Resources for Users Committee -- Minutes
October 11, 2002 -- 10:00 AM
Alderman Library, University of Virginia
Present: Gene Damon (Chair), Karen Cary, Jacque Dessino, Sharon Glasser, Pat
Hausman, Louveller Luster, Paul Metz, Jane Penner, Kathy Perry, Jim Rettig,
Jim Self, John Tombarge, and John Walsh.
1. Announcements
None
2. Changes to agenda
Surveys and Highwire renewal were added to the agenda.
3. Approval of Minutes of , 2000 meeting
No changes --Minutes approved by consensus.
4. Budget -Kathy distributed copies of the current 2002/03 budget, noting an uncommitted
amount balance of $300,000 from cancellations completed this Spring. Kathy
explained to committee members that the pricing for Cambridge Scientific
Abstracts should be in the estimate column of the budget document because she
has not received a new quote. Charging independent schools purchasing fee for
participation is $34,500. Kathy mentioned that there is a pricing cap for
PCI.
Kathy provided copies of the VIVA Takes Steps to Balance Its Budget and a
breakdown of possible budget cuts to VIVA funding based upon 7, 11, or 15
percent SCHEV budget reductions for FY 02/03. If SCHEV gets a cut of 7%, then
VIVA's cut will be zero. However, if SCHEV's budget reduction is 11%, then
VIVA's cut will be $168,239 (4%) and at 15% SCHEV cut, VIVA's cut will be
$458,219 (11.08%). This means current uncommitted funds would be $300,000 at
SCHEV's 7% cut, $131,761 at SCHEV's 11%, and -$158,219 at SCHEV's 15% budget
cut.
Note: The cut announced in late October was $458,210
4. Training Committee - P. Hausman
E-mail evaluations of the Factiva/Cambridge Scientific Abstracts Workshop
were positive. In general the workshop went well. All training workshops are
now locally organized.
5. AP IDEAL Update - K. Perry
Kathy stated that we started in March to cancel AP IDEAL. Access to AP IDEAL
1996-2002 Archives will cost $1,000 per tape. Kathy is soliciting a written
proposal from Solinet about ECO service cost to load AP IDEAL Archives tapes.
This would be one-time versus continuing cost. As an alternative to the ECO
proposal, Paul Metz suggested that the archival tapes could possibly be
loaded on a server at one of the VIVA institutions, accessible to all VIVA
members.
6. OCLC FirstSearch Update - J. Walsh
Doug Potts informed John Walsh about the OCLC "hybrid configuration" that
allows up to 18 users for each database, therefore, VIVA has access to 18
ports per database instead of 16. It was recommended that we do not block
ArticleFirst, ERIC, Medline and World Almanac because this does not cost
additional monies and there is no port contention problem to unblock access.
Committee recommended to re-open the four blocked databases with an amendment
that we monitor port usage.
John reported an overall 20% turn-away rate for WorldCat during the month of
September. The committee discussed the issue and voted to not increase port
level. John also reported that use of other FirstSearch databases is
decreasing.
7.
ACS - S. Glasser
VIVA will have archives for 3 years through 2003, but will have to negotiate
after that period. ACS will offer access to Chemical and Engineering News for
an additional fee.
The committee recommended renewal for ACS.
8. MathSciNet - P. Hausam
The price for MathSciNet and AMS Journals has not changed substantially for
the public institutions. No private institutions currently subscribe to AMS
journals.
The committee recommended renewal for MathSciNet and AMS journals.
9.
Project Muse - K. Cary
For the 2003 renewal of Project Muse the Solinet consortium discount is the
same as last year at 50%. The discounts for category of institution also
remain the same as last year. There are 26 new titles in 2003 for a total of
221 journals.
The committee recommended renewal of Project Muse.
10. Cambridge University Press - P. Morgan
There is a price cap of 7%, however, we lost access to 7 titles, but gained
access to an additional 6 new titles. We do not have the final price from
Cambridge.
The committee voted for renewal with a not exceed
cap.
11. Highwire - J. Dessino
Jacque reported the renewal information for 5 Highwire journals. There is a
15% increase for this set of titles. The major source of the increase is
from the Journal of Cell Biology at 38% increase, 20% increase for Molecular
Biology of the Cell and 5% for everything else.
The committee recommended renewal of the Highwire Journals.
12. Discussion on priorities for database retention - G. Damon
Committee members discussed the ranking of VIVA databases to respond to
further cuts that VIVA may face because of the current State budget
situation. There were three levels of ranking, including high, medium, and
low.
Committee assigned high ranking for
Science, ACS, MathSciNet, AMS Journals, ACM, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts,
Sociological Abstracts, InfoTrac, Project Muse, Congressional Universe,
FirstSearch (Base Package and Searches), OVID Nursing Journals, CINAHL, MLA
International Bibliography, PsychINFO, Oxford University Press, Dow
Jones/Factiva, Highwire Press.
Medium ranking was given to
ABC-CLIO, Annual Reviews, Galenet, Statistical Universe, Lippincott Journals.
Low ranked databases were
CIAO, Britannica, BIP, PCI, STAT-USA.
RUC members agreed that the five low rankings would identify the tools that
would be recommended for cancellations if we have to cut resources. Kathy
Perry informed the committee that funds for Britannica and PCI have not been
expended.
RUC voted to renew CIAO for 2002/03 and to review this product for possible
cancellation in FY03/04. Gene Damon reminded the committee that before the
November meeting we must determine how to measure the impact of VIVA cuts on
your individual institutions. RUC members were asked to survey the number of
titles their institution canceled because VIVA offers electronic access to
the title or the institution may no longer need the title because the program
is not offered currently. This includes dollar amounts.
RUC members discussed how we should go about identifying databases we might
want to purchase and should be aggressively researched and evaluated such as
JSTOR, Literature Resource Center, Eric E*Subscribe, and Wilson Education
Full-text Collection. Jane Penner will work to get pricing information for
JSTOR.
At the next RUC meeting, the committee will generate a list of databases for
high level retention and recommendations of database cancellations and
discuss the impact of cost per institution due to VIVA cancellations and the
need for an individual institution database subscription because VIVA
canceled its subscription. Gene Damon will send an e-mail inquiry on journal
cancellations at committee members' institutions. Some of the RUC members
will have assignments to get database pricing information.
13. Other Business
Kathy Perry informed the committee that it appears that all publics will
renew their subscription to PsycArticles and she is still getting information
from the privates.
The next meeting will be held on Friday, November 22, 2002.