Steering Committee Meeting
Friday, July 9, 1999
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
MINUTES
ATTENDANCE: Present: Cal Boyer, Gene Damon, John Jaffe, Jean Major, Connie McCarthy, Frank Moran, Don Samdahl,
Roy Strohl, Karin Wittenborg, and John Zenelis. Also Present: Kathy Perry (VIVA). Guests : Karen Cary (VCU), Linda
Farynk (Radford), and Sharon Gasser (JMU). Absent: Ralph Aberico, Eileen Hitchingham, and Phyllis Self.
I. Minutes from the June 3
meeting were approved.
II. PROJECT UPDATE:
A. Meeting with SCHEV on Funding for the Independents (Roy Strohl)
Roy reported on his previous morning's meeting at Randolph Macon College with Peter Blake (SCHEV), Carol Pfeiffer
(SCHEV), John Jaffe (for the VIVA independent institutions), and Kathy Perry. The group discussed the procedures
to handle the $125,000 in state funds that will be matched 1:1 by the eligible, participating independent private,
not-for-profit Virginia institutions. John Jaffe had reported that the Independents had identified the Encyclopaedia
Britannica Online and the FirstSearch products as the two primary targets for expenditures. Roy and John will meet
with the Private College Advisory Council on July 28 to briefly describe the process for the private college presidents.
The meeting included a brief discussion of VIVA's assessment within the context of SCHEV's overall assessment work
currently underway. The Steering Committee discussed several different ways to document VIVA 's success as well
as ways to approach an analysis of learning outcomes from VIVA's first five years.
ACTION: Committee Chairs will begin identifying analyses that can be completed in the short-term, as well as designing a long-term assessment project with the help of a consultant and/or outside expert. The Outreach Committee will handle the long-term assessment project.
The VIVA 2000-2002 Biennium Proposal timetable was discussed as part of this meeting and it is understood that
a draft needs to be prepared very quickly, as early as August 20.
Roy also reported that Peter Blake announced his resignation from SCHEV. He will become a staff liaison for the
House Appropriations Committee.
B. Organization Issues.
1. Roy reported that the VIVA Committee Chairs met the previous afternoon and discussed the role of each committee
in the new organization.
2. Kathy presented the slate of committee members for the three standing committees.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the slate of nominees for the three standing committees as presented.
3. Kathy presented the list of projects nominated for special projects. The Steering Committee reviewed the suggested
items in light of the urgency of the VIVA Assessment Project and the 2000-02 Biennium Proposal Committee's deadline.
Item #1 Software products for cross-database/cross -vendor searching
ACTION: Referred to the Budget Proposal Committee.
Item # 2: How to conduct model "user studies " of VIVA products and services
ACTION: Referred to the Assessment project.
Item # 3: VIVA web page design and maintenance. The Steering Committee discussed the evolving purposes of the distributed
VIVA web sites.
ACTION: The Steering Committee members agreed that they would like to have further discussion on the VIVA web page, purpose, design, and maintenance. Steering Committee members with ideas on this topic should share them with Kathy.
Item # 4: Common interface: resumption of earlier project, assessment of potential to enhance VIVA
ACTION: Referred to the Budget Proposal Committee.
Item #5: Archiving: current satus, options, operational plans if appropriate. (No action was taken on this.)
Item (#6): Advanced or updated training sessions for improved use of the resources or demonstrations of how a resource
was successfully used in a teaching situation.
ACTION: Referred to 2 different committees: the general training was referred to the Resources for Users Committee and the aspect of use in a teaching situation was referred to the Outreach Committee.
C. Response to the Washington County Public Library. (Linda Farynk) The Steering Committee discussed the draft
response to Charlotte Parsons, Director of the Washington county Public Library.
ACTION: Gene Damon will write a white paper on VIVA's mission and what it might take to broaden that mission. Linda will work with Roy to finalize the letter to Charlotte Parsons.
III. COLLECTIONS COMMITTEE (Gene Damon)
A. Congressional Universe: : The Collections Committee recommended renewal of the CIS Congressional Universe for
the 1999-2000 year.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the renewal of CIS Congressional Universe.
B. RFP for Abstracting and Indexing Services: Gene presented the status of the RFP Committee's deliberations and
negotiating points still to be resolved.
ACTION: The Steering Committee unanimously approved the Collections Committee's recommendation to accept the proposal from OVID Technologies for the five A&I databases (CINAHL, ERIC, MLA, PSYCHINFO, AND Sociological Abstracts (full file) for the public institutions, subject to the successful negotiations. The Steering Committee expressed their appreciation to the entire RFP committee for their work on our behalf.
IV. NEXT MEETINGS: The next VIVA meetings are scheduled to be held on these dates:
Thursday, September 16 at Mary Washington College,
Thursday, December 2 at University of Virginia,
Thursday, March 9, 2000 at George Mason University, and
Thursday, June 8, 2000 (Site TBD)