Work is underway to build the new Access PA database!
To date, six libraries/systems have volunteered to contribute their holdings and populate the new union catalog: Penn State University, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Chester County Library System, Dauphin County Library System, Delaware County Library System, and Lackawanna County Library System. The Access PA program will greatly benefit from the initial contributions of these libraries! The 3 million bibliographic records from these libraries will serve as the master records as additional library collections are loaded.
2,500 library collections make up the Access PA database! Due to this large number of collections the complete conversion of Access PA will take several months and will be phased in over the course of 2015. By now you should have received the announcement confirming Access PA training across the state in April and May. The database will not contain all libraries’ holdings in time for training, but the number of records loaded will be sufficient to demonstrate all the new procedures for using the SHAREit ILL system. During April and May HSLC will also work to make documentation and online recordings focused on specific ILL tasks available in the For Librarians section of the POWER library portal.
Following the conclusion of spring training, Access PA 2.0 will move into Implementation Phase One. Phase One will cover June – August 2015 and will include:
- Invitations to public and academic libraries to export their holdings to the new union catalog
- Development, training and rollout of the Access PA standalone system for state correctional institutions
- Development and implementation of procedures for vendor adds (bibliographic records contributed by vendors on behalf of libraries subscribing to those records)
- Decommissioning the current INN-Reach Access PA systems
- Opening the SHAREit ILL system for interlibrary loan transactions
Implementation Phase Two will begin after Labor Day and will focus on the school library community. Since spring training will occur very close to the end of the school year, training will be repeated in the fall. Registration will be open to all librarians, but this will be an opportunity for school librarians to receive training they may have missed in the spring. Fall training will occur across Pennsylvania in late September and October, and will include both Access PA and POWER Library e-resource topics. We expect to announce the fall schedule by mid-June 2015.
Once we have concluded fall training, we will issue an invitation for school and special collection libraries to export their collections to the Access PA database for processing during the last quarter of 2015.
Please note we will take care to limit the number of ILL requests allowed in the new Access PA shared catalog until all libraries are represented. This will ensure none of the early contributors are overwhelmed with requests between August and the end of the year.
As you can see this will be a busy year! We thank you in advance for your patience as we work through this important implementation; we know you will be happy with the new system! As always please do not hesitate to email your questions, comments or suggestions to HSLC Support.
This project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, Governor. © 2015. Access PA is managed by HSLC.
