ATTENDANCE: Present: Wendell Barbour, Theresa Byrd, Barbara Ford, Charlene Hurt, John Jaffe, Jean Major, Carol Pfeiffer, Dennis Robison, and Roy Strohl. Also Present: Gail McMillan, Frank Moran, and Kathy Perry. Absent: Eileen Hitchingham, Nancy Marshall, Elsie Stephens, Lew Terpstra.
I. MINUTES
The minutes of the September 21 meeting were approved as presented.
II. PROJECT UPDATE (Charlene Hurt and Kathy Perry)
A. Charlene reported that Peter Blake (SCHEV) has identified the week of
February 18 as available for VIVA's demonstration during the General Assembly
session. The Steering Committee agreed that this would be a good opportunity
to present VIVA, however, it would be essential to have a graphical interface,
rather than text only for the Web presentation. The Steering Committee
members agreed to provide volunteer assistance in staffing the booth. The
preliminary plan is to have the booth staffed during the hours of 10am -
2pm, Monday through Friday of that week. The Steering Committee also emphasized
the need to have a technical support person available throughout the demonstration
hours.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved funds to demonstrate VIVA for the legislators during the General Assembly session, if the the project can be assured of getting a graphical browser and technical support for the week.
Kathy also presented the draft format for the "VIVA FACTS" card. The purpose will be distribution among the VIVA participants, including the college and university Presidents, and general distribution at booths and presentations.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the overall format of the "VIVA Facts" card and approved funds for the design and printing in sufficient quantities.
Kathy also reported that many VIVA travelers seem to have difficulty understanding the new travel reimbursement regulations or, more simply, that many travelers still may not know that the travel regulations have changed.
ACTION: In addition to posting information on the VIVA listserv, Kathy
will send additional information about the revised travel regulations to
all library directors at the state-assisted colleges and universities.
B. Status of VIVA Implementations within VCCS (Jean Major and Theresa Byrd)
Jean reported that Internet access among the VIVA participants is still
very uneven due to incomplete Internet projects particularly within the
VCCS, different stages of hardware installation and web browser applications.
Jean encouraged the Steering Committee to develop more involvement with
the VIVA librarians at the grassroots level.
Theresa reported that the VCCS projects that by November 30, the majority of VCCS schools will have their Internet access. There are 4 exceptions: Dabney Lancaster CC and Rappahannock CC are to be complete by December 15, Wytheville CC is not expected to have Internet access until April 15, and at this time, there is no plan to have Virginia Western CC connected to the Internet.
Although Internet connections have taken a much longer time than the VIVA project had hoped would be the case, Theresa reported on several positive actions that were happening simultaneouslY: T-1 lines are scheduled for installation at 12 of the VCCS institutions by January 1; VCCS has a search open for a new Director of VCCS Library Automation; and VCCS is hiring a CIO of the Information Technology Services (data processing personnel).
In addition, Theresa reported that as chair of the VCCS VIVA subcommittee, she will work closely with the VCCS Internet subcommittee, chaired by Pat Thomas. The Steering Committee encouraged Theresa to identify ways VIVA could help address the Internet connectivity for the VCCS (and others).
ACTION: Theresa Byrd will meet with the VCCS VIVA Subcommittee and the VCCS Internet Subcommittee to track progress and identify issues to be addressed about Internet connectivity for the VIVA project. She will report back to the Steering Committee.
C. Solinet's Invitation to Southern Virtual Library Projects (Jean
Major)
Jean reported that SOLINET had issued a meeting invitation to the directors
of virtual library projects in the southern region.
ACTION: Charlene will follow up on SOLINET's invitation to southern consortial projects. She will see if the list can be expanded to include the Texas and Maryland projects and if the meeting can be held in conjunction with another meeting.
D. JMU as VIVA 's Purchasing Agent (Dennis Robison)
Dennis reported that he has met with Wayne Durrer, Director of JMU's Procurement
and Materiel Management Services, about the possibility of JMU accepting
the responsibility as VIVA purchasing agent. The initial estimate of $25,000/year
was discussed and the Steering Committee agreed that $50,000 over the biennium
period would be a good investment of time and resources, especially considering
the amount of staff time currently expended explaining VIVA and the various
procurements to procurement officers throughout the Commonwealth.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the draft proposal for JMU to serve as VIVA's Purchasing Agent. Dennis was authorized to explore the possibility of the agreement taking effect during this fiscal year.
E. SCHEV Council Meeting (Dennis Robison)
The Steering Committee discussed the role of VIVA in reducing duplication
of collections and the need for stability in VIVA funding for this to be
most successful.
III. COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. Electronic Collections (Carol Pfeiffer)
1. Fulltext RFP: Carol and Frank Moran reported on the Fulltext RFP Selections
Committee deliberations. The Steering Committee agreed that the VT 100
access was important to VIVA sites at this time.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the action plan of the Collections Committee in pursuing negotiations on the Fulltext RFP with one or more of the vendors for appropriate periods of service.
2. Project Muse: Carol reported that the Committee had explored pricing for Project Muse and recommends purchasing as a sole source item. Project Muse currently includes 11 journals published by the Johns Hopkins University Press and projects having at least 20 journals included by December 1996 and more than 40 by the end of 1997. Under this arrangement, VIVA libraries would be considered "Partner Libraries" to provide feedback to Project Muse and in return, we will receive journal-by-journal usage statistics.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the acquisition of Project Muse and expressed appreciation to Jim Campbell for his negotiations on VIVA's behalf.
3. Books in Print: The Collections Committee recommended purchasing Books in Print only if it includes the publishers' information.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the proposal to acquire Books in Print (with publisher information). The Collections Committee will negotiate to get the best price, will pursue acquisition of Books in Print, Books out of Print, and Forthcoming Books as well, and will explore the possibility of negotiating a rate if the VIVA private colleges wish to purchase this resource.
4. American Statistical Index: The Collections Committee has begun
researching this resource, but at this time, it does not exist in electronic
form.
6. Collections Budget: Carol reviewed the status of the VIVA Collections
budget and discussed several suggestions for allocating funds.
ACTION: The Collections Committee will gather information on options available for VIVA to provide commercial document delivery services to VIVA institutions.
B. User Services (Barbara Ford)
1. New Horizons Conference: Barbara presented the proposal for participation
in the VCCS New Horizons Conference in 1996.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved participation in the New Horizons Conference and the User Services Committee will proceed with plans to present VIVA at the New Horizons Conference.
2. Training for Chadwyck-Healey: Barbara reported that the User Services Committee was scheduled to meet that night and would proceed on their development of training on the Chadwyck-Healey fulltext databases.
3. VLA Conference Program: Roy reported on plans for the next day's presentation before the Virginia Library Association.
C. Interlibrary Loan Enhancements (Dennis Robison)
1. Committee Update: Dennis reported that Doug Hurd was taking the lead
on developing guidance for OCLC's FirstSearch ILL statistics. The three
workshops on the Virginia Union List of Serials were completed.
2. Ariel Implementation: Dennis reported that a request for additional
Ariel equipment has been received, particularly for scanners.
ACTION: The ILL Enhancements Committee will query VIVA ILL contacts and
directors to see what additional equipment needs they may have to support
the ILL function. Also, the ILL Enhancements Committee will encourage VIVA
sites to announce their Ariel workstations on the RLG Ariel database.
3. Private Schools: John Jaffe reported that the private schools had met and had endorsed the Ariel Protocals and the ILL Tier Groupings. He also reported that within 36 hours of receiving the notice that the VIVA procurement for the Online Encyclopedia Britannica was complete, a combined order for 19 of the 28 VIVA participating private schools had been placed and service was initiated to them.
D. Publicity (Jean Major)
Jean reported that she and Barbara were beginning to scope out plans for
National Library Week.
ACTION: The Publicity Committee will work with the User Services Committee to design materials for National Library Week.
E. Technical Issues (John Jaffe)
1. FirstSearch Statistics: John shared the FirstSearch statistics gathered by Eileen Hitchingham, the central contact for VIVA's FirstSearch statistics. These are important to several different committees for different reasons. The Steering Committee discussed several items they would like to see on a regular basis, including a simple format of information for each school's statistics, more information to follow-up on the issue of turn-aways (e.g. time of turn-aways to determine whether or not the number of ports is adequate), etc.
ACTION: The Technical Issues Committee will follow up on the FirstSearch use statistics, providing information to the VIVA committees, the Steering Committee members, and individual libraries.
The Steering Committee discussed the continued need to provide technical assistance to the VIVA participants. It was agreed that some of this may follow the work of Theresa Byrd and the VCCS review of need, but that it need not be dependent upon that.
ACTION: The Technical Issues Committee will compile a list of tools (e.g. best telnet client) for the VIVA web site.
ACTION: The Technical Issues Committee will prepare a statement of need and specifications for the VIVA infrastructure and will work to identify long-term and short-term ways to improve VIVA's implementations statewide.
F. Special Collections (Gail McMillan)
Gail reported that the VIVA Special Collections Committee web page is available
now and is hosted by Virginia Tech. The committee is working to identify
priorities for digitizing projects, and individual members are converting
their finding aids to Hyper-Text Mark-up Language for the web site. In
addition, the committee plans to conduct a brief survey of high school teachers
in the Commonwealth to determine which special collections they consider
to be most valuable.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
A. Governor's School (Barbara Ford)
ACTION: Charlene will work with Peter to follow up on the letter requesting the Virginia Governor's Schools' involvement in VIVA.