Steering Committee Meeting
Friday, June 3, 1999
Clinch Valley College
Wise, Virginia
MINUTES
ATTENDANCE: Present: Gene Damon, Linda Farynk, Doug Hurd, John Jaffe, Jean Major, Don Samdahl, Elsie Stephens
Weatherington, Roy Strohl, and John Zenelis. Also Present: John Duke (VCU), Kathy Perry (VIVA), and Carol Pfeiffer
(SCHEV). Guest: Charlotte Parsons (Abingdon Public Library). Absent: Eileen Hitchingham, Connie McCarthy, Frank
Moran, Phyllis Self, and Karin Wittenborg.
I. Minutes from the March
11 meeting were approved.
II. PROJECT UPDATE:
A. Chair's Report (Roy Strohl)
1. Guest Speaker: Charlotte Parsons, Library Director of the Abingdon Public Library addressed the need for VIVA
resources in the public library for students enrolled in higher education programs at the Southwest Virginia Higher
Education Center (SVHEC).
ACTION: The Steering Committee referred the issue raised by Charlotte Parsons (Abingdon Public Library) to a subcommittee for further discussion and consideration with a response expected by late summer. The subcommittee includes Linda Farynk (Chair), Doug Hurd, and Pat Hunter.
2. Speaking Engagements for VIVA:
a. Roy reported that he had been the keynote speaker at the SUNY Library Director's Annual Meeting, April 28, 1999.
b. Gene reported that VIVA was represented at the VCCS New Horizons conference in May.
c. Kathy reported that she had presented a paper at the Minnesota Collection Development Workshop, May 17, 1999
and also at the Conference on Electronic Resources Consortia in Taiwan, May 4-5, 1999. The PowerPoint presentations
are available upon request.
3. Reallocation Funding for 1999-2000. Kathy reported that she has discussed the issue of VIVA's 1999-2000 funding
that has been allocated to the individual institutions with Peter Blake (SCHEV). It appears unlike that any change
will be possible in the funding situation for this next fiscal year. However, they will continue exploring possibilities
for making technical adjustments to the institutional base budgets in the next biennium (2000-2002).
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the reallocation of the VIVA institutional funds ($420,700) for fiscal year 1999-2000. Kathy will work with Roy and Carol to redraft the letter to the library directors at the VIVA public institutions.
4. Proposal for the 2000-2002 Biennium. The Steering Committee approved the establishment of a Proposal Committee
for the next biennium.
ACTION: Roy appointed Eileen Hitchingham to chair the Proposal Committee again. Other members are: John Jaffe, Kathy Perry, Roy Strohl and John Zenelis.
B. Director's Update (Kathy Perry)
1. The Ariel 2.2 order has been distributed to all participating libraries.
2. Kathy suggested that the VIVA Contacts Directory include the Electronic Cataloging/Intellectual Access Contact
rather than the serials/union list contact. There was general agreement supporting this change.
III. COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. Organization Issues
1. Nominations Committee. John Jaffe reported that the Nominations Committee (Eileen Hitchingham, Don Samdahl, and John Jaffe) recommended Roy Strohl as the Steering Committee Chairperson.
ACTION: The Steering Committee voted unanimously in support of the Nominations Committee's nomination of Roy Strohl as Chair of the VIVA Steering Committee for the July 1, 1999 - June 30, 2001 term.
2. Committee Structure. Kathy reported that nominations for committees have been received from most schools. Additional
nominations will be sought so that the committees are balanced with the interdisciplinary areas covered. Roy will
be making the committee chair appointments soon. [Note: Committee chairs were announced at the LAC meeting on the
following day: Outreach: Ralph Alberico (JMU); Resources for Users: Gene Damon (VCCS); Resource Sharing: Don Samdahl
(VMI).]
3. Division of Labor and Management of Workflow. Jean Major presented her draft paper on the Division of Labor
and Management of Workflow. The Steering Committee discussed the merits of listing specific examples and an amendment
was introduced to strike the specific examples in the draft.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the amended statement of the Division of Labor and Management of Workflow.
B. Collections Committee (Gene Damon) Gene reported that the Collections Committee met on March 26 and May 7, 1999.
1. The Committee recommended the renewal of the IAC/Gale Group InfoTrac subscription at the contracted amount.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the renewal of the IAC databases for the July 1, 1999 - June 30, 2000 year.
2. The Committee recommended the purchase of HarpWeek for all of the public institutions as well as all of the
participating private institutions. Since the purchase price reflected the earlier purchase by four doctoral institutions
(GMU, UVA, VPI, and W&M), the committee recommended that the privates be charged $20,000 which would be credited
to these four public doctorals (probably in their AP charges next year).
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the purchase of HarpWeek, 1857-64 for all VIVA full members (Public and Private). Because this purchase price takes into consideration the earlier purchase by 4 doctorals, the Steering Committee approved an assessment of $20,000 for the private institutions. Those funds are to be credited equally to the 4 doctorals (GMU, UVA, VPI, and W&M).
3. The Committee recommended subscription to Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) for all public institutions
with a negotiated discount for the private members.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the licensing of the Columbia International Affairs Online.
4. The Committee recommended purchase of additional FirstSearch block searches with the year-end funds. These will
be credited to the 1999-2000 contract.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the purchase of additional FirstSearch block searches with year-end monies.
5. Gene reported on the progress with the RFP on Abstracting and Indexing Services. Gene commended all of the members
of the RFP Subcommittee, which includes: Chairperson Sharon Gasser (JMU), David Beagle (VPI), Jim Campbell (UVA),
Gene Damon (VCCS), Ruth Stanton (NVCC), along with Kathy Perry (VIVA), and Iris Moubray (JMU Procurement). Databases
included in the RFP are: CINAHL, ERIC, MLA, PsycINFO, and Sociological Abstracts.
Gene reviewed the background on this RFP, particularly why these five databases were selected. Last year, the Collections
Committee surveyed the VIVA members and determined their most desired databases. Once these priority databases
were identified, the Committee's further analysis eliminated a few for various reasons - 1) a few were available
only through the owner (e.g. Historical Abstracts) and proceeded to license those databases for VIVA. 2) In some
cases, the Committee explored licensing identified databases but found them to be too expensive for VIVA as a whole.
The remaining five databases were the ones that appear in the RFP. Significantly, these five databases are ones
which VIVA institutions are currently devoting significant local funds to purchase, despite the fact that in some
cases they are available through one of the VIVA vendors.
The RFP Committee has met several times and carefully considered the five submitted proposals. The two finalists
are OVID and SilverPlatter/SOLINET. Trials have been available to the VIVA members since May 20 and will be available
until the end of June (to allow VIVA members to review these products both before and after the VIVA Vendor Presentations
on June 16).
The Committee met and negotiated with these finalists on June 2. Further questions and issues are to be answered
before the Vendor Presentation Day: scheduled for the afternoon of Wednesday, June 16, 1999, at the University
of Richmond. Gene and Kathy urged all Steering Committee members to have representatives of their library staffs
present at the Vendor Presentations on June 16.
Gene reported that the RFP Committee is keeping a very tight schedule in order to conclude this process and have
the databases available through the selected vendor at a price that is very competitive and on a system whose interface
is acceptable to the VIVA community. The RFP Committee meets on June 23, the Collections Committee will meet on
June 24, and will forward their recommendation to the Steering Committee for their review shortly after that. The
target date for implementation is still August 15, 1999.
6. Gene reported that there are several items currently under consideration by the Collections Committee, including:
Business & Management Practices, CRL Membership, Highwire, IEEE Journals, and Wiley Interscience. The Collections
Committee web site is: http://library.cc.va.us/vivacoll/
7. Gene discussed the need to pursue VIVA's collection development for full text items, especially with pooled
funds in the future. The Steering Committee approved renewed activity in this area.
C. User Services. (Jean Major)
Jean provided a summary of activities for the User Services Committee over the past two years and encouraged the
Steering Committee to remain open to speculative ideas that appear from time to time. She also reported on the
Workshop on the Guidelines for Cataloging VIVA Electronic Collections held by the Cataloging and Intellectual Access
Subcommittee on May 7, 1999 at the Piedmont Virginia Community College.
D. Special Collections. (Elsie Weatherington)
1. Update: Elsie provided an update on the grant solicitation to NEH and well as a brief report on the second training
session on EAD convened for the grant participants (the doctorals, several comprehensives, several independent
institutions, and the Virginia Historical Society).
2. Structure: Elsie requested that the Special Collections Committee be given an extension as an ad hoc committee
through June 1999 with the same composition. She volunteered to remain as chair through June 2000 for continuity.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the extension of the Virginia Heritage Collections Project through June 2000, with a review at the March 2000 meeting. Elsie will continue as chair and provide liaison with the VIVA Steering Committee as needed. Funding requests for training and consulting will be reviewed by the Steering Committee as needed.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
A. ICOLC Meeting, September 30 - October 2, 1999.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved funds to send the Collections Chair, the Steering Committee Chair, and the Director to the fall 1999 ICOLC meeting in Chicago.
B. CRL Conference on Creating New Strategies for Cooperative Collection Development, November 12-14, 1999. Participants
will be limited to no more than 100.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved VIVA's nomination of Jean Major and Karin Wittenborg to attend this conference.
C. Kathy reported that the 3rd annual VIVA Users Group meeting has been scheduled for Friday, October 29, 1999,
from 10 A.M. to 11 A.M. at VLA
Annual Meeting at the Homestead.
D. The next Steering Committee Meeting will be held on Friday, July 9, 1999 at 10:30 AM in Charlottesville.