Minutes of the JIBS User Group Committee meeting held at UCL on
28.1.2000
Present:
Betsy Anagnostelis (Chair), Oliver de Peyer, Mary Harrison, Bill Hines, Linda Humphreys, Jill
Lambert, Alison (Roberts?), Malcolm Taggart, Marion Tattersall.
Apologies:
Lorraine Freeman, Ruth Jenkins, Stuart Lee, Frank Norman, Pam Prior, David Zeitlin [more?]
1. Distribution of tasks
Jill Lambert will shadow Janice Yeadon in the treasurer's post
Linda Humphreys will take on some aspects of the secretary's role: minutes and organising
meetings. Wendy may be able to help with meetings.
Bill Hines will continue as membership secretary, and dealing with site contacts and
constitution, with assistance from Wendy.
Stuart Lee will be asked to shadow the Chair.
Action: BA
Marion Tattersall will be the training coordinator
Lorraine Freeman will be on maternity leave but hopes to continue to run the Web pages; she
will be supported by Mary Harrison, and Linda Humphreys if necessary.
Contacts with service providers:
AHDS - Stuart Lee with Malcolm Taggart and David Zeitlin as back-up.
NESLI - Marion Tattersall, Malcolm Taggart and Mary Harrison
(need to activate this contact: liaise with Sean Dunne)
Action: MT
BIDS - Gary Horrocks and Linda Humphreys. The UG no longer has representation on the
steering committee: need to explore ways to maintain the link.
MIMAS - Mary Harrison and Betsy Anagnostelis. Frank Norman is a member of the CrossFire
advisory group, in his own right.
NISS Biomed - Betsy Anagnostelis, Gary Horrocks and Pam Prior
JUGL - Jill Lambert with Ruth Jenkins and Janice Yeadon as back-up
MAU - vacant
RESCOLINC - Frank Norman
SCONUL - Alison
UKOLUG - Gary Horrocks
CHEST - Betsy Anagnostelis
EDINA - Alison
IBSS - Malcolm Taggart with David Zeitlin as back-up
RDNC - Linda Humphreys
Mirror Service - Malcolm Taggart
ATHENS - no longer has a steering group. Need to explore ways to continue the link: contact
Norman Wiseman and/or Ed Zed.
Action: BA
Subject Group convenors:
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Biomedical - Betsy Anagnostelis
Engineering and Physical Sciences - Ruth Jenkins to be asked to do this
Action: BA
 Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences groupings to be merged. Malcolm Taggart will be
convenor.
Noted that Emma Cusworth at Aston and Kathy Abbott at QMW are also interested in the area
of EPS. Need to look at feedback from last year's meeting to see if others have expressed an
interest. Mary will ask Lorraine.
Action: MH
Training
The training co-ordinator role is intended to draw together any material produced by HE sites
(as opposed to service providers) in support of JISC services. The material can be in print or
electronic form, and will be made available via the JIBS UG web pages. The training
coordinator may wish to begin with a survey. All committee members will assist in gathering
material. Noted that there is already a good page of links to service provider material, hosted
by BUBL. May also be worth looking at the NISS site. A subject focus to presenting this
information would be appropriate.
Action: MT
Other items raised:
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There are no links from service providers' web pages to the JIBS UG web pages.
Might be useful to have a meeting on Full Text / Linking issues. Manchester are the test site
for WoS linkage service.
Would be useful to have a PsiGate contact: could explore this through subject grouping.
Web of Science enhancements - minutes not yet publicly available.
User feedback: would like to know if reports of user comments are logged by the service
providers and could they be reported back to the Committee and/or site reps.
2. Issues to be addressed in afternoon session
The remainder of the meeting discussed points to be raised with CHEST, JISC and BIDS at the
afternoon session:
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User input into forthcoming deals, particularly EMBASE and BIOSIS.
Current Awareness Services
Full Text
Tendering Process
Liaison with BIDS
CHEST data contacts
Working with JISC groupings
Input into CHEST wish list
3. Discussion with CHEST representatives
Mike Johnson and [???] of CHEST attended the meeting at lunchtime.
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Problems with response to the MAU datasets survey had highlighted the issue of CHEST
Data Contacts not necessarily being the 'right' person from an Institution: the intention was
for this to be a Library staff role. CHEST will send out a circular on Data Contacts in an
attempt to remedy the situation.
EMBASE deal is the next for renewal. Options are to continue with the Ovid interface; move
to a different interface, or offer users a choice (c.f. INSPEC). Committee noted advantage
of using the same interface as other biomedical databases; but the version and
configuration of the Ovid interface should be the same. Noted that full text links to would be
advantageous. Recommended that the contract should stipulate that cross-database
searching be possible. CHEST noted that PsychInfo was also under discussion, and some
of the same points may apply to that deal.
Noted importance of Z39.50 compliance for users wishing to access databases via
EndNote. EndNote itself is still under discussion as a possible CHEST deal.
BIOSIS: CHEST negotiate for the data, and will look at a variety of interfaces, including ISI.
A web interface has been specified. Committee suggested specifying cross-searching and
linking also.
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Current awareness: ISI specified that the Current Contents deal would only go ahead if 120
sites wanted it: 3 or 4 have expressed an interest. ISI are 'rethinking', but at present their
linkage service is priority. Noted that CC would be popular at the right price. A replacement
for Autojournals is needed by August. Noted that BL Inside Info has no email alerting.
Would like to know if UnCover will offer a solution having been purchased by BIDS. Noted
that Emma had been gathering information about current awareness services.
Subject focus: CHEST web site is to be subject-oriented. Suggested an open meeting with
subject clusters.
Electronic Journals: seen as a problem area; lack of co-ordination with NESLI.
SciFinder: Nothing new to report.
4. Discussion with Alicia Wise of JISC
Tendering Process:
Linda outlined some of the problems experienced by Librarians and end-users as a result of the
tendering process. Where existing sources are migrated, these include:
 user confusion as to why things have moved, where they have moved to, and having to
learn a new interface, coupled with the inconvenience of losing saved searches.
 librarians workload including increased training and enquiries, re-writing local training
materials, web pages and guides.
 timing, with regard to purchasing decisions and end-user training.
Noted particular difficulties with migration of Compendex from BIDS to EDINA. THE WoS
transition has avoided some of these pitfalls, but many users still have to migrate.
Also noted the loss of opportunity resulting from some decisions on new services, for example:
 Had BIOSIS and Compendex been placed at BIDS, they could have taken advantage of
links to Ingenta journals.
 Had the Biomedical collection been placed at BIDS rather than NISS, the biomed databases
(EMBASE and Medline) could have been cross-searchable and both taken advantage of
linking to the Ovid full text collections.
Noted that many Institutions have paid for all of these services, but have not been permitted to
take full advantage of them.
Alicia replied that there were certain legal obligations to be met under EU law concerning
tendering for services. Competitive tendering is only used where two or more datacentres are
interested in hosting a service. JISC does take user views into account, and are running a
number of subject-oriented days. A business one has taken place, and there is a forthcoming
session on biomedicine/chemistry. Noted that full text linkages depend on alliances between
suppliers. Agreed that datacentre choice is also critical. Use of Z39.50 standard is important.
There is to be a JISC study on the hidden costs of transitioning a service.
Liaison with JISC:
Betsy enquired about the various JIBS committees, and whether we may be able to input:
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Alicia, Claire Jenkins and Margaret Coates are members of the Collections Group
JCALT (JISC Committee for Awareness Liaison and Training) deals with evaluation of
interfaces. Chaired by David House. There was recently a round of calls for proposals for
evaluation studies: the User Group may be able to help with projects in this area.
Authentication: this is a new JISC committee dealing with technical developments (JCAS I
think?).
JCI is a working group looking at moving pictures and sound.
JISC PA working group is looking at ILL; and copyright clearance for images to be used in
web pages.
Statistics - liaise with Alicia or Fred Friend
Web of Science
There was a discussion on transitioning. A librarian from Manchester is to be seconded parttime as transition officer, following failure to fill the post. Money will be available to extend effort
beyond September. BIDS hit a record number of users last term: 12,000 searches in a day.
MIMAS regularly have 450 concurrent sessions, and BIDS are sometimes turning users away
(500 sessions). When this occurs, users are directed to the MIMAS service. Terry could not
supply a figure for the number of Autojournal selections set up, but guessed around 10,000.
BIDS cannot put in the effort required to transfer saved searches. Marion commented that it
would be useful for site reps to know who from their site has saved searches/Autojournal
searches. Asked if BIDS could put a message out with the Autojournals renewal message
about the end of the service. Also a message on the BIDS ISI login screen about the transition
would be helpful. Only 7-8 institutions have not subscribed to WoS. They will cease to have
access to BIDS after 31st March. Alicia said the minutes of the Enhancement Committee will
be out very soon: JISC have taken on an extra 3.5 million users in the FE sector which has
created a lot of extra work. There will be further training sessions: Jill will contact Ross
MacIntyre about training in Birmingham.
Action: JL
A joint meeting in June was suggested, which could be organised by the JISC conference
organiser (based at UKOLN). To include: new deals, subject approach, input into planning.
Alicia raised two matters with the Committee:
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BIOSIS: would the Committee be interested in evaluating the range of interface options
available for BIOSIS? Feedback is required for the CWG meeting in March. Several
Committee members had assisted with evaluating the EDINA web interface, and would like
to be involved.
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Electronic book. Alicia will take up this issue on email.
4. Discussion with Terry Morrow, BIDS.
Liaison with BIDS
Terry outlined the role of the steering group, which is now concerned with future policy. He
proposed a one-day workshop in Bath in June, with presentations and discussion groups. This
suggestion was welcomed by the Committee, and it was not felt that holding such an event at
the same time of year as a JISC meeting would be a problem.
Terry also suggested a series of meetings with representatives of the Committee to discuss
design and service issues, relating the UnCover service. This suggestion was also welcomed.
Terry also offered to publicise the dates of the steering commitee and provide a summary
report.
Developments
 JISC PA pilot electronic inter-library loan project: this will be integrated with the Lancasterbased service ILLOS. Issues to be resolved include copyright and acceptability of electronic
signatures.
 UnCover service: this will be closed down in Denver and run from the UK. It has data from
18,000 journals. It is a 'free' large-scale TOC database with no abstracts. There is a charge
per user profile for current awareness services. The service will run in its current form until
the end of 2000. Questions raised by the Committee: how is data input? How up to date is
it? Is a list of journals available?
 The HealthGate version of Medline is now available at Ingenta. The interface is simple, but
it has links to full text.
 Pascal has had little take-up, but heavy usage.
 BIDS have made two submissions to the latest round of JISC proposals: firstly to develop a
Z39.50 interface to UnCover; secondly for a BioImage database.