Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, December 3, 1998
The College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, Virginia
MINUTES
ATTENDANCE: Present: Gene Damon, Linda Farynk, Doug Hurd, John Jaffe, Jean Major, Connie McCarthy, Frank Moran,
Don Samdahl, Phyllis Self, Roy Strohl, Elsie Stephens Weatherington, Karin Wittenborg, and John Zenelis. Also Present:
Kathy Perry (VIVA). Absent: Eileen Hitchingham.
I. Minutes from the September 24, 1998
and the November 2 meetings were
approved as distributed.
II. PROJECT UPDATE
A. Chair's Report. Roy reported that VIVA has benefited greatly from attending past ICOLC meetings. The next ICOLC
meeting will be held in March in Phoenix.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved funds for Gene, Kathy, and Roy to represent VIVA at the March ICOLC meeting.
B. Director's Report.
1. Kathy reported on the Travel and Training budget for all committees. Committee chairs were urged to keep her
informed of projected expenses for meetings, training sessions, and conferences.
2. Kathy reported on the conversations and correspondence we have had with Academic Press regarding our payment for 1999. We have reported our dissatisfaction with the response time, lack of statistics by title, and current pricing model. We have proposed a payment schedule based upon improved response time. In addition, Kathy reported that the individual invoices for institutional portions supporting the Academic Press IDEAL subscription would be mailed on Monday.
3. Kathy shared the 11/5/98 letter sent to OCLC concerning the lack of consortial pricing for the dedicated TCP/IP connectivity. In particular, members were reminded the Technical Issues Committee and the Project Director had compared the proposed price for one line for all VIVA schools to the total price of all estimates for the dozens of individual lines for the separate connections, and found that the difference was quite negligible.
4. Kathy reported that she hosted a guest from South Africa in October and discussed consortial
issues with him. She also made a presentation about VIVA for the Electronic Campus of Virginia meeting on November
30, 1998 in Richmond. She accepted membership on that committee on behalf of VIVA. Scheduled trips, speeches and
guests include: delegation from the Consortium of University Libraries of Catalonia, Spain (12/11); ICOLC task
force on OED pricing (12/10); Solinet Networking Forum (12/14); Minnesota Libraries Collection Development Conference
(May 1999); and ALA LAMA (June 1999).
C. Organization Committee (Linda Farynk)
Linda reported that the Organization Committee (Linda Farynk, Chair; Eileen Hitchingham, Kathy Perry, Roy Strohl,
Karin Wittenborg, and John Zenelis) met on November 12.
1. Associate Membership: The Steering Committee discussed the definition of Associate Membership brought forward
by the committee.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved a definition of Associate Member (See Attachment 1).
2. Reorganization: The Steering Committee discussed the Reorganization Plan to streamline the VIVA committee structure
as put forward by the Organization Committee.
ACTION: The Steering Committee unanimously approved the Organization Committee's Reorganization Plan, effective July 1, 1999.
3. Personnel: The Steering Committee went into Executive Session to discuss personnel issues.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the appointment of a subcommittee on personnel to handle personnel evaluations and salary issues for VIVA. The members include: John Zenelis (Chair), Gene Damon, Linda Farynk, Eileen Hitchingham, and Jean Major.
III. COMMITTEES
A. Special Collections (Elsie Stephens Weatherington)
1. The Special Collections Committee is going forward with plans to survey the independent VIVA colleges and universities
on their special collections. Jim Gwin (University of Richmond) is taking the lead on this project.
2. Current training plans include 2 sessions on the Encoded Archival Description (EAD), one in January for all
of the committee members and one in spring for all other interested comprehensive and independent VIVA libraries.
This will permit the individual institutions to do the text markup locally. These funds are available in the central
travel and training budget.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved funds for the Special Collections Committee's training sessions on Encoded Archival Description (EAD).
3. Regarding funding for the Special Collections Consultant, the Steering Committee discussed the money set aside
for the grant consultant.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the allocation of funds from the central budget for the Special Collections grant consultant.
B. Collections Committee (Gene Damon)
The Collections Committee recommended three purchases:
1. Addition of book reviews to the Books in Print subscription through IAC, beginning January 1, 1999.
2. Addition of a package of databases to the CSA contract: SocioAbs, LLBA, and ERIC.
3. Renewal of Britannica Online for the year 1999.
ACTION: The Steering Committee unanimously approved the Collections Committee's three recommendations:
1) Purchase reviews for the Books in Print service;
2) Purchase Sociological Abstracts, LLBA, and ERIC databases through the CSA contract; and
3) Renew Britannica Online for 1999.
4. Gene reported that the Collections Committee has reviewed a proposal from Institute of Physics (IOP) for their
on-line journals. The primary reason for not recommending purchase was the pricing model's similarity to the Academic
Press model, locking VIVA into current print subscriptions for three years. The Steering Committee concurred.
5. Gene also reported that the Collections Committee is continuing to review current abstract and index databases,
with an eye toward an RFP for part or all of these. In particular, the committee is surveying VIVA members to identify
those databases of highest priority, defined both in terms of use and in terms of local duplications through alternative
vendors.
6. Jean Major asked if VIVA would reconsider consortial membership in the Center for Research Libraries (CRL).
ACTION: The Collections Committee will revisit consortial pricing for VIVA members in the Center for Research Libraries.
C. User Services Committee (Jean Major)
1. Jean presented the current outline for the March VIVA Collections Workshop. Since the proposed dates conflict
with the quarterly LAC meeting, the committee will find another time to convene the workshop. The Steering Committee
discussed the overall purpose of the workshop.
ACTION: The User Services Committee will reschedule the workshop on electronic collections and will explore a partnership with the VLA academic section for the workshop.
2. Jean reported that the Publicity Committee's "VIVA in Action" web site and the PowerPoint presentation
are ready to be loaded on the VIVA web site.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved placing the "VIVA in Action" web site and the Publicity Committee's PowerPoint presentation on the VIVA web site as quickly as possible.
D. ILL Enhancements (Doug Hurd)
Doug shared the OCLC ILL statistics for 1997-98 and the first quarter of 1998-99 with the Steering Committee. The
Steering Committee reviewed the status of lending with non-VIVA members now that the Library of Virginia no longer
supports the net-lending program. While the members agreed that the net-lending program at best only covered approximately
one quarter of the real costs of ILL lending, there was agreement that the program had encouraged many libraries
to stop charging non-academic libraries. Concern was voiced that financial factors had forced several institutions
to review their policies regarding charges for ILL.
The Steering Committee reaffirmed support for the VIVA policy that members should not charge one another for interlibrary
loan, despite the cessation of the net-lenders program.
ACTION: The InterLibrary Loan Committee will revise the VIVA Interlibrary Loan Guidelines to reflect continued support for the VIVA policy that members should not charge one another for interlibrary loan, despite the cessation of the net-lenders program.
ACTION: The Interlibrary Loan Committee will draft a letter to the Library of Virginia for the VIVA Steering Committee Chair's signature about VIVA's concern regarding the cessation of the net-lenders program and the likelihood that some schools will again need to charge non-VIVA members for some interlibrary lending.
E. Technical Issues Committee (Kathy Perry)
1. Kathy reported that TIC had completed their evaluation of the OCLC proposal on dedicated TCP/IP.
2. TIC had raised the question of Year 2000 compliance and Kathy had pursued that with Iris Moubray at JMU. Iris is already working on obtaining compliance statements from all VIVA vendors.
3. TIC has agreed to reduce the number of meetings held each year and to work on special
project(s) as necessary. One suggestion for a project next year would be Z39.50 and resource sharing.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
The next full meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 11, 1998 (1:00 - 5:00 P.M.) at Longwood College.
If another meeting is necessary before that time, we will make arrangements to convene it either through a telephone
conference call or through email.
DEFINITION OF VIVA ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP
(Approved by the VIVA Steering Committee December 3, 1998)
1. Non-profit research/educational institutions chartered in the Commonwealth of Virginia are eligible to apply
for Associate Membership in VIVA.
2. Applications for Associate Membership and renewals will be considered annually at the spring meeting of the
Steering Committee.
3. There will be an annual fee for Associate Membership. The 1999-2000 fee for Associate Members is $1000 per institution,
payable on July 1.
4. Associate Members will be invited to buy into contracts for electronic resources as they are negotiated.
a. Staff of Associate Member institutions may participate in training workshops for those resources for which they have negotiated contracts.
b. Associate Members and their users will have access only to those electronic resources for which they have negotiated contracts.
5. At the invitation of the Steering Committee, Associate Members may have representation on VIVA committees. Associate
Member representatives are ex officio and without vote.
6. No additional VIVA services are implied or offered as part of the Associate Membership.