SUNYConnect Advisory Council Minutes January 17, 2001 Members present: Laura Cohen, Randy Gadikian, Carey Hatch, Eleanor Heishman (Chair), Mac Holmes, Richard Mann (by phone until 11AM), Tom Neiss, Pam Peters, Mike Pisa, Janet Potter (until 2 PM), Larry Randall, Judy Sikora, Maureen Zajkowski Absent: none Meeting Schedule The Council agreed that meetings will be held on February 21 (by videoconference), March 22 or 27, to be announced (replacing the meeting scheduled for March 28), May 2, and June 11 (replacing the meeting scheduled for June 6). On motion from Peters the Minutes of December 6, 2000 were approved as distributed. Old Business Financial Plan (Heishman, Peters and Hatch) Peters and Heishman reviewed funding sources for the financial plan for new member Dick Mann, reiterating the need for additional funding sources. Elsevier contract (Randall) Randall reported on the contract that is being negotiated with Elsevier to offer online access to the combined subscriptions of SUNY and CUNY. SUNY spends about $3.8 million on Elsevier journals, owning about 700 of the 1100 titles published. A meeting is scheduled with SUNY’s major subscribers, CUNY, and NYLINK. Campuses would have to agree not to diminish the amount of money spent on Elsevier subscriptions. A 10% content fee is required if the online access is in addition to paper copies. SUNY System Administration will pay will pay the 10% content fee for this year only. The plan is to have this new SUNYConnect offering available some time this semester. OLIS will work with campus representatives throughout the year to reduce print copies and associated costs Databases (Hatch and Randall) The Council discussed the need to expand the database portion of SUNYConnect. Potter reported that the SUNY Council of Library Directors would like to see what it would cost for an expanded package of SUNYConnect databases so that additional funding sources can be sought. It was agreed that there might be a need for different levels for smaller campuses and larger campuses. Hatch pointed out that we might need to look at different pricing models. For example, our current model is FTE-based and we may want to look at a per use model. Larry Randall reported that SliCat is planning to establish a listing of what would be in a core package by the end of the semester. The group could also cost out some models using different packages for smaller and larger campuses. LMS Implementation (Hatch and Zajkowski) Hatch reviewed initial budget estimates compared to the actual cost for pilot implementation. The addition of test servers at each at each multi-campus site has increased costs over initial estimates. Test servers were deemed necessary so that re- indexing, testing and installation of new version releases wouldn’t affect production. The Council agreed we can’t afford too many multi-campus server sites and few single campus sites. Binghamton is exploring the possibility of being a multi-campus server site. Maintenance costs are coming in somewhat lower than budgeted. Hatch raised the issue of single campus sites and who should pay for maintenance, servers, and server upgrades. It was agreed that OLIS would pay hardware maintenance for pilot single campus servers for the first year, allowing for the campuses to determine if they wish to function as a multi-campus server site. There is no funding available to add new servers in this budget cycle. Staffing will be more modest than estimated. Hatch reviewed the hiring recently completed. Savings in this area may be available for operational costs and electronic content. Zajkowski reported on the implementation at the pilot sites. Test servers are now at the sites. The ordering of production servers is underway with planned delivery in March. Binghamton has agreed to serve as the pilot site for the union catalog. The data management working group will be working with Maureen on the project plan for the union catalog pilot. The test server at Binghamton will become available in early summer for the project. The issue of whether we will have a virtual or actual catalog was discussed. Planning discussions with Ex Libris call for developing and testing an actual catalog to use as the basis for the universal borrowing component as well as for future consortial capabilities. Parameters for selection of next implementation sites (continued from Dec. 6) The Council discussed the benefits of consolidation and collapse of LAIP cluster sites. There are savings that would occur if we could close the Syracuse LAIP site. Ex Libris has said they would be able to handle all the remaining Syracuse cluster sites in the next round starting in May. Prior to making any decisions, we need to investigate whether Oswego is interested in taking the Syracuse sites and whether the remaining Syracuse LAIP campuses are able to proceed at this time. OLIS will be coordinating all training and migration activities. Because they are still gearing up, getting new staff trained, and getting the working groups together, we need to keep expansion at a manageable level. We should plan for the next round beginning around January 2002 and plan for a six- month cycle for each phase. We will need to escalate the number of campuses included in the next round. Concern was expressed about how many campuses Ex Libris can handle especially given the number of new contracts the company has signed. Carey reported that the Harvard contract was signed based on agreement that Harvard would receive support out of Jerusalem. The Council discussed the importance of geography to choosing the campuses in a cluster, both as related to the network and to training and communication among the campuses. Tom Neiss stated that he felt geographic proximity isn’t that important in terms of the network response time, although there is a modest increase in cost from going outside one’s local area (LATA). Eleanor Heishman pointed out that the key issues are financial, network, and personnel resources at Ex Libris and OLIS. Carey and Maureen will put together a proposal for a regional model. Network Update and Planning (Neiss and Hatch) Tom Neiss gave an overview of SUNYNET. He expressed concern about campuses where library traffic will be in competition with other Internet traffic. He stressed the importance of having network professionals, librarians and SUNY people at the table when decisions are made about what avenues the campus will use for SUNYConnect library traffic. Carey and Tom are preparing a retreat for people from the pilot sites that may result in a draft of standards/policy recommendations for future sites. Tom presented information about Internet2 and its potential as serving for the high-speed backbone we need for SUNYConnect. As a result of research done related to the Trustee’s telecomm resolution, ALIS is proposing a telecommunications strategy that recommends that SUNY adopt Internet 2 for all SUNY campuses. Now that I2 is open to all educational institutions, not just those in the original Research 1 group, it is possible for all SUNY traffic to move to Internet2. If all SUNY moved to Internet2, the current SUNYNet physical network would go away. Tom believes the technology and architecture of I2 allows for growth well into the future. Chris Haile and others will be meeting with the Chancellor on January 31 to present the ALIS I2 telecommunications strategy proposal. Tom passed out a 12/21/00 memo from Chris to the Provost outlining the proposal. The Council agreed to send the following resolution to the Provost prior to the January 31st meeting. "The SUNYConnect Advisory Council endorses the Internet2 for SUNY ("I2 for SUNY") strategic direction as presented by Chris Haile in the Telecommunications Strategy memo of 12/21/2000. SUNYConnect Advisory Council sees opportunities through this initiative for the continued successful implementation of SUNYConnect." Storage Update (Hatch and Randall) Larry and Carey went over the plans for remote storage. They will convene a small team from OLIS and campuses to develop an RFP, visit existing storage sites, hire a consultant to complete a needs assessment and have an RFP by next February 2002 so it can be presented to campus administrators and be included in the next 5 year capital plan (2003-2005). Chris and Carey will be receiving information from folks in Buffalo about the Bethune project, a Western New York shared storage plan that has not received funding. Delivery Service (Heishman) Eleanor shared a communication from Mary Alice Lynch of NYLINK concerning her investigation of a statewide courier service for SUNYConnect. Several questions emerged: What courier systems are already in place in the state that we can build on (3Rs, school systems)? What tie-in will the delivery system have to the LMS and ILL systems? Could delivery be independent of the LMS? While we don't have requirements developed, we would prefer a flat fee per drop rather than per- unit fee. We addressed Mary Alice's questions posed in her email and Eleanor will follow up with her asking to share results of research as the initial step in developing specifications. New Business Circulation Records (Hatch) In testing the new LMS software, it was discovered that the Aleph500 circulation system maintains a linkage between borrower and borrowed item AFTER the transaction is completed. Carey asked and received an opinion from SUNY Counsel office stating: "Unless we have an operational need to maintain such records or the cost of deleting such records after borrowed items are returned is prohibitive, we should delete such records..." This opinion is based on New York State’s law on the confidentiality of library records. Carey will ask Ex Libris what would be involved in modifying the software to comply with SUNY's needs. The next meeting will be on February 21st by videoconference at Syracuse, Albany, Buffalo and Stony Brook from 10 AM to 3 PM. Agenda: Regional Host Plan and Timeline for Implementation (Carey and Maureen); Financial Plan (Finance Committee), Elsevier Contract (Larry). 1