ATTENDANCE: Present: Theresa Byrd, Gene Damon, Linda Farynk, Charlene
Hurt, John Jaffe, Carol Pfeiffer, Dennis Robison, and Roy Strohl. Also Present:
John Duke, Jim Gwin, Kathy Perry, and Ann Pettingill.
Absent: Barbara Ford, Eileen Hitchingham, Jean Major, Nancy Marshall, Elsie
Stephens Weatherington.
I. MINUTES
The minutes of the August 1 meeting were approved.
II. PROJECT UPDATE
A. Charlene reported on her presentation "Cooperative Collection Development
with VIVA" before the SCHEV IPAC meeting . Kathy distributed the Estimated
Purchase Price Financial Benefits for VIVA Purchases (1994-96), totalling
$11,719,243 for public institutions, representing money saved by VIVA purchases
over what the public institutions would have paid for the products had they
purchased them individually. This represents an additional $6,862,798 over
the $5 million reported last year in financial benefits due to VIVA purchases.
Attendees were reminded that VIVA does not disclose proprietary information,
including the negotiated price for the products.
ACTION: Charlene will send a copy of the handouts she prepared for the SCHEV IPAC meeting to the Steering Committee members.
B. Charlene reported that she would appoint Joyce Ogburn (ODU) to chair the VIVA Task Force on cataloging. She requested nominations for members to represent the public doctorals, comprehensive colleges, and the 2-year schools, as well as the independent schools.
C. Kathy circulated the list of the VIVA listserv recipients and corrections were noted.
ACTION: Kathy work with James Powell at Virginia Tech to make changes to the listserv subscribers. She will send a corrected copy of the VIVA listserv subscribers to the listserv and will provide information about subscribing and unsubscribing.
D. Kathy reported that VIVA was included in the Library Hi Tech issue on "State of the State Reports" (Vol. 14, number 2-3, 1996).
E. Kathy reported that she has begun receiving statistics from IAC as well as receiving the year's total for FirstSearch from Eileen. Statistics on the Britannica Online were not received in time for the meeting. She shared a compilation of IAC statistics in draft form with the committee and will continue working to compile information for the library directors.
ACTION: Kathy will send a sample of the IAC statistics to Gene Damon, John Jaffe, Carol Pfeiffer and John Duke.
III. COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. ILL ENHANCEMENTS (Dennis Robison)
1. Dennis reported that the committee received ILL lending statistics from
OCLC and they have prepared an allocation of the $125,000 based upon those
numbers.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the allocation of the document delivery funds to the VIVA public institutions. Dennis will coordinate with Bill Bigger at SCHEV on the procedures for allocating the funds. Dennis and Kathy will prepare a mailing for all library directors to explain the allocations.
2. Dennis also reported that the FedEx service is guaranteed two-day delivery, but it may actually provide faster service for many sites. The private libraries are included in the negotiated VIVA rate.
3. The ILL Enhancements Committee will review the results of the ILL regional meetings held this summer. They intend to look at the impact of VIVA services upon ILL offices, including ways to monitor load leveling as a result of VIVA and the impact of full-text services such as IAC.
B. COLLECTIONS COMMITTEE (Carol Pfeiffer)
1. Carol reported that the Collections Committee had successfully renegotiated
with Gale Publications for the following five web-based products: Encyclopedia
of Associations (expanded); Contemporary Authors; Research Centers Directory;
Biography and Geneology Master Index; and Publications in Broadcast Media.
Carol reported that the contract might be completed soon, making implementation
this semester possible.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the purchase of the GaleNet publications, including the Encyclopedia of Associations (Expanded), Contemporary Authors, Research Centers Directory, Biography and Geneology Master Index, and Publications in Broadcast Media.
2. Carol presented the interim findings on the 1995-96 Cost Savings and Value Added Survey. As expected, there were a limited number of cancellations to report during this baseline period, attributed to the newness of the services, unreliability of the Internet connections in some cases, uncertainty of continued funding, and schedules for subscription renewals. The Steering Committee requested that the Collections Committee undertake a project to review microform copy cancellations within VIVA.
ACTION: The Collections Committee will determine an appropriate method for cancelling microforms among the VIVA institututions.
3. The Cooperative Collection Management Workshop, Part II, is scheduled for November 21-22 in Charlottesville. Steering Committee members are invited to attend the Friday portion of that meeting.
C. TECHNICAL ISSUES COMMITTEE (John Jaffe and John Duke)
1. The Technical Issues Committee reported that there was no problem with
port access for VIVA products, but that OCLC's error message defaulted to
a misleading message leading people to believe that ports were an issue.
OCLC experienced a number of problems during the last month and has since
installed a new server.
2. On the issue of user authentication, the technical issues committee decided that it was a local issue, dependant in part on the database available at the home institution and the format for the vendors' service delivery. While the technical issues committee members said it is possible to establish a framework to assist the VIVA institutions, this would require significant staff resources. The committee suggested that this issue be considered when contracts are negotiated.
3. TIC recommends funding for central technical staff during this fiscal year.
ACTION: The Technical Issues Committee's proposal on technical support was referred to the Organization Committee for further consideration.
4. TIC has reviewed their organizational structure and recommends that the membership be maintained as it stands, but that the the chair may not need to be a library director.
D. USER SERVICES COMMITTEE (Theresa Byrd)
1. Theresa reported on the committee's discussion regarding past VIVA workshops.
A major problem was that people of different knowledge levels were attending
the same workshop. The User Services Committee recommended that workshops
be segmented to meet different learning needs. One suggestion was to have
a pre-meeting to provide a basic overview on the topic immediately prior
to the workshop.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the concept of multi-level training for VIVA workshops (e.g. beginners and advanced) when deemed necessary by the User Services Committee.
2. The USC recommends that VIVA review the role of the independent institutions in VIVA.
ACTION: John Jaffe, Carol and Kathy will prepare projections on private school participation in VIVA purchases.
3. Theresa reported the committee's discussions on "Integrating VIVA into the Teaching and Learning Process". The committee decided to promote the help screens available from the vendors, rather than preparing an on-line tutorial on VIVA products.
ACTION: Steering Committee approved printing new inserts for the VIVA posters. Kathy will work with Theresa.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved two workshops in the USC series: "Authoring and Generic Teaching Series": Training on Chadwyck-Healey databases (for librarians and faculty members) tentatively scheduled for December 1996, and one on Teaching Techniques tentatively scheduled for May 1997.
ACTION: USC will identify professional faculty associations in the state in order to identify appropriate venues for VIVA presentations.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
A. Retreat Follow-Up: Charlene presented the Organization Committee's draft
mission statement.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the following draft mission statement for review by the LAC: "VIVA's mission is to provide, in an equitable, cooperative and cost effective manner, enhanced access to library and information resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia's academic libraries serving the higher education community."
The Steering Committee also began discussing the VIVA vision statement, but the discussion was postponed due to lack of time.
B. The committee agreed that they needed to meet in November (in addition to the VIVA/LAC meeting to continue the discussions.
ACTION: Kathy will poll the members to determine the best dates and times
for the November and December meetings