Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, December 2, 1999
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
MINUTES
ATTENDANCE: Present: Ralph Aberico, Cal Boyer, Gene Damon, Eileen Hitchingham, John Jaffe, Jean Major, Connie McCarthy,
Frank Moran, Don Samdahl, Roy Strohl, John Ulmschneider, Karin Wittenborg, and John Zenelis. Also Present: John
Duke (VCU) and Kathy Perry (VIVA).
I. Minutes of the October 8, 1999 meeting were unanimously approved.
II. PROJECT UPDATE:
A. Chair's Report (Roy Strohl)
1. Roy reported on the VIVA Users Group Meeting, held in conjunction with the Virginia Library Association Meeting, October 29, 1999, at the Homestead. Attendance was very good, including over 15 vendor representatives.
2. Roy shared the Library of Virginia's database survey instrument they had distributed to the public libraries, K-12 libraries, and the Virginia Community College System.
3. Roy appointed the following people to serve on the Personnel Committee: John Zenelis (Chair), Gene Damon, Eileen Hitchingham, Connie McCarthy, and Frank Moran.
B. Director's Report (Kathy Perry)
1. John Jaffe reported on plans for the VIVA private institutions' pooled funds expenditures. Only one eligible private school decided against participating in the matching funds project. Due to the changing status of the Britannica Online subscription, it was necessary to determine an alternative plan for these funds. John and Kathy have worked to identify resources that will benefit all members and will not cause an undue administrative burden on staff.
2. Kathy distributed a chart on VIVA budgets, indicating the significant proportion (over 94%) now available for direct services (collections and interlibrary loan) for VIVA members.
3. Charts on ILL were distributed and discussed briefly. The chart on all lending and borrowing was prepared by OCLC for VIVA. A one-page comparison of in-state lending of originals (e.g. books) shows an overall increase of 23.9% of in-state lending by the public institutions over the past 4 years.
4. Publicity: Kathy reported that she was interviewed for Library Journal. In addition, Mei-yuh Shih visited from Taiwan and librarians from the Consortium of Catalonia Libraries are visiting again.
C. Organization Issues
1. Assessment (Ralph Alberico)
Ralph presented the draft VIVA Assessment Report for discussion.
ACTION: Steering Committee members recommended that the report be resubmitted to the consultant for some minor revisions based on points raised in the Steering Committee meeting. Steering Committee members are to send any comments on the Preliminary Assessment Report electronically to Ralph Alberico no later than noon, Wednesday, December 8.2. VIVA Web Presence (John Duke)
John led a discussion on VIVA's web presence and its changing role. He reported that the main VIVA web site has recorded 735,119 accesses since July 1998. The entire VIVA web presence is maintained on servers at several different schools. The Steering Committee thanked John for his extensive work and volunteer efforts coordinating the main VIVA web site. The committee discussed the need for further review and agreed to establish a Task Force to consider VIVA's web presence in some depth.
ACTION: John Duke will prepare a brief list of issues pertaining to the VIVA Web site. Steering Committee members will recommend appropriate staff members to work on the VIVA Web Site Review Task Force.
3. Forum on Access to Electronic Journals (Eileen Hitchingham)
Eileen reported she has been working closely with Elaine Day and John Duke and work is well underway for the January 7, 2000 Forum on Access to Electronic Journals to be held at VCU, Richmond, 9:30 am - 12:30 pm. Registration information is available on the web: http://library.jmu.edu/libstaff/ts/er/vivacat/forum2000.html
III. COMMITTEES
A. Resources for Users (Gene Damon)
1. The Committee recommended the following renewals:
a. MathSciNet: The Steering Committee commended the American Mathematical Society for the price decrease asked Kathy to send AMS a note indicating our support for their product and pricing.
b. GaleNet: The 5 databases are: Associations Unlimited; Biography and Genealogy Master Index; Contemporary Authors, Gale Databases of Publications and Broadcast Media; and Research Centers and Services Directories. A RUC subcommittee will be handling a full evaluation of this product with a report scheduled for the spring. In particular, they will evaluate VIVA's use of this product over the past several years and will compare this product with other similar products now available.
c. Cambridge Scientific Abstracts: RUC recommended the renewal of the CSA base package.
d. Stats-USA: RUC recommended renewal of the Stats-USA subscription.
e. Periodicals Contents Index: RUC recommended renewal of the Chadwyck-Healey PCI product. The increase in price was justified by the 42% increase in articles and 70% increase in journals covered.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the following renewals:
- MathSciNet was approved for 2000;
- GaleNet was approved for December 15, 1999 - December 14, 2000;
- CSA base package was approved;
- Stat-USA subscription was approved; and
- C-H PCI renewal was approved.
2. Special Renewal Action
a. Britannica Online: Gene reported on the status of the VIVA contract for Britannica Online and the changing nature of the Encyclopaedia Britannica company. RUC has established a subcommittee to evaluate the Britannica.com service and compare it to the subscription service. RUC recommended that VIVA accept the 4 month no-cost extension for the existing subscription. RUC further recommended that VIVA not make any payments to EB in this fiscal year. This does not preclude VIVA from renewing in fiscal year 2000-2001.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the Resources for Users Committee's recommendation that VIVA evaluate the Britannica Online product and not commit any funds to the product during this fiscal year.
b. Because the ACM Digital product did not provide use statistics by October 31, 1999 despite their agreement to do so, RUC recommended that VIVA request a 4-month extension of the product until September 2000. Future renewal considerations will be dependant upon VIVA receiving use statistics in a timely manner.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the 4-month extension of the ACM Digital contract to September 2000 and to wait for use statistics before making a recommendation on renewal.
3. New Purchase Recommendations
a. Project Muse: The Resources for Users Committee recommended the extension of the Project Muse Contract to include all 110 journals now available. In addition, the committee recommended that VIVA work through Solinet for this subscription in order to qualify for the next level of discount.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the subscription of the additional new Project Muse titles through Solinet.
b. CSA: RUC recommended the subscription of the Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) through CSA. (CSA is also providing a one-year free trial to their new Social Services Abstracts with this purchase.)
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the subscription of the CSA - LLBA product and the Social Services Abstracts as a one year trial.
c. HighWire: RUC recommended the licensing of Science from HighWire Press.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the additional subscription of SCIENCE through the HighWire Press.
4. Gene shared the following items for information:
a. The RUC decided, with the agreement of the vendor, to postpone payment of the HarpWeek maintenance fee until next fiscal year.
b. OCLC has announced further delays in the scheduled release of the "New FirstSearch". RUC recommends that VIVA not switch to the new service until it is clear that the service is stable.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the RUC recommendation that VIVA not migrate to the "New FirstSearch" until the new product has been tested and response time appears satisfactory.
c. GeoRef is no longer available as a per-search database on FirstSearch. RUC had investigated the cost of a possible subscription. Due to the high price quote and the specialized nature of the database, RUC did not recommend this product as a VIVA purchase. Any interested VIVA members are directed to contact Stephen Clark at the College of William and Mary (email: sdclar@mail.wm.edu) who coordinate a possible subscription by a subset of VIVA members.
5. Gene reported that the RUC's Subcommittee on Training (chaired by Jane Schillie) recommends offering 2 regional training fairs next March, one at the University of Richmond and the other at Virginia Tech.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the funds for the VIVA Training Fairs scheduled for March 2000.
B. RESOURCE SHARING COMMITTEE (Don Samdahl)
1. Pilot Project to Evaluate Key Journals: Don reviewed the history of several efforts in the state to evaluate expensive journals. No further work is planned on this topic by this committee at this time.
2. ILL Forum: The Resource Sharing Committee recommended convening a forum for all VIVA ILL community members. It was suggested that an outside facilitator be brought in to assist the community with their discussions, to improve communication, and to assist in developing an action plan. Since the goal is to bring the ILL community together as quickly as possible, the committee will design one meeting for all members and will attempt to find a central location for it.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the funds for the January ILL Community Forum, with a consultant hired to facilitate the meeting. Travel costs for both the public and private college and university members will be reimbursed for those attending this conference.
3. ARL Workshop: The Committee did not recommend pursuing this workshop at this time.
4. Other projects: Don reported that the committee is looking into other projects, including the applicability of acquiring Illiad software for VIVA sites and investigating patron-initiated software for VIVA.
C. OUTREACH COMMITTEE (Ralph Alberico)
1. Brochure: Ralph shared the draft of the VIVA brochure. The committee intends to have the brochure available in January 2000.
ACTION: The Steering Committee suggested a few modifications to the Outreach Committee's draft brochure and approved the final preparations.
2. VIVA Spotlight: Ralph shared the new graphic for the VIVA Spotlight and received support from the Steering Committee for general use of that Spotlight throughout member institutions. The most recent VIVA Spotlight can be found at: http://libra.jmu.edu/viva/outreach/spotlight/
3. Committee Web Site: The Outreach Committee has developed a web site: http://libra.jmu.edu/viva/outreach/
4. Legislative Outreach: The Committee members are willing to assist in any demonstrations of VIVA resources for General Assembly representatives or staff members, if there is interest in convening these sessions.
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
A. CRL Meeting on Creating New Strategies for Cooperative Collection Development (Jean Major and Connie McCarthy):
Jean and Connie reported on the CRL Meeting. Papers from this session are available at:
http://wwwcrl.uchicago.edu/info/awccconf/awpapersgenl.htm
B. The next VIVA meeting is scheduled to take place Thursday, March 9 at GMU.