Minutes of VIVA Outreach Committee, September 10, 1999

Present: All members of the Committee, including Ralph Alberico (chair), Jack Bales, Patricia Butler, Sharon Goad, Patricia Hardesty, and Berna Heyman.

After members introduced themselves, Ralph briefly went over logistical issues of this first meeting of the Committee. He noted that VIVA reimburses all committee members for tolls and parking, and it pays twenty-seven cents a mile for travel expenses. Travel expense reimbursement vouchers are sent to Kathy Perry at George Mason University.

Ralph noted that our Committee's meetings must be synchronized with the sessions of the VIVA Steering Committee as he needs to relate our proposals and suggestions to it in a timely fashion. We all agreed that the frequency of our meetings should be determined by how much is on our agenda. Minutes will be taken on a rotating basis among Committee members.

We reviewed the mission of the Committee, as posted on the VIVA Web page, and observed that the charge of "draft[ing] annual funding proposals for VIVA's continuing legislative support" does not appear to fall in our area. At one point the Steering Committee thought that the Outreach Committee would handle a long-term assessment project, which would involve hiring an external consultant to review the VIVA program. This project was dropped from our agenda, and we all agreed that this was a task more for the Steering Committee than for us. We agreed that Ralph should relate to the Steering Committee that we have concerns about some of these charges and responsibilities. Ralph noted that although the VIVA Project Director is ostensibly the Secretary of the Outreach Committee, it is impractical for Kathy Perry to attend each meeting and this should be changed.

Our principal responsibility, we agreed, centers on public relations: documenting VIVA's successes, writing and distributing press releases on new VIVA databases, reviewing and updating such VIVA publications as brochures and bookmarks, discussing publicity campaigns that may aid in lobbying efforts, and identifying and making available to faculty and to the library community sources that make VIVA resources particularly (database documentation, tutorials, and helpful tips). These can be multimedia in nature and need not be limited to the Web. This Committee could even be a clearinghouse to report on what other institutions are doing.

The Committee discussed several ideas for projects, such as methods of helping users identify the growing number of full-text journals; "streaming videos" on how to search databases; and press packages of posters, Web sites, and print material. Projects that we thought merited our attention include:

• A complete make over of "VIVA in Action." Not only is it a somewhat vague and a "not at all compelling" feature of the VIVA page, but it is buried deep in the VIVA document with few people likely to find it. Moreover, it is difficult to get faculty's involvement with this project.
• A redesign of the VIVA brochure. The current one is not only out of date, but it looks bland and dull.
• The writing of timely press releases publicizing new VIVA databases.
• An updating and reorganization of the VIVA Outreach Committee page.

4. VIVA in Action

Much discussion centered on updating VIVA in Action. Instead of focusing on faculty who use VIVA, we could once a month highlight a VIVA database, outlining its capabilities and potential uses and relating any success stories. A starburst or some other fast-loading graphic could be prominently placed on each VIVA library's home page (its location would be up to each library) with a link to a stable URL. Although the content of each page would change from month to month, past material could be easily archived and usage statistics could be tracked by a link from this page to the database site. Outreach Committee members would be responsible for the monthly content, and Jack Bales volunteered to edit the page. The name, "VIVA in Action," is not at all descriptive, and possible substitutes that we came up with include "VIVA Today," "VIVA--Make it Happen for You," "VIVA--Make it Happen," and "VIVA--Make it Work."

The VIVA Steering Committee wanted us to update VIVA publications, and Ralph passed around such VIVA documents as the bookmark and brochure for our comments. Much conversation focused on the brochure. Before we can redesign this we have to decide for whom it is intended: Librarians? Faculty? Students? The current brochure listed then-current databases, but if it is for libraries, then perhaps this information should be left off, as some of the private schools do not subscribe to all of the databases. Patricia Butler thought that that information could be printed in an insert. Patricia Hardesty noted that a list of VIVA libraries should be included. We made the following decisions about the brochure:

• The brochure's main audience is administrators and legislators.
• VIVA's mission statement should be on the brochure.
• The brochure should include a member list of VIVA libraries, an insert of VIVA databases, and a "contact person" space for the name of each individual library (not Kathy Perry's name like on the current brochure).
• The brochure's text is too dense and the document itself needs more "pizzazz."

Ralph distributed press releases on new VIVA databases prepared by committee members.

These include Columbia International Affairs Online (Jack), HarpWeek (Patricia Hardesty), and Ovid (Ralph). We made the following decisions about press releases:

• These should not be sent indiscriminately to newspapers, as some colleges who do not subscribe to the databases may receive the press releases. Thus, some sort of distribution list needs to be created.
• Press releases can be placed on the Outreach Committee's home page, and applicable announcements can be posted to the VIVA listserv.
• Each press release should end with a "blurb" about VIVA, such as the one taken word-for-word from the VIVA home page that appears on the newly written CIAO press release.

Patricia Hardesty wondered whether we could post on the VIVA page database contact names, addresses (snail and electronic), listservs, and related information for persons interested in additional information about these databases. College tutorials would be of interest, but as a matter of courtesy, permission should be secured before adding links.

While our discussion focused on press releases and the VIVA brochure, we also briefly touched upon the possibility of using pens, mousepads, and other items as promotional material.

Several Committee members noticed that our VIVA page, which still lists the Committee as "User Services," needs to be updated. We need to put it on our of our own Web servers, such as James Madison's or William and Mary's, and one of the Committee's charges would be that a member act as Webmaster. This page would list database information and contacts, tutorials and links, press releases, and committee members (at the end).

We decided that Charlottesville is a good central place for meetings and selected October 20 as the date of the next meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Jack Bales

Secretary