MARCH 7, 2003

MINUTES

ATTENDANCE: Ralph Alberico (James Madison University), Robin Benke (University of Virginia's College at Wise), Barbara Brown (Washington & Lee), Lisabeth Chabot (Mary Baldwin College), Virginia Cherry (Richard Bland College), Gene Damon (VCCS), Cathy Doyle (Christopher Newport University), John Duke for John Ulmschneider (Virginia Commonwealth University), Tracy Elliott (Rappahannock Community College), David Hayes (Radford University), Pat Howe (Longwood University), Doug Hurd for Karin Wittenborg, (University of Virginia), John Jaffe (Sweet Briar College), Connie McCarthy (The College of William and Mary), Colette Macin for Mattie Roane (Norfolk State University), Mary Mayer-Hennelly (Tidewater Community College), Pamela Morgan (Old Dominion University), Kathy Perry (VIVA), Don Samdahl (Virginia Military Institute), Aileen Schweitzer (Thomas Nelson Community College), LeRoy Strohl (Mary Washington College), Elsie Weatherington (Virginia State University) and John Zenelis (George Mason University).

CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 9:00 A.M by Elsie Weatherington, Chair.

INTRODUCTIONS AND PRELIMINARY COMMENTS:

Elsie thanked John Jaffe for the VIVA and LAC arrangements and for the hospitality at Sweet Briar College.

The minutes of the September 13, 2002 meeting were approved as presented.

It was announced that Barbara Brown will be retiring from Washington and Lee University and Radford University is in the process of hiring a university librarian.

VIVA REPORTS:

Ralph Alberico, Chair, Steering Committee, VIVA

Ralph thanked Elaine Day for the VIVA Content Linking Workshop on e-serials management, reference linking, and cross-domain searching, to be held May 22nd at Sweet Briar College.

Ralph announced that VIVA’s Virginia Heritage Project was awarded SOLINET’s Outstanding Library Program Award for 2003. Elsie Weatherington was commended for her service as chair of the project.

Ralph appointed VIVA nomination committee (VIVA Steering Committee Chair) consisting of Gene Damon, Eileen Hitchingham and Robin Benke.

VIVA Outreach Committee: Connie McCarthy, Chair

The Steering Committee approved funding the Outreach Committee’s three regional workshops entitled “The Fifty-Minute Librarians: Strategies for Effective Library Instruction” tentatively schedule for summer 2003.

Connie requested ideas for students’ input about their use of VIVA resources. For example, students sending letters to legislators indicating how they use VIVA resources.

Kathy Perry, VIVA Project Director

The VIVA retreat was held on February 4, 2003, and the Steering Committee reaffirmed its commitment to providing the highest quality research materials and services to students and faculty.

The Steering Committee approved five priorities to investigate further during the next year: (1) Reference linking and federated searching; (2) Serials management for cooperative collection management, collection development, interlibrary loan and research access; (3) Digitization of book collections beyond Special Collections; (4) Shared automation with a subset of VIVA members working to acquire a shared automation system chaired by Eileen Hitchingham; and (5) Karen Wittenborg will explore storage options for VIVA members. Reports will be available in 6-12 months.

Resource Sharing Committee: Doug Hurd for John Ulmschneider, Chair

The VIVA ILL Forum will be held on July 11, 2003, at The University of Virginia. This annual meeting will include discussion on up-dated VIVA guidelines, managing in tight times, OCLC Policies directory as well as Clio and ILLiad users group discussions.

Doug distributed a handout of revised (February 2003) VIVA Interlibrary Loan Guidelines. The revisions addressed mainly copyright issues.

Discussion of ILL bookmark to be used when material is borrowed from a VIVA institution.

Discussion of the Faxon situation and if this will result in an increase in ILL activity. It was decided not to take any immediate action but to assess its impact on ILL at a future date.

VIVA Resources for Users Committee: Gene Damon, Chair

The Resources for Users Committee approved the renewal of the Encyclopedia Britannica subscription, Science package and the Gale InfoTrac subscription.

The Committee recommended the purchase of the Bowker’s Global BIP (Books in Print) database. There is a significant cost savings if purchased by VIVA rather than individual institutions. The Committee also recommended licensing the Bowker Ulrichsweb, which was offered as an add-on if purchased with BIP.

The Committee established a sub-committee to develop and issue an RFP for MLA. The sub-committee will be chaired by Paul Metz of Virginia Tech.

VIRGINIA HERITAGE PROJECT-Elsie Weatherington

Elsie reported that the grant project had been completed and disseminated the Virginia Heritage Project Report dated March 6, 2003. During the two years of the project the VHP participants encoded over 63,000 pages with over 820 collections in the Virginia Heritage database and that the site was averaging nearly 200,000 hits per month.

The letter and application summary of the Virginia Heritage Project submitted to SOLINET as VIVA’s nomination for the category of Preservation and Electronic Information was disseminated.

ADVOCACY TASK FORCE: Kathy Perry

The Advocacy Task Force continues to implement their strong advocacy program by meeting with legislators and the committee was commended for their efforts.

Kathy would like to collect data from each institution about the budget cuts.

Kathy distributed a December 6, 2002 memorandum from Alan Edwards, Associate for Academic Affairs, SCHEV) concerning the VIVA and budget reductions. The memorandum informed VIVA of a technical adjustment of the VIVA appropriations. Due to a misinterpretation by the Department of Planning and Budget further reductions are needed. Therefore, VIVA’s total FY2003 reduction is 12.76 percent rather than the previously reported 11.08 percent. This is still less than any other SCHEV pass-through program and VIVA’s budget is still exempt from additional cuts in FY2004 at the time of the memorandum.

Kathy also distributed a memo from Alan Edwards, SCHEV’s representative to the LAC group, who was unable to be in attendance. He wrote that the legislature did pass a resolution in support of SCHEV’s system-wide strategic plan that is available online. Attached was a coy of SCHEV’s operating budget for FY03 and FY04. Also, (1) VIVA’s FY03 reduction is one of the smallest of SCHEV’s pass-through programs (2) in FY04, VIVA will be one of only two pass-through programs with no reductions; and (3) in FY04, eight pass-through programs (including Virginia’s participation in the SREB Academic Common Market’s program in Library Science) are to be eliminated.

OTHER INFORMATION AND FOR THE GOOD OF THE ORDER:

Elsie reminded LAC that it was decided upon to have a discussion topic at the end of each LAC meeting. Private funding was discussed by David Hayes followed by other members’ comments about development efforts including Friends groups, graduate book programs, ALA development network listserv (which Connie McCarthy will share with the group).

Elsie announced the Nominating Committee for the slate of new officers for LAC (Chair and Secretary) since their terms expire in June. LeRoy Strohl (Chair), Don Samdahl, and Dave Hayes.

Congratulations were extended to Cathy Doyle who announced her pregnancy leave.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:30.

Future LAC Meetings with VIVA Steering Committee the preceding day:

June 5-6, 2003: Virginia Tech

Virginia Cherry, Secretary