Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, June 7, 2001
Richard Bland College
Petersburg, Virginia
ATTENDANCE: Present: Ralph Alberico, Cal Boyer, Gene Damon, Eileen Hitchingham, John Jaffe, Jean Major, Frank Moran,
Don Samdahl, Roy Strohl, John Ulmschneider, and John Zenelis. Also Present: Lis Chabot (Mary Baldwin College),
Doug Hurd (UVA), and Kathy Perry (VIVA). Absent: Connie McCarthy and Karin Wittenborg.
I. Minutes of the March 8, 2001 meeting.
ACTION: The March
8, 2001 meeting minutes were approved.
II. PROJECT UPDATE:
A. Chair's Report (Roy Strohl)
1. Roy reported that the Nominating Committee (Eileen Hitchingham, Gene Damon and Roy) recommended Ralph Alberico to serve as VIVA Steering Committee chair for the July 1, 2001 - June 30, 2003 term.
ACTION: Ralph Alberico was elected by acclamation to chair the VIVA Steering Committee.2. LAC Advocacy Report (John Ulmschneider) John reported that the presentation made before the SCHEV Council on May 22 at UVA was well received. Other VIVA members present at the SCHEV Council meeting (Lis Chabot, Frank Moran, Ralph Alberico, and Kathy Perry) commended John for his leadership in preparing and presenting the library issues before the SCHEV Council.
B. Director's Report (Kathy Perry)
1. Committee Nominations: Kathy reported that she would work out committee rotations with the Committee Chairs by mid-July.
2. Project nominations.
a. Virtual Reference: The Steering Committee discussed several projects on virtual reference currently underway and discussed the value of having an information sharing session for VIVA members in the near term.
ACTION: The Resources for Users Committee will follow up on the topic of virtual reference and do some preliminary research on available software as well as possible funding opportunities for virtual reference in Virginia.
b. Direct User ILL: This project proposal was discussed in light of other projects (e.g. WRLC and the ASERL Kudzu project) currently underway which allow users direct access to search other member library catalogs and to submit ILL loan requests directly to those libraries.
ACTION: The Resource Sharing Committee will follow up on this project and do some preliminary research on other projects and currently available software.
c. Posting ILL Articles on the Web: This project was discussed in light of other projects (e.g. the WRLC) currently underway. Gene reminded members that articles must be removed in a timely fashion. The Steering Committee discussed possible approaches, including information sharing via a workshop.
ACTION: The Resource Sharing Committee will follow up on this project idea.3. Steering Committee Retreat: Kathy reported that July 24 appears to be the best possible time for a retreat, with a dinner meeting the previous night. The final date will be decided after the new Steering Committee members have been appointed and polled for their availability. The retreat is likely to be held at Randolph Macon College in Ashland.
4. VIVA Budget: Kathy reported that because of unusual circumstances (the Ariel software upgrade is not yet released and expenses for the 3 major workshops will fall in the 2001-2002 fiscal year), the VIVA central budget will spend approximately $60,000 on VIVA collections.
5. RHEC: Kathy reported that since the committee had determined that the majority of the students enrolled at the RHEC were qualified students of the public college and university schools in RHEC, it was appropriate to add the RHEC's IP addresses to the list of approved IP addresses for VIVA resources.
ACTION: The VIVA Steering Committee conducted an electronic vote in early May and the Steering Committee had approved adding RHEC's IP addresses to the list of VIVA public colleges and universities. This will provide access to VIVA resources in the Roanoke Higher Education Center library. Kathy has talked with Tom McKeon, the RHEC Executive Director, and will follow up.
6. Encyclopedia of Virginia: Kathy reported that the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities has received a $45,000 planning grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to plan an online state encyclopedia.
ACTION: The Steering Committee asked UVA to keep VIVA informed about the project.
7. Nelinet Report: The Nelinet report on funding for electronic resources in Massachusetts is available on the web at http://www.nelinet.net/ahirshon/mblc/mblc-report.htm
8. COC9: Kathy and Gene reported on the International Coalition of Library Consortia meeting held in Newport, RI, in April, particularly the reports on the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Serials Solutions, and the results of the statistics survey.
9. Publicity: Kathy reported she had led a discussion group on UCITA at the ICOLC meeting and spoke on UCITA at the Solinet annual meeting. Gail McMillan's article "Virginia Database fro African-American History and Culture" appeared in the Virginia Libraries, (April-June 2001), p. 5-7.
III. COMMITTEES
A. Virginia Heritage Project Task Force: Roy reported that due to a scheduling conflict, Elsie would make her report during the Library Advisory Council meeting on Friday, June 8.
B. Outreach Committee (Ralph Alberico)1. Brochure: The committee recommended revising the brochure and bookmarks and recommended adding a new tag line: "Common Knowledge for the Commonwealth".
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the committee's recommendation and encouraged them to proceed getting price quotes.
2. Press Releases: Ralph reported that the Outreach Committee members have written press releases <http://www.viva.lib.va.us/viva/outreach/releases/index.html> on the American Chemical Society Journals, the Oxford University Press Online Journals, and the Cambridge University Press Journals recently licensed by VIVA.
3. VIVA Spotlight: The most recent spotlight features InfoTrac's Expanded Academic ASAP, prepared by Ellen Andes and Alexandra Duckworth of Richard Bland College.
4. Gale Group Marketing Support: Ralph reported that he and Kathy had met with Helen Wilbur, Mary Mercatato, and Jackie Anderson to discuss marketing issues. Further assistance from the Gale Group marketing staff is expected this summer.
5. VIVA Across the Curriculum: Ralph reported on plans for the VIVA Across the Curriculum meeting scheduled for July 27 at the College of William and Mary.
C. Resource Sharing Committee (Don Samdahl)1. ILL Forum: There are currently 118 people registered to attend the ILL Community Forum, June 29, at UVA.
2. Committee Membership: Don reported that since Andy Morton is now with the University of Richmond, Shirley Thomas has been named to be VCU's designated representative to the Resource Sharing Committee. Andy Morton will continue to serve on the Resource Sharing Committee as the chair of the ILL Subcommittee.
3. ILL Circulation Period: The committee recommended that VIVA emphasize the ILL Guidelines on the 8-week circulation period.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the committee's recommendation and endorsed the following statement:"The purpose of VIVA is to find strength in numbers. Some of the advantages of participating in VIVA are sharing electronic resources and benefiting from lower prices on software purchased through the group. Concurrently, there can be disadvantages in participation, such as differences in rules for ILL and circulation. The ILL SubCommittee strongly encourages all VIVA Libraries to follow the VIVA ILL guidelines, including a standard eight week circulation period for ILL materials, keeping in mind that each library has the recourse of refusing to lend a particular item or recalling it before the due date."
4. Ariel: Don reported that the Ariel 3.0 software release date has been delayed until late June.
D. Resources for Users Committee (Gene Damon)1. Renewals: The Committee recommended renewal of the following products: ACM, Dow Jones Interactive, FirstSearch, and the OVID 5 databases.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the committee's recommendation to renew these resources:a. Association for Computer Machinery (ACM)
b. Dow Jones Interactive
c. FirstSearchi. 27 ports as of July 1, 2001 to be increased to 31 ports on September 1, 2001
ii. Remaining VIVA 2001/02 funds to be spent on FirstSearch per searches.
iii. The Committee will hold funds for additional block searchesd. OVID
2. New Purchase: The Committee recommended the purchase of the HarpWeek, Reconstruction II, 1872-1877 as a one-time purchase for all VIVA members.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the committee's recommendation to acquire HarpWeek, Reconstruction II, 1872-1877.
3. Training Fair: The Committee's Training subcommittee will convene a Training Fair on August 3, 2001 at Blue Ridge Community College. The committee recommended that funds be allocated for this purpose.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the committee's recommendation to fund the VIVA Training Fair as proposed.
4. Reviews: The Committee will conduct evaluation projects on the following VIVA current subscriptions: Books in Print, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, HighWire, and the OVID Nursing Journals.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
A. The Steering Committee thanked Roy Strohl for his three years of service as the VIVA Steering Committee Chair.
B. Next Steering Committee Meetings1. Retreat: July 23-24, 2001, Randolph-Macon College.
2. Meeting: September 6, 2001, Mary Baldwin College.
Contact: Kathy Perry (George Mason University), VIVA Director.
Last updated: 7/11/2001