Present: John Anderson, Randy Gadikian, Carey Hatch, John Homburger, Andy Perry, Pam Peters, Larry Randall, Judy Sikora, Nancy Van Deusen, Barbara von Wahlde, Rick Winant, Maureen Zajkowski, Connie Perrin (Staff)

Excused: Mike Pisa, Janet Potter

Guests: Boe Horton (Bowker), Pat Busby, Anthony Stark (Calico Consortium, South Africa)

Carey welcomed the new members and our guests from South Africa. Introductions were made around the table.

Pam presented the following nominations:

Randy Gadikian as Chair; Andy Perry as Vice Chair; Nancy Van Deusen as Secretary. There were no additional nominations. The secretary was instructed to cast one ballot for this slate.

Pam passed the gavel to new Chair, Randy Gadikian.

Carey asked the Calico visitors to provide a report during lunch.

The minutes for the meeting of March 19, 2003 were approved as distributed with one edit: Under the Group3 Status on page two, the last word under the third bullet was changed from "meet" to "met."

Carey made the following announcements:

• Carey and Larry have met with SLiCAT in order to discuss the group’s future after Larry’s retirement at the end of June. Carey plans on serving as the vendor contact. Renegotiations with Elsevier will be addressed during the summer months.

• Carey has been working with SUNY Counsel on issues pertaining to Faxon.

• Carey briefly described CourseSpace. The courses offered will be based on an SLN template and will be available to all campuses.

• Peter Shea is serving as Interim Director of SLN until the position of Assistant Provost for Learning Environments is filled. Dick Miller has resigned from the Office of the Vice Chancellor and has accepted the position as President of Hartwick College. Recommendations for the new Director of the Training Center have been submitted.

• The amount of the SUNY tuition hike has yet to be determined by the Board of Trustees.

Maureen provided the following LMS update:

• Naomi Leiser has been reassigned as Ex Libris Project Manager.
• Naomi is loading the bibliographic and holdings data extracted from 7 campuses as part of a prototype union catalog (Binghamton, Cayuga, Cortland, Oneonta, Stony Brook Health Sciences, Sullivan, Upstate Medical)
• The loads and indexing are expected to be completed by mid-June. The Data Management Working Group has been asked to participate in data review.
• Consultation days will be set up with Ex Libris and OLIS in July to address ongoing loads (parameters for record selection, loading programs, maintenance topics, links to item level information, etc.)

• All campuses have switched to Ex Libris Support.
• Group3 campuses were asked to complete migration assessment forms. Two campuses (out of 11) have responded to date.

• Initial planning meetings took place in April for Group4a (Alfred Ceramics, Alfred State, Alfred University, and Corning) and in May for Group4b (Buffalo State College, Erie, and Jamestown.) Planning meetings for Group4c will be held in June (Finger Lakes, Genesee, Geneseo, and Monroe).
• Ex Libris staff will be meeting with Group4a and Group4b representatives in June.
• OLIS and campuses have been asked to supply a data description form along with the data extracts.
• The "westaleph1" server has been configured to support the Group4 campuses during the implementation process for the conversion activities.
• Ex Libris stated their commitment to completing the migration of the Group4 campuses by mid-December. However, initial data loads may be delayed. It is not clear at this point what the impact may be on the schedule.
• Ex Libris has assigned the following staff to the Group4 project:
• Marie Erdman - project leader
• Mary Croxen - implementation librarian for 6 sites
• Chris Holley - implementation librarian for 4 sites
• Debbie Cheesman - implementation librarian for 1 site

• Buffalo (BUF - Group5) has decided not to go forward with the migration at this time.
• Albany (Group6) has stated their desire to begin the implementation with version 16. It is expected to be available for new installations in fall 2003. There has been no update from Ex Libris as to whether the timeframes for release of version 16 have changed.
• Group7 - currently listed to begin migration process in October 2003; likely have delay to December/January
• Current Group7 composed of 8 Multilis sites in Metro and Long Island region
• Westchester - per note from Carol Jensen, PALS "official date for closing" is June 2004; request to start with Group7a

• Ex Libris is willing to include Westchester in Group7 upon verification from SUNY.

• New Paltz - Chui-chun Lee received an "End of Life" notification from Dynix, stating that vendor support and maintenance for the IBM server will end on March 31, 2004; request to start with Group7
• Ex Libris is willing to include New Paltz in Group7 upon verification from SUNY.
• Potential impact on remaining schedule:

As mentioned above, Maureen explained that two campuses, Westchester and New Paltz, have petitioned to migrate earlier.

A motion to delay Group7 for two months was approved with two members casting votes against the motion.

Boe Horton provided a Bowker briefing on Ulrich’s Serials Analysis System. He agreed to send Larry a report for this group’s review.

With respect to the databases, Larry reported that no significant decisions need to be made at the present. The costs will remain the same through June 2004.

Larry described last month’s SLiCAT meeting. The group discussed whether or not the current set of database offerings through Nylink meets our core database standards. The consensus was that Nylink should be encouraged to become more proactive in making its choices to better fit the core collection.

SLiCAT also discussed its own future as Larry’s retirement approaches. Members agreed on the importance of continuing as an advisory group for both Carey and SUNYConnect. Larry recommended that Carla Hendrix be asked to act as Convenor of the group. Randy agreed to contact Carla about this prospect.

Carey stated that because we are basically in a holding pattern with electronic resources, this interim period is an ideal time for redefining SLiCAT’s role.

After some discussion regarding the review of vendor proposals, the group agreed that vendor information should first be presented to SLiCAT before coming to SUNYConnect.

Carey reviewed the current SUNYConnect financial plan and where we will be two years after the Aleph implementations. He stated that the campus’ fees will pay for approximately 85% of the Aleph, SFX and delivery system costs and 30% of database costs.

As Vice Chair, Andy Perry will assume the role of Chair of the Finance Committee. Otherwise, the Finance Committee will retain the same membership for the next fiscal year. The committee will meet this summer to discuss possible revisions to the financial plan for presentation to the full SAC in September.

John Anderson stated that his SUNYConnect report at the most recent Academic Vice Presidents meeting was well received. Members concurred that this should become a regular agenda item at future meetings. Carey will prepare a one sheet report for each representative on a regular basis.

The Calico guests, who have been using the Aleph system for three years, discussed their working relationship with Ex Libris. SUNYConnect members responded to their observations.

Reference was made to the document concerning SUNYConnect’s future and the section meetings (doctoral granting, university colleges and community colleges). A committee consisting of Carey, Maureen, Judy and Nancy was formed to address these issues. They will be holding conference calls and agreed to report to SAC at the next meeting.

Carey said that three letters were sent to Ex Libris regarding their lack of response to SUNY needs. Because members of this group were unhappy with the response sent by E.L., the group recommended that the SAC Chair send another letter expressing disappointment. Members also discussed the idea of inviting other consortia who have been experiencing the same difficulties with E.L. to a meeting. Maureen offered to explore this possibility.

(Maureen previously discussed the Union Catalog in her LMS update. Please see report above). She and Naomi Leiser have scheduled their activities for the summer and are trying to set up a discussion with ITEC.

Maureen said she has been working with Natalie Sturr on Aleph reports. She explained that SUNY now has a SUNY Aleph Users’ Group which represents all campuses. This group will make recommendations based on the reports they review.

Members of this committee expressed their appreciation to Larry for all his years of service and hard work. Everyone wished him the best in his retirement.

The group approved Wednesdays for SAC meetings, which will alternate between Albany and Syracuse. The next meeting has been scheduled for September 24, 2003. Randy said he will draft a calendar and e-mail it to members for their feedback.

Adjournment.

Respectfully submitted,

Nancy Van Deusen, Secretary

Draft prepared by Connie Perrin (Staff)