VIVA Organization

Effective July 1, 1999

(Approved 12/3/98, revised 12/7/01 and 9/12/03)

• increased buying power for all VIVA members with VIVA funds, and for some or all VIVA members with member pooled funds, for licensing and/or purchasing electronic databases and full-text journals or other electronic information products important to a major part of the VIVA constituency;
• efficient, equitable and economical sharing of physical collections individually owned by the VIVA libraries;
• analyses and wide-reporting of the impact of the availability of VIVA supported resources on the teaching, learning, and research endeavors of VIVA institutions;
• other contributions in support of identified information needs of students and faculty at VIVA institutions.

Membership: (15 voting, 1 ex officio and non-voting)

• Standing, directors from the 6 public doctoral schools
• Selected by their defining group for two-year terms, with service beginning July 1 of the new term:
  • 3 directors from the public comprehensive colleges and the two-year public college;
  • 2 directors from the VCCS
  • 1 director from an independent school.
• Ex-officio, the chairperson of LAC during her/his leadership of LAC
• Ex-officio, the immediate past VIVA Steering Committee chairperson for one 2-year term coinciding with the new chairperson's term
• Ex-officio, the VIVA Director
• Ex-officio and non-voting, member of the State Council of Higher Education staff

Other:
The Chair of the Steering Committee is elected from the Steering Committee membership for a two-year term after the Steering Committee receives a report from the Nominations Committee at the spring meeting.

The VIVA Director serves as the Secretary of the Steering Committee. Each year before the summer meeting the VIVA Director compiles a list of vacant slots on the VIVA Outreach, Resource Sharing and Resources for Users committees and asks the Directors of each VIVA school to submit no more than three names of individuals for possible appointment to those committees.

The Steering Committee submits an annual report (2 pages or less) to SCHEV-LAC.

• To recommend to the Steering Committee policies, projects and strategies in support of teaching, learning, and research goals of VIVA institutions, encouraging collaboration between librarians and teaching faculty.
• To promote and publicize VIVA and its resources.
• To advocate VIVA's funding needs and the benefits that VIVA confers to appropriate agencies, organizations and legislative groups.

Membership: (6 voting)

• One Steering Committee member is appointed by the Steering Committee Chairperson.
• Five members are appointed by the Steering Committee for two-year terms, with initial terms staggered to provide continuity. Appointments are from a slate of up to ten names submitted to the Steering Committee by the VIVA Director from the annual pool of names solicited from all VIVA library directors prior to the summer meeting. Representation in these five should include at least one member from each type of school: public doctoral, public comprehensive, public 2-year, and independent (selected by VICULA).

Other:
The Chair of the Outreach Committee is appointed by the Chairperson of the Steering Committee. Any member of the Outreach Committee may be appointed as its Chair. Chairs shall determine the frequency of meetings in consultation with the VIVA Director. Chairs may appoint subcommittees for a specified period with the concurrence of the Steering Committee. Terms for Chairperson and for Committee members are for two years, with members named to assure continuity of part of the Committee each year. Terms may be extended if such action is recommended by the committee chair and approved by the nominee's director and the Steering Committee.

The Outreach Committee submits an annual report (2 pages or less) to the Steering Committee and a quarterly report to the SCHEV-LAC.

• To recommend to the Steering Committee policies and/or operations related to borrowing, copying, or archiving of individually owned resources at VIVA schools in ways that are mutually beneficial to the owner of the resource and to other VIVA sites.
• To monitor professional developments in resource sharing and archiving that are relevant to VIVA operations and to share this information with VIVA schools.
• To maintain data regarding resource sharing activities among VIVA schools.
• To convene an annual meeting for the VIVA Interlibrary Loan staff members.
• To promote resource sharing among the VIVA members.

Membership: (9 voting)

• One Steering Committee member appointed by the Steering Committee Chairperson.
• 8 members, 3 appointed by the Steering Committee from the slate of up to six names submitted to the Steering Committee by the VIVA Director from the annual pool of names solicited from all VIVA directors prior to the summer meeting, one selected by VICULA and 4 members (designated by the directors) from the top 4 lending schools of the previous year. The Committee Chairperson appoints the Chairperson of the ILL Subcommittee from among the Resource Sharing Committee membership.

Other:
The Chair of the Resource Sharing Committee is appointed by the Chairperson of the Steering Committee. Any member of the Resource Sharing Committee may be appointed as its Chair. Chairs shall determine the frequency of meetings in consultation with the VIVA Director. Chairs may appoint subcommittees for a specified period with the concurrence of the Steering Committee. Terms for Chairperson and for Committee members are for two years, with members named to assure continuity of part of the Committee each year. Terms may be extended if such action is recommended by the committee chair and approved by the nominee's director and the Steering Committee.

The Resource Sharing Committee submits an annual report (2 pages or less) to the Steering Committee and a quarterly report to the SCHEV-LAC.

Mission:

• To recommend to the Steering Committee new electronic products, which VIVA should consider for licensing and/or purchasing, or the renewal of products already supported in VIVA.
• To recommend collection development priorities to the Steering Committee on an annual basis.
• To work as a support team with the designated VIVA purchasing agent and the VIVA Director for RFP's and product negotiations.
• To organize and offer training sessions for VIVA librarians and staff when new VIVA products are introduced or when major changes occur in an existing product.
• For each VIVA supported product to identify someone from a VIVA institution who is willing to serve on a continuing basis as the primary contact for information to and from the vendor, and who will as appropriate send necessary information to the VIVA listserv about the product.
• To assist VIVA in optimizing investments by analyzing distribution of collections across VIVA libraries.

Membership: (12 voting)

• One Steering Committee member appointed by the Steering Committee Chairperson.
• 11 members selected by the Steering Committee from a slate of up to twenty names submitted to the Steering Committee by the VIVA Director from the annual pool of names solicited from all VIVA library directors prior to the summer meeting. Representation in the 11 members should include at least 2 public doctoral schools, 2 public comprehensive schools, 2 public two-year schools, and 1 independent school (selected by VICULA).

Other:
The Chair of the Resources for Users Committee is appointed by the Chairperson of the Steering Committee. Any member of the Resources for Users Committee may be appointed as its Chair. Chairs shall determine the frequency of meetings. Chairs may appoint subcommittees for a specified period with the concurrence of the Steering Committee.Terms for Chairperson and for Committee members are for two years, with members named to assure continuity of part of the Committee. Terms may be extended if such action is recommended by the committee chair and approved by the nominee's director and the Steering Committee.

The Resources for Users Committee submits an annual report (2 pages or less) to the Steering Committee and a quarterly report to the SCHEV-LAC

• Offering an authentication workshop for improving access to VIVA databases for off-campus VIVA members
• Developing a grant proposal for highlighting Special Collections of VIVA libraries on the web
• Development of cataloging guidelines for electronic resources

Nominations Committee
Every two years, in the spring, the outgoing VIVA Steering Committee chair will appoint a three-person nominating committee to recommend the next chair who will serve for a two-year term beginning July 1.

In the event of an unexpected vacancy in the Steering Committee chair position, a nomination committee will be appointed by the LAC Director to recommend a chair to fill out the remaining period of the term.

Organizational Committee
Is appointed by the Chair of the Steering Committee on those occasions when matters of organization are under review.

Last updated: 2/23/2004, page rev 12/12/2005