SUNYConnect Advisory Council Minutes

SUNYConnect Advisory Council
Minutes – June 23, 2004

Present: Randy Gadikian, Carey Hatch, John Homburger, Andy Perry, Mike Pisa, Janet Potter, Judy Sikora, Nancy Van Deusen, Barbara von Wahlde, Rick Winant, Maureen Zajkowski, Connie Perrin (Staff)

Guests: Katrina Anderson (Vice President of Operations, Ex Libris), Provost Peter Salins, Rick Steiner

Review of Agenda Items

The following items were added to the agenda: collaboration opportunities; the business plan; funding issues with the University at Buffalo and North Country; election of SAC officers for the fiscal year 2004-2005.

Approval of Minutes for April 14, 2004

The minutes of the meeting of April 14, 2004 were approved as distributed.

LMS Report

Maureen provided the following LMS update:

Group5

University at Buffalo (BUF)

1. test server for Buffalo has been configured by ITEC and is now ready for use

2. pre-kickoff planning meeting was held with Buffalo, Ex Libris, and OLIS representatives

Group6

University at Albany (ALB)

1. second full test data load was received in April

2. weekly conference calls have been held with Albany and Ex Libris staff to keep on track with the implementation

3. production data loads are expected in June 2004

4. switch to production is expected for early July 2004

Group7

1. as of July 2004 all Group7 campuses are expected to be in production with Aleph

2. currently in production (as of 6/21/2004): Optometry (OPT), Maritime (MAR), Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), Brooklyn Downstate Medical (BRH), and Westchester (WES)

3. pending switch to production:

· June: Farmingdale (FAR), Nassau (NAS)

· July: Suffolk (SUF), Old Westbury (OLD)

Group8

1. consists of three subgroups; campuses include: Adirondack (ADI), Clinton (CLI), Plattsburgh (PLA), Columbia-Greene (COL), Dutchess (DUT), New Paltz (NEW), Cobleskill (COB), Fulton-Montgomery (FUL), Hudson Valley (HVC), and Schenectady (SCH)

2. pre-kickoff site visits were held with all Group8 campuses

3. conference calls were held with Ex Libris, OLIS and staff from Dutchess and New Paltz regarding data extraction considerations; both of these campuses are non-Multilis sites and are responsible for pulling data from their local systems

4. scheduling is underway for Group8 kickoff meetings; Group8a to begin in July 2004

5. switch to production dates will be scheduled during January, February, and March 2005

Union Catalog

1. indexing of records was completed during the month

2. Eva Krall, Ex Libris project manager, gave a presentation on the SUNYConnect Union Catalog at the SUNYLA Annual Conference

3. planning is underway for testing incremental data loads over summer 2004

Universal Borrowing – Katrina Anderson (Ex Libris)

Katrina explained the workflow for Universal Borrowing. She said it is still in the beginning phases and most likely would not be ready until the end of 2005 at the earliest.

The SAC expressed concern that Ex Libris is in violation of our contract regarding the availability of Universal Borrowing. The group discussed with holding part of the maintenance payments because we do not have the full product. In addition to universal borrowing, SAC members expressed concern that statistics should be an integrated part of the LMS, not an add on. Ex Libris does not seem to be taking SUNY seriously. Committee members expressed dissatisfaction with the Aleph LMS.

Because of delays projected by Ex Libris regarding Universal Borrowing, the group agreed that SAC needs to look closely at the contract before sending a letter to E.L. executives explaining why these timeframes are unacceptable.

On motion made by Nancy Van Deusen, seconded by Judy Sikora and carried, the SUNYConnect Advisory Council agreed to send a letter to Dan Trajman of Ex Libris stating that SAC is invoking a non-compliance clause with the Universal Borrowing timeline.

In addition, the members agreed to the following resolution:

On motion made by Rick Winant, seconded by Mike Pisa and carried, the SUNYConnect Advisory Council strongly recommends that all SUNY libraries decline to purchase additional Aleph products until the Ex Libris contract issues have been resolved.

It was noted that the Ex Libris contract is up for renewal in May of 2005. Carey will send copies of the contract for discussion at our next meeting.

New Purchase by University at Buffalo – Barbara von Wahlde

Barbara explained that UB has purchased from Innovative Interfaces the Electronic Resource Management (ERM) module. She will be tracking its effects and will report back to this group.

Elsevier Contract – Carey Hatch

Below is Carey’s Elsevier report:

OCLC FirstSearch

The FirstSearch base package has been renewed for July 2004 - June 2005. Costs were increased 6% to $404,989.

Gale

OneFile, Opposing Viewpoints and InvesTextPlus were renewed. Gale offered to apply the 5% annual increase of $14,305 toward an access fee for the Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) if we agreed to purchase 10 reference books for $60,000. Gale also agreed to provide access in GVRL to all the Gale ebooks purchased previously for Netlibrary . When we were informed of the expenditures that campuses were planning to make on their own, we were convinced that we could save campuses money by accepting the Gale offer. Ten titles were selected by reviewing the planned purchase of two campuses and by reviewing holdings in the Union Catalog. The end result is a reference collection of 52 titles providing approximately $24,464 worth of content to every campus.

Money from vacant lines funded the ebook purchase.

We will need to review funding of the access fee for 2005-2006.

Database	Format/Users	Total Cost
InfoTrac One File Plus (OneFile pricing based on continuation of NYS HRCA and BCRC databases Link to Expanded Academic ASAP included	InfoTrac	$140,062.00
Investext Plus	InfoTrac	$65,912.00
Opposing Viewpoint Resource Center	Gale	$120,165.00

Database

Format/Users

Total Cost

Gale Vitrual Reference Library-annual access fees

Less annual database increase

Gale

$18,000.00

($14,305.00)

One time cost for 10 titles of their choice

Gale

$60,00.00

SUNY Press

We have received a CD from SUNY Press with approximately 350 electronic books. SUNY Press is holding the print copies in storage until we tell them were to send them.

Repositiory

A version of DSpace has been installed at http://dspace.sunyconnect.suny.edu. We hope to utilize Dspace as a delivery mechanism for the SUNY Press books.

Elsevier/ScienceDirect

We have agreed to terms with Elsevier for access to ScienceDirect for 2005-2009. SUNY Council’s office is reviewing the Elsevier licensing agreement.

The following parameters describe the basic components of the of a five year agreement. These parameters have been reviewed and approved by the Finance Committee of the SUNYConnect Advisory Council and Provost Peter D. Salins.

Participation will be strongly encouraged although participation is not required to remain in SUNYConnect.
The Office of Library and Information Services reserve funds will be used to reduce annual increases to campuses. The reserve was originally intended to assist with migration to a new library management system. Availability of capital funds has lessened the need to draw on the reserve for the Aleph migration.
SUNY will have access to every Elsevier ScienceDirect journal available in Jan. 2005. New titles will NOT be added automatically without additional costs.
Elsevier will send SUNY pricing information for adding new titles on an annual basis.
Campuses will cancel all subscriptions to titles that are available electronically through ScienceDirect.
Campuses will continue to subscribe to Elsevier titles that are available only in print as they normally do.
When print only titles become available electronically, Elsevier will make them available through ScienceDirect. The following year the campus will cancel the subscription and the cost of it will be included in the campus payment to the OLIS.
Elsevier will send a single bill to SUNY System Administration for the cost of the SUNY-wide ScienceDirect service. SUNY will be responsible for collection of associated funds from its campuses.
Campuses will commit to the maximum payments as detailed in the attached table (still in draft). These annual payments are based on the SUNY 2004 price for current subscriptions or commitments made by campuses beyond local subscription levels to help ensure continuation of the program.
Campuses have the option of purchasing print copies of titles available in electronically in ScienceDirect for 25% of list price.
Elsevier will provide additional discounts for other products such as reference books and archival files.
Campuses may change their traditional subscription lists once a year within the parameters of their subscription expenditure. This will provide protection for campuses to archival access to heavily used titles in the event a University-wide contract is not renewed for 2010.
The SUNYConnect Financial Committee will review costs on an annual basis to determine if campus increases can be reduced based on availability of other funds.

ArtStor Buy-in - Carey

Carey reported that a SUNY Visual Resources meeting was held at the Training Center on May 19 to discuss University-wide digital imaging projects in licensing, infrastructure and copyright/fair use. ArtStor gave a presentation for the several slide curators and librarians present. There is some concern that ARTStor is too expensive and does not offer the classroom usage tools that faculty need. Carey said a contract is underway and that he will prepare some financial packages.

Lunch with Provost Salins and Rick Steiner

Provost Salins and Rick Steiner joined the Council for a lunch discussion. Among other issues, members pointed out some of the problems associated with the current budget restrictions.

As a result of these discussions, the Provost recommended that SAC develop a fiscal plan reflecting a unified SUNY-wide acquisition/payment policy for both e-resources and hard copies. He stressed the importance of explaining the following two questions:

1. What does SUNY collectively need?

2. How does SUNY plan to collectively pay for it?

The Provost said he would like to see the Advisory Council examine the SUNY libraries on a system-wide basis. He is asking for a central method of acquisition/purchasing which would result in a collection available to everyone and which would reduce the number of duplications.

He recommended that SAC itemize what each campus spends individually and what the campuses will need collectively. (Present total is approximately $38 million). After the figure for collective purchasing is determined and justified, Dr. Salins said that SUNY will provide the balance of the funding needed. Dr. Salins envisions large scale regional storage with local libraries used primarily as study spaces with no local acquisitions. The trade-off would be a world class collection that is available to all of SUNY.

In order to facilitate collective planning, the following undertakings were briefly mentioned: a restructuring of the fee schedule and the possibility of working with the State Research Library. Dr. Salins wants a plan within a few months.

Finance Committee – Andy Perry

Andy said that the next item which the committee will address is the upcoming five year financial plan.

Collective Technical Processing – Andy and Randy

Andy stated that he, Randy, Vince Courtney and Sandy Card gave a technical processing presentation at SUNYLA in May which was well received. As a result of the presentation, librarians expressed an interest in pursuing other collective projects. Andy and Randy subsequently developed a “SUNYConnect Shared Services Survey” which will help determine potential changes to the SUNYConnect project goals and priorities. He and Andy will work on refining the survey before it is mailed to the directors.

SAC Retreat

The Council discussed the possibility of a retreat which would include an outside consultant.

On motion made by Rick Winant, seconded by Janet Potter and carried, the SUNYConnect Advisory Council agreed to schedule a retreat with a consultant in order to discuss the Provost’s charge as stated above and other related issues.

Information Delivery Services

Maureen said that a meeting is scheduled in Geneseo in August to review the IDS project initiatives to date and to plan for future direction.

Biomed Central – Rick Winant

Rick proposed that SAC explore the Biomed Central Open Access Publishing membership program in which the author pays to submit his/her article.

Election of SAC Officers for 2004-2005

The Secretary was instructed to cast one ballot for this slate after the following resolution was approved:

On motion made by Mike Pisa, seconded by Judy Sikora and carried, Randy Gadikian was approved as Vice Chair of the SUNYConnect Advisory Council for the fiscal year 2004-2005.

Andy Perry – Chair

Randy Gadikian – Vice Chair

Nancy Van Deusen - Secretary

There were no additional nominations. The Chair will appoint the Finance Committee.

Adjournment.

Respectfully submitted,

Nancy Van Deusen, Secretary

Draft prepared by Connie Perrin (Staff)