VIVA Steering Committee Retreat
August 8, 2000
Mountain Lake, Virginia
SUMMARY
ATTENDANCE: Present: Ralph Aberico, Gene Damon, Eileen Hitchingham, John Jaffe, Jean
Major, Connie McCarthy, Don Samdahl, Roy Strohl, John Ulmschneider, Karin Wittenborg, and John Zenelis. Also Present:
Kathy Perry (VIVA). Absent: Cal Boyer and Frank Moran.
I. SUMMARY
The VIVA Steering Committee held a retreat in Blacksburg on August 8, 2000. Four priority areas were identified
as being central to VIVA's mission for this biennium:
1. Full-Text Electronic Collections
2. Resource Sharing
3. Integrating VIVA Resources into the Teaching and Learning Environment
4. Outreach and Advocacy
The major project for the year will be devoted to supporting the two major components of VIVA: Electronic Collections
and Interlibrary Loan. The goal of this project is to provide valuable information to enlighten electronic collections
decisions as well as to favorably impact interlibrary loan loads. The strategy will be to conduct 2 simultaneous
studies of journal titles: 1) to analyze all journal subscriptions at VIVA member libraries by publisher and 2)
to analyze major journal titles borrowed by VIVA members, both from in-state VIVA members and from out-of-state
sources.
II. DOCUMENT DELIVERY/INTERLIBRARY LOAN
The Steering Committee reviewed five years of statistics on in-state lending of books ("originals") and
articles by all VIVA members. From 1995/96 to 1999/00 there have been 474,824 items lent among the VIVA members
at a value of approximately $14,500,000. Overall lending of both books and articles has increased each year for
the public institutions and remained fairly constant for the private institutions. The ILL Guidelines were discussed.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the ILL Guidelines.
III. ACQUIRING ELECTRONIC COLLECTIONS
The major priority for VIVA continues to be to Acquire Electronic Collections for our members (summarized by the
phrase: "CLICK - BOOM - STUFF!")
It was the consensus that this priority will be even more important during the 2000-2002 biennium because (with
a very few exceptions) the local institutional book budgets have not been increased during the past six years.
Preliminary proposals on full-text science offerings revealed very high costs and unfavorable pricing models, especially
those tying member libraries to their current dollar commitments and print subscriptions.
IV. RESOURCE SHARING
Cost Sharing and Purchasing for Subset Groups: Cost sharing was discussed for joint purchases, but tabled until
specific packages were presented or until local institutional budgets were increased. The issue of involvement
in additional purchases (e.g. GeoRef) for subset groups was discussed. The reality of a very small administrative
staff was weighed against possible financial benefits that individual members might receive for these purchases.
With Solinet providing this service to our members the need was not seen to be too great at this time.
V. ORGANIZATION ISSUES
The current Organization Chart was reviewed. It was approved as it is and the Steering Committee will review it
again next year.
VI. BUDGET
The Steering Committee reviewed the VIVA budget.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved renewal of ACM (pending receipt of statistics) and OVID (5 databases).