Resources for Users Committee -- Minutes
May 10, 2002 -- 10:00 AM
Alderman Library, University of Virginia
Present: Karen Cary, Louveller Luster, John Walsh, Kathy Perry, John Tombarge, Gene Damon (Chair),
Paul Metz, Jacque Dessino, Sylvia Rortvedt, Pat Hausman, Jim Self, Pam Morgan, Jane Penner, Sharon
Gasser
1. Announcements
None
2. Changes to agenda
None
3. Approval of Minutes of , March 27, 2002 meeting
No changes --Minutes approved by consensus.
4. Report of VIVA Director -- K. Perry
Kathy announced that JMU has assumed purchasing responsibility for the private institutions. She
distributed updated copies of the current budget, noting an uncommitted balance of $83,462.48.
Everything is currently paid and processed for this fiscal year. There will be monies to move from the
Central Budget to the Collections budget. As has been the ongoing practice, remaining monies for this
fiscal year will be used to purchase FirstSearch block searches.
By electronic vote the Steering Committee approved renewals for Annual Reviews and Books in Print.
The FirstSearch recommendations were tabled until the complete package of FirstSearch
recommendations could be made by RUC. The HighWire recommendations will be presented at the June
meeting
5. ICOLC Report – K. Perry and G. Damon
Kathy Perry and Gene Damon gave a brief report on the most recent ICOLC meeting in Portland . Topics
included Safari IT books, the Vanderbilt video news archive, Ovid/SilverPlatter. All consortia except for
Louisiana are experiencing budget cuts. All committee members are encouraged to sign up for the
listserv that includes excellent reports from all sessions written by Ann Okerson.
6. Training Subcommittee – P. Hausman
Pat Hausman announced that 51 people signed up for the Statistics Workshop given by Jim Self on
Tuesday, May 14 at Newcomb Hall, University of Virginia . There was one last minute glitch due to the
closing of the parking garage for cleaning on that day. Jane Penner has done a superb job of handling all
the local arrangements, and is now an official member of the Training Subcommittee.
7. CSA Review – P. Hausman
The CSA Evaluation Subcommittee report was sent to Mark Hyer at CSA. CSA requested a meeting with
the review committee. Pat Hausman, Jeremy Garritano (GMU), and Kathy Perry met with many CSA staff
at its Bethesda office. It was a productive, cordial meeting. Most of the report recommendations
regarding changes in the search interface will be available in the August release. Ronald Parisi will visit
each VIVA institution this summer to help customize the CSA search interface.
8. Ovid Review – S. Gasser and K. Perry
Sociological Abstracts will move from the Ovid interface to CSA effective August 8th, thus saving VIVA a
significant amount of money.
9. AP IDEAL – S. Gasser
Kathy sent a letter to Elsevier/Academic Press notifying the company of our intent to cancel IDEAL and
asking for access to the 1996-2002 archives of AP journals. This letter was sent prior to any notification
from Elsevier on the changing in licensing terms for IDEAL. VIVA is to receive an archiving proposal from
Taissa Kusma by June. Access to the backfiles will be either from the AP server or from local loading of
tapes. The terms must be mutually agreeable. Kathy has reserved a “reasonable” amount of money in
the VIVA budget for access to the archives.
There is confusion about Elsevier’s policy for consortia purchases regarding the Academic Press IDEAL
collection. Several institutions are interested in continuing access to the titles. Paul Metz will be the
point person for Elsevier this summer while Sharon is on educational leave. He will work with Noella
Owen at Elsevier to find out the current purchasing policy for the IDEAL collection.
10. Renewals
Dow Jones: J. Tombarge reported that a 5% increase but negotiations are still underway. It is possible
that Proquest will agree to no increase this year but double for the next renewal. The committee voted
to recommend renewal of Dow-Jones.
John also reported that the transition to Factiva will be rocky. Institutions can convert anytime to the
new interface with the deadline for implementation by year’s end. VIVA will schedule training sessions
throughout the state in the fall. There is a big change in the interface.
Congressional Universe: The committee approved renewal. There is no price increase in this product.
ACM Digital Library: P. Hausman reported that the renewal proposal was “out of line” and sent back to
ACM. There was a conference call with Pat, Kathy, and staff from ACM. We are waiting another renewal
proposal. ACM staff stated that they will be developing an entirely new pricing structure next year.
There are still no usage statistics for this product. The committee recommends that the Steering
Committee advise institutions not to cancel their ACM print publications.
11. FirstSearch -- J. Dessino, J. Walsh, and K. Perry
Kathy reported that the private institutions are paying for FirstSearch access from their pooled funds.
She recommended that a subcommittee be appointed to recommend a price for FirstSearch usage for
the private institutions. John Tombarge, John Jaffe, and John Walsh will work with Kathy to propose an
equitable fee. The subcommittee will report at the next RUC meeting.
The committee continued its discussion regarding the blocking of FirstSearch databases (see minutes of
the March 27th meeting). Sharon said that JMU librarians expressed concern about the proposed
recommendation to block Biography Index and Book Review Digest. It was noted that Biography and
Genealogy Master Index indexes Biography Index, sending users to Biography Index to get the actual
citations and that Book Review Digest is often a more efficient tool than InfoTrac for finding book
reviews. A decision on these two databases was deferred until after the discussion on the Wilson
databases.
Jacque coordinated the analysis of the Wilson indexes. Prior to the meeting, Jacque distributed the data
contributed by many volunteers throughout the state. Data included charts comparing title indexing in
each Wilson database with InfoTrac and comparisons of search results of the different databases. The
reports compiled information on duplicate or strong coverage in other VIVA databases compared to the
Wilson indexes.
Gene reminded committee members of the criteria established by the committee to make decisions on
cutting resources, particularly the importance of content over convenience and cost. There was much
discussion on each database. In order to assist with decision-making, Kathy distributed a spreadsheet
showing the current estimates for budget year 2002-03 and the expected savings or increases for each
product. The committee identified the need for saving between $800,000-900,000 for the next
biennium. This chart helped the committee to make the decisions in blocking FirstSearch databases. The
committee voted to block (or discontinue) the following databases:
Education Index
General Science Index
Humanities Index
Social Sciences Index
Book Review Digest (committee confirmed its earlier decision)
Some additional information is being compiled on Applied Science and Technology Index. Pat will gather
the data from engineering and business librarians by May 17th and inform committee members of the
results.
The committee voted to reverse its earlier decision on Biography Index. This index will continue to be
available to the VIVA community.
All FirstSearch recommendations, including those from the March 27th meeting, will be sent to the
Steering Committee for approval.
John reminded the committee that the FirstSearch costs are predicted estimates based on previous
usage patterns. He expects that the costs will be even higher in 2004 necessitating further cuts. Block
searches purchased prior to June 30th of this year will be at the lower cost of $0.67.
12. Presentations at Steering Committee Meeting in June – K. Perry
The next Steering Committee meeting will be June 6th at Christopher Newport University . Pat will
present the report from the CSA Evaluation, and Jacque will represent the HighWire report and
recommendations. Kathy will provide a follow-up of the Ovid negotiations.
13. Reviews for next year
Resources for review include ACM Digital Library, PCI, and Statistical Universe.
14. Future/other business
Two new resources for investigation include Nature and Gale Literature Resource Center . Pooled funds
from participating institutions could be used for purchase.
Next meeting: August 2, University of Virginia (CANCELLED)