Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, September 24, 1998
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg
MINUTES
ATTENDANCE: Present: Gene Damon, Linda Farynk, Barbara Ford, Eileen Hitchingham, Doug Hurd, Jean Major, Connie McCarthy, Frank Moran, Don Samdahl, Roy Strohl, Elsie Stephens Weatherington, and John Zenelis. Also Present: Diane Graves (Hollins University), Kathy Perry (VIVA), Jim Self (UVA). Absent: John Jaffe and Karin Wittenborg.
I. The meeting minutes from June 4, 1998 and August 14, 1998 were approved
as distributed.
II. PROJECT UPDATE
A. Chair's Report
1. Roy welcomed new members Frank Moran, Don Samdahl, and John Zenelis to the first regularly held meeting of the year.
2. Gene Damon reported that the VIVA/LVA Relations Subcommittee (Gene, John J., Kathy and Roy.) met with the LVA representatives on August 31, 1998. The Committee recommended that the LVA, become an "Associate Member" of VIVA for a two-year trial period. This would include the potential to purchase access to VIVA resources for the LVA staff as licenses are renewed or initiated. The purpose of the trial period is to establish the content, viability and value to both the LVA and VIVA of such an association. At the end of the trial period, VIVA and LVA will determine the scope and nature of the ongoing association.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved Associate Membership for the Library of Virginia. The Steering Committee referred the issue of Associate Membership to the Organization Committee for further review and definition.
Gene further reported that the LVA will investigate with VIVA which current VIVA databases might be of interest to some or all of Virginia's public libraries. If databases are identified to be of mutual interest and for which there are clear purchase advantages, the LVA and VIVA will attempt to develop a purchasing arrangement to include both groups. A primary consideration for any purchase of this type would be that the LVA would act as the fiscal and coordinating agent for the public libraries, much as John Jaffe has done for the VIVA independent colleges and universities.
3. Roy reported that, in keeping with the Governor's request to keep Addendum Proposals to emergency items, the SCHEV Council would not support a VIVA Addendum Proposal at this time.
4. Roy reported that the interview with Del. Kenneth Plum went well. A copy of the tape is ordered for any future publicity use.
B. Director's Report
1. Kathy reported that although it was very difficult for many of them, all of the public colleges and universities had located the "VIVA Reallocation Funds" and were transferring the money. The Steering Committee reaffirmed that the funds were to be used for the Collections budget, the contractual support, and additional travel and training budget.
2. Members were reminded that the ABOUT VIVA page http://www.vivalib.org/about/about.html contains a wealth of information, including the VIVA committee meeting schedules. Chairs were reminded to keep her informed of meeting dates and schedule changes so that all VIVA members could be aware of the meetings.
3. The Steering Committee reviewed the list of vendors attending the next ICOLC meeting and were encouraged to send Kathy any specific questions and issues.
4. Updates to the VIVA Contacts Directory will be mailed next week.
5. Kathy distributed a chart of the VIVA resources. As of September 3, 1998, VIVA supports 167 databases, 8,704 full-text journals, and 9,738 full-text poetry and verse drama works.
III. COMMITTEES
A. User Services (Jean Major)
1. The VIVA User Group meeting is scheduled for October 15, 1998, at the VLA meeting in Virginia Beach. Many of our vendors will be present and VIVA Committee Chairs are encouraged to attend.
2. The User Services Committee is doing some initial work on planning a spring workshop.
B. Collections Committee (Gene Damon)
1. Gene reported that the Collections Committee had held further discussions about the VIVA contract for Academic Press IDEAL (renewal for 1999 was approved by the Steering Committee on 8/14/98). The Committee recommends changing the ratio for the VIVA/institutional components of the subscription cost from 25/75% to 35/65% for 1998/99. This has the effect of slightly decreasing the amount that the institutions are contributing to this subscription (given the price increase).
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the Collections Committee's recommendation to change the ratio for the VIVA/institutional components of the Academic Press IDEAL subscription costs from 27/75% to 35/65% for the 1998/99.
2. The committee further recommended that VIVA inform AP that 1998 may be the final renewal if they a) do not improve the statistics package to include title by title use statistics; and b) do not provide a different packaging of their electronic journal product. In particular, the committee is interested in an option to purchase access on a title by title basis, rather than the current "all or nothing" approach.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the Collections Committee's recommendation work with Academic Press to improve the statistics package to acquire title by title use statistics and to acquire a purchase option on a title by title basis.
3. The Committee recommended renewal of GaleNet license for another year. This price is established by the contract.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the Collections Committee's recommendation to renew GaleNet license for another year.
4. The Committee recommended approval of funds for additional FirstSearch services for 1998-99. This will cover the additional 225,000 block searches currently estimated to be necessary for the remainder of the year, as well as two reserve funds for additional ports and block searches if needed between now and the end of the fiscal year.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the allocation of funds for FirstSearch services for 1998-99, including a contingency for additional ports if needed and a reserve for additional block searches at the end of the year.
5. The Committee recommended renewal of Cambridge Scientific Abstracts for another year, with the reservation that the final price not exceed the limits outlined in the contract.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved renewal of the CSA license for another year, subject to pricing within the contract terms.
6. The Committee recommended renewal of the MathSciNet license for another year, pending successful negotiations on pricing not to exceed the limits specified in the contract.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved renewal of MathSciNet, subject to pricing within the contract terms.
7. Gene reported that the Collections Committee was undertaking to identify a "core" set of Abstracting and Indexing titles, those included in FirstSearch as well as others. They will compare this list with a list of titles currently duplicated locally by VIVA institutions. Members of the Steering Committee approved the approach for this research and the possibility of issuing an RFP for our basic Abstracting and Indexing databases, if warranted. It was agreed that it would be useful to know which databases were duplicated, which services were purchased, and at what approximate cost. Barbara Ford suggested that this might be a good topic for a CLR grant on economic issues.
C. Technical Issues (Eileen Hitchingham)
Eileen reported that the pilot project on the dedicated TCP/IP line from OCLC through Network.Virginia, begun in mid-July, is still underway. To date, the pilot has proven that it is feasible. Many departments have reported that they are pleased with the results. September is expected to be a more realistic test of the load, so results will be carefully monitored.
As stated consistently throughout the discussions on this project, the committee would recommend that VIVA implement a central dedicated TCP/IP line only if they can determine not only that the speed of transactions would be significantly improved, but also that the price for the consortial offering would be significantly less than that offered to the individual schools. Concerns about the current consortial price were stated, especially given several unknown factors that could possibly increase costs for a central administration of a dedicated VIVA line.
D. ILL Enhancements (Doug Hurd)
Doug presented the distributions for the $225,000 VIVA Express Mail Service allocations.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the proposed allocation for the VIVA Express Mail funds, subject to approval by the LAC.
The Steering Committee also discussed the Library of Virginia's termination of the net-lending program without any discussion or review by the academic community. It was acknowledged that although the net-lending program never fully compensated the libraries for their in-state lending, it did help with the overall costs of providing ILL. There is concern that some schools may need to charge non-academic libraries again for InterLibrary Loan services.
E. Special Collections (Elsie Stephens Weatherington)
Elsie reported that they have hired a consultant to help with the Special Collections project. Subcommittees are gathering information on the collections within the public institutions as the first step in the process. The survey results are in and have been tabulated. The survey identified 5,684 finding aids in 20 different major subjects held at the 15 public doctoral and comprehensive institutions. The next phase will include the independent institutions within the Commonwealth. The committee anticipates submitting the first grant proposal before the end of the year.
Since it will take some time to complete the grants and to hear the results of the grant submissions, the committee plans to continue their forward momentum. They held an initial training session on the evolution and standardization of finding aids using the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) led by Daniel Pitti at UVA . A follow-up EAD trainning session is planned for January for Special Collections Committee members.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
A. Connie shared information about web sites pertaining to the Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education: http://www.vt.edu:10021/chre/elps/EPI/BRC/index.htm and Virginia Tech's Educational Policy Institute: http://www.vt.edu:10021/chre/elps/EPI/index.htm
B. The next full meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday, December 3, 1998 (1:00 - 5:00 P.M.) at the College of William and Mary. If another meeting is necessary before that time, we will make arrangements to convene it either as a telephone conference call or as an email vote.