LIBRARY
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Mason Hall
June 4, 2004
MINUTES
ATTENDANCE:
Ralph Alberico (James
Madison University), Robin Benke (University of Virginia’s College at Wise), Virginia Cherry (Richard Bland College), Elaine Day
(Averett University), Cathy Doyle (Christopher Newport University), Alan
Edwards (SCHEV), Tracy Elliott (Rappahannock Community College), Rosemary Green
for Christopher Bean (Shenandoah University), Pearline Harmon for Mary
Mayer-Hennelly (Tidewater Community College), David Hayes (Radford University),
Berna Heyman for Connie McCarthy (The College of William and Mary), John Jaffe
(Sweet Briar College), Eileen Hitchingham (Virginia Tech), Elizabeth
Kocevar-Weidinger (Longwood University), Karen Marshall for Karin Wittenborg
(University of Virginia), Frank Moran
(Blue Ridge Community College), Virginia O’Herron (Old Dominion University),
Kathy Perry (VIVA), Don Samdahl (Virginia Military Institute), Aileen
Schweitzer, (Thomas Nelson Community College), Carol Sinwell (Northern Virginia
Community College), LeRoy Strohl (University of Mary Washington), John
Ulmschneider (Virginia Commonwealth University), John
Zenelis (George Mason University).
CALL TO
ORDER:
Robin Benke, Chair, called the meeting to order at 9:00 A.M.
INTRODUCTIONS
AND PRELIMINARY COMMENTS:
Robin Benke thanked John Zenelis for the VIVA and
LAC meeting and dinner arrangements and the hospitality of
The minutes of the March 12, 2004, meeting were approved.
Robin Benke congratulated two
members on their recent appointments:
David Hayes – University Librarian,
VIVA REPORTS:
1. Ralph opened his report by thanking the Library Support and Advocacy Task Force, the VIVA Outreach Committee and all others who contributed to a successful legislative budget commitment for VIVA. Ralph announced a substantial increase in VIVA’s 2004-2006 biennium budget amounting to a 26% increase overall: $1,040,464 additional VIVA funds for FY04-05 and $1,100,464 additional VIVA funds for FY05-06. Ralph remarked that this achievement is a “testament to hard work and quality service” and that the Steering Committee will continue to strive to make wise decisions and to justify the confidence shown in VIVA.
2. Ralph disseminated two summary spreadsheets: “State Council of Higher Education for Virginia Amendment Recommendations to Introduced Budget” and “Estimated VIVA Budget 2004-05 as of 6/3/04.” The projected new expenditures are: $859,964 for new collections; $15,500 for the pooled fund collections for the private nonprofit institutions; $90,000 to reimburse public institutions for interlibrary loans/expedited document delivery; $75,000 to subsidize and reimburse the private institutions for interlibrary loans/expedited document delivery. Ralph noted that this last allocation is being made to recognize the significant contribution of the private institutions supporting interlibrary loans. One hundred percent of the new money is designated for VIVA collections and services, and none for administrative costs.
3. Ralph distributed copies of a May 11, 2004, memo from Ralph Alberico, Robin Benke, and Kathy Perry to Nancy Cooley, Interim SCHEV Director, on “Membership of For Profit Higher Educational Organizations in VIVA.” The memo outlines some of the issues surrounding for-profit schools’ membership in VIVA. No further action is being initiated at this time.
4. Ralph provided an update on Steering Committee membership rotations as of July 1: John Jaffe will continue to represent the nonprofit independent institutions; Mary Mayer-Hennelly will represent the Virginia Community College System; David Hayes was elected as the representative of the 4-year public colleges.
In addition, Kathy Perry noted that there were no openings on the other standing committees, but that the ILL Subcommittee does have openings and directors will be contacted for their recommendations.
1. Kathy reported that the Steering Committee
had voted to suspend
2. The Steering Committee approved a salary increase for the VIVA assistant commensurate with the GMU Libraries recent market adjustment for classified staff.
3. VIVA’s 10th anniversary celebration is scheduled for September 30 at the Williamsburg Winery. Several corporate sponsors are supporting the event with funds and pledges.
4. The rollover for VIVA’s new domain name (www.vivalib.org) is tentatively set for July 14, 2004.
5. A number of VIVA project ideas have been submitted for consideration and will be discussed more fully at the September Steering Committee and LAC meetings.
VIVA Resources
for Users Committee: Kathy Perry for
Gene Damon, Chair
Kathy disseminated the “VIVA Resources for Users Committee Report to the Steering Committee, June 3, 2004,” summarized the Committee’s recommendations for renewals, new purchases and training, and reported the Steering Committee’s actions on those recommendations:
1. The VIVA Steering Committee approved renewals for: a. ACM; b. Bowker Books in Print, Ulrich’s and Serials Analysis; c. Ovid Nursing titles, PsychINFO and CINAHL; d. LWW (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins journals; 102 titles will be added to the current subscription of 140 titles)
2. The Committee approved a subscription to the BioOne collection of 69 current titles.
The report also included these informational notes:
1. Two products were reviewed at the May 13 RUC
meeting, RefWorks
and
2. Although negotiations about the
3. The MLA Review Subcommittee, chaired by
Virginia Kinman (Longwood) and Janet Holly (VMI) completed its work and shared
its report with the Steering Committee.
A copy will be sent to Thomson Gale.
There will be an opportunity at
4. The Factiva databases review subcommittee headed by John Tombarge (W&L) assessed the product, talked to the vendor and reviewed alternatives. It was noted that Factiva is difficult to compare to other products because of its unique coverage and cost-effectiveness. Therefore, the subcommittee was asked to look at alternatives such as a set of databases, rather than a single product.
5. Training sessions for the serials analysis project were held on March 16 at JMU and March 17 at ODU.
6. All of the VIVA institutions have loaded their data for the serials analysis project and some preliminary analysis has taken place. More in-depth analysis will occur over the summer.
7. The number of FirstSearch access ports was increased to 21 in January 2004 and this level is recommended for the fall semester 2004.
Resource Sharing Committee:
LeRoy Strohl, Chair
1.
2.
John disseminated the “VIVA Outreach Committee Quarterly Report,
6-3-04.” The Outreach Committee met on
March 30, 2004.
1. John’s report acknowledged that
many of the concluding actions for the advocacy work had taken place and that
only minor steps remained before closure.
2. The Outreach Committee
recommended to the Steering Committee that VIVA participants clearly brand or
identify VIVA-provided materials on participant web sites in order to attain
more visibility for VIVA resources. The
Steering Committee approved this recommendation. The Outreach Committee
strongly encourages the use of the VIVA logo with the name of the database on
library web sites, while noting that some vendors allow for a text statement
tailored to the institution that can appear on the resource page. Examples will be sent to member libraries.
3. The Committee reviewed the use
and intent of press releases throughout VIVA’s history and clarified the
process for future activities.
4. The Committee reviewed the
current VIVA web site (redesigned in April 2002), affirmed its contributions,
and committed to refining the design during the summer.
Virginia Heritage Project Task
Force: John Jaffe, Chair
The Committee met
April 16, 2004.
1. The Task Force maintained
progress in several areas, including a very successful Encoded Archival
Description (EAD) training session, grant submissions on digitization projects,
and survey instruments to determine how educators will use the digitized
materials.
2. The Steering Committee approved
continued funding for the Virginia Heritage Project for 2004-2005, including
central EAD wages managed at UVA and committee travel funds.
SCHEV Update: Alan Edwards
Alan provided an overview of recent SCHEV activities and developments:
1. Nancy Cooley will continue in her role as Acting Executive Director pending the appointment of the new SCHEV Executive Director. Many new SCHEV appointees have been announced as searches continue for current vacancies.
2. Discussions were held with the For-Profit Higher Educational Institutions regarding VIVA membership and a memo was generated outlining the issues involved. No further action is planned.
3. Appointments of new SCHEV Council members have provided an opportunity to reexamine existing advisory committees. The SCHEV Library Advisory Committee has expressed its desire to continue in its current role.
4. Alan solicited written comments about eVA procurement problems from the academic libraries and posted a draft document that synthesized those concerns. However, Alan advised that these concerns were not strong enough to support a unified appeal at this time, and recommended that the libraries communicate any eVA procurement problems directly to their state area representative from the Department of Purchasing.
5. SCHEV has generated a basic structure and outline for the Early College Scholars initiative and this has been sent to the college presidents.
6. Educational technology and distance education continue to be major initiatives for meeting increased demands for higher education. Alan discussed SCHEV’s ongoing efforts to address ways in which SCHEV and the Commonwealth can better integrate technology to enhance educational access, gain efficiencies and maintain excellence. Alan encouraged LAC members to send information technology suggestions to the CIOs group and to foster interinstitutional collaboration and communication on every level.
7. Alan reported that the General Assembly is concerned about the skyrocketing costs of college textbooks. Committee members suggested that librarians inform their legislators of current practices to help students, e.g., coursepaks, reserve materials, information on discount prices.
8. Alan responded to a question about SCHEV’s changing mandate and whether trade schools were included under higher education. Alan noted that the definition of higher education has broadened to include anything post-high school and that after July 1, 2004, SCHEV’s responsibilities will encompass all those areas.
Ralph Alberico expressed the Library Advisory Committee’s sincere appreciation for Alan Edward’s strong advocacy and liaison work on many important issues for the higher education library community. In addition, Ralph recognized Alan’s most recent honor as a recipient of the Seabees’ 2004 Distinguished Scholar Award.
Library Support and Advocacy Task Force: John Ulmschneider, Chair
John reported that the group had met via conference call and that members were working on several projects: a. Letters of appreciation to legislators and other VIVA supporters; (John encouraged library directors to also send thank you letters); b. Visits to legislative staff beginning July 2004; c. Road trips to educate key supporters on the impact of sustaining VIVA funding; d. SCHEV presentation in September at the University of Mary Washington; e. Proposal for VIVA funding in the Spring 2005 legislative change session
John closed his report by emphasizing the significant positive impact of the VIVA advocacy letters.
Association
of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) Digitization Efforts: Eileen Hitchingham
Eileen summarized the results of the recent survey (2003-2004) Digital
Projects in ASERL Libraries and provided an overview of issues facing
national digitization efforts. Virginia Tech was among the 32 (of 42) ASERL
libraries responding to this survey. Eileen distributed a handout containing
summary data with these responses from participating library directors and
managers:
The complete survey will be posted at http://www.aserl.org .
In her presentation, Eileen noted the issue of funding
sustainability as well as other matters of interest such as non-standard
metadata structures and the re-work that these will require, the need for
redevelopment of project creation/management software, ownership and marketing
of digitized materials, and collaborative efforts for “harvestable and
searchable” digital repositories. Despite
the many challenges facing digitization projects, Eileen emphasized the
overwhelming impetus for supporting these efforts.
Institutional Repositories Initiative: John Ulmschneider
John opened a discussion about the need for an institutional repository initiative in Virginia, asserting that Virginia lacks a coordinated effort to collect the intellectual output of its academic and other research communities despite the individual achievements of such efforts as the Virginia Heritage Project. John further suggested that this initiative would fit in well with the digitization movement.
Committee members raised questions about the subject areas in which such an initiative could focus and about potential operational models. Two areas of particular strength were mentioned: the Virginia Heritage Project and bio-science research. Alternative organizational models were suggested: A single, centralized repository managed and maintained at one institution; or, A distributed approach, complying with open archives standards while serving as a single entrance point to the collections. Further considerations for a statewide repository initiative would require a sense of what institutions are doing at the local level and a determination of ownership or control of the intellectual property.
Alan Edwards suggested that this be viewed as an opportunity for librarians to be leaders in open source initiatives and in essence, contribute to the library’s mission of making sure that materials are available and accessible for future generations.
Eileen Hitchingham requested that Robin Benke charge a committee or taskforce to explore the concept of institutional repositories and generate a white paper within one year. John Ulmschneider will assume responsibility for that assignment.
Universal
Borrowing: Tracy Elliott
Tracy initiated the discussion on universal borrowing by illustrating the need for Virginia Community College System students to have broader borrowing privileges among the senior institutions. Tracy noted that many VCCS students are in close proximity to four-year colleges and that many of these same students will be transfer students as well. Tracy recognized two examples of successful cooperative borrowing programs with a handout of borrowing policies from the Virginia Tidewater Consortium for Higher Education and another handout on the Joint Borrowers Program from the University System of Georgia.
LAC members shared ideas about the issues to be considered, i.e., impact on facilities, cost of materials, impact on native students, impact on staffing, effectiveness of interlibrary loans. Some directors commented that they had not noticed a significant drain on resources after borrowing privileges were expanded, while others steadfastly asserted that universal borrowing would put too much pressure on their staff and collections. Funding incentives were acknowledged as a major challenge for both private and public academic libraries.
Robin Benke requested that several members draft a very short white paper to address these issues. These members volunteered: Tracy Elliott, John Ulmschneider, Elaine Day, and Berna Heyman for Connie McCarthy (tentative).
Alan Edwards agreed that SCHEV would be interested in the white paper and suggested that some changes in wording the initiative would be appropriate.
Other
Information and For the Good of the Order:
The meeting was adjourned at 12:15 p.m.
Future
LAC Meetings with VIVA Steering Committee the preceding day:
October
1, 2004 -- College of William and Mary
in conjunction with VIVA celebration
Dec. 2004 --
VMI
Mar. 2005 --
UVA (tentative)
June
2005 -- Abingdon
Aileen
Schweitzer, Secretary