Resources for Users Committee -- Minutes January 28, 2005 -- 10:00 AM University of Virginia Gene Damon, Presiding Present: Gene Damon, Sherle Abramson, Sharon Gasser, Ibironke Lawal (for Karen Cary), Louveller Luster, Paul Metz (recorder), Ann Pettingill (for Pamela Morgan), Jane Penner, Sylvia Rortvedt, Jim Self, John Tombarge, Pat Van Zandt, John Walsh, and Kathy Perry, VIVA Director. 1. Announcements None 2. Changes to agenda None 3. Approval of Minutes of September 10 and October 13, 2004 meeting No changes --Minutes approved by consensus. 4. Budget -- K. Perry Kathy Perry distributed a new budget spreadsheet. Kathy and Gene identified the amount of money available for new purchases while reserving a portion for inflation on our current products. We have firm prices rather than estimates for most resources. The Steering Committee has given generous support for Ariel upgrades. We are guardedly optimistic about our place in the Governor's budget, increases to which might be adequate to support science journal purchase. There was discussion about the financial and political advantages that might accrue from institutional cost-sharing 5. Renewals Gale InfoTrac and MLA - J. Rettig's data No increase, due perhaps to our purchase of Literature Resource Center. Renewal was approved. LN Statistical - P. Morgan's data Publisher announced a 4% increase. Renewal was approved. Stat USA - S. Rortvedt Publisher announced a 3% increase for next year, but a shift in the cost algorithm towards FTE-basis that would both greatly increase our costs and remove any advantage to group purchase. Renewal was approved only through April 2006, it being noted that this will be the final renewal, absent better terms from the vendor, and that VIVA will instead research LN Power Tables. Encyclopedia Britannica - S. Rortvedt They have offered renewals at less than 3%/year for three years. Renewal for one year was approved. A study team of S. Rortvedt (chair), P. Metz, S. Abramson, and a librarian from a private institution will review our options for general encyclopedias, drawing on Jim Self's help for any online surveys. 6. Factiva - J. Tombarge ProQuest seems to have brought a more responsive brand of management to this product. We will be setting up sub-accounts allowing some customization of the interface by local institutions. John will test the possibilities with colleagues at GMU, JMU, and Richmond. When ready, we'll use the existing technical contacts as the default list of contacts for this, though they could name more appropriate local substitutes. The need for Factiva training was clear from the survey, so this will be pursued. There was general discussion of ways by which we could make libraries aware of changes in content, perhaps by making sure the linking services always have the most current list. 7. Training - P. Van Zandt The key resources needing training seem to be Literature Resource Center (together with the new Gale interface), CSA, and Factiva. We'll identify two sites for half-day training sessions in late April. Funds have already been set aside. P. Metz will do a brief review of the Bowker USAS findings at each. 8. RFP Committee - S. Gasser A roster and tentative time table for the RFP for Database Provider Committee 2005 was distributed. We are seeking a host for CINAHL, ERIC, and PsychINFO currently hosted by Ovid through July, as well as other potential databases. The tentative schedule calls for release of the RFP on March 1. There will be a trial. Several librarians not on the committee whose expertise would be helpful with database comparisons were identified. 9. OCLC Update - J. Walsh John Walsh reported that turnaways increased significantly during the fall, with 26.69% of WorldCat sessions denied in September. Our increase from 21 to 24 ports effective in February may solve the problem at least through spring, but we will continue to monitor. We are talking to OCLC about the possibility of allocating a fixed number of ports differentially across databases. One implication is that VIVA traffic to institutionally subscribed databases would no longer be a free good, and might be withdrawn by OCLC. Continued discussion with OCLC was encouraged in light of the overall potential benefit. PAIS will be moving from FirstSearch to CSA. We'll study the pricing and decide what to recommend. 10. Encyclopedia of Philosophy - G. Damon Stanford University has been seeking voluntary pledged support from institutions and consortia to underwrite continued free access to the Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It was moved and seconded that VIVA support this project at a level of $10,000 for this year and next year. The motion failed. 11. VIVA serials audit project - P. Metz Although we learned a great deal about our collective holdings from this project, it will be more efficient to load cleaner data this year and redo the analysis before basing significant action on the results. The existing subcommittee will commence plans for this year's load. Tasks include making sure that all institutions are aware of error reports and have cleaned up their data, loading, doing one more iteration to correct newly found errors, and redoing the analysis. Improvements on the Bowker end as well as in our data should ensure an easier path to improved results. 12. Nature archive - P. Van Zandt No action, still waiting for firm pricing. 13. ICOLC Meeting - K. Perry Consortial-level statistics from most vendors have been poor, so VIVA has been working on a beta test. ICOLC has essentially adopted data conventions suggested by K. Perry and J. Self. Topics for upcoming ICOLC discussions with vendors include American Psychological Association, Scopus, Google, and a new Bowker analysis program for monographs equivalent to USAS for serials. 14. Ongoing support from member institutions The central budget will not be sufficient to acquire all the valuable resources for which VIVA could achieve price discounts and economies of effort. Contributions from local institutions might solve this problem while making a providing strong testament to VIVA's value. Sharon Gasser, John Walsh, and Paul Metz will engage us in discussion of alternative approaches we might recommend to the Steering Committee. Issues include whether to pool funds, cost sharing algorithms, whether mandatory across the board or tied to new subscriptions that are elective for each institution, how to handle cost avoidance benefits to established customers for new VIVA purchases, and timing. 15. Other business It was determined that there is sufficient interest in eHRAF (electronic Human Relations Area Files) that this should be pursued. Next meeting March 18