Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, September 6, 2001
Mary Baldwin College
Staunton, Virginia
MINUTES
ATTENDANCE: Present: Ralph Alberico, Gene Damon, Eileen Hitchingham, John Jaffe, Jean Major, Connie McCarthy, Frank Moran, Don Samdahl, Roy Strohl, Elsie Stephens Weatherington, and Karin Wittenborg. Also Present: Kathy Perry (VIVA) and John Walsh (GMU). Absent: Robin Benke, John Ulmschneider, and John Zenelis.
I. Minutes of the June 7, 2001 meeting.
ACTION: The June 7, 2001 meeting minutes were approved.
II. PROJECT UPDATE:
A. Chair's Report (Ralph Alberico)
1. Proposal Status: Eileen Hitchingham reported that she and Kathy Perry had submitted the VIVA 2002-2004 biennium proposal to SCHEV in early August. It will be discussed at the September 11 SCHEV Council meeting in Richmond.
2. Virginia Virtual University: Ralph reported that the SCHEV staff had taken a concept paper to the August 21 joint meeting of the GPAC (Presidents) and the IPAC (Provosts). Karl Schilling discussed the proposal at the Electronic Campus of Virginia Meeting on August 27. Following the controversy raised at that meeting, SCHEV staff convened a briefing on August 31 and . Ralph, John Ulmschneider, Kathy Perry and Virginia O'Herron (ODU) were present at that briefing. The Steering Committee discussed the need to remain communicate VIVA's continuing support for distance education in the Commonwealth.
3. Personnel Committee: Ralph reported that GMU's personnel evaluations are due soon. John Zenelis will prepare the evaluation in consultation with the VIVA Personnel Committee.
ACTION: Ralph appointed the following Steering Committee members to serve on the Personnel Committee along with him: Gene Damon, Connie McCarthy, and John Ulmschneider. John Zenelis continues to serve as the Personnel Committee Chairperson.
4. Retreat Follow-up: Gene Damon led a discussion on the technical issues question for VIVA's organization. The Steering Committee discussed the relative merits of a full committee vs. an ad hoc task force with a more limited assignment.
ACTION: Ralph appointed Eileen Hitchingham to head the committee to draft the charge for the Technical Issues Task Force. Other members include Ralph Alberico, Gene Damon, John Jaffe, and Kathy Perry.
5. Review of Committee Charges: Ralph discussed the need to review each of the VIVA standing committees charges.
ACTION: All committee chairs will review their committees' charges and send suggested changes to Kathy no later than November 15. These will be distributed to the VIVA Steering Committee in advance of the next Steering Committee meeting.
6. LAC Advocacy Committee: Kathy briefly reported that John Ulmschneider's committee will have a meeting on Friday at noon and that 3 guests were planning to join the committee.
B. Director's Report (Kathy Perry)
1. VIVA Steering Committee Retreat, July 24: The Steering Committee approved renewals for 2 VIVA products.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the renewals of the Lexis-Nexis Congressional Universe and the Statistical Universe at their retreat on July 24.
2. Electronic Vote: Kathy reported that the Steering Committee conducted an electronic vote on August 15 and approved all 3 items:
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the replacement of our 17 nursing titles with 140 Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins titles along with 8 of the non-LWW nursing titles to which we currently subscribe as part of the OVID contract.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the invoices for the VIVA Reallocation Funds in the amounts of $37,200 for 5 doctorals, $17,200 for ODU, $8,500 for the 9 4-year colleges and universities and Richard Bland College, and $132,500 for the VCCS.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the VIVA Express Mail reimbursements for the VIVA public colleges and universities.
3. Publicity: Kathy reported that she had presented a speech at the ALA annual meeting on the subject of vendor/librarian communications in July.
4. Ariel 3.0: Our order has been placed but delivery is not expected from RLG until late September due to some system bugs that RLG is working to correct. <http://www.gmu.edu/library/fen/viva/ariel3.html>
5. Assistant: Kathy reported that the job description for her assistant has been revised and approved by GMU's HR. It remains in the Band A-4, under the official role title of General Administration Practitioner I. Applications will be received until September 24.
6. Statistics: Kathy reported that the ICOLC subcommittee on statistics convened on July 16 at GMU to revise the ICOLC Guidelines. She represented ICOLC at the Publisher and Libraries Solutions (PALS) group meeting with vendors on June 22 in London and is on the follow-up subcommittee on Market Elements. She has also shared specific requests for improved statistics with several of the VIVA vendors, particularly ACS, OUP, and OVID.
III. COMMITTEES
A. Outreach Committee (Connie McCarthy)
1. VIVA Brochure: Connie shared the VIVA brochure draft and the committee requested funding for the production.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the Outreach Committee's plan to revise the VIVA brochure.
2. VIVA Across the Curriculum: Connie reported that 113 VIVA members attended the VIVA Across the Curriculum Forum held on July 27. 71% of the attendees submitted evaluation forms and they were very positive. The committee has reviewed the suggestions developed during the conference and will bring forward ideas as they are developed further.
3. Information Literacy Regional Workshops: One specific idea coming out of the VIVA Across the Curriculum conference was the recommendation that VIVA sponsor 3 regional meetings to focus on teaching skills and information literacy. The committee requested funds for the refreshments and lunch but proposes that the local institutions support the travel costs.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the Outreach Committee's motion to convene three regional workshops on information literacy in spring 2002.
4. ASERL-VIVA Co-sponsorship of Immersion Workshop: Connie reported that the Outreach Committee is exploring the possibility of co-sponsoring an ACRL Immersion Workshop with ASERL. More details will be forthcoming.
5. Recent Press Releases: Connie reported that the committee continues to prepare press releases for VIVA products, including the Gale OneFile, Gale Health and Wellness Resource Center, the Gale Business & Company Resource Center, and PsychArticles (as a VIVA coordinated purchase).
6. Ralph shared the Outreach Committee's 2000-2001 annual report.
B. Resource Sharing (Don Samdahl reporting for John Ulmschneider)
1. ILL Community Forum: Don reported that the ILL Community Forum, chaired by Andy Morton, was held on June 29 at the University of Virginia with over 140 VIVA members in attendance. The morning program featured Sally Wiant from Washington & Lee University Law School speaking about copyright issues and the afternoon featured presentations by 3 ILL management product vendors: OCLC ILLiad, CLIO and RLG. The Steering Committee asked for an update on which schools are using which of the ILL management products.
ACTION: The Resource Sharing Committee will review the status of ILL management software in the Commonwealth.
C. Resources for Users Committee (Gene Damon)
1. Annual Report: Gene shared his annual report with the Steering Committee.
2. Academic Press Renewal and Cost Sharing Model: Gene presented the Resources for Users Committee's recommendation for a new cost sharing model for Academic Press prepared by Sharon Gasser's subcommittee. The original cost sharing model, in effect for several years, was based on the print holding of the VIVA public institutions at the time of VIVA's initial electronic subscription. After reviewing several different models, the proposed model for the institutional share is based on a combination of institution type (40% of the institutional costs) and use from 1997-2000 (60% of the costs). The committee recommends that this model become the base for future payments. Under this model, no institution will see their base be more than their payment in 2001 and some institutions (those with lower use and high initial paper subscription costs) will actually see their base figure be reduced. It is proposed that the difference between the total funds generated from the institutions by this neew base formula and the atual cost of VIVA will be paid out of the VIVA central collections (approximately $46,000). Annual increases to the institutions will be based on AP price increases, which for 2002 will be 6.5%.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the Academic Press Renewal and cost sharing model. Kathy will prepare a new calculation sheet based upon the 6.5% increase.
3. VIVA Training Fair: Kathy reported that the Resources for Users Subcommittee on Training, chaired by Pat Hausman (W&M), convened a very successful training fair on August 3 at Blue Ridge Community College. More than 100 VIVA members attended.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
A. Next Steering Committee Meeting: March 6, 2001 at Virginia Military Institute.