Collections Committee -- Minutes
November 13, 1998 -- 10:00 AM
Alderman Library, University of Virginia
Present: Gene Damon (chair), Doris Archer, Jim Deffenbaugh, Sharon Gasser, Karen Hartman, Paul Metz, Pamela Morgan, Chris Millson-Martula, Jim Self, Ruth Stanton, John Tombarge, John Walsh, Janice Wade.
Also attending: Kathy Perry
Announcements and Changes to the Agenda:
Gene announced that several changes and additions were received prior to the meeting and a revised agenda posted to the WEB.
Corrections to the Minutes:
The date was corrected to September 18.
The portion of the Academic Press subscription paid by the individual institutions was reversed from 35% to 65%.
The Project Muse invoice has been received, not renewed, and has been sent to the Steering Committee for approval.
John Walsh reminded the Committee that the CC minutes should be posted on the VIVA listserv.
Budget Report: Kathy Perry
Since the last meeting, there have been no changes to the budget, which remains with an uncommitted balance of approximately $338,000, including the ACM payment. All schools have been able to come up with the portion of VIVA operating funds which were reallocated to the central budget. Kathy will check that this amount has been posted to VIVA’s account at JMU. Up for renewal are Encyclopaedia Britannica (January 31, 1999) and Stat USA (April, 1999).
The Steering Committee has approved all recommendations for renewals to date, including Academic Press.
The Steering Committee concurred with the suggestion of the CC that the CC should begin looking at alternatives to the First Search collection of databases with the possible objective of posting an RFP.
It was reported that the Steering Committee accepted the recommendation of the Technical Issues Committee not to accept OCLC’s proposal for a dedicated TCP/IP link. OCLC's current pricing structure for telecommunications does not currently include consortial pricing. It was noted that the pilot TCP/IP connection with OCLC will be discontinued after November 16 since the price represents no savings over prices charged to the individual consortium members.
Database Survey: Sharon Gasser and Jim Deffenbaugh
All VIVA institutions with the exception of the community colleges were surveyed for local database subscriptions. Number of local subscriptions, number of multi-user licenses, providers and whether available on First Search were tallied. After weighting the results, the top five priorities for purchase which emerged are: America History and Life, Historical Abstracts, Web of Science, Biosis and Psych Info. It was concluded that there is need for the CC to evaluate additional resources for purchase in the humanities and social sciences; and that for some highly rated but very expensive resources, a consortial approach to acquisition may be the only way for individual institutions to obtain them.
The question was asked whether there is another collection of databases which can be compared to First Search. The results of the survey indicated that several of the basic files missing from or inadequately provided through FS are available through Ovid and Silverplatter. Sharon suggested collating database use on FS with the survey results on local purchasing in order to develop a model for joint funding; i.e., leverage the money spent on FS by adding local funds to better provide the databases which users want. It was noted that any RFP would need to go out by the end of February in order for the process to be completed by the July reorder deadline and that OCLC’s redesigned product is not due out until Spring. The members identified Psych Info, Sociological Abstracts, CINAHL, MLA and ERIC as a set of databases which should be in the basic file set. It was felt that BIOSIS belongs in the group but needs to be dealt with separately because of cost. Sharon and Jim will get cost data from the individual institutions by December 20 and Gene will inform the Steering Committee of CC plans at the December meeting.
LION (Chadwyk Healey):
The report was deferred until the next meeting. It was noted that the CC is interested in adding both the full text poetry and literature lists.
Institute of Physics: Paul Metz
The proposed price covers 1993 to the present, including the community colleges, with a maximum increase of 8% per year after that. While it appears that this allows for cancellation of paper and electronic subscriptions by individual institutions, it can be expected that the price would jump considerably in subsequent contracts. Several members expressed real concern that the IOP proposal would turn out to similar to that with Academic Press. Paul will double check on cancellation policy and additionally, will find out who would own the archived materials. Subject to clarification that the true price is as represented, the CC approved the purchase.
Sociological Abstracts: John Walsh
The CSA has made an offer for this database plus ERIC. John will verify that the privates can buy in at the usual rate.
CSA is also offering Linguistics and Language Behavioral Abstracts for the publics for unlimited access or a per institution option.
John will make a counter offer for all three databases and will forward the results for an email vote by December 3.
New Opportunities:
Accessible Archives Online Databases: John Walsh will investigate and report back to the CC.
Statistical Universe from CIS: Pam will call for a quote and arrange for a trial.
Books in Print: Kate Vincent will get the pricing for adding book reviews to our subscription on IAC.
Blackwell: There will be a new Synergy interface available at the end of the year. This collection currently consists of approximately 155 journals with 300 expected by the end of 1999. The mix of titles is American and British. The one-year pricing base has a flat fee plus a per site charge. The same per site charge would apply to the privates. Electronic pricing is based on 10% of print subscriptions, so we would need to know how many titles we have now. Title by title purchase is not available. Karen will pursue this further.
Standard and Poor Industry Surveys: John Tombarge reported on the results of the demo which ran through November 1. He stated that there is no discount offered by S&P for print subscriptions to Industry Surveys purchased as part of an S&P set. The CC recommended no purchase at this time and John will continue negotiating with the vendor.
Discussion included whether to turn Disclosure and Worldscope off on First Search since comparable information is available on Dow Jones. The CC was split on this, the final decision being to leave them on.
Wilson Biographies: This includes the full text of about 100 index volumes. Gene will pursue.
Survey of Buying Power: This marketing tool is very expensive if purchased by individual institutions and while it includes much content which is freely available on the Web, is valuable because it pulls it all together for the user. John Tombarge will investigate consortium pricing.
America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts: Current pricing quote linked to the CD’s. Electronic version includes back to 1954 for AH&L, somewhat less than complete backfile for HA. Vendor commits to maintenance of a complete archive, which can be accessed on a fee basis. Pam will negotiate a price for unlimited access.
Cost Savings and Value-Added Survey: Kathy Perry
The difficulty of getting schools to respond to the survey was noted. Only 60% of schools returned their forms this year. Discussion focused on improving the process and specifically on defining and calculating direct and indirect costs and savings. The group who will prepare the survey for 1997-98 and 98-99 will need to begin meeting in March. Kathy will send a note to the Collections contacts at each school to get this year’s cancellation data. The immense amount of work involved in undertaking these important surveys was discussed. Kathy suggested that other options such as hiring a consultant might be explored.
VIVA Selection Policy statement: Ruth Stanton
The CC responded to the proposed revision with several suggested changes. Chris and Ruth will incorporate these into a final draft to be posted on the VIVA web pages.
Other Business:
The search software bug in Academic Press, which prevented automatic clearance of a previous user’s search history, has been fixed.
Limitations on OCLC’s links to Academic Press holdings were discussed, as were the usage statistics for some databases which have been turned off at the public institutions.
The need for new members for the Science CCM was mentioned.
Next Meeting:
The next CC meeting is scheduled for January 8, 1999.
Meeting adjourned at 2:00PM.