Resources for Users Committee -- Minutes
October 22, 1999 -- 10:00 AM
Alderman Library, University of Virginia
Gene Damon, Presiding
Present: Gene Damon, Jacque Dessino, Sharon Gasser, Pat Hausman, Susanna Pathak, Kathy Perry, Jim Rettig, Jane Schillie, Jim Self, Michael Walker, John Walsh.
1. Announcements
Gene announced that the Library of Virginia is conducting a statewide survey of public libraries, school libraries, and community college libraries to identify databases of interest. The Library of Virginia has two contracts with Solinet: one to conduct the survey and another one to negotiate pricing for the databases
2. Approval of Minutes of August 27, 1999 meeting
No changes --Minutes approved by consensus.
3. Report on ICOC meeting – Gene and Kathy Perry
ICOLC#6 was held September 30-October 2 near Chicago. ICOLC stands for the International Coalition of Library Consortia. Ann Okerson from Yale summarizes and distributes the meeting information on the Consortium listserv so non-attendees can follow the proceedings. Kathy will send information to committee members to subscribe to this listserv. Some exciting possibilities from ICOC#6 include JSTOR’s new science package and patron-assisted ILL.
The Canadian academic universities have pooled funding in addition to funding from the government to buy resources. They are promoting a national point of view and a long-term commitment to purchase resources.
IEEE’s presentation emphasized that IEL Online is undervalued and cheap in comparison to Elsevier. IEEE has not sold their package to any US customer.
AMICO has developed attractive consortial pricing and but it requires 100% participation from each consortium.
4. Budget -- K. Perry
Kathy distributed the most current version of the 1999-00 VIVA Collections budget. This budget included firm pricing for the Highwire journals
5. Report from the Ad Hoc Training Committee – Jane Schillie
Jane Schillie, Jacque Dessino, and Pat Hausman were appointed at the last RUC meeting to investigate training needs. They submitted three proposals and several recommendations to the committee.
The first proposal was to hold a VIVA Training Fair in January that would provide a morning session highlighting new information (possibly the new FirstSearch or Ovid’s Open Links). Four to six concurrent sessions on the major VIVA products would be held in the afternoon run by resource people within VIVA. There would also be opportunities for hands-on, one-on-one training. It was suggested that the Training Fair be held in March at the University of Richmond (tentatively the week of March 6-10).
The second proposal was to restructure each Resource Management Team to include a "designated expert" who would address training needs for the resource. Discussion was deferred to the agenda item regarding Resource Management Teams.
The third proposal was for a full-time paid position to handle training needs. This proposal was tabled.
Recommendations included addressing training needs on a case by case basis for future purchases and upgrades/new interfaces, developing a training partnership with VLA, hiring a consultant for identifying training needs, and simplifying the evaluation form used to evaluate training activities. Kathy informed the committee that VIVA has hired a consultant to recommend assessment activities in the next 6-12 months. The consultant is doing a site visit to the Director’s office and evaluating current data to develop a brief report on VIVA’s progress over the past 5 years.
The Ad Hoc Training Committee recommended immediate cessation to collecting instruction statistics for OCLC FirstSearch. Kathy will check on this.
ACTION: It was moved and seconded (John Walsh, Michael Walker) that the Ad Hoc Training Committee plan the VIVA Training Fair for the week of March 6-10 at the University of Richmond. The motion passed, and will be referred to the Steering Committee for approval.
6. Committee Charge
There was discussion on the charges of the Outreach and the Resources for Users Committees regarding training. RUC decided that training was part of its charge, and will continue to work on training issues.
7. Resource Management Team – Kathy Perry
Kathy distributed "Resource Management Teams: A Model for VIVA Decision-Making (draft 10/19/99)" and "Information on VIVA Purchases, Revised." Kathy gave a brief history of the teams, emphasizing that the leadership is shared and each member of the team takes "ownership" of the product. Teams usually consist of 3 members representing expertise in collection development, technical issues, and user services. There is no longer a Technical Issues Committee, but we continue to need technical expertise for the products.
Discussion centered on the need for a subject consultant/specialist for each product. Subject specialists could also serve as consultants for evaluating new resources. Members of the RUC will likely serve as "product managers" but not exclusively. ACTION: Each committee member will identify subject specialists from the VIVA community to serve as members of Resource Management Teams in the broad subjects areas (e.g., sciences, health, business, social sciences, humanities). Also, committee members will identify a core group of 5-6 technical contacts for VIVA.
Committee members suggested revisions to the "Information on VIVA Purchases, Revised" document. The document covers both purchases and renewals of products. It also includes a section describing the responsibilities of the RUC product manager to write a brief proposal to assist the committee in evaluating products. The document includes description of the product, issues related to copyright, sole source, access, statistics, training, pricing, and technical information. At subsequent meetings committee members must follow this procedure when presenting information on products. Further revisions need to be e-mailed to Kathy.
8. Britannica – Jim Rettig
Jim Rettig reported on the conversation with Britannica representatives regarding the differences between the free and subscription versions. The commercial or free product was released during the week of October 18th. Advertising will support it, and retrieval will be limited to only one article. The subscription version will have a superior interface allowing multiple hits on searches, the Merriam-Webster dictionary, and Z39.50 compliance. Britannica will also release additional enhancements to its subscription version by the end of November.
Committee members questioned whether users would be able to access the free or commercial site and whether the search engine of this version would be too weak, justifying the cost of the subscription version. ACTION: Jim and Kathy will negotiate with Britannica on renewing for 6 months at a prorated price. Committee members will search and evaluate the commercial Britannica site.
9. Project Muse – Susanna Pathak
Susanna Pathak reported that Johns Hopkins Press is expanding its subscription base from 47 to 110 titles (see more information at http://muse.jhu.edu/). Susanna distributed the list of new titles, mainly in the humanities and social sciences disciplines. JHU is offering various packages, including humanities titles, social sciences titles, Hopkins only, and the total package. Additional titles can only be added at the beginning of a subscription year. VIVA needs to notify JHU by mid-November of any change in the subscription. Action on Project Muse was deferred until all renewals and new opportunities had been discussed. [The committee did an electronic vote to renew the Project Muse base package in October.]
10. HighWire - Jim Self
Access to HighWire journals will be effective January 1, 2000. Titles include Academic Psychiatry, American Journal of Psychiatry, Biophysical Journal, Clinical Chemistry, Journal of Applied Physiology, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Cell Biology, Journal of General Physiology, Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry, and Molecular Biology of the Cell.
11. Other Renewals
MathSciNet. There were no outstanding issues with this product. ACTION: It was moved and seconded (Pat Hausman, Susanna Pathak) to renew. The motion passed.
GaleNet. This product is recommended for a one-year renewal. Jim Self will serve as chair of the committee to conduct a detailed review of the product in the coming year (see minutes August 8, 1999).
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts. John Walsh reported on his meeting with Mark Hyer and other representatives from CSA. There will be a 4.5% increase on the base package for CSA (not ERIC, Sociological Abstracts, and LLBA). If VIVA continues to subscribe to LLBA, CSA will provide Social Services Abstracts free. This database focuses on social work, human services and related areas. ACTION: It was moved and seconded (John Walsh, Jim Self) to renew the CSA base package. Motion passed. It was moved and seconded (John Walsh, Sharon Gasser) to renew LLBA. Final vote was deferred to consider Muse, CSA and new opportunities together.
12. New Opportunities
AccessScience (http://www.pbg.mcgraw-hill.com/accessscience/index.html). This database includes the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, yearbooks, and biographical information on scientists. SOLINET will be handling this as a national offer. The pricing will be FTE based and the national aggregation of FTE’s will lower the cost for all participating institutions nationwide. There will be two order dates: a subscription of 5 months from February 1, 2000 to June 30, 2000 at a flat rate, and a second order date of June 15, 2000 for the complete year through June 30, 2001 priced depending on the final FTE count. Individual institutions can subscribe to this product. ACTION: Pat Hausman volunteered to be the product manager, and the decision regarding this product will deferred to spring.
Facts-on-File. Gene reported the new pricing offer. The committee decided not to recommend this product after a brief discussion.
Oxford Analytica (http://oxan.com/). Oxford Analytica is an international consulting firm which provides business and political leaders with timely analysis of worldwide political, economic and social developments. This firm offers 48-hour response on research issues in political, economic, and social disciplines written by experts around the world. This resource is similar to CIAO. Oxford Analytica’s market has been chiefly special or corporate libraries. ACTION: Jane Schillie volunteered to be the product manager. She will investigate consortial pricing, trial access, and other comparable sources (e.g., The Economist Intelligence Unit).
S&P Advantage. S&P contacted Gene that this resource has been modified. ACTION: Product was referred to John Tombarge and other business specialists for evaluation.
Women Writes Online (http://www.wwp.brown.edu/texts/wwoentry.html). ACTION: Susanna Pathak volunteered to be product manager.
Times Literary Supplement Centenary Archive 1902-1990 (http://www.tls.psmedia.com/). Jim Self, product manager for Gale Group, will investigate with resource.
AMICO (http://www.amico.org/home.html). AMICO Library is a compilation of digital multimedia documentation of works of art contributed by AMICO Members. It comprises over 50,000 works of art. JMU and the University Virginia are negotiating contracts with AMICO. The question was raised whether VIVA should continue to pursue only full-text resources. Committee members decided to review full-image products.
13. Deferred Action Items
The committee discussed the Project Muse and the renewal of LLBA from Cambridge. If the committee approved both, the budget would be spent for the year with only a small amount in reserve. The committee reviewed the budget estimates for products coming up for renewal, and decided that there were still questions on the renewal pricing of several products. Products (and due dates) under question are PCI (3/31/00), ACM (2/1/00) and Statistical Universe (3/1/00).
ACTION: As product managers, Susanna, Pat, and Pam will request firm prices from the vendors. John will calculate OCLC estimates for the fiscal year. All information is due to Kathy by November 12 (including pricing of Britannica from a previous action). Kathy will prepare a revised budget. There will be a conference call or meeting on November 19th to make final decisions on Project Muse and LLBA.
14. Academic Press Evaluation Team
Susanna Pathak and Sharon Gasser will serve on this team. Jane Schillie and Jim Self will nominate two representatives from Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia to serve on this team.
15. OCLC Update (John Walsh)
John Walsh reported that the official cut-off date for the old FirstSearch interface is now January 30, 2000. There have been problems with the database implementation schedule, scripts, and the stability of IP authentication.
16. VIVA Users Group
Jane announced that the VIVA Users Group would meet during VLA on Friday morning October 29.
Next meetings:
November 19, 1999 – audio conference or meeting in Charlottesville
January 21, 2000 – meeting in Charlottesville