The Virtual Library of Virginia
The Virtual Library of Virginia
Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, March 6, 1997
Library of Virginia
Richmond
MINUTES
ATTENDANCE: Present: Theresa Byrd, Gene Damon, Linda Farynk, Barbara Ford, Eileen Hitchingham, Charlene Hurt, John Jaffe, Jean Major, Carol Pfeiffer, Dennis Robison, Roy Strohl, and Elsie Stephens Weatherington. Also Present: John Haskell and Kathy Perry. Absent: Nancy Marshall.
I. MINUTES
The minutes of the December 5, 1996 and January 30, 1997 meetings were approved.
II. PROJECT UPDATE
A. Kathy announced that the Directory will be reprinted and distributed to the VIVA Library Directors this month.
Posters are being reprinted and 19 inserts (advertising the resources currently available and several of the resources
currently in negotiation). These will be mailed to the User Services Contacts at each school and may be used at
each school’s discretion.
B. Kathy gave an update on contracts in negotiations. It is understood that OCLC is sending information to each
school.
ACTION: Kathy will ask Solinet to verify the contacts they use at each local institution with the library directors.
C. 1996-97 Funding:
1. Kathy distributed a summary sheet on the VIVA Travel and Training funds, with projections by committee and activity
for the remainder of the fiscal year.
ACTION: Committee Chairs will alert her to changes or corrections on the projections.
2. Charlene reported that the Steering Committee needed to determine the allocation for the Technical Support
$50,000 funds for this fiscal year. The decision was deferred until other committee reports could be heard.
3. Meetings:
a. Carol Pfeiffer, Eileen Hitchingham, and Kathy Perry reported on the Consort meeting (Consortium of Consortia)
in St. Louis. All three agreed it was a good investment of VIVA funds to attend, not only to hear what pricing
structures various vendors offered, but also to share information with the other state consortia. There may be
some major benefits in sharing information among the consortia on general topics of interest, such as statistics,
user authentication, database comparisons, etc.
b. John Jaffe and Jean Major reported on the Solinet meeting, the purpose of which was to help other states develop
consortia.
ACTION: Kathy will request information about Consortia staffing levels from the CONSORT listserv.
c. Association of Southeast Research Libraries (ASERL). ASERL’s Electronic Resource Program holds promise for negotiating
general base prices for consortium, which VIVA might use as a starting point for some vendor negotiations. includes
3 committees. Several VIVA members are members of the ASERL project, and they discussed the need to have their
staff members coordinate attendance at any committee meetings.
ACTION: Representatives of VIVA institutions participating on ASERL Committees (Electronic Licensing, Archiving, and Electronic Publishing Support) should be sure that at least one VIVA member attends the meetings to bring back information for VIVA.
d. Database Strategy Meeting. Carol shared the minutes of the first meeting held February 12, 1997, and reviewed
the task force’s purpose:
· revisit the applicability of hosting resources on servers located at VIVA member libraries in a client-server
environment.
· develop guidelines on how to select database access providers.
· examine the concept of the common interface for VIVA resources.
Since a great deal of this work may be relevant to the next proposal, it was suggested that the task force address
the hosting of resources sooner, rather than later.
4. VIVA Proposal. Charlene reported that Dennis Robison has agreed to chair the proposal committee. The Steering
Committee recommended convening a 2-day retreat for all members of all VIVA standing committees, the major purpose
being to gather information and ideas for the 1998-2000 biennial proposal. The proposal committee will aim to have
the proposal finished in August.
ACTION: Each committee is asked to identify key accomplishments and future needs. Dennis, Roy, and Kathy were named
to a working group to plan a 2-day retreat (scheduled for May 12-13) for all members of VIVA standing committees.
III. COMMITTEES
A. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Betsy Pitman)
1. Betsy reported that their last meeting was on January 16 and they plan to meet again in late March or early
April.
2. They are researching the Chadwyck-Healey U.S. Archives product and will make a recommendation to the Collections
Committee for or against purchase soon.
3. Their survey to high school teachers netted only 2 responses.
4. The Special Collections Committee is looking into meaningful ways VIVA can participate in the 400th anniversary
celebrations of Virginia.
5. The doctorals are working on their VIVA digitization projects with their local collections, scheduled for completion
by June 30, 1996.
B. ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE (Charlene Hurt)
Charlene presented the revised Organization Committee’s report.
ACTION: The Organization Committee’s report was amended to make clear that each standing committee shall include
at least one member of the Steering Committee, but the Steering Committee chair may appoint the committee chairs
from among that membership.
ACTION: Charlene will appoint a Nominating Committee.
The Approved Organization Structure is included as Attachment A to these minutes.
C. COLLECTIONS COMMITTEE (Carol Pfeiffer)
1. Congressional Compass. The Collections Committee recommended purchasing The Congressional Compass database which
provides indexing, abstracting, and some full text for publications pertaining to the U.S. Congress, from the year
1970 to the present.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the purchase of Congressional Compass, pending the successful outcome of
further negotiations and positive review by the technical issues representative.
2. JSTOR: The Collections Committee did not recommend purchasing JSTOR as a consortium purchase, since there was
inadequate monetary incentive to do so.
ACTION: Approved the Collections Committee recommendation not to purchase JSTOR.
3. FirstSearch: Carol reported on statistics on turnaways by database that Kathy had just received that morning
from OCLC. The statistics showed significant turnaways in the base packages, the MLA and the ABI databases.
ACTION: Approved the purchase of additional FirstSearch ports, pending further analysis of statistics showing turnaways. Carol and Kathy were authorized to purchase at least 5 ports (getting an additional 2 ports). Details on MLA and ABI turnaways were not available at the time, but the Steering Committee left it to the Collection Committee’s discretion to purchase additional ports for these resources.
4. IAC Renewal: The Collections Committee and its subcommittees recommended renewing all 4 of the IAC databases:
Expanded Academic/ASAP; Computer Database; General Business File; and Health Reference Center at least through
June 30, 1998. The Steering Committee discussed the value of renewing it for a longer period, but agreed on the
need to postpone that decision for a few months.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the renewal of all 4 IAC databases (Expanded Academic ASAP, BusinessFile,
Computer Database ASAP, and Health Reference Center) for another 8 months. The renewal for an additional 12 months
was postponed until more information can be gathered about additional titles added.
5. Deleting 4 Databases from FirstSearch: The Collections Committee compared 4 databases offered in both FirstSearch
and CSA and determined that CSA was superior. They recommended that VIVA delete these four databases from the VIVA
FIrstSearch option: AIDS and Cancer Research, Biology Digest, Environmental Sciences & Pollution, and Microcomputer
Abstracts.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved turning off these 4 FirstSearch databases: AIDS and Cancer Research,
Biology Digest, Environmental Sciences & Pollution, and Microcomputer Abstracts. The Collections Committee
will share information via the listserv on how to make the changes in the FirstSearch administrative module at
each institution.
6. Cost-Savings and Value Added Survey: Carol reported that she and Kathy are working on the final version of the
VIVA Cost-Savings and Value Added Survey for 1995-96.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved distribution of the Cost Savings and Value Added Survey (Executive Summary,
Report, and Chart) to all VIVA Library Directors, and all members of these standing committees: Publicity, Collections,
and Steering. Suggestions on changes to the survey format or additions to the survey committee should be directed
to Carol.
7. Carol reported that since the web version of the Harper’s Weekly project was not yet available, the Collections
Committee was not recommending VIVA purchase it, but that her committee had received notice that any VIVA institutions
purchasing Harper’s Weekly now will get a full refund should VIVA decide to purchase it later in this year.
8. The Cooperative Collection Management projects are proceeding on schedule. The Project Confidence Project had
identified 267 IAC titles that are also covered by 2 or 3 other vendors. This list will be distributed to the institutions
for their use in evaluating their collections.
9. The OED is now available to all of the VIVA independent institutions through the UVA server.
10. American Business Information is only available on CD, but the company is offering a free 6-month trial subscription
to any VIVA library not already subscribing.
D. ILL ENHANCEMENTS COMMITTEE (Dennis Robison)
1. Dennis presented a proposal for VIVA to purchase upgrades to the Ariel software used in InterLibrary Loan offices
throughout the state.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the purchase of Ariel 2.0 software for all public institutions. Dennis will ask schools to indicate how many copies they need for their ILL offices and if they wish to purchase any additional copies for other offices on campus. John Jaffe will coordinate the order for the independent institutions, to be paid out of their local funds. Dennis, John J., and Kathy will coordinate for the combined consortial order.
2. The ILL Enhancements Committee met with a larger group of representatives from all 6 doctoral institutions
on February 7. The committee talked again about the need for ILL offices to use the Virginia Union List of Serials.
Dennis reported that the committee is working on a FAQ for the web and he reminded VIVA that the insititutions
are under no obligations to use FedEx for their ILL services.
3. The Steering Committee discussed the allocation of remaining funds originally allocated for Technical support
for 1996-97. It was decided that these funds could support the Ariel 2.0 purchase, as well as supporting student
and other technical support expenses.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the move of the $50,000 for the Technical Support, 1996-97, to GMU. Kathy will work with Charlene and Bill Bigger (SCHEV) to initiate the transfer.
E. TECHNICAL ISSUES (Eileen Hitchingham)
The Technical Issues Committee recommended that vendors be asked to specify in writing how they will handle user
authentication issues beyond IP validation.
ACTION: The Steering Committee encouraged the TIC representatives to work with the Collections representatives and Kathy to handle this during the early stages of negotiations.
F. USER SERVICES (Theresa Byrd)
1. The User Services Committee presented a proposal to purchase additional FirstSearch handbooks at a discount.
The independent institutions may participate at the favorable rate as well.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the purchase of 170 FirstSearch handbooks for VIVA public institutions.
2. The User Services Committee is working with the Collections Committee on designing a VIVA workshop on Electronic
Collections. The two committees will meet further and discuss how to narrow the workshop’s focus.
3. The User Services Committee recommends convening a VIVA Users Group at VLA next November.
ACTION: The concept of a Users Group meeting at the November VLA meeting was approved. The User Services Committee is encouraged to seek outside funding for this meeting.
4. Approximately 75 people are registered for the IAC training to be held on March 7, 10, and 12 at CNU, VCU,
and Radford.
5. User Services is co-sponsoring a workshop on Teaching in the Electronic Environment at GMU on May 30. This will
be a chance for all librarians involved in bibliographic instruction to convene in one place. Flyers will be distributed.
6. User Services is also working on posting handouts on the web.
G. PUBLICITY (Jean Major)
1. Publicity Committee will make a presentation before the community college LRC directors on March 21.
2. Publicity is working with the User Services Committee on the posters and inserts.
3. Initial work is going forward on the 5-10 minutes video presentation about VIVA.
4. The "News Day" concept is currently on the back burner.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
1. If another Steering Committee meeting is necessary for action items between now and June, it was agreed that
the Steering Committee would find time at the May Retreat for a meeting. Other than that, the Steering Committee
will plan on having another "virtual meeting", details to follow. The next "real" meeting will
be in conjunction with the LAC meeting June 5-6, place to be determined.
Attachment A
The Committee makes the following recommendations:
VIVA COMMITTEES
STEERING COMMITTEE
1. Keep the representation as it is presently: 6 doctorals; 3 comprehensives; 2 community colleges; 1 private institution; and the chair of LAC (ex-officio).
2. All members, except the doctorals whose directors are permanent members, serve two-year terms.
3. The comprehensives, community colleges and private institutions are responsible for naming their representatives in whatever manner they deem appropriate. It is recommended that they select new members to begin terms July 1 and that the rotation of new members be staggered so that not all members change in any given year.
4. The chair, who must be a member of the SCHEV-Library Advisory Council at the time of election, also serves a two year term beginning July 1.
5. The chair is elected by the Steering Committee from the membership of the Steering Committee after receiving a report from the Nominations Committee (see below) at the spring meeting (usually June).
OTHER COMMITTEES
A. Appointments
1. VIVA Standing Committees are: Steering; Collections; Technical Issues; Interlibrary Loan; Users Services; Special Collections; and Publicity.
2. Each standing committee shall include at least one member of the Steering Committee.
3. Chairs of all VIVA standing committees reporting to the Steering Committee are appointed by the chair of the
Steering Committee for two-year terms. In order to preserve continuity and ensure that no more than ½ of
the VIVA chairs rotate off in any one year, the Steering Committee should stagger appointments of new committee
chairs.
4. Chairs of VIVA committees, with the advice and consent of the Steering Committee, will appoint the members needed to carry out the work of their respective committees. In so doing, the representation established for each committee by the Steering Committee will be maintained.
5. Chairs of VIVA committees will be responsible for appointing members to staggered two-year terms in order to provide continuity. No more than ½ of the committee should rotate off in any one year.
6. Subcommittees may be appointed by the chairs of VIVA committees with the concurrence of the VIVA Steering Committee.
7. Chairs shall determine the frequency of committee meetings.
B. Nomination Committee (ad hoc)
1. Every two years, in the spring, the outgoing VIVA Steering Committee chair will appoint a three-person nominating committee to recommend the next chair who will serve for a two-year term beginning July 1.
2. In the event of an unexpected vacancy in the Steering Committee chair position, a nomination committee will be appointed to recommend a chair to fill out the remaining period of the term.