanks to a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The MRLT libraries also are adding bibliographic data bases for their users with the NOTIS Multiple Database Access System.
The MRLT libraries will mount a comprehensive program to instruct patrons in the use of PACLink and to promote the service across the three campuses as PACLink is brought into use.
