The Virtual Library of Virginia

ATTENDANCE: Present: Theresa Byrd, Gene Damon, Linda Farynk, Barbara Ford, Eileen Hitchingham, John Haskell, Charlene Hurt, John Jaffe, Paul Metz, Barbara Miller, Roy Strohl, and Elsie Stephens Weatherington. Also Present: Joyce Ogburn (ODU), Susanna Pathak (VCU), Kathy Perry (VIVA), Carol Pfeiffer (SCHEV), Jim Self (UVA), and John Walsh (GMU). Absent: Jean Major and Karin Wittenburg.

I. MINUTES
The minutes of the July 17th meeting were approved.

II. PROJECT UPDATE
A. Chair’s Report
1. Membership and Committees
a. Theresa reported that committee chair appointments were complete. They include: Collections: Connie McCarthy (W&M) with Paul Metz as Interim Chair; ILL: Roy Strohl; Special Collections: Elsie Stephens Weatherington; Technical Issues: Eileen Hitchingham; and User Services: Jean Major.

b. There is a need to reconstitute the Organization Committee to handle issues of the bylaws and organizational guidelines.

ACTION: The motion was approved to appoint a new Organization Committee. Membership is: Theresa Byrd, Linda Farynk, Barbara Ford, Barbara Miller, and Kathy Perry.

c. The Chair and the Project Director will visit one committee meeting for all committees during the fall.

d. Each chair is asked to work with their committees to identify priorities for the year by the December Steering Committee meeting.

2. Biennial Proposal: Theresa reported that the VIVA proposal for 1998-2000 has been submitted to SCHEV. It is anticipated that the Council will review it during October and November and presented to the Governor in December. The proposal was presented in two parts: Section A included $2.5 additional funding beyond the base for the public colleges and Section B included a $500,000 proposal for participation by the independent colleges and universities.

3. Theresa reported that although Charlene had tried several times to establish a meeting between the VIVA subcommittee members and the Library of Virginia subcommittee members, she was not able to establish a meeting date during the summer.

ACTION: The motion was approved by consensus to appoint Gene Damon as chair and to appoint Roy Strohl to replace Charlene on the VIVA/Library of Virginia Committee. (The four VIVA representatives are: Gene, Roy, Elsie Weatherington and Kathy Perry.)

4. The meeting between the Independents, SCHEV, and VIVA representatives was held on August 8, 1997. Eileen Hitchingham, Roy Strohl and Theresa Byrd represented VIVA. The Independent schools were represented by John Jaffe and Bob Lambeth. Peter Blake and Carol Pfeiffer represented SCHEV. The representatives reported it was an interesting meeting with a good discussion. It was agreed that since SCHEV would have to present both the VIVA proposal for the public institutions as well as the proposal for the independents, that the proposals would go forward as Section A: $2.5 million for new initiatives for the public institutions and Section B: .5 million for the independents. It was agreed that a second meeting of the group will be held in the fall, before word is received from the legislature, to determine how to handle the funding.

5. Theresa reported that the first VIVA Users’ Group meeting will be held at VLA (October 30 in Crystal City) and encouraged chairs of all standing committees to be present for questions.

6. The Committee discussed Theresa’s recommendation that we develop Resource Management Teams for each VIVA resource. The purpose would be to work with a particular resource from the early evaluation, through purchase, implementation and renewal. There are currently collections and technical issues representatives assigned to each resource and it was agreed that a user services representative is necessary for each resource. It was understood that the work could be handled electronically and should improve the involvement of VIVA’s reference librarians.

ACTION: The User Services Committee will name an individual to round out the "Resource Management Team" for each of VIVA’s resources. Joyce will brief Jean Major on the discussion and the list of names will be sent to Kathy Perry as soon as possible.

7. Theresa reported that she, Eileen Hitchingham and Kathy Perry will represent VIVA at the Consortium of Consortia meeting, September 22-24, 1997 in Chicago. An initial survey on funding and governance has been completed. The three representatives will report back to VIVA.

8. Theresa reported that a community college faculty had shown particular interest in the VIVA resources, indicating a strong interest by faculty and identification of VIVA resources as essential to their work.

9. Theresa voiced a concern that we need to improve the way we communicate VIVA actions to those library directors not currently sitting on the Steering Committee.

ACTION: The representatives of the constituency groups (2-year schools, 4-year comprehensives, and independents) will determine the most appropriate way to improve communication of VIVA actions with their members.

B. Project Director’s Report (Kathy Perry)
1. The brochure has been approved and should be distributed to library directors within a month.
2. Revised membership lists for the five standing committees were distributed. Changes and corrections should be reported to Kathy.
3. The Fact Sheet and the Procurement Tracking chart were distributed and the members were urged to update their Steering Committee notebooks.

III. COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. COLLECTIONS (Paul Metz)
1. Cost Savings and Value Added Survey (Susanna Pathak) Susanna distributed a draft of the survey instrument for the 1996-97 fiscal year. As before, the survey will measure the direct savings, indirect savings, and value added features attributable to VIVA’s resources. The subcommittee recommended that in the interest of saving paper and staff time at the local institutions, the value added section of the survey would only include resources new during the survey time period. Items that were identified as new during the previous fiscal year would be captured from the 1995-96 survey by the VIVA Project Director.

ACTION: In order to provide SCHEV with some preliminary numbers relating to cost savings from cancellations, Collections Development Officers at VIVA schools should notify Kathy Perry as quickly as possible with a preliminary estimate of cost savings from cancellations during this fiscal year.

ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the format and procedures for the Cost Savings and Value Added Survey presented by the Collections Committee. In addition, those attending the Consort (Consortium of Consortia) meeting will ask what other consortia are doing to identify cost savings. The Steering Committee approved moving the survey to a biennial period, timed to provide information during the proposal preparation period. This year’s survey will ask each institution to calculate the time required in filling out the survey.

2. Renewals: Paul presented the list of renewals currently under consideration by the Collections Committee. Due to renewal schedules, four resources were highlighted for the Steering Committee’s review

ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the motion to proceed with renewals –subject to successful negotiations -- for the following four VIVA resources: Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, GaleNet, MathSciNet, and Project Muse.

3. IAC: The Collections Committee recommended re-examining available general online full-text services appropriate to VIVA. The Collections Committee expressed recognition for the need to evaluate services with our users in mind and to make any changes with adequate lead time to assure a smooth transition and a successful implementation.

ACTION: The motion was approved with one abstention to issue an RFP for a general online full-text service.

4. Priorities: Paul presented 3 major priorities for the year, each of which would require significant staff time by committee members, in addition to their work on the renewals and the RFP.

ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the priorities of 1) Renewals, including the RFP and the 2) Cost Savings and Value Added Survey.

B. ILL (Roy Strohl)
1. ILL Document Delivery Allocations: Roy presented the ILL Committee’s recommendation for allocation of the $225,000 available in fiscal year 1997-98. (see Attachment A)

ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the motion to distribute the ILL document delivery funds for 1997-98 according to the allocation presented by the ILL Committee. Roy and Kathy will mail the letter and procedures to all library directors at the VIVA public institutions.

2. Since the IPED reports are only collected biennially, the ILL Committee raised the question of what to do in the off-years. The Steering Committee members voiced interest in the funds distributed by the Library of Virginia under the Net Lenders program.

ACTION: The motion was unanimously approved designating the ILL Committee as the collector of the ILL statistics in the off-years when the IPED reports are not prepared.

3. The ILL Committee will be working on several priorities for the next year, including exploring the full-text document delivery, exploring other standardized equipment of use to multiple offices within libraries, and reviewing the policy regarding lending specialized resources through ILL.

C. Technical Issues (Eileen Hitchingham)

1. Eileen presented the revised membership for the Technical Issues Committee.
2. The committee will be working on several issues relating to connectivity, including identifying the source of problems, continuing to explore the issue of locally mounting databases, and working with OCLC on direct connections through frame relay. They also will be working on user authentication issues.
3. Eileen distributed a draft chart on technical support for VIVA resources that the committee will post to the web site soon.

D. User Services (Joyce Ogburn)
Joyce presented the priorities for the User Services Committee, encompassing the Publicity subcommittee and the Cataloging and Intellectual Access subcommittee.
1. Maintaining VIVA institutional staff expertise (training),
2. Increasing users awareness of sources (user interface issues), and
3. Increasing institutional use of VIVA resources (publicity).

ACTION: These priorities were approved by consensus.

E. Special Collections (Elsie Weatherington)
Elsie reported that the Special Collections Committee had had a very productive first meeting for the year and all doctorals reported on their project progress. Gail McMillan (VPI) has redesigned the Special Collections Committee’s home page. They are working on their draft timeline celebrating the 400th anniversary of Virginia and are developing a demonstration project prior to seeking funding for their proposal seeking efforts. Although the committee has been encouraged to seek outside funding and there are currently no designated funds in the 1998-2000 biennial proposal for special collections work, the Steering Committee reminded the committee that a specific project (e.g. matching funds for a project), could be considered in the future for funding.

IV. OTHER BUSINESS
A. ARL: The Collections Committee had requested funding for one or two members to attend an ARL workshop on licensing. Several of the Steering Committee members said that institutional dollars were supporting several committee members’ attendance.

ACTION: Since several collections officers will be attending ARL meetings on licensing, the Steering Committee approved the motion to support sending Kathy Perry to one such meeting on VIVA’s behalf this year.

B. Next Meeting: November 6, at UVA.

Pagemaster: Kathy Perry (George Mason University), VIVA Project Director.

Last updated: 4/21/98