Collections Work Group Minutes

MONDAY, MARCH 12, 2001

Present: Charlene Davis, Diane Culbertson, Miko Pattie, James Burgett, Cecelia Tavares, Milton Skeen, Elaine Moore, Charles Brown, Ida Cornett, David Horvath, Jackie Calvert, Sheree Huber-Williams, and Mary Beth Garriott.

I. Report on the RFP Process

Milton reported that Procurement and Material Services told him that the RFP would be out on Wednesday, March 14. The list of database vendors which will have the RFP sent to them directly was handed out to the group. Additions to that list were to be sent to Milton by COB on Tuesday, March 13 for referral on to P and MS for inclusion. This is not an exclusive process. The RFP will be on their website so any vendor can respond regardless of whether they are on the list.

Those database vendors which are "pre-qualified" through this process will be awarded contracts on a annual renewal basis for up to a period of five years. If a new database were to come onto the market, CPE could more than likely contract with them as a sole source.

If this process cannot be concluded by July 1 2001, the possibility of extensions of the current contracts are being investigated. EBSCO has indicated that they are willing to extend for three months at a time. The extension cost would be the same as our current contract with the exception of APA. OCLC will get back with Miko on the extension issues. However, Doug Potts had told Miko that there could be a reduction in cost on the OCLC produced databases. However, Wilson databases would possibly increase.

In conjunction with the Database Vendor RFP activity, this Work Group must create the RFP Evaluation Instrument. This Instrument will be used to evaluate the responses to the RFP. It must be based on the RFP as it was "let" by Finance and Administration. Until that is available, Milton had indicated that he would share what he had sent to them. It will be a starting place for the Committee which was formed to work on this Instrument. Those volunteering for this service are Sheree, Milton, David, James and Charlene*. This Committee is scheduled to meet on Monday, April 2 at 1 pm in the Board Room at KDLA. This Committee's work should be completed by mid April.

There was discussion about who would be involved with the actual evaluation of the responses from the Database Vendor RFP process. Although this ultimate decision was tabled, it appeared that there would be a Committee which would be formed to do this work. Those who had already indicated an interest in serving on this Committee were Cecelia, Mary Beth, Sheree and Charlene*.

II. Database Evaluation
III. Database Prioritization Process Discussion

David reported that there were 505 responses to the web and print evaluation instruments that dealt with the current family of databases. He distributed tabular data to give the group an idea of what elements could be manipulated. Ida, Elaine, David and Sheree conducted focus groups to obtain more qualitative, anecdotal information from the users. Miko brought a report that Susan had generated from the 220 responses to the trial database evaluations.

These three elements:
1. Results of the electronic & print evaluations of the current databases
2. Focus Group Results
3. Trial Database Evaluation results

will be examined in depth and a report will be generated. These combined results will be utilized to create a prioritized database list (by actual name.) The deficiencies in the current family of databases: newspapers and computer/IT were discussed. As always, full text is a top priority. It is this list that Miko will work from in acquiring databases from the database vendors which will have been awarded contracts through the RFP process.

In order for this work to go forward, a Database Prioritization Committee was formed: Ida, David*, Diane, and Charlie. They will meet on Monday, April 16 at 9:30 am at the University of Louisville. This Committee's work should be concluded by the end of April.

IV. Future Meetings

The next meeting of the entire KYVL Collections Work Group was set for Monday, April 23 at 1 pm at CPE/KYVL, Meeting Room B.

Last updated: 3/23/00