The Virtual Library of Virginia
Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, November 30, 2000
Mary Washington College
Fredericksburg, Virginia
MINUTES
ATTENDANCE: Present: Ralph Aberico, Cal Boyer, Gene Damon, Eileen Hitchingham,
John Jaffe, Jean Major, Don Samdahl, Roy Strohl, John Ulmschneider, and John
Zenelis. Also Present: Berna Heyman (W&M), Doug Hurd (UVA) and Kathy Perry
(VIVA). Absent: Connie McCarthy, Frank Moran, and Karin Wittenborg.
I. Minutes of the September 14, 200 meeting were approved.
II. PROJECT UPDATE:
A. Chair's Report (Roy Strohl)
1. Personnel Committee (John Zenelis). The Steering Committee went into executive
session. On behalf of the ad hoc Personnel Committee, John Zenelis reported on
GMU's new performance appraisal process for evaluation of the VIVA Director.
2. Roanoke Higher Education Center. The Steering Committee discussed several
significant issues related to the Roanoke Higher Education Center's request for
inclusion in VIVA.
ACTION: Roy appointed Eileen, Gene, John U., and Kathy to serve on a subcommittee
to address these issues. Roy and Kathy will write a letter to explain why action has been
deferred on this item.
B. Director's Report (Kathy Perry)
1. Electronic Vote. Kathy summarized the results of the electronic vote taken on
October 11.
a. 6 additional FirstSearch ports were purchased to improve access. In addition, VIVA
members have been reminded to use the training database for all online training
sessions so as to avoid tying up VIVA ports.
b. Cambridge Scientific Abstracts was approved for renewal. The one-year trial of Social
Services Abstracts will end on December 31, 2000.
c. HighWire (10 titles) was approved for renewal.
d. MathSciNet renewal was approved.
e. GaleNet (4 databases: Contemporary Authors, Associations Unlimited, Biography
and Genealogy Master Index, and Gale Director of Publication and Broadcast Media)
was approved for renewal.
f. The VIVA Memorandum of Understanding was approved by the Steering Committee
(and later approved by the SCHEV Library Advisory Council). It became effective on
November 1, 2000.
g. The Steering Committee approved VIVA's endorsement of the Ann Okerson's letter
on the Cross Ref Project to request that Cross Ref and the DOI leadership work with the
library community to address the "appropriate copy problem".
2. Kathy distributed a copy of the Central Administration budget, including expenditures
to date, for the July 1, 2000 - October 31, 2000 period.
3. Kathy reported on the results of VIVA's efforts to support the VLA amendment to
Virginia's Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act before the JCOTS Advisory
Committee #5 on UCITA. She thanked the delegation of academic librarians who spoke
(John Ulmschneider, VCU; Virginia Cherry, Richard Bland College; and Jeff Clark, JMU)
as well as giving special thanks to Jackie Anderson for stating the Gale Group's support
for the VLA amendment at the hearing. The VIVA statement of support is on the VIVA
web site /sc/minutes/ucita001109.html
4. Learning 2000: Kathy reported that she had made a presentation on "VIVA and
Distance Education; More than Just the Icing on the Cake" at the September 29
Learning 2000 Conference held in Roanoke.
5. VIVA Users' Group: Kathy reported that she and Roy had convened the VIVA Users'
Group at VLA on October 19, 2000. The meeting had excellent attendance by VIVA
librarians and VIVA vendors and provided an opportunity to make a presentation on the
significant events of the past year.
III. COMMITTEES
A. Resources for Users Committee (Gene Damon)
1. Renewals.
a. Four renewals were approved by the Steering Committee in their electronic vote on
10/11/00: CSA, GaleNet, HighWire, and MathSciNet. In addition, the Steering
Committee approved the acquisition of 6 additional ports for FirstSearch.
b. OED: The RUC recommended renewing OED (tape version) for five years.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved renewing OED for five years pending
successful negotiations with the vendor.
c. ABC-CLIO: RUC recommended renewing ABC-CLIO (American History and Life and
the Historical Abstracts).
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved renewing ABC-CLIO.
d. Project Muse: RUC recommended renewing the full package of Project Muse through
Solinet, which will be an increase of approximately 50 titles.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved renewing the full package of Project Muse
through Solinet.
e. FirstSearch: RUC recommended purchasing an additional 250,000 searches.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved purchasing an additional 250,000
searches.
2. New Acquisitions.
a. Elsevier Science Direct: The Resources for Users Committee recommended
subscribing to the Elsevier Science Direct database. The Steering Committee
considered this proposal very carefully but the obligation to maintain the significant print
collections without anything but minor cancellations was a major stumbling block.
ACTION: The Steering Committee commended Paul Metz and the RUC for their work
on these negotiations. However, due to the constraints on member libraries making
local cancellations, the Steering Committee did not approve this proposal. The Steering
Committee requested that negotiations continue.
b. Other Pending Proposals: Gene reported on a number of other Science full text
journal offerings being investigated by the RUC.
ACTION: The Steering Committee urged RUC to continue to pursue these offers.
3. Academic Press Review Subcommittee: Gene presented the subcommittee's final
report and recommendations.
ACTION: The Steering Committee approved the recommendations of the AP Review
Subcommittee and commended the subcommittee members for their thorough work.
B. Outreach Committee (Ralph Alberico)
The Outreach Committee is drafting a proposal for a forum, tentatively entitled "VIVA
Across the Curriculum", for the VIVA instruction and public service librarians. The
purposes will be to explore ways to promote information literacy across the
Commonwealth; to bring the instructional community together to share 'best practices';
and to develop strategies for using VIVA resources to support instruction on VIVA
campuses. The committee is targeting May 2001 in central Virginia as the possible date
and place for this meeting. The Steering Committee supported the planning for this
event.
C. Resource Sharing Committee (Don Samdahl)
1. Don reported that they had received the OCLC report on "Serial Titles Borrowed by
VIVA Libraries, April 1999 to October 2000". The committee had shared the report with
RUC.
ACTION: Kathy will make this report available to VIVA library directors and collection
development librarians.
2. Don shared the committee's goals and objectives.
3. The Committee is proceeding with plans for the 2001 ILL Forum, tentatively
scheduled for July 13 in central Virginia.
4. Don reported that the ILL subcommittee was interested in pursuing increased funding
for the ILL Document Express Subsidy so that VIVA could reimburse the participating
private colleges and universities for their ILL delivery costs to other VIVA members.
ACTION: The Resource Sharing Committee will determine the amount of money
involved and the Steering Committee will review the possibility, either for the next fiscal
year or perhaps as part of a future funding proposal to the General Assembly.
IV. Other Business: The next VIVA Steering Committee meeting is scheduled for
Thursday, March 8, 1-5 P.M., Washington and Lee University, Lexington.