VIVA Resources for Users Committee Meeting
Friday, May 15, 2015 10 AM
Location: University of Richmond Boatwright Library Seminar Room 1
Minutes: Edward Lener
Present: Sharon Gasser, Chair; Alison Armstrong, Beth Blanton-Kent, Tara Cassidy, Stephen Clark, Anna Creech,
Cheri Duncan, Maureen Hady, Shaunna Hunter, Louveller Luster, Georgie Donovan, Edward Lener, Anne
Osterman, Robert Tench
By phone – Karen Cary, Madeline Kelly, Genya O’Gara
1. Announcements:
 Congratulations to Anne Osterman on her new position as VIVA Director.
 Congratulations to Maureen Hady on her retirement in June.
 Sweet Briar College update from Anna Creech - working on access to resources and disposition of library
materials, final decisions awaiting outcome of pending court case.
 ICOLC report from Tara and Sharon – held end of April in Albany, NY, Radical Collaboration Workshop (aka
Deep Collaboration) – some ideas included: Pool funds for IT person or copyright attorney, staff sharing
for functions such as cataloging, deliver professional development, design a course for library school
students about consortia, and donation button on website. Also session on consortial worth and how to
identify and report value which included importance of district level impact. Battlefield survey of costs for
journals also now moving into looking at ebooks.
2. eVote in minutes for record:
 Conference call – Option 2 Ovid (3/10/15)
 Withdraw previous recommendation of approval for OVID Option 1 (Ovid Nursing Full Text Collection + 3)
(3/31/15)
 Renewal EBSCOhost Collection FY16 (4/21/15)
3. Budget
Anne Osterman provided two charts outlining current and next fiscal year expenditures. FY2014-15 is nearly
done, and everything should be finalized by June 5th. Anne added a new “Budget Check” spreadsheet to show
what in one page what it looks like if we paid everything in one year. Inflation continues to be a problem. For
FY2015-16 everyone should review their products and estimated increases for any discrepancies.
4. Renewals:
 Wiley 2016. There was discussion of the latest Wiley Proposal for journals. The committee discussed the
available options, including the database model. Sharon and Anne will continue negotiations with Wiley
based on the feedback from members.
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ACTION: The Committee approved renewal of ACM (3 year renewal option).
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Annual Reviews renewal has already been approved but some questions arose about the length of our
commitment. Member institution can subscribe to additional titles as there are four new titles that are
not included in our current package. ACTION: The Committee voted unanimously to approve 3-year deal
under option 1 (existing titles only).
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ACS: The current 5 year deal is coming to an end. The Committee recommends requesting both 3 and 5
year pricing. Ed is working on the renewal.
5. Additional Cancellations needed? Revisit Highwire titles and ORO?
 Will review Highwire and ORO at a later date. Cancellation of OVID deal has taken off some of the
immediate fiscal pressure.
 Ulrich’s previously approved as a cancellation, current sub ends July 1, Anna gathered some data on
potential cost sharing ($19,438 estimate cost for public institutions) but time is running out. ACTION:
Motion made to delay cancellation for one fiscal year, cost share survey will be put out for FY17 –
approved unanimously.
6. VIVA Collections Environmental Scan (discussion moved up from Agenda)
This year we did an environmental scan (SWOT analysis) from the standpoint of the VIVA Collection
Committee. SWOT will help in preparation for the VIVA Steering Committee Retreat in mid-August, and will
assist in guiding the committee’s work in FY2015-16.
The Committee identified the following strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Strengths
Diversity – collection types, member types, volunteer types, etc.
Collaboration and collegiality
Maturity
Low administrative overhead
Numbers – stronger together
Leadership
Forward thinking
Flexibility
Agile
Strong mission, well defined
Skill sets – negotiations, licensing,
Volunteers
Good relationships
ILL / resource sharing
Weaknesses
No shared catalog or discovery tool (Georgie, Beth, Cheri)
Hard to leverage skills in collaborations
Emphasis on collections
Diversity can make it difficult to make decisions because members have widely varying needs
Broad mission can make it hard to prioritize resources
Communication challenging
Some committee members represent multiple institutions
Opportunities
Enhanced communications - liaisons to non committee members or other formal library groups, contacts /
listervs not reaching everyone, quarterly webinars suggested (Anne and Sharon)
Marketing
Training
Technology
New Leadership
Cooperative collection projects
Big sky vision (all)– bigger vision for collection committee, professional readings to start discussion,
professional development for consortial work, build relationships across institutions, connect with multiple
levels at institutions, inventory of expertise (Tara, Stephen and Madeline)
Advocate for fiscal need by demonstrating value
Economy improving
RFP negotiations
Open access
DPLA initiative
Vendor partnerships - VIVA focus groups
Interconsortial projects/training
Review of other consortia
Threats
Dependence on state funding
Loss of institutional memory when committee membership changes
Vendor mergers and consolidation of marketplace
Lack of pricing transparency from vendors
Pressures on individual institutions
Sustainability of big deal / database model
Interfaces and restrictions on content/bad products/bad customer service (Ed and Rob)
Access vs ownership
ILL / sharing restriction
Pressure to step up to current market price
ACTION: In summary, four subgroups will investigate strategies for addressing top level weaknesses and
threats (highlighted above):
 Shared discovery or ILS Group: Georgie, Cheri, Beth
 Communications Group: Anne and Sharon
 Skill Inventory Group: Tara, Stephen, Madeline
 Vendor Communications Group (e.g., content, products, service): Ed and Rob
7. Impact of cancellations on members – need to communicate with members and track financial impact:
Recent cancellations include: AMS Journals, MathSciNet, Elsevier 2015 eBook frontlist, Springer Earth &
Environmental Science eBook 2015 Collection, CIAO, Congressional, Ovid Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Journals, PAIS, Sociological Abstracts
 One of guidelines for cancellation is “Control overall spend on product.” Discuss process for capturing
information. How? When? Action: Report back to Steering Committee in December. VIVA Central will
survey members in fall.
 Reconsider Ulrich’s? - Ulrichsweb Global Services Directory renewed for one more year (see item #5)
 Promote value of new resources: CINAHL Full Text, EconLit Full Text, Political Science Complete (includes
Full Text), SocIndex with Full Text? Shaunna will discuss marketing to member libraries with Cy Dillion,
Chair of Outreach. Consider a VIVA YouTube Channel?
8. RFP Update (Karen, Anne) – negotiation highlights & results, member survey on nursing journals Highlights:
 Talking with Ebsco about turning on new databases early, still waiting on details.
 Opt-in pricing for ProQuest and EBSCO products listed on the contract site.
 OVID title level and package level pricing has been negotiated but nothing will come from central funds.
9. Monographic Collection Analysis Task Force Update – Alison & Genya
Highlights:
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

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Most of the MOU’s for rare and unique materials have now been signed. Institutions will have to mark
copies in their catalogs.
Sustainable Collection Services is working on a title-level allocation for the widely held retention project.
GOBItween group now active to determine copies purchased around state. Anne will follow up with any
institutions that have not yet given YBP permission to be included.
YBP has safeguards in place to alert of duplication of Oxford e-books.
10. VIVA Collections Forum (Cheri et al.)
Discussion highlights:
 Determined it would be too expensive to combine with VLA, exploring other venues
 Will send survey on location, timing, topics of interest, likelihood of attending, etc.
 Planning group has developed a rough agenda and draft outcomes list
 Will focus on Shared Collections Project and DPLA
 VIVA will cover costs for first year
 Discussion of survey and expected outcomes
Next meeting – August 21 at UVA (backup date Sept 4th)
Meeting concluded 2:00 PM