Comment:

The ISRP believes the hiring of a professional librarian is a positive development. Ms. Wilkerson demonstrated a comprehensive knowledge of library resources during her presentation as well as during the follow-up Q&A with the ISRP.

The proponents need a multi-year plan as soon as possible, and the ISRP is looking forward to being able to comment on it.

1. Objectives, Significance to Regional Programs, and Technical Background

This proposal requests continued funding of a 23-year-old, regional project that stores, manages, organizes, and provides access to fish and wildlife literature on the Columbia River Basin and region. Such a library is vitally important for researchers and technicians, particularly for those not having access to the diverse informational resources provided by academic/university libraries.

A particularly useful aspect is the focus on grey literature (i.e., academic theses and dissertations, consultant reports, government documents, conference and meeting proceedings, working papers, and organizational development documents) which is rarely published and often not readily accessible to most users. The library is also an important regional resource providing ready access to a wide range of publications.

The project has a comprehensive set of five objectives. These are described in detail but are qualitative, with no projected completion dates, making tracking of implementation and effectiveness difficult. The ISRP strongly urges the proponents to develop quantitative, time-bound objectives as part of the multi-year plan.

2. Results and Adaptive Management

The ISRP was surprised to read that "The greatest stumbling blocks in the first three months has been the disorganization of the physical and virtual spaces. While there is a wealth of materials, the systems to receive and prioritize them remain somewhat of a mystery. The staff have been forced to reconstruct and reintegrate the current actions with past knowledge and systems." From the presentation to the ISRP, progress appears to have been made on this issue, though details on the strategy were not discussed. Could a steering committee be assembled to assist with these efforts moving forward?

The ISRP assumes that the proponents are aware that the need to store grey literature seems to be diminishing as many organizations now routinely publish such documents digitally. This was a general issue identified in the 2012 ISRP Review—the need for increased coordination to minimize duplication of efforts with other data and information management projects. The ISRP acknowledges that there has been an effort by the proponents to improve coordination, which should continue to ensure the library is prioritizing and making the best use of declining resources.

The project has generally met all work items and deliverables in a timely and competent manner. Nevertheless, as with many other data and information sharing projects, there is no adaptive management (AM) plan and the elements needed to support it. This was a qualification in the 2012 ISRP Review (ISRP 2012-6), "A greater project emphasis on scientific components, measurement of outcomes, and development of an adaptive management framework for designing, implementing, evaluating, and revising data management activities would help to resolve such issues and to identify scientific components of planned future growth." There is little evidence that this is being meaningfully addressed as the project moves forward.

Some recent progress on project evaluation and adaptation is underway. In 2018, the project began collecting and analyzing baseline metrics to examine how the Library collection is used. These metrics will drive future library services. Additionally, internal and external assessments by the library team have identified a number of needed changes and developed initial elements of an outreach strategy. The proposal notes, "The Library will embark on a robust User Assessment in 2019 and 2020 to better define user groups, field and research needs, technological and access concerns, and gather input on direct improvement." The ISRP looks forward to learning about the survey's outcomes and about the resulting changes to library operations.

However, with the development of a multi-year plan, the ISRP expects to see a formal AM process that is responsive to both internal and external issues.

3. Methods: Project Relationships, Work Types, and Deliverables

The library's professional staff appears to take pride in a well-run operation and to proactively search for ways to improve the scope and quality of services. Despite growing demands for expanded services, it appears that potential budget constraints may limit future operations, which would not be helpful to the Fish and Wildlife Program. The ISRP continues to urge researchers and managers to publish project results in the professional literature; having a vibrant library is central to this goal.

Finally, the ISRP supports the movement toward evaluating the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of moving the Library catalog into the Cloud. Cloud computing would allow a reduction in hardware and IT expertise necessary to "hold the collection details." Please keep the ISRP informed of progress as well as any issues that might arise.