Collaborative Libraries Forum (CLF) Meeting Minutes

August 8, 2001

Co-Chairs:
Frances O'Brien, Dean, WVU Libraries and Monica Brooks, Associate Dean, MU Libraries

Date: Monday, August 20, 2001
Time:
1:30 - 3:00 pm
Locations:
WVNET in Morgantown / Governor's Office of Technology, Charleston

In Attendance:
Linda Bane (PSC), Monica Brooks (MU), Mitch Casto (WVU TECH), Thelma Hutchins (FSC), LuAnn Johnson ((WLSC), Kimberly Maynard (SWVCTC), Laura Neal (SC), Mary Salony (WVNCC), Ravi Sharma (WVSC), Stephen Tipler (MU), Ed Ward (WVNET).

WVDL update - West Virginia Digital Library - Monica Brooks
The Consortium group is now being called the West Virginia Digital Library. The annual budget for the West Virginia Library Commission was accepted at a meeting Friday in Princeton. David Price resigned as Director of the Library Commission effective August 15, 2001. The job announcement is going to be distributed after the position is officially announced. There were some unresolved issues when David Price was director about regulations in place for spending funds. It is hoped those issues will be resolved now. At this time J. D. Wagonner is in the secretary of the WVLC and Karen Goff is a WVLC representative. Karen works with public librarians to draft a memorandum of understanding document and create a web presence RTO document about who we are and who we represent. A Digital Library and a library improvement package was drafted to present to the governor in order to get funding. There is a state line item for funding resources. We lobbied for $1.5 million last year. The West Virginia state legislators found that the presentation that was made to them last year was slightly confusing. This year the steering committee met in Bridgeport and decided to pursue a less confusing one-pronged approach. With this approach there is just one line item for the library commission as a group effort, covering public, private, k-12 and academic libraries. This approach means the library commission serves as the one agent for the digital library, and is less confusing at least.

The committee members in Morgantown agreed with Monica that the one-pronged approach will help clear up confusion.

Several committee members asked who the members of steering committee members are, and how did they get to be on steering committee. The answer is the steering committee is a working group of volunteers who represent libraries. The Library Commission has agreed to fund the steering committee, and the steering committee itself decides how to spend the money.

Therefore we are developing a logo and brochures that the steering committee will approve. Then libraries will donate funds to approve the production of thousands of these and people can see a consistent image of the digital library. The WV library commissioners are in major support of the digital library effort. They are very impressed by the diverse group in the committee, representing public, academic, k-12 etc. The public librarians want a matching funding program for special projects that the library commission carries out. They want an increase in grants-in-aid for money across the board. There are going to be some funding inequities across the state. Judy Rhule wants to look at funding models to address the demographics of West Virginia.

So, go back and talk to colleagues to get visible presence in the state capital on the date to be determined. If there are opportunities to write letters or meet with local lawmakers, do that, to support this effort. Feel free to email Monica about it . Frances and Barbara are also working on that project.

The video was helpful, and now is being revised. More images being added in order to show it is a widespread effort from the library community. Personal interaction and testimonials from students were very helpful. The plan is to present it September 7 to the statewide Library Directors' group. Frances O'Brien asked if there is communication with K-12 libraries about this. Monica said that Barbara Winters is working on letters, and Kay Goodwin and others are also working on aspects of the project. Monica will check with Barbara on that. Frances O'Brien is located in a 12 county region of RESA and she might be able to communicate with the groups in area. Frances said she talked to David Setterfield, and he has ideas about what to do differently this time with the video. Frances indicated she pans to contact the group about it.

Monica indicated that the Digital Library and the library improvement package are now considered one and the same project. Nominations will be solicited for a vote by the members of the steering committee. The voting will take place at the WVLA Conference at Canaan in October. Cathy Parker is working on the memo of understanding for the group.

Z39.50 update - Monica Brooks
Again, the Digital Library is the new name of the consortium group, for want of a better name. The two things they are looking at are: 1) getting a combination of online services, and 2) finding out about Z39.50.

A survey that requested I.P addresses was sent out to libraries. There were two difficulties with the survey itself; it was long, and the information that respondents submitted two months ago needs to be resubmitted since it is now out of date. The IP addresses are required in order to be able to set up ports for the protocol. Different parts of the project are now being worked in the meantime until the information about the ports is available. Jane Hughes of Kanawha Co. pubic library is helping out. She wants to get the information together. Barbara Winters wants us get the Digital Library set up so that we can show legislators how it works. The SIRCI, Endeaver and Virtua library software programs are all Z39.50 compliant.

Status of WVNET budget, etc. - Monica Brooks
The WVNET budget was approved. A few small changes were proposed. Ed Ward says the current budget was approved because it is necessary to have an operating budget. However many reservations remain about this approved budget and some issues are not yet settled. One issue important issue for libraries is the method of assessing annual payments of telecommunications for higher education institutions. A more detailed method of assessment is to be used that allows more detailed tracking of telecommunications expenses. Ed says he is interested in knowing what services each of the committee members are providing and how are they are dealing with the costs. Monica asked how the cost of an ILL transaction might be documented.

WVNET Conference
The conference at Sheraton Lake is September 24, 25, and 26 this year. Monica indicated that the WVNET conference last year exhibited lots of library technology. She recommended that the committee members attend the meeting.

Other business
The committee members reported on events that are new since the previous meeting.

Frances O'Brien in Morgantown will pass out sheets on her end, and email the committee members about a workshop about dealing with problem patrons. Cathy Parker is going to participate as well. The session was planned to take place September 28 at Shepherd College.

Monica Brooks announced that Stephen Tipler of Marshall University is developing a webpage for this committee.

Mary Salony says West liberty has a new web page and they have moved to Endeaver.

Linda Bane reported that the PSC media center was moved to the basement of the PSC library, and the reference stacks were shifted.

Thelma Hutchins reported about Endeavor at FSC. FSC hired new hired a school library coordinator and reference librarian. They are still looking for an electronic services person.

Laura Neal reported a construction project was started at SC to expand the library. They are planning to move into the new expansion section when it is finished, and then renovate the existing building. Over summer they upgraded their implementation of Voyager and redesigned their web site.

Ed Ward of WVNET reported he is getting ready for the WVNET conference. WVNET has recently installed AKAMI servers locally in a pioneering effort with one of the statewide Internet Service Providers to keep ISP connections instate. That is part of a strategy to increase internet bandwidth in West Virginia in a cost effective manner. Monica asked if we are going to move ahead on any of the planned initiatives. Ed replied WVNET is planning to move ahead with it because it will not cost anything. In fact a reduction in costs should result. Funding is available for the backbone, interconnections and core services is, although for other services the funding is not available yet. That is why the AKAMI plan of keeping the servers in state and reducing costs will be valuable.

Frances O'Brien of WVU says the work on the new library building is going well. This summer WVU migrated to the new release of Voyager/Endeavor. Now they are asking faculty to review the journals in their disciplines to find out if they want to cancel subscriptions and get new ones. Starting in September a $25 library fee will be charged to students to fund new databases including project MUSE. WVU has a new Blackwell database. They have the Wall Street Journal database. They are planning to move in November or December. Final move plans are going to be made as the day the building is going to be finished draws near. Plans have to be made for telecommunications equipment.

A big thing being worked on is how to charge students for printing from the web. Various pieces of the system are incomplete and not in place yet. It will be another 2 weeks before they start charging. The program they have is called Pharos. She reported that many things went wrong during the initial implementation of it.

Ravi Sharma reported that the president of WVSC signed a paper to give the college librarians faculty status as of July 1, 2002. That is good news. The faculty senate was very helpful in also they have 200,000 grant from HUD to get a cyber cafeteria in the library. $200,000 is available from the state to start some things. Also they have implemented Virtua and Virtua training. WVSC lost 2 public service librarians and financial resources for the positions are frozen so they cannot be filled. Ravi went to Belise this summer and is working on cooperation with them. There is a new person working in academic affairs in WVSC too.

Rich says the library at WV Tech is trying to find a way to keep library open using work study students. That is how to keep it open late hours. They recently became involved with an implementation of Voyager/Endeavor.

Kim Maynard reported they have just finished an inventory project. Bar coding was done and books were moved to a new library. They have also been working to upgrade software.

Stephen Tipler reported that he plans to develop a web page for this committee with Macromedia Dreamweaver.

Monica Brooks reported there have been difficulties with the implementation of Virtua in Marshall University. The help of a web page designer from the University of Tennessee Chattanooga has been sought in order to form the graphic design. Library Science courses for certification are now available from Marshall University. That is a reinstatement of certification for media specialists and school library staff. There is no Masters degree in library science available. Thelma asked if the Marshall University program is a graduate program in library science. Monica answered yes it is, but only for persons who already have teaching degrees. Monica said she plans to inform committee members of the dates to meet with legislators as soon as they have been decided.

Ravi Sharma asked about contracts being sent out and salary increases. Monica said that the higher education policy commission has given some indications based on the new peer structure. Last year it was about a 2% increase. This year it will vary from school to school but it isn't known what the variation will be from department to department. The salary increase is expected to be similar to last year or slightly better.