SUNYConnect Advisory Council
Minutes – June 11, 2001

Approved August 7, 2001


Present:	Laura Cohen, Randy Gadikian, Carey Hatch, Eleanor Heishman 
(Chair), Dr. Mac Donald Holmes, Tom Neiss, Pam Peters, Mike Pisa, 
Janet Potter, Larry Randall, Judy Sikora, Maureen Zajkowski, 
Connie Perrin (Staff)

Excused:	Richard Mann

	Eleanor and the other Council members extended their congratulations to 
Laura Cohen, recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in 
Librarianship for 2001.

After review of the agenda, it was decided to postpone discussion of 
the Financial Plan until Richard Mann was able to participate by conference 
call.

The minutes of March 27, 2001 were approved as distributed.

OLD BUSINESS

a.  Financial Plan – postponed until later

b.  Implementation Update

Maureen Zajkowski combined items b. (Implementation) and c. (LMS 
Migration Schedule) into one topic.  She reported that Fredonia is up and 
running.  The schedules for Oswego and Tompkins-Cortland have been adjusted 
to July.  Buffalo plans to migrate in October of 2001; Binghamton and Stony 
Brook have been renegotiated to January of 2002.  Because of delays, the 
implementation of the seven Phase II libraries will be held off until 
sometime in the fall.

Maureen discussed the meeting with Ex Libris staff in Boston which she and 
Carey attended on May 10 and 11.  Talks focused mainly on adjustments of the 
migration schedule.  Maureen said that the Union Catalog will not proceed 
until we are comfortable with the pilot implementation.  OLIS is identifying 
key roles of staff members, who are presently developing documents on 
administrative expectations, training, configuration issues, tasks and 
resources.  Maureen stated that OLIS needs to take a greater role in the 
implementation process due to the complexity of the system.  Following 
questions regarding the role of Ex Libris in relation to OLIS, Maureen told 
the group that OLIS is working on some internal communication issues with 
them.  Maureen and Carey reported they have seen some improvements in the 
support that Ex Libris provides as well as changes in their attitudes about 
training and support.



d. Document Delivery Survey

Carey reviewed the summary of the ground delivery survey sent by email to 
the Council.  The summary was also sent to Mary Alice Lynch of Nylink, who 
reported that the RFP is now in its final stages.  When completed, it will be 
reviewed by several key people and possibly submitted by January

e.  SliCAT Report

Larry referenced two draft documents that were e-mailed to the group:  a 
master list of potential electronic resources and a core database planning 
sheet.  He explained the master list was developed by looking at several 
variables, including how often and where the product was offered within SUNY 
and by other consortia, recent available figures and distribution of SUNY 
degrees awarded.  Carey suggested that a new column be added for type of 
expenditure (i.e. operating or capital funds).

Larry stated that SliCAT will be meeting in a month to prepare a planning 
sheet for the core data bases.  Following that meeting, members will be 
prioritizing for the new core list.  He said that Nylink will have the 
primary responsibility for vendor contracting.

Larry also reported that he has convened a meeting scheduled for tomorrow 
(June 12) of various campus representatives to discuss collection management 
issues for Elsevier Science Direct (dropping duplicate subscriptions) and 
what concerns need to be addressed.

f.  Network and Telecommunications     

Tom referred to a paragraph from the last set of minutes that asks how 
it can be assured that SUNY’s network infrastructure offers adequate 
bandwidth and performance to run SUNYConnect applications.  Eleanor said a 
letter was sent to the Provost on April 6 about the need for communication 
between those leading the telecommunications project and those from 
SUNYConnect.  A response was received on April 14 and both these documents 
were distributed.  Tom told the group that the Provost and Chris Haile have 
asked him to put together a document about the telecommunications project.  
Discussion then centered on issues associated with this.  Tom stated that the 
telecommunications requirements have been sent to the Provost for review. 
Finally, Tom announced that the OGS contract with AT&T is official for 
Internet access, which may result in considerable savings to some campuses.

g.  Privacy Policy

Carey announced he has contacted the University of Michigan and has 
received approval to use their privacy policy as a model.  Tom stated that a 
Working Group within System Administration has been formed.  Members are 
looking at a policy framework on which to build a SUNY-wide policy.  He 
referred to an article in EDUCAUSE on the subject. Tom told the group that 
Policies and Practices are in place at the Application Processing Center.  
For practical purposes, Carey will put the Civil Practice Law on the 
SUNYConnect website.


h. SUNY Business Officers Meeting

 Pam told the group about the SUNYConnect report she and Carey gave to 
SUBOA at their meeting in April.  Pam and Carey provided details about the 
four-year SUNYConnect financial plan.  She said the group was quite 
supportive..  Pam also said that Chris Haile gave a full update on 
SUNYConnect activities at a recent Community Officers Business meeting. The 
community college group has asked to be represented on SAC. This will be on 
the agenda for the next SAC meeting.

i. Assessment of SUNYConnect and the University at Buffalo Proposal

Carey said the School of Informatics at the University of Buffalo offered 
to do an assessment of SUNYConnect if funding could be found through grants 
or our financial plan.  He said this proposal would involve a significant 
effort and finding sufficient funding would be difficult.  The group 
discussed assessment needs and issues.  Pam suggested pulling together a 
group from SAC and the library community to address these issues.  Judy and 
Mac offered to serve as representatives from the Council.  Additional names 
for this committee were briefly discussed.

NEW BUSINESS

a. Implementation Schedule – Process for Changing

Eleanor reported that we have had various requests from campuses to change 
their place in the implementation schedule.  Some campuses have asked to move 
their migration up while others would prefer to go later.  SAC will address 
these requests on a regular basis beginning this fall.  Eleanor said a major 
issue involves how often the schedule should be reviewed.  After some 
discussion, the group concurred that review should be triggered by the next 
wave of migration.

b. Involvement of Non SUNY Institutions with SUNYConnect  
Carey reported he has had conversations with Carla Johnson of Alfred 
Ceramics about Alfred University’s participation in SUNYConnect LMS and with 
John Stromquist about the possibility of WALDO’s participation.  Eleanor 
stressed the fact that this is a significant policy issue beyond the sharing 
of software and recommended that this issue be referred to the Executive 
Committee and the Finance Committee before it comes back to this group.

Financial Plan – Old Business

Because Richard Mann notified the group he would be unable to join the 
meeting by conference call, Eleanor recommended that the financial plan be 
discussed at this point.  Carey distributed an update of what he had 
previously e-mailed.  He explained changes in the revenue and discussed the 
IFR.  He said the overall spending in a five-year period remains basically 
the same.

The issue of whether Science Direct should continue to be paid from this 
account was discussed.  Carey explained that costs could be covered during 
the remainder of the contract (3 years ending next year) but that the group 
should consider how it should be handled in the future.  Several options were 
mentioned.  Eleanor asked for a motion on the payment plan for Elsevier.

On motion made by Pam Peters, seconded by Randy Gadikian and carried, 
the SUNYConnect financial plan will incur the cost of Elsevier for the 
2001-2002 fiscal year.

It was decided that the Financial Committee will address the long range plan.

c. Ex Libris SFX Software – New Business

Carey described SFX, an Ex Libris product not Aleph-related which allows 
the linking of content from various vendors of electronic resources.  He said 
this is not currently in the financial plan.  Costs for SFX appear to be 
reasonable, but do need further investigation.  The possibility of setting up 
test pilots was discussed.  It was decided that this issue will be a future 
agenda item.  Eleanor mentioned that the Ex Libris website has an overview of 
SFX.

d. SUNYLA Communications

  Maureen explained problems associated with the scheduling of sessions 
about SUNYConnect by OLIS at the SUNYLA Annual meeting.  Laura reported that 
she has addressed these issues with the SUNYLA Executive Board.  At their 
June meeting, the SUNYLA Executive Board passed a resolution to dedicate 
session time to SUNYConnect at the next five SUNYLA Annual Conferences.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

Eleanor reported the following nominations:
Pam -- Chair; Janet-- Vice-chair; Randy-- Secretary.  There were no 
additional nominations.  The secretary was instructed to cast one ballot for 
this slate.

Pam and all Council members expressed their appreciation to Eleanor for 
her tenure as Chair.

Representatives from COA (Mike Pisa) and SUNYLA (Laura Cohen) have been 
re-nominated by their respective groups.

PASSING OF THE GAVEL

a. Schedule of Meetings for 2001-02

Carey called Lorraine of Richard Mann’s office so that all members would 
have the opportunity to discuss the schedule.

The following dates were tentatively set:

		Tuesday, August 7
	Tuesday, October 2
	Tuesday, December 4 – The Provost will be invited.
	Tuesday, January 22
	Tuesday, March 5
	Tuesday, April 30
	Tuesday, June 11

All meetings will be held at 10:00 am in Albany.

b. Agenda Items

Pam and the Council members identified the following agenda items for future 
meetings:

The Executive Committee and Financial Committees will be meeting, as 
discussed above.

SAC Issues:

		SFX Pilot
		Privacy Policy
		Community Business Officers Meeting
		Assessment
		Follow-up on Faculty Senate
		Ex. Libris Host Sites
		Ex Libris Timeline
		Review of Implementation Schedule

Adjournment.

Respectfully submitted,  
Janet Potter, secretary
Draft prepared by Connie Perrin (Staff)

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