Resources for Users Committee -- Minutes May 23 , 2003 -- 10:00 AM DRAFT Alderman Library, University of Virginia Gene Damon, Presiding Present: Gene Damon, Karen Cary, Jacque Dessino, Sharon Gasser, Pat Hausman, Louveller Luster, Paul Metz, Jane Penner, Jim Rettig, Sylvia Rortvedt, Jim Self, John Tombarge, John Walsh, and Kathy Perry, VIVA Director. 1. Announcements This is our first in-person meeting since November. 2. Approval of Minutes of February 28, 2003 meeting No changes --Minutes approved by consensus. 3. Changes/additions to agenda Kathy Perry described what appears to be a happy conclusion to a long discussion with Gale about the use statistics Gale has produced. Jim Self analyzed the statistics and discovered that "views" as reported were not reallytotal articles. Gale will soon announce a revised statistics package and make it available to all. The announcement will include a quote from Kathy Perry endorsing them for complying with ICOLC guidelines. The stats will go back to 2000-01. Stats will be reported by database. At present the new stats will cover InfoTrac only. 4. Budget -- K. Perry Kathy reviewed the budget and identified the balance remaining. She identified the products included and those excluded. She also made an estimate for FY2003-04. Kathy's projection for expenditures for collections is very close to the amount budgeted. This raises questions about whether or not VIVA will be able to sustain all of the products it currently offers. Jane reported that Muse has begun to look at its pricing policies and the way that they package their titles. Muse is also looking at its royalties structure and the way in which it accommodates print cancellations. The outlook for additional funding for VIVA is bleak in the short-term. 5. Nature proposal - P. Hausman The offer includes only Nature the journal, not the research and review journals. The group discussed the opportunity to add the research and review journals. Adding these may require a cost sharing deal among VIVA institutions. Pat will explore this further, and clarify the cancellations issue. Pat Hausman moved that VIVA subscribe to Nature online. The motion was approved. 6. MLA RFP - P. Metz Paul distributed a sheet listing the costs of responses to the RFP. Three responses were received. One eligible vendor choose not to respond to the RFP. Paul also described the ways in which we could conduct a trial of the two new MLA offerings (i.e., not OVID, to which we already have access) and gather VIVA users' responses. The instrument for gathering responses needs to include all three products. To assure timely responses Sharon recommended a three-week trial period. Sharon raised a question about adding usability testing by users as part of the evaluation process. Gene suggested that this be done locally at the initiative of each institution. Jim Self and Sharon will determine whether or not we can do usability testing and how to do it. When the trial and the response instrument are in place, an announcement will go out on the VIVA list. 7. Renewals - ACM - P. Hausman Pat says the quote is their final offer. Lack of statistics remains a problem. Increase for publics is 16% and for privates is 20%. If VIVA agrees to a three-year contract the lid on increases in years two and three would be 3.5%. That, however, is contingent on all nine of the privates that subscribe continuing to subscribe. It is not assured they would do so. Vote deferred until the privates commit and we know the number that will continue. Jim Rettig will poll those institutions. - Factiva - J. Tombarge Don't yet have a proposal. RUC approves renewal if increase is less than 5%. - LexisNexis Congressional - K. Perry for P. Morgan Increase is FTE-driven. Renewal approved. - Annual Reviews - K. Perry for P. Morgan Price fixed for two years. Renewal approved. - FirstSearch - J. Walsh John thinks the 18 ports are adequate. Per-search price remains the same. Proposal for renewal approved. - OVID renewal - S. Gasser Sharon reviewed prices quoted for renewal. Renewal of CINAHL approved. Renewal of PsychINFO approved. Renewal of LWW collection approved. Non-LWW nursing journals: The Committee voted to recommend that VIVA not renew Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.. The other non-LWW titles were approved for renewal. During the next year we will look at these titles to determine whether or not these are the best online nursing journals to have. 8. ACS Archives - S.Gasser Archives have been part of the VIVA contract. However in the future it will be a separate item. Purpose of discussing this now is so that there can be a placeholder in next year's budget. ACS will charge an annual fee for access to the ACS Archives. This is already included in Kathy's estimated budget for FY2003-04. The discussion of the ACS archives raised the issue of how VIVA should plan for cuts that could be replaced by cost-sharing. When RUC identifies a resource as a possible cut that would result in an institutional cost-sharing, we should try to give a year's notice so that each institution can plan for that contingency. 9. Harp Week maintenance fee - K. Perry In the past HarpWeek has not charged us maintenance. However it recently sent an invoice for maintenance. HarpWeek discounted the price for maintenance due to UVA's past technical support. Henceforth there will be an annual maintenance fee for the calendar year. 10. VIVA serials audit project Steering Committee charged us with a project to "audit" our serials holdings in order to: Identify current holdings for VIVA institutions Set up a method to identify "last copy" of key titles within VIVA. May want a last archival (i.e., print) copy. Identify commonly held titles that may be candidates for electronic purchase. Working with Bowker, Kathy has negotiated a "deal" to use their "serials analysis" software to assist us with this project. The action for RUC is to: a. recommend the license of the Bowker software; b. appoint a project team to work on this audit. Kathy explained the cost for both the publics and the privates to participate. Each institution would have access to the system to generate reports. Each institution would need to submit the ISSNs for each journal it receives. Bowker is partnering with with SerialsSolutions as it develops this serials analysis system. RUC recommends that the Steering Committee approve a one-year subscription for this. Volunteers who wish to be on the committee that will manage this should get in touch with Sharon Gasser at JMU. Serials knowledge and experience highly desirable. 11. Other business John reported that last week OCLC FirstSearch has added Media Review Digest. Should this be blocked or made available to VIVA members? RUC concluded that it should remain available. We will announce its availability on the VIVA list. Next meeting No meeting date set at this time. Gene will call a meeting when needed.