Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, September 12, 2002
Mary Washington College
Fredericksburg, Virginia
MINUTES
ATTENDANCE: Present: Ralph Alberico, Robin Benke, Gene Damon, John Jaffe, Connie McCarthy, Frank Moran, Virginia O'Herron, Don Samdahl, Roy Strohl, Elsie Stephens Weatherington, John Ulmschneider, and John Zenelis. Also Present: Doug Hurd (UVA) and Kathy Perry (VIVA). Absent. Eileen Hitchingham and Karin Wittenborg.
I. Minutes of the June 6 meeting.
ACTION: The June 6, 2002, meeting minutes were approved.
II. PROJECT UPDATEA. Chair's Report (Ralph Alberico)
1. Budget: Kathy submitted a brief description of the impact of further VIVA budget reductions to SCHEV and has been asked to send a letter to the SCHEV Resources Committee for their consideration before the SCHEV Council meeting on Wednesday, September 18, 2002.
2. LAC Resolution: Ralph presented a draft resolution on the impact of further budget cuts. The Steering Committee made a few suggestions to the draft resolution.
ACTION: The Steering Committee unanimously approved the draft resolution for consideration by the SCHEV Library Advisory Committee.3. LAC Advocacy: John Ulmschneider provided an update on the LAC Advocacy's several meetings during the quarter. These included meetings on August 8 with key representatives of the Sec. of Education, Sec. of Technology, Department of Budget and Planning, Senate Finance Committee staff, and House Appropriations Committee staff. The committee met with Pamela Currey, Assistant Secretary of Finance, and Donald Finley, Executive Director of the Virginia Business Higher Education Council immediately preceding the Steering Committee meeting. Presentations before the House Appropriations Higher Education Subcommittee and the Senate Finance Education Committee are scheduled to take place this fall.
4. Personnel Committee: Ralph reported that John Zenelis will chair and the VIVA Standing Committee chairs will again serve on the ad hoc Personnel Committee to review the Project Director's annual performance. Ralph invited other members of the VIVA Steering Committee to supply information to Ralph with a copy to John.5. Retreat: The Steering Committee discussed the need to review options and plans if further budget cuts are necessary.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved funds for a Steering Committee retreat and charged Ralph and Kathy with structuring a one-day retreat, to be held before the December 6 LAC meeting.
6. The Steering Committee discussed the need for more data regarding budget cuts, including data on cancellations of journals and databases beyond VIVA cuts at the local level, products that only a few of the VIVA members are currently able to make available to their students and faculty, and products not currently offered by VIVA members but which appear to be important for research.
ACTION: The Resources for Users Committee will gather more data on the impact of budget cuts at the local level as well as additional information on other possibilities for expanded cost avoidance.B. Director's Report
1. Electronic Vote: The Steering Committee conducted an electronic vote on July 8, 2002, and approved two items.
a. The Steering Committee approved funds for 4 regional training workshops (held in August) to familiarize VIVA librarians with new features on the Cambridge Scientific Abstracts and the Proquest - Factiva databases.
b. The Steering Committee approved funds for the VHPTF to exhibit the Virginia Heritage Project at the Southern Historical Association Conference, Baltimore, MD. Funds will cover the exhibit space, the Internet connection for the conference, and the black backdrop for the VIVA display.2. Statistics: Kathy reported that the May 14 Statistics Workshop provided an opportunity to discuss the VIVA statistics with interested VIVA librarians. Central staff spent the summer preparing statistics in an excel template. She shared a sample chart with the committee and reported that early response has been very favorable.
3. Budget: Kathy reminded the library directors that the PsycARTICLES invoice will be sent shortly and that the Reallocation invoices have been sent out and are due for payment. Each public college and university should be sure to submit their transfer form to SCHEV; the money is currently held up but the forms should be in the queue.
4. AP Archives: Elsevier is offering VIVA two options for the Academic Press IDEAL archives (1996-2002) and VIVA would like to pursue both. Kathy is following up with OCLC on access through the Electronic Collections Online (ECO) and is waiting for a price proposal. Elsevier has offered the archives in tape format.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the acquisition of the Academic Press IDEAL archives in tape format, as well as approved pursuing the archives through other formats.
5. Publicity: Kathy reported that she gave a presentation on VIVA and Interlibrary Loan at the VIVA ILL Community Forum on June 28. Discussions at that meeting revealed that ILL offices did not have enough information easily available to them to determine which VIVA resources could be loaned electronically for ILL. She is working with John Duke (VCU) to provide this information to the ILL offices. Kathy shared a copy of an interview conducted by Reba Leiding (JMU) published in the "Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services" (26 (2002) 151-159).
III. COMMITTEESA. RESOURCE SHARING (John Ulmschneider)
1. ILL Community Forum: John reported that the ILL Community Forum was held June 28, 2002. The Forum was well-attended and the room format permitted good communication and networking among the attendees.
2. John also reported that the UVA Health Sciences Library has decided to waive fees for VIVA members. The committee is working on an announcement for the ILL community.B. RESOURCES FOR USERS (Gene Damon)
1. Budget: Gene reassured the Steering Committee members that renewals voted on were provisional, pending further word on the budget cuts.
2. Renewals: The Committee recommended renewing Oxford University Press, CIAO, ACM, GaleNet, and ABC-CLIO.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the renewal of the following VIVA resources, subject to the availability of funds:
a. Oxford University Press
b. CIAO
c. ACM
d. GaleNet
e. ABC-CLIO
3. Training Workshops: The Resources for Users Training Subcommittee convened 4 training workshops in August to cover changes to the Dow Jones/ Factiva and the CSA databases. The workshops were attended by a total of 142 librarians at 4 locations:
- August 12, Radford University, 34 attendees
- August 13, University of Virginia, 39 attendees
- August 14, Christopher Newport University, 50 attendees
- August 15, Northern Virginia Community College, 19 attendees.
C. VIRGINIA HERITAGE PROJECT TASK FORCE (Elsie Weatherington)
1. Letter: Elsie reported that the Virginia Heritage Project Task Force appreciated Ralph Aberico's letter stating the Steering Committee's support for their work on the NEH grant.
2. Workshop Funding Request: The VHPTF requested funds for a workshop with an outside speaker to discuss a statewide effort to map data elements from Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids to MARC records.
ACTION: The Steering Committee tabled the motion pending news on the availability of funds and further information regarding the permissibility of bringing in an outside speaker for this workshop.
3. Name Change: The VHPTF requested approval for a name change, from one that refers specifically to the Virginia Heritage Project, to one that would be general enough to encompass any future work of the group.
ACTION: The Steering Committee was unwilling to broaden the Virginia Heritage Project Task Force's charge and the motion failed.
D. OUTREACH COMMITTEE (Connie McCarthy)
Connie reported that the committee would meet this fall to discuss revising the VIVA web page. Plans for the regional workshops to improve librarians' teaching skills are on hold until VIVA's budget news is announced. The committee member representing the 2-year schools is resigning and will need to be replaced.IV. OTHER BUSINESS
The next VIVA Steering Committee meeting will be held on Thursday, December 5, 2002 at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
Steering Committee Minutes Contact: Kathy Perry (George Mason University),
VIVA Director.
Last updated: 9/30/2002