We have loaded bibliographic records for 24 PASCAL members, and are poised to add two more within a few weeks. The next task is to actually launch delivery services.

Following up on decisions made at the PASCAL board retreat at Furman University (July 23 – 25), we will have an official public launch of the program in January 2007. This launch will include at least 17 institutions. This launch will be followed by a process that will load bibliographic records and initialize the borrowing process for additional libraries over the next months.

Initially, we will begin with a full dress rehearsal of the system – a “soft launch” --along these lines:

Pascal staff, Clemson, and the University of South Carolina Columbia and Winthrop University have developed a beta test strategy which will commence on August 7, 2006. The College of Charleston has also been invited to join the beta test at their convenience (a key member of their implementation team is out of the country).

USC Columbia, Clemson and the CofC are the largest institutions and have been working with us to develop the bibliographic database profile and load procedures. Winthrop is the oldest Innovative institution in the state, and has produced a training workflow which can serve as a model for other institutions.

The beta test will run for two weeks without a physical delivery component; i.e., institutions will place requests and circulate books without actually sending physical books.

On August 21, our delivery contractor, R.R. Donnelley will begin book delivery for the beta-sites. We have worked with Donnelley to develop the "Pascal Delivers Facility Contacts" spreadsheet; this document will assemble member-data such as facility pickup location and inclement-weather contacts. This document will be distributed and explained by the Delivery subcommittee; member-institutions will be asked to provide this information over the coming months, as a part of their preparation for incorporation into the system. The information in the "Pascal Delivers Facility Contacts" file will be made accessible via our staff-access (password-protected) web site and will function as our primary contact list for staff associated with the PASCAL delivers initiative.

The institutions that should be ready for the formal launch of PASCAL Delivers in January will include the original remaining pilot libraries (Coastal Carolina, Midlands Technical College and Trident Technical College), the USC senior and regional campus libraries, The Citadel, Horry-Georgetown Technical College and Greenville Technical College. These institutions will be incorporated into the soft launch through the Fall 2006 semester. There may be some additions or subtractions to this group, depending on what we learn in the beta test and the progress of the “soft launch,” but we will definitely have sufficient “critical mass” in place to make the formal launch in January.

In the next several weeks, we'll also begin to develop schedule for the next phase of loading and training for remaining PASCAL libraries. We’ll be communicating information about that process shortly.

During the first week in September, we will issue a news bulletin that will describe the project's progress and outline next steps for implementation and training. We would like to thank our colleagues at the institutions that have worked with us through the original beta test, the start up of bibliographic loads, initial training and delivery system planning.

We have an excellent team in place for the launch. Victor Jenkinson and Alis Whitt from the PASCAL staff, the librarians serving on our various UB subcommittees chaired by Marna Hostetler (USC), and now the implementation teams at work at our pilot institutions are bringing PASCAL Delivers to life!

Rick Moul
PASCAL Executive Director
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