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The Virtual Library of Virginia


VIVA Steering Committee
Thursday, December 8, 2005
Blue Ridge Community College
Weyers Cave, VA
MINUTES

Attendance: Present: Ralph Alberico, Gene Damon, Dave Hayes, Eileen Hitchingham, John Jaffe, Connie McCarthy, Virginia O'Herron, Kathy Perry, Don Samdahl, and John Zenelis. Also Present: Jane Penner (UVA). Absent: Robin Benke, Mary Mayer-Hennelly, Elsie Stephens Weatherington, John Ulmschneider, and Karin Wittenborg.

I. MINUTES
The September 15, 2005 meeting minutes were reviewed.
ACTION: The September 15, 2005 meeting minutes were approved.

II. PROJECT UPDATE

A. CHAIR'S REPORT (Connie McCarthy)

1. Retreat Follow-up: Connie reviewed the status of the retreat discussion items.

a. The Resources for Users Committee will bring some cost sharing proposals to the March Steering Committee meeting.
b. The Multimedia Task Force is under way and Ralph will report on that work later in the meeting.
c. Dave and Connie will explore the Storage issue further, with preliminary information back to members at the March meeting.
d. On Digitization, Jane Penner reported on the Janus Conference that she and Jim Self attended at Cornell University, October 9-11, 2005.
e. The Steering Committee agreed that the topic of Institutional Repositories would not be explored further at the VIVA level at this time.
f. The Steering Committee discussed the issue of Access and how best to maximize our students' use of the VIVA resources. Connie also discussed the Library of Congress' program to maximize the use of LC resources and the possibility of some convergence on those topics.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved a subcommittee, to be co-chaired by Don Samdahl (VMI) and Elaine Day (Averett University), to work on maximizing our students' use of the VIVA resources. The subcommittee's work will culminate in an information sharing workshop in late spring or summer 2006.

2. Personnel Committee: John Zenelis reported that the VIVA Director's evaluation was concluded and that Liz Wright joined the staff as the VIVA Executive Assistant on November 28, 2005.

3. Summer Meeting Schedule: The Steering Committee agreed to convene a retreat the day before the summer LAC meeting.
ACTION: Kathy will poll the Steering Committee members to see if June 28-30 or July 12-14 would be best.

B. PROJECT DIRECTOR'S REPORT (Kathy Perry)

1. E-votes: Kathy reported that 2 votes were held electronically during this period. Renewals were approved for the Institute of Physics current journals and Project Muse Journals Standard package. Five public institutions have opted to upgrade to the Premium collection and will use their local funds to augment VIVA's Standard collection.

2. Membership

a. Jefferson College of Health Sciences: The Jefferson College of Health Sciences (formerly known as the College of Health Sciences) has requested reactivation of their VIVA membership. This private nonprofit institution is eligible to participate in the Pooled Funds Program but has decided to participate only in the elective subscription programs at this time.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the membership of the Jefferson College of Health Sciences as one of VIVA's nonprofit independent members, beginning immediately.
b. Institute for Advanced Learning and Research: Kathy reported that the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research <www.ialr.edu> is a new facility in Danville, Virginia. This facility will not add any FTE to the VIVA contracts. The vendors have been contacted about including the IALR in the list of authenticated VIVA IP addresses.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the inclusion of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research as a new VIVA research facility in Danville and voiced support for the workforce training efforts underway at this site in southern Virginia.

3. Publicity

a. IMLS Grant on Smart Fox: Kathy distributed a summary of the Center for History and New Media's successful proposal to IMLS "to create a set of free, open source web browser tools that will allow the user to capture and organize scholarly materials found in the digital collections of libraries and museums." The project is to begin in January 2006 and VIVA libraries will be invited to evaluate and to participate in beta testing the product at a later date.
b. Online Virginia Encyclopedia: Kathy reported that she had met with Matthew Gibson, the Managing Editor of the Online Virginia Encyclopedia (OVE). This encyclopedia is still in the very earliest of stages, but will eventually be a "compendium of information on the people, history, government, economy, and culture of Virginia". There should be opportunities in the future to connect the work of VIVA's Virginia Heritage Project and the VIVA libraries' special collections with the Online Virginia Encyclopedia.
c. Kathy and Eric Rector attended the October 14 Virginia Independent College and University Library Association meeting held at Ferrum College.
d. Kathy and John Ulmschneider hosted the VIVA Users Group meeting at the Virginia Library Association meeting on October 20.
e. Several Steering Committee members attended the Distance Learning Conference in Richmond on November 15.

III. COMMITTEES

A. RESOURCE SHARING COMMITTEE (Eileen Hitchingham)

1. ILL Statistics: Eileen presented interlibrary loan statistics for the 2004-05 year.

  • In general, the number of copies (e.g. journal articles) lent via ILL appears to have been fairly stable over the last 3 years, but the number of returnables (e.g. books) has increased dramatically within the state, up 16.7% from 2002-03 to 2004-05.
  • In 2004-05, of the items borrowed by VIVA schools, both the public 2-year and the 4-year private nonprofit groups received 73% from other VIVA members, while the 4-year public colleges and universities received only 58% of all borrowed items from other VIVA schools, requiring 42% from sources outside of VIVA.
  • In 2004-05, 12 VIVA libraries supplied 70% of all loans between VIVA members.

2. ILL Software: The Resource Sharing Committee will survey the members to see which ILL software (e.g. ILLiad or Clio) the members have.

3. Ariel: It is still unclear when the Ariel software will be approved for all members.

4. I-81 Innovative Corridor Project: Eileen reported that several schools in the I-81 corridor have purchased Innovative and are investigating a pilot project to share their catalogs within the group.

B. RESOURCES FOR USERS COMMITTEE (Gene Damon)

1. Renewals: The Resources for Users Committee recommended renewing the following VIVA resources:

a. ABC-CLIO
b. Cambridge University Press
c. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online
d. HighWire Journals
e. Journal of Advanced Nursing
f. LexisNexis Statistical
g. Oxford University Press Journals
h. Science

ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the following renewals:

a. ABC-CLIO
b. Cambridge University Press
c. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online
d. HighWire Journals
e. Journal of Advanced Nursing
f. LexisNexis Statistical
g. Oxford University Press Journals
h. Science

2. New Acquisitions: The Resources for Users Committee recommended the addition of the following new resources:

a. Oxford Reference Online Premium, a collection of 130 ebooks from the Oxford University Press. <http://www.oxfordreference.com>
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the acquisition of the Oxford Reference Online Premium Collection.
b. 15 ebooks from the Gale Virtual Reference Library, as a no-cost addition to the VIVA contract with Thomson Gale. The committee noted that there is no commitment to maintain these in the future. The titles included in this offer to all VIVA members (all public colleges and universities and all of the private colleges participating in the Pooled Funds Program) are:

i. Beacham's Guide to the Endangered Species of North America, 1st Edition, 6 Volumes
ii. Contemporary Fashion, 2nd Edition, 1 Volume
iii. Contemporary Novelists, 7th Edition, 1 Volume
iv. Contemporary Poets, 7th Edition, 1 Volume
v. Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine, 1st Edition, 4 Volumes
vi. Gale Encyclopedia of Cancer, 1st Edition, 2 Volumes
vii. Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, 1st Edition, 2 Volumes
viii. Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, 2nd Edition, 5 Volumes
ix. Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, 2nd Edition, 3 Volumes
x. Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health, 5 Volumes, 1st Edition
xi. Gale Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, 1st Edition, 5 Volumes
xii. Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2nd Edition, 1 Volume
xiii. Gale Encyclopedia of Small Business, 2nd Edition, 2 Volumes
xiv. Gale Encyclopedia of U. S. Economic History, 1st Edition, 1 Volume
xv. Nonfiction Classics for Students, 1st Edition, 5 Volumes

ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the acquisition of the 15 Gale Reference Ebooks.

3. Stat-USA: In response to the Steering Committee's September vote not to renew Stat-USA subscription, Stat-USA provided a new proposal. Further negotiations brought the price down and improved the terms. The Steering Committee again discussed the proposal at some length, in particular the fairly low value added nature of this product, the high price increase, and the very high cost/"hits" use of this product. The Resources for Users Committee recommended acceptance of the new offer.
ACTION: The Steering Committee amended the recommendation to renew the Stat-USA proposal, requesting that the negotiators continue the discussions in order to reduce the price further. If renewed, the product will be reviewed to monitor the use and value to the members.

4. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Review: The Resources for Users Committee has established a subcommittee to review this product and the subcommittee will report in the spring.

5. The Committee will be revising some of the documentation pertaining to their committee's work, including the Principles of Collection.

6. Gene reported that he is serving on the Gale Advisory Board.

C. OUTREACH COMMITTEE (Kathy Perry for John Ulmschneider)
The Outreach Committee met on September 23 and November 11.

1. The Outreach Committee and Eric Rector have worked to implement the web design changes endorsed by the Steering Committee. The Committee expressed its appreciation to Eric for his work on upgrading the site. Kathy gave the Steering Committee members a very brief tour of the newly redesigned website, scheduled to be released the first week of January.

2. Eric and John Duke are working out details on maintenance for the new VIVA web presence. The goal is to provide a more centralized and uniform look to the web site while maintaining the effectiveness of the decentralized nature of VIVA's work. The VIVA project will provide Contribute software to participating custodians for the committee pages and other sections of the VIVA website.

3. The Outreach Committee and Eric have developed and posted the press releases for the 4 new IOP journals and the new online Oxford English Dictionary. They will work on adding press releases for the newly approved products.

4. The Outreach Committee has requested logos from all institutions for the VIVA branding project.

D. VIRGINIA HERITAGE PROJECT TASK FORCE (Dave Hayes)
Dave reported that John Jaffe convened the Virginia Heritage Project Task Force meeting on October 17 where the Task Force continued to discuss the IMLS grant proposal. The focus will be on the collections falling under the broad heading of "The Struggle for Freedom", which can include a wide range of topics, including massive resistance, civil rights, Revolutionary War, the War Between the States, and academic freedom. The committee reports that they are confident they can complete the grant proposal by the February 1 deadline. Dave reported that there has been a smooth transition in the Task Force Chair as of December 1 and that John Jaffe has agreed to continue to assist the task force in an ex officio capacity.

E. MULTIMEDIA TASK FORCE (Ralph Alberico)
Ralph reported that there were many nominees for the Multimedia Task Force. He appreciates the support and enthusiasm, but not all nominees can be appointed. The PBS contract with VIVA is complete and he anticipates that the subcommittee will meet at JMU early in 2006 to begin work on that new project. The committee will come up with a file management scheme, develop a plan for distribution of the files, consider long term preservation, and more.

IV. NEW BUSINESS
The next VIVA Steering Committee meeting will be hosted by the VCCS on Thursday, March 2, 2006, in Richmond.

Steering Committee Minutes

Contact: Kathy Perry, VIVA Director