Attendance:
Members Present: Wendell Barbour, Joanne Eustis, Charlene Hurt, Jean Major,
Nancy Marshall, Dennis Robinson, Lew Terpstra, and Karin Wittenborg.
Also Present: Peter Blake, John Duke, Paul Metz, John Molnar, Frank Moran,
Kathy Perry, and Roy Strohl.
Absent: Theresa Byrd, Buddy Litchfield, and Carol Pfeiffer.
Charlene Hurt called the meeting to order.
I. MINUTES. Nancy Marshall asked for further discussion on two points:
(1) on cooperation with other large branch libraries (e.g. health and law),
Nancy suggested that we include them in our considerations for the next
grant.
ACTION: The Steering Committee will invite the medical and law libraries to a future Steering Committee meeting to learn more about issues of interest to them and to explore ways the Virtual Library Project could include them in the Virtual Library project more effectively.
(2) Nancy asked if the Steering Committee had indeed decided to meet
every month, and the Steering Committee members said that they had established
the meetings as the second Thursday of every month, at least for the first
year of the project.
The minutes were approved as presented.
II. PROJECT UPDATE. Charlene complimented the committees for their
work to date and stated that the project was well on track. Kathy Perry
reported that:
(1) the results of the Ariel survey were in and that it appeared that the
project could order 93 copies of the Ariel software for Windows. This breaks
down to 51 copies for all of the sites, paid for by the project; an additional
23 (or more) for the private institutions, to be paid by the privates; and
an additional 19 copies the public institutions will buy with their own
funds.
(2) All minutes and communications are being posted to the listserv, so all libraries should encourage their staff members to sign onto the listserv.
ACTION: Kathy will prepare instructions for joining the listserv and will make them available various ways (e.g. on the vavirtua-l listserv itself (for further distribution among colleagues), to the LAC listserv, and at VLA.
On Publicity, Charlene reported that she will give a talk at the VTLS meeting on Monday, September 19, and that her article had appeared in the Virginian Librarian. She apologized to Nancy Marshall for stating incorrectly that William and Mary was a NOTIS site.
Nancy reported that she had placed an article about the Virtual Library project in the W&M Friends of the Library newsletter and had quoted John Molnar.
III. COMMITTEE REPORTS.
A. ILL ENHANCEMENTS.
1. Ariel Software: Dennis Robison reported that he had sent a letter to
William Bigger at SCHEV outlining the combined purchase of Ariel software
but had not heard anything from him. John Molnar reported that Bill Bigger
had not understood the letter. John said that there may still be problems
with the combined purchase through SCHEV. John suggested that one possibility
might be for one public institution to be the purchasing agency for the
project and the money would be given as a grant to that institution, but
that would increase the amount of paperwork on the project. Peter Blake
reported that he had worked with Bill and that he did not think there was
a problem with the letter or the request. Peter reported that Bill is going
to write letter within state government to clear the path for this procurement.
ACTION: Dennis will check with RLG (via Doug Hurd) to find out if RLG will permit two invoices, one for the public institutions and one for the privates. (There could still be just one delivery site for all copies.)
Since any order over 69 copies at $275 would cost more than purchasing
100 copies at $189, it is advantageous for the project to buy 100 copies.
Although the final count is not yet in, it appears that the total order
for all of the institutions will be around 93 copies.
The Committee moved, seconded, and approved unanimously the purchase of
100 copies of the Ariel software for Windows.
The committee discussed various ways to handle the approximately 7 "extra" copies of the software. The committee decided that in general, they were comfortable with all institutions having a slightly higher than $189/copy cost to cover the cost of the extra copies, and they would let the ILL committee determine the best way to handle any extra copies.
ACTION: As soon as the private institutions have finalized their order, Kathy will prepare the purchase order and letter to Bill Bigger. Kathy will determine the appropriate reimbursement procedures and will use the listserv to post instructions for reimbursement of additional copies.
Dennis reported that the ILL Committee had discussed the cost of receive-only Ariel software, selling for $149/copy with a price break for orders over 100 copies of only $50/copy. The committee proposed this as experiment for the Virtual Library project. Participating libraries could put this receive only software in selected departmental offices with heavy ILL use. The Steering Committee discussed this and agreed that libraries would have to provide the ILL service to these faculty members anyway and it would improve service time, one of the major goals of the VIVA project. The Committee concluded that it was an excellent idea and should be included in the project on an experimental basis. Although the original idea had been to purchase 2 copies for every institution, it was agreed that some libraries may not need more than 1 receive-only copy. John Duke reminded the members that there will be significant equipment requirements (e.g. a 486 pc, a laser printer, a phone line, IP access, etc.) for this software, in fact all of the same equipment as the send & receive software, except for the scanner.
ACTION: Dennis will draft a survey of all participating members to outline the opportunity, the equipment requirements, and determine interest. Kathy will send it out and will coordinate with John Jaffe to include the private institutions.
2. Patron Initiated ILL. Dennis reported that the ILL Committee had discussed patron initiated ILL at some length and had determined that OCLC had a significant majority of what they wanted in a system. Their committee recommended working with OCLC to further develop their ILL support available on First Search and Prism. He has appointed a subcommittee to develop a list of development areas necessary for an improved ILL package for VIVA. The Committee expressed concern about the lack of accurate holdings information and the continuing expense to an outside vendor for ILL. Dennis reported that some of these issues (including the desire to have Virginia public institution holdings shown first) could be on the list for development. John reminded the committee that no other systems currently exist, and that we may be looking at interim measures for now. The Committee discussed the need for an improved Virginian union list of serials. The committee also discussed the need to encourage the change of culture by library staff members in order to implement a major change of procedures.
The Committee discussed the role of the project in improving available software for ILL. It is hoped that this project can improve available services for libraries across the country.
ARIEL DOC DELIVERY PROTOCOL: Dennis reported that the draft document on the Ariel Document Delivery Protocol is on the listserv. Once comments are in, the ILL Committee will develop committee recommendations.
ARL - ILL: Kathy reported that several people had been nominated by Steering Committee members to attend the ARL institute on ILL and document delivery enhancements. John Duke reported that VCU was considering sending a team to the meeting. The Steering Committee decided to wait and consider asking ARL to do a special session for our libraries at a later date.
ACTION: The Committee decided not to send a VIVA team to the October
ARL - ILL meeting. She will get that information on the listserv. If VCU
sends a team to the ARL -ILL meeting, they will report back to VIVA.
B. SELECTING ELECTRONIC COLLECTIONS
Frank Moran reported for the committee.
1. Encyclopedias: After seeing demonstrations of encyclopedias under consideration,
the Committee chose Groliers over the Encyclopedia Britannica. They anticipate
the cost to subscribe for 1 year, for unlimited access for all VIVA participating
libraries to be approximately $20- 25,000, far below the price each individual
institution would have to pay (approximately $5,200/year at UVA. Frank
reported that the Selections Committee recommends closer ties with the Technical
Issues Committee. The Steering Committee moved, seconded and unanimously
approved the initiation of the purchase order, contingent upon the technical
issues of mounting the system.
ACTION: The Selections Committee will make the purchase recommendation to John Molnar who will handle the purchase order at SCHEV.
2. Bibliographic Database: The Selections Committee has evaluated several bibliographic databases with an eye toward providing full-text journals, not just indexing services. Since all services are adding more full-text journals, the Committee recommends that they prepare an RFP in preparation for a fall 1995 purchase.
To provide indexing service during the 1994-95 year, the Committee recommends
purchase of First Search. Paul Metz reported that significant queuing efficiencies
can be expected, permitting the VIVA project to be served with many fewer
ports if we purchase them together than would be necessary with each school
working alone.
The Committee estimates that 20 ports will be enough for the VIVA project,
but would recommend that some funds be held so that additional ports could
be added later if demand warranted them. In addition, if there is a problem
with network overload due to this product, specific databases can be disabled
on individual campuses. Paul Metz will do further research to determine
if the product can use the native OCLC interface or the Z39.50 interface.
The Steering Committee discussed the issue of overlapping services, acknowledging
that institutions entered the project aware that they may have overlapping
services but that the benefits to all of the institutions would outweigh
the negatives of some overlapping services. The Committee also discussed
the lack of stability within the industry. The Committee decided not to
recommend purchase of block searches, which could be used over a 2-year
period, because the money for this project should be spent within the budget
year as allocated. Paul showed the Steering Committee the printed materials
available for distribution to faculty and departments. Joanne Eustis suggested
that the faculty materials be sent with a letter about VIVA.
The Committee recommends 10 ports of the base package, which includes the world catalog, the article first, keyword, Eric, Medline and GPO, for a base price of $111,500. The Steering Committee authorized the Selections Committee to allocate an additional sum of approximately $100,000 for other databases.
ACTION: The committee will evaluate other databases to be included and will determine the number of printed materials to be purchased for the faculty throughout the VIVA project. They will bring a complete proposal to the October Steering Committee meeting.
3. Digitizing Virginia databases: The Selections Committee recommended that a special subcommittee be established to determine the best way to proceed to develop Virginia resources for the Virginia Virtual Library.
ACTION: The Steering Committee appointed a sub-committee to look at Virginia resources. Members will include representatives from UVA, GMU, VCU, and VPI. Steering Committee members are to tell Kathy the name of their representative and she will inform Frank for the Committee.
4. Full-text Databases: The Steering Committee urged the Selections Committee to look at other fulltext databases that could be purchased and loaded on the resource centers. Since technical issues are significant in discussing the resource centers, Frank reminded the Steering Committee that Buddy and Carol were going to have a joint meeting of the Selections Committee and the Technical Issues committee.
C. TECHNICAL ISSUES: John Duke reported for Buddy Litchfield. Although the committee has not met since the last Steering Committee, the members have been very busy.
1. ETF Memo was developed and posted on the listserv.
ACTION: The Steering Committee reminded all public VIVA institutions to send a copy of their Equipment Trust Fund lists to Kathy Perry.
2. John Duke met with Vernet board to discuss VIVA project plans. The Technical Issues committee will provide the Vernet Board with projections to help in their capacity planning on the network.
3. Vendor Fair. John reported that John and Kathy had been working on the Vendor Fair, a Fair to showcase all available Z39.50 client software for the participating Virginia libraries. The purpose of the fair is to look at multiple products that might suit individual situations, not to select a single vendor product. John reported that the DIT site did not offer appropriate and was not acceptable. He has reserved 2 dates at VCU: November 8 and October 27. The Steering Committee agreed that the Vendor Fair should be held when the most vendors were available. Kathy will continue to work with the vendors to determine their interest and availability for the November 8 date or the October 27 date. Karin pointed out that Tuesday, November 8 is Election Day.
ACTION: Kathy and John will determine best date for the Vendor Fair and announce it on the listserv.
D. USER SERVICES: Wendell Barbour reported that the User Services Committee recommended that at least $10,000 of the training and travel budget be available for travel reimbursements for VIVA meetings. The Steering Committee emphasized that the committee's focus should be on training the trainer, first on the Ariel system and the ILL enhancements, then on First Search. Available printed materials from the vendor should be considered in the training program. John Duke suggested that additional training may be necessary on Mosaic, since the shared freeware environment may be confusing.
Kathy reported that she had requested the training and travel money from SCHEV. John Molnar reported that he didn't think it would be a problem.
ACTION: John Molnar will inform Kathy of the amount transferred. She will inform the Steering Committee and the committees on the procedures for reimbursement.
OTHER BUSINESS
1. Budget. Charlene reminded the Steering Committee that all VIVA project
money should be spent in support of the project. John Duke reminded the
Steering Committee that the ETF memo had outlined specific uses the ETF
money could be used for, including outside storage devices, routers, hubs,
multimedia production equipment, etc.
2. Next Meeting: Kathy will determine the site for the next meeting and post the information on the listserv.