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Code of Conduct

www.gratisnet.org.au/local/GratisNet_code_of_conduct.doc

Appendix A: Membership Form

Background to the Group

Gratis was formed on December 6, 1982, with 14 founding members. The immediate impetus to the formation of the group was the trebling of the cost of I.L.L. vouchers from $1 to $3. The founding members considered that the consolidation of scattered "knock-for-knock" agreements into an organised I.L.L. system was preferable to a costly national system. At the same time, it was realised that much useful material was held in hospital and small medical collections and was not included in national lists, and that this could be of great benefit in developing an alternative system. On March 22, 1983, the network's name of GRATIS was adopted. By December of 1983, the one-year old network had produced its first national union list and more than doubled in size.

The impact of the fledgling GRATIS on the library world was immediate. Inquiries from South Australian libraries lead rapidly to a formalisation of their own informal system, and the foundation in early 1984 of GRATISSA, the first sister network. By the middle of the year there was a South Australian Union List to offer, and a reciprocal agreement between the groups came into effect in November 1984.

The GRATIS concept spread so rapidly, that it soon became apparent that computerisation of the union list was needed. With the generous sponsorship of the University Co-operative Bookshop, this was undertaken during 1985 and the first (printed) edition of the Co-op list was launched at a gala opening at the Co-op on 2 May 1986. This was followed closely by a GRATISSA list launched on 9 July 1986 in the modest recesses of the Adelaide Hilton. Less than a week later on 14 July 1986 the Co-op found that the task was 22 members bigger as GRATISQ was born. By the end of 1987, GRATISACT and VICGRATIS had been added to the fold. By July 1988, the reciprocal traffic between the five networks was so active that it was necessary to rank the state networks as well as the members. A liaison position of Joint Networks Co-ordinator was also established.

By mid 1988 GRATIS found itself a busy network. The University Co-operative Bookshop extended its sponsorship by providing the network with a percentage of any book sales to members of the network. These developments meant that the future development of GRATIS was likely to be a far more formal thing, so a subcommittee embarked upon rewriting the GRATIS rules (which had grown on a friendly but ad-hoc basis) into a proper legal constitution which would allow, if desired, for legal incorporation. This difficult exercise was completed in early 1989.

 On 15 November 1989, at a joint networks meeting in Aukland, the combined networks adopted the name GRATISNET. At the 1991 GRATISNET meeting, the o position of Join Networks Co-ordinator was abolished in favour of a National Committee. This was first filled by GRATISSA, and GRATISQ took over the role in 1993. The new Committee's major task was to revitalise the union list so that a truly national list with all networks listed in the one list and forms of title and data entry standardised between them. By 1993 this mammoth task was accomplished and a combined national list was launched: the burgeoning national membership total had reached 271 libraries. In late 1993 the national Code of Conduct was adopted by the member networks. This led, in 1994, to GRATIS again revising its own constitution to bring it into line with the National Code.

1994 saw further new developments. A limited trial agreement with the Philson Library in Aukland realised the possibility that the GRATIS could extend to New Zealand. Earlier enquiries from South-west England in the late 1980's led to a GRATIS-type network being formed there. Pilot work on a computerised national list has meant that this will probably be available in the near future. GRATIS continues to evolve, and has become a major player in the Australian inter-library loan scene, and a valuable contributor to the National Distributed collocation.

In 1998 a collaborative project with the University Co-operative Bookshop was launched to implement this Website, bringing online interactive access to current journal holdings to all participating members. The sponsorship of The University Co-operative Bookshop enabled the establishment of an effective, online, network participating libraries from all parts of Australia using software developed by Prosentient Systems Pty Ltd.

In 2002 Prosentient Systems Pty Ltd assumed the hosting of the Gratisnet website.