Minutes

Council of University of Wisconsin Libraries

April 1, 2003

Library Conference Center, UW-Milwaukee

 

Present:  Robert Rose (Chair), Arne Arneson, Christina Baum, Jim Bredeson, Lorie Docken, Anita Evans, Ken Frazier, Chris Goss, Kenneth Grant, Anthony Gulig, Leanne Hansen, Joyce Huang, Joe Jax, John Krogman, Ed Meachen, Paul Moriarty, Tom Murray, Kathy Schneider, Peter Watson-Boone, Patrick Wilkinson. Guests:  Barbara Baruth (for Tom Peischl), Janice Bogstad, Laura Jacobs (for Debra Nordgren), Valerie Malzacher, Hal Schlais.

 

Chair Rose called the meeting to order at 10:13am.  He welcomed guests and thanked Watson-Boone and UW-Milwaukee for hosting this meeting.  Announcements were made and a revised CUWL membership roster was distributed.  Hearing no corrections to the previous minutes of the February 3, 2003 CUWL meeting and the February 11, 2003 Executive Committee minutes, they were declared approved as distributed.

 

UW System/OLIT Report

Meachen reported on the course management software selected, Desire2Learn.   A UW System group recently visited the company in Toronto and was comfortable with its fiscal health and philosophy.  The company views repositories as a source of content for student-empowered learning rather than simply as coursework.  Work has begun on the terms of the contract with signing expected soon.  There are some partnership possibilities with this company.  David Wirth has been assigned as the project manager for six months.  An implementation group will be formed with a separate steering committee providing oversight.  Voyager should be a good fit with other administrative systems within Desire to Learn.  UW System is the first major purchaser of this product in the United States.  Meachen would like library representation on the implementation team and steering committee.  Frazier inquired about the publishing function, to which Schlais responded that we’re moving from a course management system to a content management system in which publishing is possible.  The library can play a role in keeping those documents after creation.  Schneider said that OCLC has an e-learning group that is trying to determine where the library fits in this whole array and how OCLC can plan a role.  Meachen said it would be helpful for him to be on that group.  Schneider will keep us apprised of what OCLC is thinking.  The Desire to Learn timeline calls for some pilots by summer 2003 and continued Blackboard and WebCT support only through June 2004.  The Executive Committee will send a recommendation for appointment to the committee to Meachen.  Watson-Boone suggested that the LAMs should also be involved somehow and to recommend a LAM as well.

 

State Historical Society Letter of Support

Prior to the meeting, Rose had emailed the group a copy of a letter from the Wisconsin Historical Society requesting CUWL support in the form of a signature to that letter.  David Miller had forwarded an opinion for the UW System that such overt support might not be in the best interest of UWS.  Other groups have signed this letter of support, so suggested changes to the wording were not possible.  This letter will be sent to members of the Joint Finance Committee.  After discussion it was determined that CUWL as a group will not sign the letter, but individual members are urged to write separate letters of support for the Society.

 

Campus Updates

Each Director took a few minutes to briefly outline what cuts would be made to cope with coming budget cuts.  Wilkinson suggested that for the next meeting the campus update agenda item could focus on strategic opportunities.  Local digital projects were also shared and discussed.  Baruth asked who is working with campus groups to write copyright guidelines.  After a brief discussion, it was suggested that this be a future agenda item, especially in light of the TEACH Act.

 

UWDC Report

The Committee received some outstanding proposals.  Work is progressing on the Ecology and Natural Resources, Wisconsin Land Inventory (Bordner Survey), and the American Suzuki Institute projects.  The Committee will meet later in April to consider the organization of the UWDC web site and how to integrate individual campus projects.

There was some concern about how digital collections will be found using catalogs or web searches.

 

Recessed for lunch at noon / Reconvened at 1:04pm

 

WiLS Report

Schneider announced the good news of no price increases for both OCLC and WiLS for the coming year.  WiLSWorld will be July 23-24 with Jay Jordan speaking on cooperation and collaboration.

 

ILLiad Implementation Report

Patron loads have been the biggest challenge for most campuses.  Odyssey, the electronic document delivery portion, will be ready for testing soon at Wisconsin sites.  Atlas will work with WiLS to begin the test and each campus will then be able to choose where they’d like to be in the testing phase.  Atlas is offering more sessions with discounts for Wisconsin libraries.  A few weeks ago Atlas turned over support of daily operations to OCLC for functional support while they continue to provide technical support.  Software is being developed that will allow ILLiad to non-ILLiad connections, much the same as Ariel.  Wilkinson raised some privacy concerns that Moriarty will look into.  Wilkinson

also expressed concern about the transactional history being retained in light of the USA Patriot Act.  Moriarty will explore the issue and ask CUWL to set a policy; some retention is necessary for reports.  Frazier warned that more licensed products prohibit ILL or document delivery.  Schneider added that currently about 7% of all requests are denied for licensing restrictions.  Frazier suggested that we work with legal counsel on this to protect interlibrary loan for the future.  He also suggested that we refuse to sign any license that prohibits ILL.

 

 

CDC Report

Jax moved and Evans seconded a motion to accept the CDC recommendations for July renewals.  The motion passed after the following discussion.  Renewals include Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, CIS Statistical Universe, E-Subscribe, Groves Art Online, McGraw Hill Access Science Encyclopedia, and the Oxford English Dictionary.  Docken explained the importance of maintaining financial support for netLibrary within the current Wisconsin Academic E-Book Consortium.  UW System funding of $60,000 for this resource in 2003/04 will come from automation funds.  CDC had proposed spending $30,000.  Schneider explained that e-books other than netLibrary have been explored and the Consortium is not compelled to use only netLibrary should another source prove satisfactory.  Docken will send use statistics on netLibrary to directors.  Further discussion on e-books ensued with the suggestion that the Consortium could develop some collection guidelines for more targeted purchases.

 

Huang moved and Jax seconded a motion to accept the CDC recommendation for one-time purchases.  Motion passed.  These products are JSTOR’s Arts & Sciences II and Alexander Street Press’s North American Immigrant Letters and Diaries.

 

The journals overlap study is continuing.  Bogstad clarified that this study pertains to titles within group purchases.  Local campuses are encouraged to do their own studies.  The UB Impact Subcommittee has begun work by identifying methods of study.  At the next CUWL meeting they’ll present their methods and findings.  They’ll need a sufficient period of UB use to have enough data for a good study.  The Faxon situation has been referred to the state’s attorney general office, which is acting on behalf of all UW campuses.  They are handling all of the legal forms and notices.

 

Nominations

Evans submitted the following slate:

            Chair-Elect:      Leanne Hansen, UW-Green Bay

            Secretary:         John Krogman, UW-Platteville

            Member-at-Large (term expires 6/05): Tom Murray, UW-Madison Wendt Library

            Representatives to WiLS Board:  Peter Watson Boone, UW-Milwaukee

                                                                  Joyce Huang, UW-Whitewater

 

The faculty CUWL members selected Ken Grant as their representative to the Executive Committee.  Evans said that the timing of Colleges election for their CUWL representative would be more helpful if it occurred prior to CUWL nominations.  Bredeson said that there is no change in election timing planned; it occurs every third year before the end of the academic year.  There were no other nominations from the floor.  Jax moved and Baum seconded to accept the slate as presented.  Motion passed.

 

Serial Procurement Task Force

A survey identifying overviews of current serial procurement practices was conducted.  Moriarty reported that Lori Voss identified two processes:  bid and RFP.  There are two to three viable vendors.  The Task Force is working on a bid document based on a SUNY document.  The goal is to have the document out and with responses in time for January renewals done this summer.  The final specs will be shared with CUWL.  Watson-Boone volunteered to share UW-Milwaukee’s competitive process for serials procurement that might be used as a model.

 

Break at 2:45pm / Reconvened at 3:00pm

 

Strategic Directions Group

Arneson, Chair of the Strategic Directions Committee, reported that the Committee is working on an update rather a new document.  A draft will be ready for the fall meeting and comments will be requested.  Some of the action statements will be made more specific so that who, where, and how will be identified.  Frazier suggested that CUWL do more with cooperative collection development and others concurred.  Watson Boone suggested that one of the directions concern repositories.

 

Electronic Resource Management Task Force

Malzacher, Chair of the Task Force, reported on activity to date.  Members attended the vendor demonstrations in Madison on March 4^th and reviewed draft RFP documents previously prepared by UW Madison librarians.  They would like to proceed based on these documents.  Several subcommittees were developed to score specific sections of the RFP.  The Task Force recommends that we proceed with developing and issuing an RFP for federated search and cross linking software for system-wide purchase.  Jax asked what the source of funding would be.  Docken replied that 2003/04 UW System automation funding would be used with campuses responsible for annual maintenance costs.  Cost estimates were expected soon.  There were several questions regarding maintenance fees, architecture, and staffing.  Jax moved and Watson-Boone seconded the recommendation to proceed with the Task Force development.  Moriarty said the timetable is aggressive but can be done for implementation by January 2004.  Motion passed.

 

Miscellaneous

Watson-Boone distributed UW-Milwaukee’s “Policy on Response to Subpoenas, Search Warrants, or other Official Requests for Confidential Information.”   UW-Oshkosh, UW-Eau Claire, and UW-Platteville are completing policies and these will be forwarded.

 

DOA contracted with a firm to assess insurance and security of buildings at UW-Milwaukee and UW-Whitewater through a probable maximum loss survey. The assessment may be extended to other campuses.

 

Moriarty checked with Endeavor regarding any needs to upgrade Voyager hardware.  Once all the information is available, he’ll send it out.  Indications so far are that campuses should have adequate hardware for the next year.

 

Docken explained an informal inquiry she received from DPI regarding UB and ILLiad use.  Interest in participating in these software packages was expressed so a demonstration was arranged.  DPI would prefer not paying a fee for using UW collections for public library requests.  Since participation in UB and ILLiad isn’t likely for public libraries, DPI may instead encourage public libraries to use OCLC directly for each of us and any charges will be up to each UW System library.

 

The next meeting would ordinarily be the joint fall meeting that is not yet planned.  CUWL will need to determine whether or not we would like to participate again.  Jax recommended that the Executive Committee make that determination.  A summer meeting may be called if agenda items warrant it.

 

The meeting ended with a round of applause for UW-Milwaukee’s generous hospitality and adjourned at 3:50pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Leanne Hansen

CUWL Secretary