ATTENDANCE: Present: Theresa Byrd, Gene Damon, Linda Farynk, Barbara Ford, Eileen Hitchingham, Charlene Hurt, John Jaffe, Jean Major, Nancy Marshall, Carol Pfeiffer, Dennis Robison, and Roy Strohl. Also Present: Hannah Francis and Kathy Perry. Absent: Elsie Stephens Weatherington.
I. MINUTES
The minutes of the May 9 meeting were approved with one correction: Shelley
Phipps' name is "Phipps", not "Phibbs".
The minutes of the June 14 meeting were approved as presented.
II. PROJECT UPDATE
A. Web Page Policy: The Steering Committee reviewed the following statement
of purpose drafted by John Duke on May 10, 1996:
The purpose of the VIVA homepage is:
1. to provide access to collections and services purchased or sponsored
by VIVA:
2. to be a convenient source for exploring other research and educational
resources on the Internet, particularly those in VIVA libraries or related
to Virginia; and
3. to promote VIVA and to inform its members, constituents, and others of
its programs.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the statement of purpose for VIVA's web site.
B. Committees:
1. Cataloging: Jean reported that the informal meeting hosted by ODU on
July 26, 1996 to discuss issues regarding the provision of intellectual
access to VIVA's electronic collections was very successful. The group forwarded
a recommendation to the VIVA Steering Committee on the establishment of
a VIVA Cataloging Committee. The Steering Committee commended the group
on their initiative at dealing with an important topic for VIVA's electronic
resources and their successful implementation. Rather than appoint another
standing committee, the Steering Committee decided that an ad hoc committee
would be appointed to address the issues within a limited term of six months.
The ad hoc committee will be a sub-committee of the User Services Committee
and the membership should include a reference librarian. The ad hoc committee
will be encouraged to look at multiple approaches (including non-traditional
approaches such as outsourcing) to the solution. Charlene will work with
Joyce Ogburn (ODU) to identify members for a small (5-6 members) committee.
Members will be chosen to represent the various types of institutions in
the state.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the formation of an Ad hoc Committee on Cooperative Cataloging of VIVA Electronic Collections for Intellectual Access. The committee will be appointed for a six-month period. Charlene will work with Joyce Ogburn (ODU) to identify committee member nominees and Charlene will appoint the members.
The request of VIVA travel funds to cover travel for the initial meeting was discussed. Since the cataloging meeting did not emanate from a standing VIVA committee, and since approval was not granted before the meeting took place, the Steering Committee decided against allowing the meeting attendees from submitting travel reimbursement forms to the VIVA project for the travel. (Travel of committee members to future scheduled meetings of the ad hoc committee will be covered in the VIVA travel budget.)
ACTION: The Steering Committee did not approve retroactive funding for the informal cataloging meeting held at Old Dominion University on July 26, 1996.
User Services Committee: Due to the press of her ALA duties, Barbara Ford has resigned as Chair of the User Services Committee. The Steering Committee thanked Barbara for her work as chair.
ACTION: Charlene appointed Theresa Byrd as chair of the User Services Committee.
ILL Enhancements: The ILL Enhancements Committee recommended that VPI be included on the committee, due to their large volume of ILL for the state. Eileen will nominate an ILL staff person to serve on the ILL Enhancements Committee.
ACTION: Charlene will appoint a VPI staff member for membership on the ILL Enhancements Committee.
C. Retreat Follow-up
The chairs of the working groups all reported on progress.
ACTION: Reports will be drafted for the September 26 VIVA Steering Committee meeting.
D. SCHEV Information Request
Jean presented some questions about use of VIVA resources that had been
raised by her institution's Technology Task Force on behalf of SCHEV. At
JMU, the questions were:
(1) Describe the institution's involvement with the academic virtual library
(VIVA).
(2) At your institution, what is the adequacy of access to VIVA materials?
(3) What is the percentage of student who access VIVA materials?
(4) What is the percentage of faculty who access VIVA materials?
Dennis also reported that he had also received similar questions last spring, regarding the university's ETF budget.
ACTION: Working with Dennis, Jean, and Charlene, Kathy will send information out to the CHE-LAC listserv about the SCHEV benchmarking questions some institutions have received.
E. VIVA Budget
The Steering Committee discussed the 1996-97 VIVA budget. Several members
indicated that their equipment money was in the ETF allocation and would
not be released until late fall. Kathy distributed a breakdown of the 96-97
funds, with the revised information for the allocation of the digitizing
special collections money to the five doctorals. The Steering Committee
will seek clarification from Peter on the allocation of all VIVA funds.
ACTION: Charlene will ask Peter to send information out on the CHE-LAC listserv (with a copy to the budget officers) regarding the amount of VIVA money that is due each public institution and where they might begin looking for it.
III. COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. Collections (Carol Pfeiffer)
1. MLA subscription: Carol presented the committee's recommendation to accept
the MLA negotiated price. The Collections Committee and the Steering Committee
were persuaded that this represented the best price to be obtained.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the renewal of the MLA subscription with the guaranteed price for 3 years, depending upon the availability of funds. Carol and John Jaffe will work out details of how privates will be included in the subscription.
2. Academic Press Journals, the "IDEAL" Project: The proposal
provides VIVA members online access to view, print, and download complete
articles from all 184 current titles. Two pricing proposals were presented
and the committee's recommendation was accepted for the initial year (1996-97),
which is based upon the 1994 subscriptions as the base year for VIVA. Fees
for the independent schools are figured separately and will depend upon
their level of purchasing AP journals. The committee discussed the issue
of journal cancellations and the cost shifting from institutional to VIVA
budgets that might result. The STM subcommittee will develop recommendations
about how to manage this issue.
Gene, the Technical Issues contact for this purchase, recommended that since
Adobe Acrobat is required at each workstation to view these journals, that
full implementation be delayed for a few months (suggesting January 1, 1997)
in order to allow the TIC members time to prepare to assist VIVA members
with Adobe Acrobat installation. (He also noted that a future version of
Netscape browser is scheduled to include the Adobe Acrobat software, which
would simplify the implementation significantly.) This would not preclude
schools with Adobe Acrobat from implementing the subscription locally as
quickly as possible.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the subscription to the Academic Press Journals. The Steering Committee approved a delay in full implementation for a few months for those schools without Adobe Acrobat, allowing the Technical Issues Committee time to organize assistance for all VIVA members.
ACTION: The STM subcommittee will manage any cancellations in a coordinated manner.
3. Gale Electronic Reference Databases: Carol presented the committee's recommendation to purchase the Gale databases. While acknowledging the value of the resources, particularly for the community colleges, the Steering Committee weighed the value of this resource for all institutions against the cost.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved purchase of the Gale Electronic Reference materials only if the negotiations were to bring the price down to a specified amount with no reductions in subscription period.
4. Britannica Online: The current subscription to Britannica Online ends in January 1997. The price/FTE will remain constant with 1995/96 price. Actual cost will reflect changes in FTE count.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the renewal of Britannica Online for an 18-month period.
5. Workshop on Cooperative Collection Development (Phase 2): Carol requested permission to begin preliminary work on Phase 2 of the Cooperative Collection Development Workshop, tentatively scheduled for November 1996 in Charlottesville. Initial plans are to have the Collections Committee meet the first day and have the Steering Committee join the discussions on the second day.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved planning for the second phase of the Soete workshops for Cooperative Collections Development.
B. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Nancy Marshall)
1. Nancy reported that the Special Collections Committee met the previous
week and discussed their proposed projects digitizing special collections
for 1996-97. The VIVA funds for this projects were allocated to each of
the five doctoral institutions originally represented on the Special Collections
Committee (GMU, UVA, VCU, VPI & WM). Since ODU is now represented on
the Special Collections Committee, they will be included in the digitizing
project. The Steering Committee discussed how best to allocate funds for
ODU's participation.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the transfer of $20,000 from
the Collections budget to ODU for digitizing special collections. Kathy
will work with JMU to expedite the payment.
Each of the doctoral institutions is expected to report on their expenditure
and progress at the end of the 1996-97 fiscal year.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the Special Collections Committee's report on proposed digitizing projects at the six doctoral institutions for the 1996-97 fiscal year. Each doctoral school is to write a report documenting their expenditures of the VIVA money for the digitizing projects in 1996-97.
2. Nancy reported that the Special Collections Committee is sending a letter to high school history teachers in the Commonwealth to identify their preferences for digitizing projects. Barbara reported that VCU will absorb the costs for this mailing.
3. The Special Collections Committee will be represented at the Library of Virginia meeting. [Nancy... more details here?]
C. ILL ENHANCEMENTS COMMITTEE (Dennis Robison)
1. Document Delivery Service: Dennis reported that the contract for document
delivery service was almost complete. The VIVA budget for this item ($125,000
in 1996-97) will be distributed to each of the public VIVA institutions,
based upon their rate of ILL lending within the state for 1995-96. Rather
than have each institution report their statistics, Doug Hurd will request
these from OCLC.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the contract with FedEx for the VIVA document delivery service. Doug Hurd will get ILL statistics on in-state lending from OCLC. Dennis will work with SCHEV to get the 1996-97 funds ($125,000) distributed to the VIVA sites according to their percentage of in-state lending. The ILL Enhancements Committee will send information to each VIVA institution's ILL contact to explain procedures. [Note: Following the meeting, Dennis confirmed with FedEx that the contract includes the private institutions.]
2. The ILL Regional Workshops: scheduled for August 5-9, are well subscribed with approximately 100 people registered to attend the 4 sessions. The primary issues will be the new document delivery service and the 24-48 hour policy for ILL delivery.
D. PUBLICITY (Jean Major)
1. Publicity Plan: Jean presented a publicity plan for 1996-97.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the publicity plan.
2. Publicity Committee: Jean recommended that VIVA establish a standing committee to handle the work necessary for VIVA's publicity. It was agreed that the committee need not be large, and that it could be representative of institutional types while also being geographically located near the Tidewater area.
ACTION: Nominees' names are to be sent to Charlene and she will appoint the VIVA publicity committee members.
3. Letter to the Presidents: Jean presented a draft letter to VIVA institution presidents. The committee requested that the appropriate library directors be copied on each letter, and that a similar letter go to each schools' chief academic officer.
ACTION: The letter to the Presidents was approved. The Steering Committee asked that the letters also be sent to the Provosts and that the Library Directors would be copied on the letter. Copies will go to Peg Miller, Peter Blake, and Gordan Davies. Kathy will supply Jean with copies of the VIVA fact card and the VIVA bookmark, to be enclosed in the mailing along with the VIVA fact sheet.
4. Press Release: Jean presented a press release.
E. TECHNICAL ISSUES (Eileen Hitchingham)
1. FirstSearch Statistics: Eileen presented the FirstSearch statistics through
May 1996.
ACTION: Carol will send a note to the listserv reminding VIVA libraries that the block search mode in FirstSearch is an experiment.
2. IAC Web Access: Web access is available. Web access through the VIVA home page is not preferred, since it will preclude the availability of some important information -- both the gathering of statistics on individual school's usage and information about each school's holdings for the user. TIC is working with IAC to determine what each school should do to implement their own web access, apart from the VIVA web site.
3. Authentication: TIC is working on user authentication issues for VIVA.
4. Networking in the State: Eileen and Gene reported on the ATM project (VPI, ODU, and the community colleges).
5. Organizational Structure: Eileen reported that TIC members recommended funding one person to handle some of the VIVA technical issues centrally.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
A. Carol suggested that VIVA convene a strategy meeting this fall on long-term
directions for database provider(s).
ACTION: Carol will prepare a charge for an invitational meeting to discuss
long-term strategies for VIVA's relations with database providers.
B. The next meeting of the VIVA Steering Committee will be held on Thursday,
September 26, 1996 (9:30 am - 1:30 pm) at Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg,
to be followed by the CHE-LAC meeting at 2:00 pm.
.