Resources for Users Committee -- Minutes
November 9, 2001 -- 10:00 AM
Alderman Library, University of Virginia
Gene Damon, Presiding
Gene Damon, Karen Cary, Jacque Dessino, Sharon Gasser, Pat Hausman, Pam Morgan, Louveller Luster, Paul Metz, Jane Penner, Jim Rettig, Sylvia Rortvedt, John Walsh, Kathy Perry, Jim Self, John Tombarge
1. Announcements
None
2. Changes to agenda
None
3. Approval of Minutes of , July 13, 2001 meeting
J. Dessino noted three editorial changes. Minutes approved by consensus.
4. Budget -- K. Perry
Some renewals higher than expected (as much as 16%); others lower. Given state budget picture, Paul Metz asked what our base is. Gene estimates that VIVA will need circa $400K-$500K to maintain its purchasing power.
Kathy Perry reminded committee members to track closely the left-hand column of the budget document; members responsible for each product need to bring information about renewal terms and costs to RUC well in advance of the listed Steering Committee meeting date. See the "RENEW" column for the deadline for presentation for renewal to RUC.
5. Training Subcommittee - P. Hausman
Jacque compiled surveys on the summer workshop. Most people prefer presentations from vendors rather than by VIVA librarians; others prefer the hands-on. Comments on facility and other matters were split. Food was praised by all.
6. Encyclopedia Purchase - P. Hausman
Few responses, most very brief. Some respondents don't want either. Most feedback anecdotal, brief, and lacking analysis and argument. Consensus is that VIVA should offer an online general encyclopedia.
Britannica Online approved for recommendation to the Steering Committee, service to commence February 1, 2002.
7. Oxford University Press Contract update/renewal - P. Morgan
Rep informed Pam that VIVA can't drop print, won't get the 75% discount previously offered, and that the terms had changed significantly. Then Pam began working with a new rep. Revised terms allow dropping print, will refund discounts directly library-by-library. Subscription agents will invoice for full price; discounts will be sent directly to each library. Original deal ultimately restored; will go through 2003. Refunds will be processed after OUP reconciles subscription information for each institution. May be prudent to maintain OUP print subscriptions for a year until we see what will happen with this deal next renewal.
Renewal approved.
Pam will continue working with OUP to sort out pricing on any additional titles. RUC will need to consider the new titles separately.
8. Renewals
Project Muse - Renewals and new titles - K. Cary
Kathy was pleased to see Karen's use of the VIVA stats page-two years' worth! VIVA gets Muse through SOLINET. Nineteen new journals and three new publishers confirmed for 2002. Will have at least 190 full-text titles. Four titles will be removed effective December 31, 2001, from MUSE because for-profit publishers have acquired those; back issues will remain online. These four are: Anthropological Quarterly, Hopscotch: A Cultural Review, Resources for American Literary Study, Transition. Price increase is 16.7%; this at least in part reflects addition of more than 50 new titles last year. Still no latitude in title selection; it is all or nothing.
Renewal approved.
MathSciNet
No price increase!
Renewal approved.
ABC-CLIO
Capped price.
Renewal approved.
ACS
Going up 7.5%.
Renewal approved.
CSA
Going up 3.8%.
Renewal approved.
CUP
Increase estimated at 7%.
Approved if 7% or less increase (excluding new titles) .
GaleNet
6.0%, as stipulated in the contract. Kathy pointed out that stats not working properly; cannot get database-specific stats for BGMI and Contemporary Authors.
Renewal approved.
CIAO - (report only already approved) - L. Luster
Renewal approved by e-mail vote; subsequently approved by Steering Committee.
Science - J. Dessino
Will not receive final quote before November 13. Had no increase last year; we anticipate an increase this year. Current estimate is 5%.
Highwire renewal - J. Dessino
Will be evaluated prior to consideration of 2003 renewal recommendation. Increase for 2002 averages 7% in the aggregate.
Renewal approved (does not include Science).
OVID, Journal of Advanced Nursing - S. Gasser
On a separate renewal cycle; Blackwell Science won't allow it to go on same cycle as the others. Based on 14 simultaneous users. Has highest use of the 17 nursing journals.
Renewal approved.
9. OCLC Update -- J. Walsh
Usage report
Statistics show almost no turnaways. Only turnaways have been for WorldCat and ECO. John hasn't been able to learn how the turnaways for ECO are approximately ten times those for WorldCat.
Gene says its seems OCLC may want to turn WorldCat into some sort of a portal product.
Past month VIVA's highest volume month ever, approximately 10% increase, mostly in WorldCat.
Changes to FirstSearch offering (discussion)
Given recent changes, how much can we depend upon continuity of access to key databases through OCLC? One consortium has freed itself from dependence on FirstSearch except for WorldCat.
HW Wilson indexes retrieve keywords from abstracts but display only citations; this raises questions about why various citations have been retrieved.
John Walsh has received quotes from HWW for access to withdrawn HWW abstract databases and from OCLC for Wilson Select Plus (full-text) to some journals indexed by the databases.
Can we identify an alternative? What is cost per search? We need to review list of databases to see if there are other providers at a better price for any of the more heavily used FirstSearch databases. Next meeting John will list the high-use FirstSearch databases.
We will keep the Wilson FirstSearch index databases turned on until we can provide an alternative. Cost is block searches. We need to make a definitive decision about wither to continue it or block it.
Alternative Press Index: becomes available 11/11/01. Should we allow access (via block searches) or turn it off?
Access approved.
Essay and General Literature Index: Should we allow access (via block searches) or turn it off?
Another new FirstSearch block search product.
Access approved.
10. American Mathematical Society journals - P. Hausman
Offer covers all of their electronic journals (two of which are electronic-only). These journals link to MathSci net. Cap increases at 5%; no penalty for canceling print; ILL permitted; no usage statistics yet. Older issues picked up by JSTOR; not clear if we would have archival access via JSTOR for institutions that do not have that part of JSTOR. Can obtain a 10% on titles retained in print. Drawback is that they do not offer any usage statistics. But we may have an opportunity to help them develop the statistics in a way that is useful to us.
Approved for recommendation to the Steering Committee.
11. ERIC Collection
Nothing to report; may have another offer next year.
12. Business Subcommittee - J. Tombarge
Group of business librarians met in July, then were asked to review Kiplinger (all Kiplinger magazines and books) for VIVA. Nearly unanimous recommendation that it is too specialized and not a wise investment for VIVA. Rep would like to approach institutions to see if there are enough interested to buy this from their own resources to cut a discount deal. John Tombarge says more a consumer product than an academic product-good for a personal investor managing his/her own portfolio.
RUC does not recommend VIVA purchase.
Business Subcommittee will develop a critique of the Gale Business & Company Resource Center. We will then take these up with Gale.
Business librarians interested in participating in this group should contact John Tombarge at Washington & Lee.
13. Product reviews
Jim Self distributed copies of two reports showing UVa's cost per search of all of its electronic databases as well as the VIVA subset. He asked for suggestions on methodology, especially a useful way to determine UVa' "share" of the cost VIVA pays for a product. Regarding InfoTrac, he allocated two thirds of cost to e-journal articles; one third as a reference database. Jim asked if this sort of study and report would be useful for VIVA as a whole. Consensus was a strong Yes.
Cambridge
Group working on it. Survey expected by end of the year. Will ask several people to review the interface.
Ovid
Procedure for review established in late August. VIVA is talking to senior management at OVID regarding service issues.
Highwire, etc.
Survey instrument can be a simple, fast turnaround survey. Will probably be out last week of November.
Kathy asked how we can notify VIVA librarians about these three surveys? Can they be combined in some way? Three teams will work with each other.
14. New Resources
IEEE proposal - J. Wash
Entire Engineering Information Online (112 journals, standards, proceeding, etc.; 14 year backfile). Offer initially very high. An alternative offer provides access to just the journals -but only if the six doctorals buy the full EIO product. This merits consideration in spring if VIVA receives an increase.
Science, new offer - J. Dessino
Two product: Next Wave and Signal Transductioin Knowledge Environment. Hinge on participation by al of VIVA. Currently only VCU and UVa subscribe; VCU's paid for through a grant received by a faculty member. Alternative to VIVA-wide is 25% discount for individual institutions.
Not appropriate for all of VIVA; will provide information to VIVA libraries that want to subscribe independently.
Softline, Inc., Product information - J. Dessino
Offers discounts to VIVA institutions which want to buy Softline products: Ethnic NewsWatch, A History and Alt-Press Watch. Price based on FTE distributed into five categories. Collection contacts in all VIVA libraries will receive notification.
AccuNet/AP Multimedia Archive - S. Gasser
There are already a number of subscribers to the AP Photo Archive in the state, but apparently none yet has the MultimediaArchive.
19th Century MasterFile - G. Damon
Jane Penner will investigate.
Polling the Nations - G. Damon
Karen Cary will investigate.
Books 7x24 - G. Damon
Primarily popular computing books. Pricing is by simultaneous users. Gene will continue talking with them.
15. Sidebar projects - P. Metz
Nature - P. Metz
No appealing consortial price. Offers discounts if a sufficient number of institutions buy; scale changes as more come in. Institutions interested in Nature and/or any of the other Nature journals (see their Web site), contact Paul Metz so he has a sense of level of interest.
ENGnetBASe and CHEMnetBASE
CRC handbooks and other manuals. Offers a price break if enough institutions come in on it together.
Economist Intelligence Unit
Country profiles-political, economic information. Offers group discount.
Wiley (information) - P. Metz
If 70% of libraries with significant Wiley investments buy in, all participants receive access to the VIVA libraries union list of current Wiley titles those libraries subscribe to. If libraries are going to go electronic with Wiley, it makes sense for those libraries to do it as a group rather than solo. Can get a multi-year lock-in with price caps or go year by year without the price caps. Latter approach probably safer given current budgetary uncertainty.
16. New Products to consider
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Only two segments, one from mid-19th century and one from 1970s of NY Times available. Uncertain future.
HarpWeek, new increment
Publisher will need to contact institutions individually and not through VIVA channels.
Computing Reviews
Comes out of the ACM; Pat Hausman will investigate.
17. Committee Charge and vendor assignments - G. Damon
Gene will make changes. Kathy's name will be removed as secretary to the RUC.
We need to follow-up on virutal reference issue.
18. Other business
Next meeting we need to discuss the future of the nursing journal retention project.
Next meeting
January 25, 2002 at UVa.
Addenda: Two additional renewals were approved by electronic vote after the meeting:
1. Science -- no price increase for 2002.
2. PCI -- price within the contract cap.
November 9, 2001 -- 10:00 AM
Alderman Library, University of Virginia
Gene Damon, Presiding
Gene Damon, Karen Cary, Jacque Dessino, Sharon Gasser, Pat Hausman, Pam Morgan, Louveller Luster, Paul Metz, Jane Penner, Jim Rettig, Sylvia Rortvedt, John Walsh, Kathy Perry, Jim Self, John Tombarge
1. Announcements
None
2. Changes to agenda
None
3. Approval of Minutes of , July 13, 2001 meeting
J. Dessino noted three editorial changes. Minutes approved by consensus.
4. Budget -- K. Perry
Some renewals higher than expected (as much as 16%); others lower. Given state budget picture, Paul Metz asked what our base is. Gene estimates that VIVA will need circa $400K-$500K to maintain its purchasing power.
Kathy Perry reminded committee members to track closely the left-hand column of the budget document; members responsible for each product need to bring information about renewal terms and costs to RUC well in advance of the listed Steering Committee meeting date. See the "RENEW" column for the deadline for presentation for renewal to RUC.
5. Training Subcommittee - P. Hausman
Jacque compiled surveys on the summer workshop. Most people prefer presentations from vendors rather than by VIVA librarians; others prefer the hands-on. Comments on facility and other matters were split. Food was praised by all.
6. Encyclopedia Purchase - P. Hausman
Few responses, most very brief. Some respondents don't want either. Most feedback anecdotal, brief, and lacking analysis and argument. Consensus is that VIVA should offer an online general encyclopedia.
Britannica Online approved for recommendation to the Steering Committee, service to commence February 1, 2002.
7. Oxford University Press Contract update/renewal - P. Morgan
Rep informed Pam that VIVA can't drop print, won't get the 75% discount previously offered, and that the terms had changed significantly. Then Pam began working with a new rep. Revised terms allow dropping print, will refund discounts directly library-by-library. Subscription agents will invoice for full price; discounts will be sent directly to each library. Original deal ultimately restored; will go through 2003. Refunds will be processed after OUP reconciles subscription information for each institution. May be prudent to maintain OUP print subscriptions for a year until we see what will happen with this deal next renewal.
Renewal approved.
Pam will continue working with OUP to sort out pricing on any additional titles. RUC will need to consider the new titles separately.
8. Renewals
Project Muse - Renewals and new titles - K. Cary
Kathy was pleased to see Karen's use of the VIVA stats page-two years' worth! VIVA gets Muse through SOLINET. Nineteen new journals and three new publishers confirmed for 2002. Will have at least 190 full-text titles. Four titles will be removed effective December 31, 2001, from MUSE because for-profit publishers have acquired those; back issues will remain online. These four are: Anthropological Quarterly, Hopscotch: A Cultural Review, Resources for American Literary Study, Transition. Price increase is 16.7%; this at least in part reflects addition of more than 50 new titles last year. Still no latitude in title selection; it is all or nothing.
Renewal approved.
MathSciNet
No price increase!
Renewal approved.
ABC-CLIO
Capped price.
Renewal approved.
ACS
Going up 7.5%.
Renewal approved.
CSA
Going up 3.8%.
Renewal approved.
CUP
Increase estimated at 7%.
Approved if 7% or less increase (excluding new titles) .
GaleNet
6.0%, as stipulated in the contract. Kathy pointed out that stats not working properly; cannot get database-specific stats for BGMI and Contemporary Authors.
Renewal approved.
CIAO - (report only already approved) - L. Luster
Renewal approved by e-mail vote; subsequently approved by Steering Committee.
Science - J. Dessino
Will not receive final quote before November 13. Had no increase last year; we anticipate an increase this year. Current estimate is 5%.
Highwire renewal - J. Dessino
Will be evaluated prior to consideration of 2003 renewal recommendation. Increase for 2002 averages 7% in the aggregate.
Renewal approved (does not include Science).
OVID, Journal of Advanced Nursing - S. Gasser
On a separate renewal cycle; Blackwell Science won't allow it to go on same cycle as the others. Based on 14 simultaneous users. Has highest use of the 17 nursing journals.
Renewal approved.
9. OCLC Update -- J. Walsh
Usage report
Statistics show almost no turnaways. Only turnaways have been for WorldCat and ECO. John hasn't been able to learn how the turnaways for ECO are approximately ten times those for WorldCat.
Gene says its seems OCLC may want to turn WorldCat into some sort of a portal product.
Past month VIVA's highest volume month ever, approximately 10% increase, mostly in WorldCat.
Changes to FirstSearch offering (discussion)
Given recent changes, how much can we depend upon continuity of access to key databases through OCLC? One consortium has freed itself from dependence on FirstSearch except for WorldCat.
HW Wilson indexes retrieve keywords from abstracts but display only citations; this raises questions about why various citations have been retrieved.
John Walsh has received quotes from HWW for access to withdrawn HWW abstract databases and from OCLC for Wilson Select Plus (full-text) to some journals indexed by the databases.
Can we identify an alternative? What is cost per search? We need to review list of databases to see if there are other providers at a better price for any of the more heavily used FirstSearch databases. Next meeting John will list the high-use FirstSearch databases.
We will keep the Wilson FirstSearch index databases turned on until we can provide an alternative. Cost is block searches. We need to make a definitive decision about wither to continue it or block it.
Alternative Press Index: becomes available 11/11/01. Should we allow access (via block searches) or turn it off?
Access approved.
Essay and General Literature Index: Should we allow access (via block searches) or turn it off?
Another new FirstSearch block search product.
Access approved.
10. American Mathematical Society journals - P. Hausman
Offer covers all of their electronic journals (two of which are electronic-only). These journals link to MathSci net. Cap increases at 5%; no penalty for canceling print; ILL permitted; no usage statistics yet. Older issues picked up by JSTOR; not clear if we would have archival access via JSTOR for institutions that do not have that part of JSTOR. Can obtain a 10% on titles retained in print. Drawback is that they do not offer any usage statistics. But we may have an opportunity to help them develop the statistics in a way that is useful to us.
Approved for recommendation to the Steering Committee.
11. ERIC Collection
Nothing to report; may have another offer next year.
12. Business Subcommittee - J. Tombarge
Group of business librarians met in July, then were asked to review Kiplinger (all Kiplinger magazines and books) for VIVA. Nearly unanimous recommendation that it is too specialized and not a wise investment for VIVA. Rep would like to approach institutions to see if there are enough interested to buy this from their own resources to cut a discount deal. John Tombarge says more a consumer product than an academic product-good for a personal investor managing his/her own portfolio.
RUC does not recommend VIVA purchase.
Business Subcommittee will develop a critique of the Gale Business & Company Resource Center. We will then take these up with Gale.
Business librarians interested in participating in this group should contact John Tombarge at Washington & Lee.
13. Product reviews
Jim Self distributed copies of two reports showing UVa's cost per search of all of its electronic databases as well as the VIVA subset. He asked for suggestions on methodology, especially a useful way to determine UVa' "share" of the cost VIVA pays for a product. Regarding InfoTrac, he allocated two thirds of cost to e-journal articles; one third as a reference database. Jim asked if this sort of study and report would be useful for VIVA as a whole. Consensus was a strong Yes.
Cambridge
Group working on it. Survey expected by end of the year. Will ask several people to review the interface.
Ovid
Procedure for review established in late August. VIVA is talking to senior management at OVID regarding service issues.
Highwire, etc.
Survey instrument can be a simple, fast turnaround survey. Will probably be out last week of November.
Kathy asked how we can notify VIVA librarians about these three surveys? Can they be combined in some way? Three teams will work with each other.
14. New Resources
IEEE proposal - J. Wash
Entire Engineering Information Online (112 journals, standards, proceeding, etc.; 14 year backfile). Offer initially very high. An alternative offer provides access to just the journals -but only if the six doctorals buy the full EIO product. This merits consideration in spring if VIVA receives an increase.
Science, new offer - J. Dessino
Two product: Next Wave and Signal Transductioin Knowledge Environment. Hinge on participation by al of VIVA. Currently only VCU and UVa subscribe; VCU's paid for through a grant received by a faculty member. Alternative to VIVA-wide is 25% discount for individual institutions.
Not appropriate for all of VIVA; will provide information to VIVA libraries that want to subscribe independently.
Softline, Inc., Product information - J. Dessino
Offers discounts to VIVA institutions which want to buy Softline products: Ethnic NewsWatch, A History and Alt-Press Watch. Price based on FTE distributed into five categories. Collection contacts in all VIVA libraries will receive notification.
AccuNet/AP Multimedia Archive - S. Gasser
There are already a number of subscribers to the AP Photo Archive in the state, but apparently none yet has the MultimediaArchive.
19th Century MasterFile - G. Damon
Jane Penner will investigate.
Polling the Nations - G. Damon
Karen Cary will investigate.
Books 7x24 - G. Damon
Primarily popular computing books. Pricing is by simultaneous users. Gene will continue talking with them.
15. Sidebar projects - P. Metz
Nature - P. Metz
No appealing consortial price. Offers discounts if a sufficient number of institutions buy; scale changes as more come in. Institutions interested in Nature and/or any of the other Nature journals (see their Web site), contact Paul Metz so he has a sense of level of interest.
ENGnetBASe and CHEMnetBASE
CRC handbooks and other manuals. Offers a price break if enough institutions come in on it together.
Economist Intelligence Unit
Country profiles-political, economic information. Offers group discount.
Wiley (information) - P. Metz
If 70% of libraries with significant Wiley investments buy in, all participants receive access to the VIVA libraries union list of current Wiley titles those libraries subscribe to. If libraries are going to go electronic with Wiley, it makes sense for those libraries to do it as a group rather than solo. Can get a multi-year lock-in with price caps or go year by year without the price caps. Latter approach probably safer given current budgetary uncertainty.
16. New Products to consider
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Only two segments, one from mid-19th century and one from 1970s of NY Times available. Uncertain future.
HarpWeek, new increment
Publisher will need to contact institutions individually and not through VIVA channels.
Computing Reviews
Comes out of the ACM; Pat Hausman will investigate.
17. Committee Charge and vendor assignments - G. Damon
Gene will make changes. Kathy's name will be removed as secretary to the RUC.
We need to follow-up on virutal reference issue.
18. Other business
Next meeting we need to discuss the future of the nursing journal retention project.
Next meeting
January 25, 2002 at UVa.
Addenda: Two additional renewals were approved by electronic vote after the meeting:
1. Science -- no price increase for 2002.
2. PCI -- price within the contract cap.