ATTENDANCE: Present: Wendell Barbour, Theresa Byrd, Barbara Ford, Eileen Hitchingham, Charlene Hurt, John Jaffe, Jean Major, Nancy Marshall, Carol Pfeiffer, Dennis Robison, Elsie Stephens, Roy Strohl, and Lew Terpstra. Also Present: Frank Moran and Kathy Perry.
I. MINUTES
The minutes of the November 9 meeting were approved as presented.
II. PROJECT UPDATE (Charlene Hurt and Kathy Perry)
A. Kathy reported that as of November 30, the VIVA listserv had 267 subscribers.
An analysis revealed that not all schools were represented on the listserv.
Kathy also distributed a memo (dated December 11, 1995) to clarify the state's new rules for reimbursement of Meals and Incidental Expenses. For overnight trips, the Commonwealth no longer reimburses travelers for their meal expenses on an actual cost basis. Instead, travelers are reimbursed based upon a per diem system, specific to each night's destination and the amount of time they are on official travel each day.
The VIVA Contacts Directory is being revised and is scheduled to be mailed to all (both public and independent institution) VIVA library directors and committee members in January.
Dennis presented information about the Maureen Sullivan workshop on "Redesigning Work in the Changing Library Environment". The Steering Committee agreed to pursue information about convening a workshop for VIVA Library Directors, in late spring, specifically to explore ways to redesign work in VIVA libraries because of VIVA innovations and products.
ACTION: Kathy will contact Maureen Sullivan about conducting a workshop for the VIVA library directors.
Charlene reported that Kate Nevins will send another letter of invitation for the Consortium roundtable discussion so that VIVA may send a representative or two.
ACTION: Charlene will share information about the SOLINET meeting of Consortia members with the other Steering Committee members.
B. JMU as VIVA's Purchasing Agent (Dennis Robison)
JMU has agreed to be VIVA's purchasing agent and will begin effective January
1. Since the money cannot be taken out of the VIVA General Assembly appropriation,
the Steering Committee decided to bring the matter of payment before the
full Library Advisory Council.
ACTION: Roy Strohl will present the issue of payment to JMU as purchasing agent to the full Library Advisory Council meeting on December 15. Dennis will provide billing information for the VIVA schools regarding payment to JMU.
C. Status of VIVA Implementations within VCCS (Lew Terpstra)
Lew reported that with the exception of 3 colleges (5 campuses), the majority
of the VCCS sites are now physically connected to the Internet. The T1
backbone link is scheduled to be completed during January, with all but
two schools (Rappahanock and Wytheville) connected by January 15.
The New Director of Automation, Gene Damon, begins work on January 16. He will replace both Lew Terpstra on the Steering Committee and George Koscho on the Technical Issues Committee.
The search for the new Vice Chancellor for Information Technology Resources is near completion and they hope to make an offer in January. This position has oversight over all technical aspects of library automation and all student data.
Theresa Byrd reported that the VCCS VIVA subcommittee and the VCCS Library Automation committee had each met once.
III. COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. ELECTRONIC COLLECTIONS (Carol Pfeiffer)
1. Cooperative Collection Workshop: Carol reported that the workshop facilitated
by George Soete had been very productive and had been well-received. Four
major projects were identified:
1A. Nursing/allied health
1B. Business
2. STM journals (to begin with one discipline)
3. List of collection strength and gaps
ACTION: Carol was authorized to establish subcommittees on each priority area, to include a cross-section of institutions, including 2 doctorals, 2 comprehensive schools, and 1 2-yr or community college. The Collections Committee will identify candidates for the subcommittees to work on the collection development projects.
2. Recommendation for the Fulltext RFP: After the formal RFP procurement process and a careful review of the submitted proposals, the Collections Committee recommended purchasing the Expanded Academic Index/ASAP database (Information access Company) for the fulltext journal article service. In addition to the Expanded Academic Index/ASAP, the Committee recommends purchase of both the General Business File and the Computer Database, as well as possibly a fourth database. Carol thanked Frank Moran for chairing the committee and all of the committee members for their hard work over the last several months.
ACTION: The Collections Committee was authorized to spend out the CC money for fulltext journal databases.
B. INTERLIBRARY LOAN ENHANCEMENTS (Dennis Robison)
Dennis reported that the ILL Committee had met on December 7 and they are
working on a number of issues.
1. Tracking ILL through OCLC: a draft of statistical report is scheduled
for February.
2. Workshop on Ariel use for the Community Colleges is scheduled for April
24-26.
3. VIVA institutions running into problems with their scanners are urged
to contact RLG.
4. A workshop on the basics of ILL is scheduled for March.
5. The committee is doing preliminary work towards drafting specifications
for the statewide delivery service, in preparation for the second biennium.
6. Requests for additional for Ariel equipment were received from VCU,
Virginia Tech, and ODU. In addition, VCU, the patent depository for the
Commonwealth, submitted a request for a Myrodex copier to handle their
patent collection. This will allow VCU to make digitized copies of their
patents on fiche, which can be transmitted via the Internet to other libraries.
ACTION: The Steering Committee authorized purchase of materials for ILL. The schools submitting requests included VPI (approximately $3,000), VCU (approximately $4,500), and ODU (approximately $4,500) for a total of $12,000. In addition, VCU will determine additional estimate of the patent copy machine, the purchase of which was approved.
C. TECHNICAL ISSUES (Eileen Hitchingham)
The Technical Issues Committee decided that it was premature to work on
a job description for a technical issues person. They will continue to
work with the "buddy system" to assist VIVA schools, and will
wait at least 3 months for the VCCS infrastructure to get in place. They
have established a TIC listserv for technical issues contacts in Virginia.
Eileen distributed statistics on FirstSearch use by VIVA institutions.
ACTION: Eileen will remind VIVA members to turn off FirstSearch if paying for block searches.
D. USER SERVICES (Barbara Ford)
1. Barbara reported that in order to bring a unified look to the VIVA web
pages, the User Services Committee is working on developing style guidelines
for the VIVA web pages. The Steering Committee authorized the development
of a small, ad hoc Web Page Subcommittee to work on redesigning the VIVA
web pages before mid-February.
ACTION: Kathy will convene a special Web Page Subcommittee of the User Services Committee. The membership will include John Duke (VCU), Barbie Selby (UVA), Gail McMillan (VPI), and Wendy Abrahamson (GMU).
2. The User Services Committee proposed to prepare promotional materials for the VIVA members: information on the Chadwyck-Healey African-American Poetry Database February's Black History Month; information appropriate to March's Women's History Month, and a press kit of materials appropriate to VIVA for the National Library Week in April.
ACTION: User Services will prepare promotional materials for Black History Month (February), Women's History Month (March) and National Library Week (April).
3. Barbara reported that the VLA meeting was very successful and thanked Roy Strohl for chairing the VIVA presentation.
4. Liz Hamilton is chairing the VIVA presentation at the VCCS New Horizons meeting.
E. PUBLICITY (Jean Major)
Jean will work with the User Services Committee on preparing materials for
the National Library Week.
Kathy reported that preparations are underway for the VIVA demonstration before the General Assembly, February 19-23. Work is underway by John Duke to acquire a new URL, the fact card will be printed as soon as the URL and logo are determined. The Steering Committee recommended that an on-site test be made prior to Demo Week and that a place be found to secure the equipment each night during the Demo Week.
ACTION: Kathy will work with Steering Committee members to identify a library director, a reference librarian, and a systems person for each of the 5 days VIVA will present at the General Assembly, February 19-23, 1996. The Steering Committee authorized Kathy to look into and arrange for the use of an outside design firm in the design and printing of the VIVA fact card, costs not to exceed $5,000.
F. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Nancy Marshall)
The Special Collections Committee is working to identify priorities for
digitizing Virginia Special Collections. They will survey Virginia high
school teacher to identify areas of interest for their classes.
OTHER BUSINESS
A. Jean suggested that another planning retreat would be useful for the
VIVA project and recommended that someone be brought in to facilitate the
discussion. Several suggestions were made, including combining this with
the proposed "Redesigning VIVA Libraries" Workshop or the spring
Soete follow-up visit.
B. Next Meeting
The next meeting of the VIVA Steering Committee will be held on Thursday,
February 8, 1996, from 10 am to 2 pm.