VIVA Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, December 4, 2003
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA
MINUTESATTENDANCE: Present: Ralph Alberico, Robin Benke, Gene Damon, Alan Edwards, John Jaffe, Connie McCarthy, Virginia O'Herron, Kathy Perry, Roy Strohl, John Ulmschneider, and John Zenelis. Also Present: Doug Hurd (UVA) and Nan Seamans (Va Tech). Absent: Eileen Hitchingham, Frank Moran, Elsie Stephens Weatherington, and Karin Wittenborg.
I. MINUTES
The minutes of the September 11, 2003 meeting were reviewed.
ACTION: The September 11, 2003 meeting minutes were approved.
II. PROJECT UPDATE
A. CHAIR'S REPORT (Ralph Alberico)
1. Proposal: Ralph reported that the VIVA proposal for the 2004-06 biennium received the State Council of Higher Education's endorsement on September 17.
2. Governor's Senior Year Initiative: Ralph reported that John U., Gene, Kathy and he had met with Peter Blake in Richmond on October 20 to learn more about the Governor's Senior Year Initiative. The Steering Committee concluded that further work on the white paper could be suspended.
3. Governor's Gold Technology Award: Ralph reported that he attended the COVITS meeting on September 22 to receive the Governor's Gold Technology Award for Higher Education. Ralph thanked Alan for the SCHEV Council's nomination of VIVA.
4. The Committee went into executive session to discuss personnel matters. The Steering Committee met in executive session to discuss personnel matters. John Zenelis, the chair of the VIVA Personnel Committee, reported on the evaluation of the VIVA Director for 2003.
ACTION: The Steering Committee passed a motion expressing its sense of the process by which compensation decisions regarding the VIVA Director will be made and funded. The Steering Committee charged the VIVA Personnel Committee with developing recommendations related to compensation.
B. PROJECT DIRECTOR'S REPORT (Kathy Perry)
1. VIVA Domain Name: Administrative work at VCU makes this a good opportunity to change the VIVA domain name from the current www.viva.lib.va.us. John Ulmschneider reported that EDUCAUSE will not allow VIVA to use the "viva.edu" domain name and the Steering Committee discussed other options.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the acquisition of a new domain name for VIVA. Kathy will work with John Duke on the transition plan and the announcement.2. Committee Membership: Nominations for the ILL Subcommittee, the MLA Review Subcommittee, and the 10 Year Anniversary Committee were reviewed.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved new appointments to the ILL Subcommittee.3. eVA and VIVA: Effective November 12, 2003, VIVA is no longer excluded from the eVA program. It is estimated that participating in eVA will cost the VIVA collections budget approximately $10,000 a year. Kathy will work with the VIVA Procurement Office to comply with the regulations and while also minimizing the cost to the VIVA budget.
4. 10 Year Anniversary: The ad hoc Anniversary Subcommittee (Berna Heyman (W&M), Chair; Joy Galloni (RBC), Roy Strohl (MWC), and Kathy Perry) conducted an audio conference on Wednesday, December 3, and discussed ideas for the January General Assembly session, the dinner, and the 10-year progress report. Kathy reported that Jim Self (UVA) has been invited to assist the committee with the progress report. The Steering Committee discussed ideas for the "tangible memories" and concluded that a bookmark would be most appropriate.
5. Membership:
a. Union Theological Seminary has expressed interest in becoming a member of VIVA again. Due to state policy, they are not eligible to participate in the VIVA Pooled Funds Program but may benefit from the negotiated prices for VIVA resources and could participate in the ILL program.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the re-admission of the Union Theological Seminary to VIVA as one fo the nonprofit academic libraries.b. SCHEV has suggested that VIVA explore the possibility of VIVA membership by Virginia for profits academic institutions. The Steering Committee discussed several legal issues surrounding this suggestion. Kathy will follow up with SCHEV.
6. Publicity:
a. September 15-16: Gene and Kathy attended the ICOLC meeting. Kathy led a discussion on e-ILL.
b. September 22: Ralph attended the COVITS meeting to receive the Governor's Gold Technology Award. The Outreach Committee prepared a press release which Kathy distributed to the library community. Articles appeared in LJ Hotline and the VLA Newsletter.
c. November 6: Ralph and Kathy convened the VIVA Users Group Meeting at the Virginia Library Association.
d. November 19: Kathy participated in the CONCERT Conference in Taiwan (Republic of China).
III. COMMITTEES
A. OUTREACH COMMITTEE (John Ulmschneider) The Outreach Committee has met once and convened two conference calls during this quarter.
1. Testimonial Letters: The Committee has developed several sample testimonial letters that library directors can use with their student groups and constituents to help them provide information to the legislative powers. These must not be construed as lobbying. John will communicate with the library directors.
2. VIVA Branding:
a. The Committee has reviewed the use of the VIVA logo on all VIVA libraries' sites and recommends that VIVA members consistently brand VIVA-supplied resources by placing the VIVA logo next to VIVA resources as appropriate on their web sites.
b. Several vendors (e.g. Project Muse, ACS, HighWire Press) provide for a locally-defined message to appear on their initial screens. The Committee recommends that VIVA members include the phrase "Access Provided by VIVA".
3. VIVA Web Page: The Committee will review the VIVA web page, with a particular focus on the way the press releases, product announcements, and training information are displayed.
4. The Committee recommends that VIVA develop a promotional video focusing on a student audience.
B. RESOURCES FOR USERS COMMITTEE (Gene Damon) The Committee met once in an audio conference since the last quarter.
1. Renewals: The Committee recommended renewal of the following VIVA resources: CSA (including Sociological Abstracts); 5 HighWire Journals (American Journal of Psychiatry, Journal of Applied Physiology, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Cell Biology, and Molecular Biology of the Cell); Science; LexisNexis Statistical Universe; and Stat-USA.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the following renewals:a. CSA (includes (Sociological Abstracts)
b. 5 HighWire Journals
c. LexisNexis Statistical Universe
d. Science
e. Stat-USA
2. New Acquisitions:
a. The Committee recommended licensing META (Mechanical and Transportation Engineering Abstracts) as part of the CSA subscription. This title replaces the Mechanical Engineering abstracts which ceased publication.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the acquisition of META (Mechanical and Transportation Engineering Abstracts).b. The Committee recommended the purchase of the Institute of Physics Historical Archive, 1874-1992 plus the 1993 year, as a one-time purchase. This acquisition is made possible by a cost sharing arrangement with 8 of the larger public institutions (GMU, JMU, ODU, Va Tech, UVA, VCU, VSU and W&M).
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the purchase of the Institute of Physics Historical Archive, 1874-1992 plus the 1993 year, as a one-time purchase.3. For Information:
a. FirstSearch and Wilson Databases: In response to Wilson removing 8 databases from the OCLC "per search" service, the Committee is seeking price proposals on these five databases: Art Index, Applied Science & Technology, Essay & General Literature Index, Index to Legal Periodicals & Books, and Library Literature. The Committee is seeking to maintain access to as many of these five databases as financially possible during the spring 2004 semester.
b. FirstSearch Ports: VIVA has experienced an increase in WorldCat turnaways and will increase the number of ports from 18 to 21 in January.
c. Oxford University Press has added two new titles (Journal of the ICRU and Radiation Protection Dosimetry) but the Committee has decided not to add these to the 2004 license agreement.
d. Negotiations on the ABC-CLIO pricing are not complete and a proposal will be handled by an electronic vote.
e. The Serials Audit Project is making progress. Several institutions have loaded their information and others will follow suit in the next month or two.
f. The RUC Training subcommittee organized two MLA training session (September 24 at JMU and October 29 at ODU). The Subcommittee is reviewing suggestions for other training sessions.
g. The Committee will conduct two product reviews this Spring: the Wilson databases and Factiva.
C. RESOURCE SHARING COMMITTEE (Roy Strohl)
The Committee has not met during this quarter due to scheduling problems, however, the ILL Subcommittee has continued its work and is scheduled to meet on December 12 at UVA. They are planning the 2004 ILL Community Forum and designing a test of direct e-ILL with the OVID LWW titles.D. VIRGINIA HERITAGE PROJECT TASK FORCE (John Jaffe)
The VHP met at Virginia Tech on September 30 and made progress in a number of areas:
1. The Task Force membership has been reduced and is posted on the web.2. Work is continuing on work commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court Brown vs. Board of Education decision, the Jamestown Bibliography, and the VHP website heuristics and review.
3. The Task Force discussed the technical issues regarding a digitization grant. Infrastructure practices and standards were reviewed.
IV. NEW BUSINESS
The next VIVA Steering Committee meeting is scheduled to be held on Thursday, March 11, 2004, 1 - 5 p.m. at James Madison University.
Steering Committee Minutes
- Contact: Kathy Perry, VIVA Director
- Last Updated 4/30/2004