VIVA Steering Committee
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Sweet Briar College
Sweet Briar, VA

MINUTES

Attendance:  Present:  Ralph Alberico, Robin Benke, Gene Damon, John Jaffe, Mary Mayer-Hennelly, Connie McCarthy, Virginia O’Herron, Kathy Perry, Don Samdahl, Mary Sellen, Roy Strohl, John Ulmschneider, and John Zenelis.  Also Present:  Dave Hayes (Radford), Carol Hunter (UVA), Tansy Matthews (VIVA), and Jane Penner (UVA).  Absent:  Eileen Hitchingham and Karin Wittenborg.

I.         MINUTES

          The September 21, 2006, meeting minutes were reviewed.

          ACTION:  The September 21, 2006, meeting minutes were approved.

II.       PROJECT UPDATE

A. CHAIR’S REPORT (Connie McCarthy)

1. Connie reported on two advocacy efforts undertaken in this quarter.  On November 2, she, John U, Gene, and Kathy briefed Tom Morris, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Secretary of Education, in Richmond.   Later, Gene and Kathy were able to provide information about VIVA’s cooperation and cost avoidance for the Secretary of Education’s Office.   
2. Connie reported that VIVA has been asked to appoint a non-voting liaison to the Virginia Library Association’s Executive Committee.  The Steering Committee discussed the general desire to support the VLA and reaffirmed interest in convening the VIVA Users Group meeting at the annual VLA meeting.  However, the consensus was that VIVA and VLA have different roles; VLA is a membership organization and VIVA is an official body of the state government and represents the member libraries.  While the individual library directors have a very real desire to assist in the professional development of the librarians, it is not central to VIVA’s mission.  Although the formal designation of an ex officio member of the VLA Council was not deemed to be appropriate, the Steering Committee did agree to help the VLA improve professional development opportunities and the annual VLA program through the active encouragement of participation of academic speakers.  The Director will work with the Outreach Committee to implement this for the future.
3. Connie reported that she has agreed to serve on the SCHEV Learning Technology Advisory Committee (LTAC).  Ralph also sits on that committee, as JMU’s representative. 

B. DIRECTOR’S REPORT (Kathy Perry)

1. Kathy reported that the Steering Committee had held a conference call on November 6 to discuss the cost-sharing agreement for the IEEE journals.  The Steering Committee approved the acquisition of the IEEE journals by voice vote during that call. 
2. Ralph reported that the number of contracts and complexity of the contracts has greatly increased since 2000, which is the last time the fees for the VIVA public institutions were adjusted.  The Steering Committee briefly discussed the history and the issue. 

   ACTION:  Ralph will bring forward an adjusted fee schedule for the Steering Committee’s review and action at the March 2007 meeting.

3. Kathy reported that she and Connie convened the 10th annual VIVA Users Group at the Virginia Library Association meeting in Williamsburg on November 9.  The Steering Committee discussed ways to encourage more dialogue at this meeting. 

ACTION:  Kathy will work with John U. (Chair of the Outreach Committee) and Connie to find ways to invigorate that meeting.

4. Kathy reported that the 2005-06 stats were completed and distributed copies to the members.  They will be posted on the secure statistics web page for all members to review. 
5. Kathy reported that she has been appointed to a three-year term on the COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources) Executive Committee. 

III. COMMITTEES

            A.  RESOURCES FOR USERS COMMITTEE (Gene Damon)

1.  The Committee recommended renewal of the following VIVA products:

1. ABC-CLIO
2. Cambridge Scientific Abstracts
3. Cambridge Scientific Abstracts – Sociological Abstracts
4. Duke University Press Journals
5. HighWire Press Journals
6. Institute of Physics Journals
7. Institute of Physics Archives
8. Project Muse Journals
9. LN Statistical
10. Oxford University Press Journals
11. OUP – Oxford Reference Online

ACTION:  The Steering Committee approved the renewals for the following:

1. ABC-CLIO
2. Cambridge Scientific Abstracts
3. Cambridge Scientific Abstracts – Sociological Abstracts
4. Duke University Press Journals
5. HighWire Press Journals
6. Institute of Physics Journals
7. Institute of Physics Archives
8. Project Muse Journals
9. LN Statistical
10. Oxford University Press Journals
11. OUP – Oxford Reference Online

2. Gene reported that the price quote for Cambridge University Press Journals was received too late for the Resources for Users Committee to review it before the meeting. 

ACTION:  The Steering Committee approved the renewal of the Cambridge University Press Journals, subject to the final review by the Resources for Users Committee.

3. New Purchase:  The Committee recommended that the Steering Committee approve the purchase of the ACS Archives (1879-1995).  The cost will be distributed over two fiscal years but in one calendar year.  Kathy reported on the financial participation of 15 of the VIVA private colleges and universities in this deal.

ACTION:  The Steering Committee approved the purchase of the ACS Archives (1879-1995) in calendar year 2007 but in two payments  over two fiscal years. 

4. Information: 
   1. Gene reported that the VIVA cost sharing arrangement for Blackwell journal subscriptions is very close to completion.  The announcement of the acquisition of Blackwell by Wiley caused some consternation.  Further negotiations with Blackwell extended the contract period and price cap to four years instead of three years. 
   2. The IEEE agreement is also very close to completion.  This subscription will also be a cost-sharing agreement supported by the central VIVA funds, the current subscribers, and contributions by other VIVA members. 

B. OUTREACH COMMITTEE  (John Ulmschneider)

1. John briefed the Steering Committee on plans for the Training/publicity clearinghouse initiative.  The committee proposed an invitational one-day meeting to be held at UVA in early June 2007.  Participants will be nominated by their Directors and additional participants will be solicited if necessary.  The Committee will send a message to library directors the week of December 11, with a follow-up message to the directors the week of January 5.  If necessary, a general statement and call for a few more participants will be sent to the VIVA listserv in late January.  The exploratory meeting will have an intended participation of approximately 30 people, each of whom would be asked to be able to share current projects relevant to the project.  The Committee plans to adopt an existing tool kit (e.g. Merlot or the Scout Portal) and to manage the design and implementation within the Committee. 

ACTION:  The Steering Committee approved the Outreach Committee's Training/Documentation Clearinghouse Initiative and plans to convene an exploratory meeting in early June 2007. Library Directors will be asked to nominate participants.

2. The Committee has not prepared any news releases recently.  The Steering Committee discussed the appropriate emphases for press releases on IEEE and the Blackwell cost sharing deals and agreed that the dramatic news on VIVA’s cost sharing initiative will be the IEEE journals. 
3. John reported that the committee decided on this wording for the branding initiative:  “[Name of School] Provided by VIVA and member libraries”.  Tansy will work with the vendors or with the individual libraries to implement the branding. 

ACTION:  The Steering Committee approved the VIVA product branding phrase following the name of the VIVA member school: “Provided by VIVA and member libraries”. 

C. MULTIMEDIA TASK FORCE (Ralph Alberico)

1. Ralph provided an update on Shibboleth.  The list of the schools in phase one of the Shibboleth project has been finalized (JMU, UVa, W&M, VCU, SBC, UMW, and GMU).  Jim Jokl is working on developing a standard Darwin/Shibboleth implementation.  Once that is completed, the participants will contact their IT reps. 
2. Ralph and the committee are reviewing the proposals in the unsealed RFP (Best Value Acquisition).  Once the files are encoded, the Task Force will make plans and arrangements to make the files available to those member institutions wishing to do local hosting. 

ACTION:  The Steering Committee made a small increase in the amount available to the Multimedia Task Force for their unsealed RFP (Best Value Acquisition), should that be necessary to pay for the selected vendor. 

3. The Task Force has discussed cataloging and intellectual access issues.  The consensus of the Steering Committee was that the records be downloaded from existing sources and edited for this project, including special designation so they may be retrieved as the “VIVA PBS” resources.  The Task Force has also agreed to use metadata from catalog records to create a separate website for the access to the collection of streaming videos.   

D. VIRGINIA HERITAGE PROJECT (Dave Hayes)

Dave reported that the Virginia Heritage Proposal Task Force is continuing to work on the IMLS grant proposal.  There have been some changes in participation, but the most exciting change is that the College of William and Mary has stepped forward to be the lead agency for the grant.  The meeting with the original Task Force of archivists and special collections librarians (formerly planned for October) has been rescheduled and will be held on January 26 at Randolph Macon College in Ashland.  This meeting will provide all participants with a briefing on the proposal concept and an opportunity to ask questions.  Connie reported that the project will be called “Virginia Heritage:  Struggles for Freedom” in order to indicate to all that the project relates to Virginia objects and that we are building on the successful NEH-funded EAD project of finding aids.  The Proposal Task Force will meet in Richmond on Monday, December 11. 

IV.       New Business

The next Steering Committee meeting will be held on Thursday, March 1, 2007, 1-5 pm at Longwood University.