The Virtual Library of Virginia
Steering Committee Meeting
Wednesday, March 11, 1998
University of Richmond
MINUTES
ATTENDANCE: Present: Theresa Byrd, Gene Damon, Barbara Ford, Linda Farynk, John Jaffe, Jean
Major, Connie Kearns McCarthy, Barbara Miller, Roy Strohl, John Walsh, and Elsie Stephens Weatherington. Also Present:
Kathy Perry (VIVA), Carol Pfeiffer (SCHEV), and Diane Walker (UVA). Absent: Eileen Hitchingham and Karin Wittenborg.
I. MINUTES
The minutes of the December 4, 1997
meeting were approved as distributed.
The minutes of the January 16 meeting and the February electronic
meeting were approved as distributed.
II. PROJECT UPDATE
A. Chair's Report
1. Theresa reported that the supplemental funding for VIVA was in conference. The House amendment was for $280,000/year
and the Senate amendment was for $500,000/year, $100,000 of which was for the independent colleges. The conference
bill was likely to be a compromise.
2. The reduced level of funding will require VIVA to rethink our plans and priorities for the 1998-2000 biennium. Theresa recommended that the Steering Committee devote a substantial block of time to consider our budget, our priorities for the biennium, and issues facing VIVA.
ACTION: The Steering Committee voted to convene in a retreat, April 16 - 17. The primary items for discussion will be budget planning for the 1998-2000 funding biennium. Committee chairs should request agenda topic ideas from their committees and the Steering Committee members should send agenda topics to Kathy.
B. Director's Update
1. Kathy presented a password-protected web page of VIVA statistics. This area uses the same user ID and password as the section on FirstSearch training. This will be linked to the ABOUT VIVA section of the VIVA web site. The VIVA user services contact at each VIVA school will be given the user ID and password. There was discussion about the additional work this would entail.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved placing the VIVA statistics on the password-protected area of the VIVA web site. The motion carried, with one opposition vote and no abstentions.
2. Kathy distributed updates for the VIVA standing committees and reminded the Steering Committee that some memberships are completed on June 30.
ACTION: The Comprehensives will select another representative for the period beginning July 1, 1998.
C. JMU Procurement
Barbara Miller presented JMU's proposal for an increase in support for JMU's procurement services from the current
$25,000/year to $31,000/year.
ACTION: The Steering Committee unanimously approved the motion to increase support from $25,000 to $31,000 for James Madison University's procurement services. The actual payment mechanism will be discussed at the April Steering Committee retreat.
D. Library of Virginia
Gene Damon reported that VIVA subcommittee had been unsuccessful in their attempts to meet with the Library of
Virginia.
A. User Services Committee
1. Jean Major reported that the Collections Workshop (scheduled to take place March 12) had
reached full enrollment with 120 registrants. Theresa thanked Jean, Connie, and Carol for their work on the Collections
Workshop, as well as Jim Gwin for his significant contributions as host.
2. The User Services Committee is planning 2 workshops on VIVA government documents to be held in late March, one
at Virginia Tech and the other at William and Mary. Each has a limit of 25 participants.
3. The Cataloging and Intellectual Access subcommittee will present their guidelines for cataloging VIVA resources at the next User Services meeting.
B. Technical Issues
Gene Damon reported that the following schools had volunteered to participate in the VIVA
trial of dedicated TCP/IP with OCLC and the Net.Work.Virginia: James Madison, Old Dominion, Radford University,
University of Richmond, University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, the Virginia Community College
System, and Virginia Tech. In addition, George Mason University might also participate. It is anticipated that
it will take 30-60 days to establish the trial, with the anticipated start date of mid-May. It is unclear what
the dedicated line will cost. Eileen is continuing to discuss price with OCLC. Kathy reported that she was in contact
with several other consortia and all had been surprised at the price quotes.
C. Collections
1. Connie McCarthy reported that 6 vendors had responded to the full-text RFP and the RFP
committee had ranked these 3 as the top 3 choices (in alpha order): Ebsco, IAC, and UMI. These vendors have been
invited to participate in the Vendor Presentations on Friday, March 13, and the committee will encourage wide participation
and review in the trials. The committee will make their recommendation to the Collections Committee on April 6,
and the Collections Committee will bring a recommendation to the Steering Committee at the April 16 meeting [since
postponed]. Everyone anticipates allowing at least a 2-month transition period before July 1, if the process necessitates
a change of vendor.
2. Connie reported that since OCLC does not notify us in advance of a new database being added to our block service,
and that since these services were often duplicates of other services currently offered or in any required committee
evaluation, the Collections Committee recommended that VIVA block new services until committee evaluation can be
completed. This will require blocking both at the main VIVA web site and at the individual web pages by the local
administrators.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the Collection's Committee's recommendation that any new FirstSearch databases added to our block search databases be immediately blocked on all VIVA web pages, that the Collections Committee and the VIVA list be notified, and that the Collections Committee evaluate the inclusion of the databases as it would any other resource.
3. Connie reported that the Nursing and Allied Health Committee had completed their project. They identified a core collection of journals and identified subscriptions at Virginia schools. Sixteen VIVA schools agreed to participate in the project. This included 5 community colleges, 5 independent colleges, 3 comprehensive public institutions, and 3 doctoral public institutions. Letters signed by Theresa Byrd for VIVA have been sent out to the library directors at each of these institutions and the agreements are to be sent back to Linda Cranston (Longwood).
4. Connie distributed the Business CCM's report and their recommendation that the project on economic journals not be pursued at this time. The Steering Committee discussed the differences between the two projects.
ACTION: The Steering Committee voted to accept the report of the Business Cooperative Collection Management Subcommittee.
5. Connie reported that the Collections Committee had decided not to recommend Poem Finder for purchase at this time.
6. Connie distributed a draft of the Resource Management Team Roles which will be presented at one of the concurrent sessions of the Collections Workshop on Thursday afternoon.
D. Special Collections
1. Elsie Weatherington reported on progress hiring a grant writer for the Virginia Heritage Project. In addition, several people have offered to help in that work. She encouraged the members to review the Special Collections web page.
2. Elsie reported that the Steering Committee had approved broadening the Special Collections membership. Lucious Edwards (VSU) had been appointed to represent the comprehensives.
E. ILL Enhancements
1. Roy Strohl reported that the committee was made aware that one VIVA library continues to charge other VIVA libraries for ILL and photocopies. The ILL committee recommended that any library charging for ILL services be excluded from the VIVA ILL allocation. Carol reminded the committee that there had been an early precedent in this area since schools charging for ILL were excluded from receiving Ariel funds during the early VIVA days.
ACTION: The Steering Committee voted to accept the ILL Enhancement Committee's recommendation that VIVA exclude from the VIVA ILL allocations any VIVA libraries that charge for ILL or photocopying.
2. Roy reported that the Library of Virginia had requested that VIVA provide statistics on net lending for Virginia in-state schools. In the past, these numbers were available from the IPED reports, however, these reports are now required only every other year. Since the OCLC statistics under-represent many institutions' lending, the ILL committee will ask all VIVA libraries to answer 2 very simple questions about total in-state lending and borrowing and respond directly to Doug Hurd at UVA.
ACTION: Roy and Doug will provide Kathy with the text and she will distribute it directly to the VIVA ILL contacts via email.
3. The ILL guidelines are available on the VIVA web site (see ABOUT VIVA, under ILL guidelines).
The ILL Committee will be reviewing the guidelines at their next meeting. In particular, the committee will review
the inclusion of A-V materials.
4. The ILL Enhancements Committee will meet at Blacksburg to see a demonstration of the Va Tech ILLiad system for
managing lending.
5. Roy reported that the VIVA Fed Ex Contract is over since Fed Ex had changed their prices so dramatically and
were not willing to negotiate. Several announcements have gone out on the VIVA listserv to alert VIVA libraries
that the VIVA FedEx contract is no longer in effect.
6. The Collections Committee requested more information about current ILL turnaround time.
ACTION: The ILL Enhancements Committee will revisit the issue of ILL turnaround time within the Commonwealth.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
A. Consortium of Consortia Meeting
Theresa reported that VIVA representatives had attended the COC3 meeting in Atlanta in February. As part of this
discussion, the Steering Committee discussed "The Statement of Current Perspective and Preferred Practices
for the Selection and Purchase of Electronic Information".
ACTION: The Steering Committee endorsed "The Statement of Current Perspective and Preferred Practices for the Selection and Purchase of Electronic Information" prepared and presented at the February meeting of the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) (formerly Consortium of Consortia - COC).
B. Kathy reported on the ARL Workshop on License Review and Negotiating she had attended
in February. Notes had earlier been distributed to the Steering Committee and to the Collections Committee.
C. The next meeting will include a retreat to discuss the VIVA budget for the 1998-2000 biennium and is scheduled
for April 16 (beginning at 1pm) - April 17 [This has since been rescheduled for May 5-6, 1998 and will be held
at the University of Virginia.
Kathy Perry (George Mason University), VIVA Director
Last updated 4/24/98, rev. 5/1/02