The Virtual Library of Virginia

Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, December 4, 1997
Blue Ridge Community College
Weyers Cave, Virginia
MINUTES

ATTENDANCE: Present: Theresa Byrd, Gene Damon, Barbara Ford, Linda Farynk, Eileen Hitchingham, John Jaffe, Barbara Miller, Roy Strohl, John Walsh, and Karin Wittenborg. Also Present: David Gray (BRCC), Jim Gwin (UR), John Haskell (W&M), Kathy Perry (VIVA), Carol Pfeiffer (SCHEV). Absent: Jean Major, Connie McCarthy, and Elsie Stephens Weatherington.

I. MINUTES
The minutes of the November 6, 1997 meeting were approved.

II. PROJECT UPDATE
A. Chair’s Report
1. Proposal: Theresa reported that the State Council had endorsed the VIVA proposal. She will follow up with Peter on December 19 and will report to the Steering Committee on whether or not the VIVA proposal is included in the Governor’s budget.

2. Meeting with Independents: Theresa reported on the November 25th meeting to discuss the Memorandum of Understanding with the independent schools. Present were: Theresa Byrd (J. Sargeant Reynolds CC), Eileen Hitchingham (VPI), Kathy Perry (VIVA), and Roy Strohl (MWC) for the public institutions; Liz Chabot (Mary Baldwin College), Sharon Goad (Hampden-Sydney College), John Jaffe (Sweet Briar College), and Robert Lambeth (Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia) for the independent colleges; and Peter Blake and Carol Pfeiffer for SCHEV.

Theresa shared the draft Memo of Understanding (November 21) and Peter Blake’s letter reflecting the agreements made during the meeting. Theresa emphasized the following points:
a. The final Memorandum of Understanding will be submitted to the Steering Committee for approval, but only after we know what level of funding was approved by the General Assembly in early 1998.
b. The joint committee members agreed that if VIVA were to receive less than the base ($4.991 million) and the $2.5 million for the public institutions and $.5 million for the independent institutions, the priorities were to be (First) the $4.991 million base, (Second) the $2.5 million increase for VIVA, and (Third) the $.5 million for the independents. John Jaffe made clear that it was the understanding of the independent colleges that this is the priority and it was in keeping with the spirit of VIVA.
c. All members of the joint committee agreed that the money for the independents (the $.5 million from the state and the matching $.5 million) would be used only for databases.
d. The final Memorandum of Understanding will state that it is a pilot project to expire on June 30, 2000, and will need to be evaluated and reviewed before that time.
e. Since the CICV does not include Liberty, Christendom, or Regent, Peter and Bob Lambeth will work with them to see if they wish to participate and how best to represent them in the Memorandum.

ACTION: John Jaffe will prepare a written statement for either the January or March Steering Committee meeting on the way the independents will participate in VIVA collections decisions.

ACTION: Kathy will work with Iris to be sure that the Full-text RFP requests pricing information for (1) the public institutions alone and (2) the public institutions combined with the participating independent institutions.

B. Library of Virginia
Gene Damon reported that although 2 meetings have been canceled, the subcommittee working on discussing Associate membership with the Library of Virginia has not met since the last Steering Committee Meeting.

C. Director’s Report
1. Travel and Training Budget: Kathy reported that she has not received adequate information from the chairs on anticipated expenses for the remainder of the fiscal year, but that preliminary information indicates that we have adequate funding for items proposed to date.

2. Brochures: Kathy reported that we have a very small surplus of brochures from the September printing. Estimates for printing 5,000 - 10,000 additional brochures were presented.

ACTION: The Steering Committee voted not to reprint the VIVA brochure at his time. Kathy will remind VIVA schools that any extra brochures are to be returned to her for redistribution.

III. COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. Technical Issues
Eileen Hitchingham reported that the they have received 50 registrations for the TIC Workshop on User Authentication is scheduled for Tuesday, December 9.

B. Collections
1. GaleNet: John Walsh reported that the Collections Committee did not recommend purchasing any of the additional Gale databases at this time. This includes Contemporary Literature Criticism Select (CLC), the Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB), and Peterson's guide. This does not affect the current renewal underway for the VIVA GaleNet databases.

ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the Collections Committee's recommendation not to approve the additional Gale databases at this time.

2. Full-Text RFP: John reported that the subcommittee is co-chaired by Jim Self (UVA) and Frank Moran (BRCC), with members: Doris Archer (CNU), Jeff Barry (JMU), Mary Ann Chappell (JMU), Karen Hartman (MWC). They are close to producing the final RFT and will work with Iris Moubray (the VIVA procurement officer at JMU) to have it issued on or before January 5, 1998. Responses will be due back within 30 days. A one month trial and evaluation period is tentatively scheduled to be available to all VIVA users from February 15 - March 15, 1998.

The timetable is to have the contract awarded by late April, allowing at least 2 months of transition time (if a new vendor is selected). In addition, IAC has agreed to work with us on additional short-term renewals, if that is necessary to ensure a smooth transition for all VIVA institutions. The Steering Committee and Collections Committee members have been reminded to refer all questions concerning the RFP to Iris Moubray (JMU).

ACTION: Kathy will ask Iris to clarify if this extends until the contract is awarded.

3. Surveys: 57 Cost Savings and Value Added surveys have been received.

4. The Collections Committee has reviewed the Community of Science database. The Collections Committee was not able to receive any cost savings due to a consortial purchase and the individual purchase price is fairly low, so the Collections Committee did not recommend a VIVA purchase of Community of Science at this time.

ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the Collections Committee’s recommendation not to purchase the Community of Science.

5. Archives USA: The Special Collections Committee reviewed the Chadwyck-Healey Archives USA and did not find it to have changed significantly since their last review. They did not recommend purchase by VIVA. The Collections Committee supported that decision.

ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the Collections and the Special Collections committees’ recommendations that VIVA not purchase Archives USA at this time. Kathy will post that news to the Consort listserv.

6. Other products: John reported that the Collections Committee is reviewing several other products, including Lexis-Nexus, ISI - Web of Science, CIS - Statistical Compass, and Roth Publishing’s Poem Finder. The Steering Committee discussed various electronic journals. John reiterated the Collections Committee’s open process which accepts suggestions for consideration from all sources, including VIVA librarians. The committee requested a way of knowing which items were under discussion and the results of each deliberation.

ACTION: Kathy will work with the Collections Committee to develop a method providing a regular communication channel for suggestions for VIVA purchases as well as a status page on products under review.

7. Dow-Jones: John reported that the Dow-Jones product is scheduled to be available on the web in January.

8. Roy reminded the Steering Committee that a suggestion had been made at the VIVA Users Group in October to showcase 4-5 VIVA resources for VIVA librarians. He suggested that the finalists for the Full-Text RFP be invited to make presentations to the VIVA librarians.

C. ILL Enhancements Committee
Roy reported that there is a problem with the Fed Ex contract renewal since Fed Ex has restructured their pricing so significantly that it does not qualify as a "renewal". In addition to negotiating with Fed Ex, we are exploring other options for ILL express delivery within the state. Kathy reminded the committee that not all VIVA institutions have chosen Fed Ex for their express delivery service, but that those who have should be reassured that the current Fed Ex contract is in effect until February 15. Kathy reported that Iris Moubray had met that morning with the Fed Ex sales representative. Kathy and Roy will keep everyone informed as this develops.

D. Special Collections Committee
In Elsie’s absence, Theresa reported on the committee’s stated goals for the remainder of 1997-98.
1. The committee plans to complete their 400th anniversary timeline project within this fiscal year with available funds.
2. A second goal was to hire a grant writer to seek funding for a Virginia Heritage Project to develop online finding aids for Virginia materials.

ACTION: The Steering Committee tabled the decision on the Special Collections Committee’s grant writer until more clarification is provided.

E. User Services Committee
David Gray reported in Jean’s absence:

1. The committee is in the initial stages of planning 3 regional workshops on the VIVA government documents (STAT USA and Congressional Compass). The vendors will provide the training. The target date is late March. Kathy requested additional budget projections for these meetings.

ACTION: The Steering Committee approved funds for the regional training workshops on VIVA’s federal document resources, tentatively scheduled for March 1998.

2. The committee is investigating web based instruction, similar to JMU’s "Go for the Gold".

3. The committee has identified members for the VIVA resource management teams.

4. The Publicity subcommittee is working on several items, including the "VIVA in Action" program to identify successful examples of faculty integration of VIVA resources into curriculum.

5. The Cataloging and Intellectual Access Subcommittee is revising their guidelines and working with OCLC to obtain cataloging information for the Project Muse journals.

6. The committee is unclear about their role in the proposed Collection Development workshop.

IV. OTHER BUSINESS
A. Collection Development Workshop: Theresa reported that she had discussed the meeting with Jean Major to provide further clarification. The workshop location was discussed. Convening the meeting as part of VLA would increase costs significantly. Jim Gwin offered the University of Richmond meeting site at no cost. He also provided quotes for food service that kept the overall meeting costs down. Further discussions on the workshop agenda condensed the meeting to a one-day workshop (tentatively scheduled for March 12) with Barbara Allen as a keynote on "Working in a Digital Library Environment" and Charles Hamaker on "Access Versus Ownership and Cancellation of Journal Subscriptions", as well as a discussion by the Collections Committee on their selection processes. The Steering Committee suggested combining the one-day workshop with a half-day "vendor fair" for the Full-Text RFP finalists. Before final approval is made to convene workshop, the Steering Committee decided to poll the listserv members to gauge interest in the workshop as outlined.

ACTION: Kathy will post a message to the VIVA listserv to gauge interest in convening a one-day workshop on Collection Development, with 2 speakers. It will be preceded or followed by a half-day vendor fair for the finalists in the full-text RFP selection process. The Steering Committee will use this information to decide whether or not to continue planning the workshop.

B. Consortium of Consortia: The CoC has scheduled the next meeting for February 22-24 in Atlanta.

ACTION: The Steering Committee agreed to send Connie McCarthy (Collections Chair), Theresa Byrd (Steering Committee Chair) and Kathy Perry (VIVA Project Director) to the next Consortium of Consortia meeting in Atlanta, February 1998.

C. Virginia Physics Consortium: Kathy reported that although the Virginia Physics Consortium includes several public institutions, they include several private institutions and receive significant funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. She reported that they did not appear to qualify for VIVA membership under our current guidelines and access for the faculty and students from the VIVA public institutions should be available through user authentication processes being developed by each institution.

D. Retreat: The Steering Committee discussed whether or not to hold a retreat this spring.

ACTION: The Steering Committee decided to table any decision about convening a retreat in the spring.

E. Next Meeting: The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for January 30, but the Steering Committee will defer a decision on whether that meeting should be held, either electronically or in person.