Resources for Users Committee -- Minutes November 20, 2003 -- 11:00- 12:30 AM Conference Call Gene Damon, Presiding Present: Sherle Abramson, Karen Cary, Gene Damon, Sharon Gasser, Louveller Luster, Paul Metz, Pamela Morgan, Jane Penner, Jim Rettig, John Tombarge, John Walsh, and Pat Van Zandt. 1. Announcements Sharon announced that in fire last Sunday, there was substantial damage to the building that houses some of JMU's key financial operations, payroll and purchasing among them. 2. Changes to agenda 2. Changes to Agenda Added Highwire, and Science, and ABC-CLIO to the Renewal list 3. Budget -- Distributed by E-mail earlier, no discussion 4. Renewals CSA -- P. Van Zandt The price for CSA & Agricola for 2004 has an increase of 5%. In addition, CSA is offering META (Mechanical and Transportation Engineering Abstracts). META replaces Mechanical Engineering Abstracts which has ceased publication. (Note, the four institutions that feel they have to pick up META if VIVA does not, would pay more than the $13,000 if they get it individually. The offer to VIVA as whole would be slightly more.) Approved renewal of CSA, Agricola, and Sociological Abstracts (CSA base package) Approved additional of the META database. Stats USA - S. Rortvedt The quote has a 2% increase. Approved Statistical Universe - P. Morgan Price up due to FTE increase and a 1% price increase. There was some concern about the value of this product, very mixed views. There is, however, a general feeling that the enhanced version of the product would have more value, but the cost of such a version is unknown. Could VIVA afford to add to this database? Would LN offer a discounted price to individual institutions that might want to upgrade. Pam will talk to the vendor and get pricing for expanded coverage and see if there is a discount for individual institution upgrades. Renewal tabled Highwire - S. Abramson Renewal price for the Highware collection has increased by 10%. We reviewed this collection recently and these journals are the most used and valuable. Approved. Science - K. Perry sent out a quote. We don't have to vote now, but there is no real reason to delay. T Approved ABC-CLIO - P. Morgan Pam has had trouble getting a proposal. She will continue to work on this and we'll do an electronic vote as soon as we have the information. 5. OCLC Update (John Walsh) Additional ports We have seen a large increase in the "turnaways" at First Search, mainly based on the use of WorldCat. (Some of the new features in WC seem to be attracting users.) John is recommending that we increase the ports from 18 to 21 to cover the projected use without considering the Wilson changes (see below). Since the First Search "reserve" was approved by the Steering Committee earlier in the year, the committee authorized John to proceed with the increase at his discretion. Wilson databases Wilson has withdrawn support for their database under FS's "per-search" option effective December 17, 2003. This should result in a "reduction" in our FS per search use. We can use these funds to pick up some, but not all, of the Wilson titles as subscriptions databases for the rest of 2003/2004. This would give us time to review what our coverage should be with the Wilson databases if any. The Committee looked at the use of these databases and some members reported the results of surveys they had done at their institutions. The Committee believes that three of the databases can be dropped in all cases: Biography Index (Gale's product is more comprehensive) Wilson Business (covered in other products) Biological & Agricultural Index Five databases should be considered for retention depending on the cost. Art Index Applied Science & Technology Essay and General Literature Index Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Library Literature As soon as we have pricing for the subscriptions to these databases, we will determine which we can afford. When he has pricing, John will E-mail the information along with some indication of the "per-search" cost based on our use in previous year(s) and the new price. In the meantime, the Committee members, who have not done so, should survey their institution(s) and establish their priorities for the five databases listed above. 6. New titles in Oxford - P. Morgan Two new journals were not included in the original price for this year. We have the option of picking them up this year or wait. Journal of the ICRU, US$813 Radiation Protection Dosimetry, US$5550 The Committee agreed to wait until the next renewal period to pick up these journals. 7. IOP proposal - P. Van Zandt Pat reported on a very good proposal from IOP where they have offered VIVA their archive for a flat fee for all the public institutions. In addition, an annual fee in 2004 will be required. Since several institutions (GMU, JMU, ODU, Tech, UVA, VCU, VSU, and W&M) have already determined that they want to purchase the database, it was agreed that those institutions should split the cost with VIVA and all public institutions could participate. Approved purchase of this collection with the eight institutions paying $3,000 and VIVA paying the rmeainder of the nitial purchase price. VIVA will pick up the cost of the annual fee for new additions to the archive. 8. VIVA serials audit project - S. Gasser Sharon reported on progress with the Bowker Serial analysis program. There have been a number of issues with how to organize the accounts so that both the individual institutions and VIVA get the best use of the system. These have been resolved with the decision to set up individual accounts for each institution as required. The VIVA study group will, in turn, have its account and will extract copies of the institutional data for use in the "union" database to use in their analysis. Some institutions have already loaded their data and other are encouraged to do so. Pat and Sharon will look at the possibility of organizing a training session for later in the year. Perhaps the session can include both the serials analysis system and the other Bowker products to which we have access. 9. Other Business Future of Wilson databases. At our next meeting we will nominate a sub-committee to look at what VIVA should acquire to replace the Wilson content that we have had on First Search. This work will need to be completed by June 2004, so that the decisions can be implemented before September 2004. Factiva: An increasing number of problems (dissatisfaction) with Factiva indicate that it is time for a full review of this product. John Tombarge has agreed to head up a sub-committee to conduct this review. It is expected that most of the sub-committee will be made up of librarians nominated by the RUC members from staff at their institutions. Suggestions should be sent to John or brought to the next meeting. Next meeting: February 20, at UVA