Coordinating Committees

CUWL Library Technology Coordinating Committee
Conference Call - March 10, 2009

Minutes

Present:  Bolthouse, Brunsting, Jewell, Knight, Lowrey, Lundquist, Muraski, Musselman, Nordgren, Olle-LaJoie
Absent:  Doering

1. Metalib X-server and R Resource Discovery Task Force update – Mitch updated the group on the progress of the Resource Discovery Task Force.  His focus is on trying to break it down into how we access various data, both internal and external (e.g., OPAC, digital collections, journal titles, articles) rather than looking at specific products.  Other sites (Indiana U) are doing this now.  Some data will always be external to us.  The X-server could be one component of that.  Madison is interested in it for other reasons as well.  They have setup VUFind and are testing it now.  They are closer to doing a proof-of-concept with open source.  This may also help with defining the development costs of open source vs proprietary solutions.  SFX and MetaLib will be with us for the next few years and our need for federating searching is not going away soon.  So X-server could be valuable for us.  He doesn’t know that Madison has the staff or time to devote to the X-server right now.  Other campuses expressed the same thoughts—they are interested, but don’t have the expertise or time to build it from scratch.  Templates and toolkits would be necessary.  Is it worth the $4625 to license it annually now?  Lisa said it is if we can put forth the effort and maybe get someone to lead us through it.  Jon Mark said we can look under the hood at Xerxes (CSU’s implementation) if we use their guest username and password—he will send that out.  We will all look at that to get a better idea of how much work this will entail.  Marlys will contact Bryan Vogh since he was very interested in setting this up at Eau Claire.

2. Assisting Other Campuses With Automation Needs

a. ILLiad training –proposal from Eric Robinson at WiLS was sent out on Friday to the cuwltech list.
b. SFX/MetaLib/Voyager training via Ex Libris – Lisa is working with a new person at Ex Libris to arrange for on-site training, not necessarily at Madison.  The webinars will not be pursued.  Jon Mark will send a list of the questions he has received so far relating to MetaLib and SFX.  Terri reported that Ex Libris also has a training session for X-server.
c. Webinars (Jon Mark) – the MetaLib brownbag seminar by Sue Dentinger is this afternoon at 3:00  She will cover the monthly updates process.  There was interest from all of the campuses so extra phone lines will be reserved.

3. Library Management System - At the CUWL meeting in Feb, Ed Meachen said that the only path to swapping our library automation system is through the common systems approach.  That means our proposal has to be reviewed by several groups and finally it goes to the chancellors for approval.  Ed was suggesting to the CUWL directors that they consider moving the library budget under the purview of Common Systems.  It might be negatively affected, but there is so much transparency in the process that he thinks it would actually be safer.  And it is the only avenue open for libraries for funds except for resource sharing.  If we stay outside of CS, we have to go for a DIN in order to get new money.  Lisa said that replacement of Voyager is in the Common Systems Roadmap now with a replacement date of 2011/12.  Marlys put the questions and products on the wiki into a grid format.  She will see if other schools who have migrated recently have done the same sort of research.  The products we listed were divided up amongst the group.  Each person will find the answers to fill in the grid before the next meeting.  The results will be presented to CUWL at the May meeting and we’ll see where CUWL wants us to go from there.  Assignments:  Koha, Evergreen (Terri), Ex Libris URM (Maureen), Autographics Agent VERSO (Jon Mark), Millennium (Jon Mark), OPALS (Mitch), NewGenLib (Deb), Polaris (Sharon), Library.Solution (Marlys), KLAS (Jim), Vubis Smart (Bill), Alto (Marlys), Sirsi (Deb).

4. General Records Schedule – Retention of Server Files -  The ILLiad slowdown last week pushed this to the forefront.  Campuses were asked to contact Atlas to cleanup their server files to improve performance times.  At this point, no one has had time to go through the Voyager server files and discuss with their staff.  All agreed it would be helpful if we shared that info.

5. Simulsearch Types – Marlys spoke to Mary Rieder to find out what the confusion was and she said there was no confusion.  They were concerned about the duplication of search types on the advanced search screen.  Maureen reported that she has received search definitions from Green Bay, Superior and La Crosse  She will follow-up with other campuses.  We will look at the Internet Links first to see if we can achieve consistency in order to get it down to one search on the Advanced/Builder Search tab.

6. D2L and Library Integration –  This issue is closed now (see February LTCC minutes and February report to CUWL on CUWL web site for detail).

7. Suggestions for Breakout Sessions and Roundtables for summer conference - The conference planning committee is trying to get either Marshall Breeding or Joan Lippincott for a keynote speaker.  If they engage Marshall Breeding, we agreed we would like to see if he’ll stay for a breakout session.  We would also like to see an ILLiad roundtable at the conference.  Due to time limitations, people should send their suggestions for speakers or topics to Marlys.

Submitted by Marlys Brunsting
March 17, 2009