The Virtual Library of Virginia

Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, June 6, 2002

Christopher Newport University
Newport News, Virginia

MINUTES


ATTENDANCE: Present: Ralph Alberico, Robin Benke, Gene Damon, John Jaffe, Jean Major, Connie McCarthy, Frank Moran, Don Samdahl, Roy Strohl, Elsie Stephens Weatherington, John Ulmschneider, and John Zenelis. Also Present: Jacque Dessino (TCC), Pat Hausman (W&M), Doug Hurd (UVA), Jodi Koste, (VCU) Susan Riggs (W&M), Virginia O'Herron, and Kathy Perry (VIVA). Absent. Eileen Hitchingham and Karin Wittenborg.

I. Minutes of the March 7 meeting.

ACTION: The March 7, 2002, meeting minutes were approved.

II. COMMITTEES

A. RESOURCES FOR USERS (Gene Damon)

1. Evaluations

a. CSA (Pat Hausman)
The CSA evaluation subcommittee Pat Hausman (W&M), Jeremy Garritano (GMU), and Larry Thompson (VPI), and Jim Self (UVA)) evaluated VIVA's use of CSA through an intensive analysis of usage statistics, a review of alternative services, and a survey of VIVA librarians to determine satisfaction with the CSA product and interface. In general, the survey responses indicated a high level of satisfaction with the technical performance and customer support, but lower satisfaction with the interface. The subcommittee recommended that VIVA retain the current mix of databases from CSA but recommended that there be further discussions with CSA to address some of the issues raised by the evaluation.

Following the evaluation, Pat Hausman, Jeremy Garritano, and Kathy Perry met with representatives of CSA to discuss the issues. The CSA staff were very responsive and reported that many of the requested improvements were already underway, with most scheduled for release this summer. Although eliminating duplicate records was a difficult issue for CSA to address, CSA reported that this improvement is scheduled for implementation at the beginning of 2003.

b. HighWire (Jacque Dessino)
VIVA has subscribed to 10 HighWire journals since the 2000 calendar year but has experienced significant problems with the administration of this subscription, including renewal, invoicing, statistics, and other issues. In determining satisfaction with the 10 HighWire titles, the HighWire evaluation subcommittee(Jacque Dessino (TCC), Jane Penner (UVA), Jennifer McCabe (JMU), and Jim Self (UVA)) reviewed a number of factors, including:

  • Available statistics,
  • ISI impact factor for each journal,
  • Administrative experience of the VIVA Procurement Officer, the VIVA Central Office, and the Resources for Users Committee representative with each publisher, and
  • Member survey responses, including print subscriptions and cancellations of print subscriptions.


Based upon multiple factors, the following 5 titles were recommended for cancellation:

  • Academic Psychiatry
  • Biophysical Journal
  • Clinical Chemistry
  • Journal of General Physiology
  • Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry


c. OVID (Kathy Perry)
The Ovid Evaluation Subcommittee (Jim Self (UVA), Linda Cahill (PVCC), Karen Cary (VCU), Sharon Gasser (JMU), Nancy Newins RMC), and John Walsh (GMU)) surveyed VIVA librarians, evaluated VIVA usage statistics, conducted a usability study, reviewed pricing information and alternatives, produced a narrative review of databases and services, and produced a narrative review of customer service. At the March VIVA Steering Committee meeting, the committee had recommended moving Sociological Abstracts from OVID to the CSA contract, informing OVID of serious problems, and initiating an RFP for the OVID contract if negotiations were not successful.

The negotiating team (Sharon Gasser, Iris Moubray, and Kathy Perry) met with Ovid representatives on March 13 and negotiated the move of Sociological Abstracts to CSA, reduced fees for access and OpenLInks, improved access to statistics for all VIVA members, improved customer and technical support, and communicated interface issues. The Steering Committee was pleased with OVID's responsiveness and that successful negotiations had averted an RFP for the 2002-03 year.

2. Renewals

a. Congressional Universe: The committee recommends renewal of Congressional Universe.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved renewal of Congressional Universe.

b. Dow Jones/Factiva: The committee recommends renewal of Dow Jones.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved renewal of Dow Jones.

c. OVID: The committee recommended renewing the OVID contract for the 2002-2003 year for the CINAHL, ERIC, MLA, and PsycINFO databases.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the renewal of the 4 OVID databases subject to further negotiations on receiving the same access fees in 2003-04 as well as in 2002-03.

d. Sociological Abstracts: The committee recommended moving Sociological Abstracts to CSA in order to realize significant savings.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the continuation of Sociological Abstracts under the CSA contract.


3. Cancellations

a. FirstSearch
The Resources for Users Committee conducted an extensive review of FirstSearch databases to determine candidates for blocking and recommended reducing the number of ports to 18 (from 31). The committee recommended blocking the following databases in the new fiscal year beginning July 1(no later than August 15):

ACTION: The Steering Committee approved renewal of FirstSearch at the reduced port level. The Resources for Users Committee will monitor use to ensure that these and all previously blocked databases are, in fact, blocked during the 2002-03 year. The following databases are to be blocked:

  • ArticleFirst (alternative available in InfoTrac OneFile)
  • Book Review Digest (alternatives available on ABC-CLIO, Infotrac Books in Print, Infotrac Expanded Academic Index)
  • Business and Industry (alternatives available in Dow Jones/Factiva and Infotrac Business and Company Resource Center)
  • Business Dateline (alternatives available in Dow Jones/Factiva and Infotrac Business and Company Resource Center)
  • Business Organizations, Agencies, and Publications Directory (alternatives available in Dow Jones/Factiva and Infotrac Business and Company Resource Center)
  • Business and Management Practices (alternatives available in Dow Jones/Factiva and Infotrac Business and Company Resource Center)
  • DataTimes Newspaper A & I
  • Disclosure Corporate Snapshots (alternatives available in Dow Jones/Factiva and Infotrac Business and Company Resource Center)
  • Education Index (ERIC on CSA and OVID)
  • ERIC (alternatives available on OVID and CSA)
  • EventLine
  • FactSearch (alternatives available on Infotrac Onefile, Congressional Universe and Statistical Universe)
  • General Science Index (alternatives available on Infotrac Onefile, MathSciNet, Highwire)
  • Humanities Index (alternatives available on ABC-CLIO, AHSearch, Chadwick-Healey, Infotrac Onefile, Project Muse, MLA Bibliography)
  • Newspaper Abstracts (alternatives available in Dow Jones/Factiva)
  • Readers' Guide Abstracts (alternatives available on InfoTrac Onefile)
  • Social Science Index (alternatives available on Infotrac:Expanded Academic, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts)
  • World Almanac (alternatives available on Statistical Universe and InfoTrac Onefile)


b. HighWire Journals

The Resources for Users Committee recommended the following 5 titles for cancellation effective December 31, 2002:

  • Academic Psychiatry
  • Biophysical Journal
  • Clinical Chemistry
  • Journal of General Physiology
  • Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry


ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the cancellation of these 5 HighWire journals at the end of the current contract (December 31, 2002).


4. Statistics Workshop
Gene reported on the tremendous success of the Training Subcommittee's Statistics Workshop, held at the University of Virginia on May 14. He expressed the committee's gratitude to Jim Self and to the Training Subcommittee (Pat Hausman, Jane Penner, and Jacque Dessino) for their work in providing a superb program.

B. VIRGINIA HERITAGE PROJECT TASK FORCE (Elsie Stephens Weatherington)
Elsie provided background on the Virginia Heritage Project Task Force which has been working together through VIVA since 1994 Jodi Koste (VCU) and Susan Riggs (W&M) provided a brief demonstration and further update of the NEH project to create a union database of finding aids to archival and manuscript collections held in participating Virginia libraries relating to the African-American experience.

The Virginia Heritage Project has been very successful, exceeding the goals and objectives set for the NEH grant. The project members recently surveyed the participating 15 members (representing 19 special collection repositories) and all participants plan to make Encoded Archival Description (EAD) a standard operating procedure for their collections.

The NEH funding is completed on December 31, 2002, but they presented the VHP proposal to the VIVA Steering Committee. The proposal included funds for the remainder of 2002-03 and 2003-04, primarily to fund a part-time person at the University of Virginia to "publish" the XML documents the participating schools plan to continue making available and some travel and training money.

The committee expressed their support for the project over the years, as evidenced by the VIVA travel and training funds and the local in-kind contributions made available over the years. They also expressed interest in having the committee promote and market these resources beyond the library community, in particular to K-12 and college and university users. The Committee will be urged to find outside funding sources to pursue digitizing more full text in the collections.

ACTION: The Steering Committee approved partial funding for the Virginia Heritage Project ( $3,500 in 2002-03 and $7,000 in 2003-04) for the continued publication of the XML documents during the next biennium. Requests for travel and training funds will be reviewed on an ad hoc basis. The Steering Committee Chair will write a letter to the committee to commend them for their work. The Outreach Committee will seek ways to promote their success.

C. OUTREACH COMMITTEE (Connie McCarthy)

1. Press Releases
Press releases were prepared on two products this spring, the American Mathematical Society Journals and the Britannica Online. These are available on the web for local libraries' use on their own campuses. http://www.viva.lib.va.us/viva/outreach/releases/index.html

2. VIVA Web Review
The committee is continuing to redesign the VIVA web page with the goal of providing a gateway for different VIVA audiences and to improve the currency and consistency of all VIVA pages.

3. Information Literacy Workshops
The committee is reviewing the regional information literacy workshops proposal for the spring.

D. RESOURCE SHARING COMMITTEE (John Ulmschneider)
John reported that the committee met on April 19 and May 17 (in a joint meeting with the ILL Subcommittee). Harry Kriz (VT) is analyzing the ILL data and should have good information to share with the Steering Committee, perhaps as early as the September Steering Committee meeting. The ILL bookmark is being redesigned and should be available for final review following ALA. The committee plans to distribute the bookmarks to all ILL patrons during one week in the fall, spring, and next summer. The ILL Forum registration (June 28) is at 105 now, and the agenda allows more time for networking by the ILL members. Andy Morton has resigned as Chair of the ILL Subcommittee and the Steering Committee reaffirmed that subcommittee chairs may be appointed by the Resource Sharing Committee chair. At their joint meeting, the Resource Sharing Committee and the ILL Subcommittee discussed some apparent problems in following the ILL Guidelines, particularly regarding lending periods and charging. The committees will review that situation and report back to the Steering Committee. The ILL Subcommittee is exploring electronic delivery of ILL materials (e.g. via Ariel and ILLiad). The committee has some interest in convening a workshop on this topic for ILL members.


III. PROJECT UPDATE

A. Chair's Report (Ralph Alberico)

1. LAC Advocacy Report
John U. reported that the Advocacy Committee plans to meet with the SCHEV Council, and VIVA is tentatively scheduled for the July 17Council meeting. Ralph has arranged to have VIVA on the GPAC agenda for June 24. The Advocacy Committee will convene another legislative luncheon following Friday's LAC meeting.

2. Council of Presidents
Ralph reported that his President had originally suggested a presentation on VIVA and library issues at the President's Council meeting, but that the venue was changed to the GPAC meeting at President Rose's suggestion. Kathy and Ralph are currently scheduled for the June 25 meeting of the SCHEV GPAC meeting. They plan to hit 4 points: general information on VIVA and its benefits to member schools, VIVA's budget cuts and our response, the crisis in scholarly communication, and the interdependence of libraries necessary to serve our faculty and students.

3. Communication Strategy
Ralph reported that the ad hoc Communications Committee had developed a preliminary approach to communicating the rationale and approach to VIVA's cancellations. The Steering Committee discussed the importance of communicating a consistent message to all VIVA audiences. The committee deferred discussion of the draft matrix of VIVA audiences for the following day's LAC meeting. Ralph reported that VLA had approached him requesting reconsideration of VIVA's participation in VLA. The Steering Committee discussed the value of the VLA meeting as a venue to VIVA librarians not otherwise involved in VIVA committees.
ACTION: Reversing an earlier decision, the Steering Committee approved convening the VIVA User Group Meeting in Williamsburg at VLA, October 16-18, 2002.

4. Retreat
The Steering Committee discussed whether or not to convene a Steering Committee retreat this summer and decided to defer further discussion until next fall, perhaps when the Commonwealth's budget situation is clearer.

B. Director's Report

1. ICOLC Privacy Guidelines
ACTION: The Steering Committee endorsed the ICOLC Privacy Guidelines.

2. JMU Procurement
JMU Procurement Office will handle all VIVA invoices for the electronic collections, including all invoices for the private institutions relating to the VIVA contracts. Thirty private schools are participating in VIVA during the 2002-02 year. The private schools met on March 27 and approved a service fee structure that will provide JMU with $12,000 additional revenue for these services. JMU will invoice the private schools after July 1. Kathy and Iris will work with the VIVA vendors to coordinate all contract expiration dates. Kathy wrote a letter to Wayne Durrer, the Director of JMU Procurement, thanking JMU for their continuing excellent service.

3. Publicity
Kathy shared information about a number of publicity events, including publication of the article by Tonia Graves (ODU) on the Virginia Heritage Project in the Virginia Libraries and presentations she made at the University of Washington iSchool (April 22), ICOLC session on budget cuts (April 18), Southeastern Marine Science Librarians (May 16), and the Partnership among South Carolina Academic Libraries (PASCAL) (May 30).

4. Committee Memberships and Projects
It does not appear that there will be much, if any rotation off VIVA committees this year. Committee chairs will survey their members again to see if there will be any vacancies. The committees are still working on the 2 projects referred to committees last year and committees are quite busy, so the Steering Committee agreed to defer a general survey of members for additional project ideas at this time.

5. Miscellaneous

IV. OTHER BUSINESS
A. The next VIVA Steering Committee meeting will be held on Thursday, September 12, 2002, at Mary Washington College.

Steering Committee Minutes

Contact: Kathy Perry (George Mason University), VIVA Director.
Last updated: 6/21/2002