ELECTRONIC DATA SERVICE GROUP
MINUTES OF THE MEETING, OCTOBER 3, 2005
Present:
Christy Branston, Sandra Keys (Chair), Helene LeBlanc, Judy McTaggart
(Recorder), Richard Pinnell, Mark Polger
Regrets:
Neil Patterson, Shabiran Rahman
1. Approval of Minutes from September 12, 2005:
Item 1, Welcome to new member: Line 2 should read “Helene has joined the group as an
observer member….”
Item 3, Business Arising: Paragraph 2, last line should read “….should be reported to
Sandra who will forward to Michelle Edwards.”
Item 5, Facilitation of EDS Meetings: Remove phrase “for an appointed period” in the
second last line.
Item 6, Library Advisory Committee re-briefing. Line 2 should read “…..Associate
Deans of Computing…..”
2. Business Arising:
There was no business arising.
3. Additional Agenda:
There was no additional agenda.
4. TDR-OMG Report (Richard):
Richard reported on the TDR-OMG meeting of September 28th. The following was
discussed:
a) Nesstar:
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To date, 732 of 752 surveys have been moved to the Nesstar server. The
remaining 20 are problematic. All census have been moved over except for some
of the 1991 BST files.
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There will be a new release, still in beta form, and Michelle expects to upload it
within the next couple of weeks. Nesstar may be down the day of the upload.
Classroom access problem has been fixed.
The next release will include a feature called “bookmarks”. Richard will clarify
with Michelle who has the authority to create these.
The password issue will remain for the foreseeable future. Nesstar is aware of
the problem.
All datasets should be up within the next couple of months. After that, all new
sets will be added to Nesstar only. TDR will still be up until the end of April but
it will not be updated.
Contact Michelle Edwards if more publicity materials for Nesstar are needed.
b) Data Day:
It was noted the turnout for Data Day was not large. Richard asked the group for
feedback. Sandra asked if the speakers’ presentations -or a list of the topics and
speakers - will be made available. There was discussion and the group decided it
would be useful to have this information archived. Action: Helene will followup to see what presentations might be available. She will also ask RDC about the
possibility of having them archived on the RDC site.
c) Review of DDI:
Michelle Edwards is conducting a review of the work being done by DDI.
d) Confirmation of Travel Funding:
Travel funding was confirmed. Each institution is allotted $1,000 divided as
follows: $500 for DLI rep to attend conference and $500 to fund travel. This
leaves a sum of $2,000 to fund extraordinary travel.
e) Around the Table Reports:
 Richard and Helene reported on EDS
 Doug Horne reported there has been a re-organization of DRC. Michelle is
now co-ordinator
f) Data Links:
Carol Perry said the current issue of Data Links did not make the deadline. She
asks that people who commit to writing an article:
 follow thru on their commitment
 submit the article on time
 keep the article to the proper length
Carol would also like a proposed list of articles for the next issue by midNovember The deadline for article submission is mid-January and the publication
time is scheduled for mid to late February.
The EDS group discussed whether the articles might focus more on a wider scope
(e.g. national level) and if some articles might be reproduced from “DLI Update”.
Richard asked the group to send any ideas for article submissions to him and he
will take these to TDR for the next meeting in mid-November.
5. EDS Advisory Group:
a) Update on members (Christy):
Christy reported she has not yet received a response to the email she sent Bryan
Smale. The group discussed this and agreed that if a response is not received by
the end of the week, Christy should contact Bryan about the possibility of
contacting the individuals directly. The issue will be discussed at the next EDS
meeting. Richard suggested the Associate Deans of Research might also be an
alternative group to approach about membership. The remainder of agenda item
#5 was deferred.
6. Possible Participation in WatITis (Sandra):
The WatITis conference is scheduled for December 6th. Proposals for papers will
be accepted until October 14th. A proposal still needs to be written if Richard and
either Bo or Michelle plan to give a Nesstar presentation. Action: Richard will
write up a proposal for submission. He will also check with Rachel Caldwell to
see if an article on Nesstar was scheduled for the “News At Your Library”
publication.
Next Meeting: November 7th, Porter 407, 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
5. EDS Advisory Group:
A. Update on members (Christy):
Christy reported she had sent an e-mail to Bryan Smale and she has not yet received a
response back. The group discussed this issue and agreed that if a response is not
received by Friday, Christy will contact Bryan and ask if we can contact the
individuals directly. The issue will be discussed at the next EDS meeting. Richard
suggested the Associate Deans of Research might also be an alternative group to
approach. The remainder of agenda item 5 was deferred.
6. Possible Participation in WatITis (Sandra):
WatITis will be held on December 7th. Proposals for papers will be accepted until
October 14th.