VLAC Minutes

Absent: James Nelson, Jennifer Scarborough, Janet Stith, Dennis Taulbee, Lee Van Orsdel

Guests: Daniel Rabuzzi

1. Introductions

2. KYVU Update (Rabuzzi): A press conference announcing the new state budget should be occurring within minutes [the press conference was cancelled]. Indications are that overall, Higher Ed is looking at a 2.6% cut (circa $24 million). Cuts for individual institutions may be higher or lower. We are expecting that approximately $18.8 million should be restored in the second year of the biennium. Compared to other states, we are right in the middle. The third round of Bucks for Brains should be intact.

Preliminary KYVU registration data for spring indicates that enrollment is just over 11,000 (a 10% increase over Fall semester 2002). Roughly 72% are from KCTCS, 11-12% are from the Kentucky Virtual Adult Education (KYVAE) partnership, 4-5% are from the Education Standards Board (P-12), and 11-12% are from KY four year colleges and universities.

The new electronic resources management system, eRMA, went live this morning. The system was developed and designed by a partnership of KYVU, EPSB, KCTCS, and Adult Education and replaces the PeopleSoft system formerly in use. The system is directly integrated with systems at KCTCS and Adult Education. It is designed to allow future partners to interface with it and the four year institutions are welcome to participate.

Adult Education has been intensively rolled out to all 120 counties, 50 counties are users in a meaningful way. The emphasis is on improving basic literacy and GED completion. In May the first adult online reading course for online reading course for Kentuckians at the lowest levels of literacy ("Get READy") will be launched

Eight course modules have been mounted for the Kentucky Education Standards Board. These are intended for superintendents and principals. Three more will go up soon. There are RFPs out for others.

KYVU is prequalified to serve as a provider under the “No Child Left Behind” initiative. KYVU is to offer services to Title 1 school districts (those that are in the process of taking remedial action to improve deficiencies). Twenty-six school districts across the state will be eligible.

High level discussions with the 4 year institutions are also taking place.

3. KYVL Update (Wohlstein): KYVL was part of the launch of the “Get Ready” program. Toward the end of January, KYVL was contacted by two professors at the University of Wisconsin Library School asking KYVL to participate in an ILMS grant project. If funded, the project will involve an investigation into digital state libraries, state-funded digital services, and the present status of such services. KYVL would serve as the subject of a case study and would be one of only three organizations in the country selected to participate. KYVL would receive no money, but substantial visibility.

On other fronts, KYVL is compiling statistics on database usage for the user group. They are also meeting with workgroups, talking about membership, current and potential projects. Two inactive groups, the Adult Education Database Resource Group, and the Resource Sharing Group, have been revitalized. They are also working to get the Adult Education Resource Database project back on track.

The new server for the Kentuckiana Digital Library has arrived. Migration should occur soon (see minutes from the Jan 3, 2003 meeting.)

4. Bylaws (Rader): Should the Bylaws Committee take a look at the bylaws to make sure that they reflect the current state of KYVL’s partners? VLAC members are asked to look at the bylaws before the next meeting to see if they need to be updated.

5. Mission/Goals Statement: Rader asked Wohlstein to draft something for the next meeting. She would like to see this done on an annual basis.

6. Professional Training and Development (Rader): Can KYVL provide opportunities for specialized training and development, particularly in the area of contract negotiation, vendor relations? Since these are things not covered in library schools, this may be valuable for our employees. Another potential audience is library school students. We could draw on the breadth of knowledge of KYVL and the VLAC, supplemented by people from outside. This could be more of an information sharing process rather than an instructional process. There was a suggestion that the Users Group may be a better home for this.

7. Private K-12 Schools Database Access (Wohlstein): There are 282 private schools in Kentucky. Wohlstein attempted to negotiate access through various scenarios including free access until the end of the fiscal year in an effort to gather preliminary statistics of interest and usage. EBSCO wants to recoup what they would lose if individual subscribers move to KYVL. If five or more of the private schools join before June 1st, there will be some discounts. Wilson quoted a figure which would include all the private schools. Pricing was offered if the schools join individually. In both cases, the fees for EBSCO and Wilson would be in addition to KYVL fees charged for private schools.

We currently have only a couple of private school systems that are a part of KYVL; these are a part of the defense system. Wohlstein indicated that KYVL is asking for suggestions on how to do outreach to the privates. Wohlstein suggested working through parent organizations, Baptist school organizations, and home schooling groups. This would be very labor intensive. Is it worth it? Q: What is our obligation? A: None, other than furthering access to resources, in this case, onsite in the school libraries and media centers. There has been interest from various private school librarians. This is probably a multi-year project.

8. Budget for 2003-2004: Rader asked when we will see the database budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Wohlstein indicated that the numbers are not yet available.

9. Courier Service Report (Northern): Lanter Freight is not responding to counterproposals. KYVL has requested that a meeting be set. Wohlstein indicated that Lanter is meeting with KYVL on other issues and that she will add the contract questions to that meeting’s agenda.

10. Work Group Reports:

Endeavor Consortium Group: The group hasn’t been meeting much, but has been getting a lot done. The Kentucky User Group meeting will be on April. We have five people on the Enhancement Committees, as well as several presenters and poster session presenters. The group is setting up a training repository.

Encompass: Q: Is anyone looking at the package? The Endeavor Group is watching the new product but is also looking at the Ex Libris products. Concern about switching to another system was expressed. The response was that the group was looking at merging Ex Libris components into Endeavor—not replacing Endeavor with Ex Libris.

Assessment Group: The Assessment Group concluded its web and paper-based survey. There were 649 participants and the group was very pleased by the response. Respondents were asked if they were willing to participate in focus groups. Seventy-one said yes. Since it is not practical to put together focus groups at this time, it was determined that subjects would be approached on an individual basis for telephone, face-to-face or email interviews. Most chose email. These people were sent an e-mail assessment. The deadline for response is this week and the group has gotten quite a few responses.

The group has also looked at usage statistics. They will use all of these numbers together to make a decision and will be coming back at next meeting (April 14) with recommendations. The findings of the Assessment Committee will go to the Collections Work Group on March 31.

Q: Are some databases not being used and should therefore be dropped? A: Yes, but most are in packages and cannot be dropped separately.

Virtual Library Users Group: Bill Hansen reminded the assemblage that the Users Group is not a work group. The Users group will have its first meeting in May in conjunction with the Kentucky SOLINET Users Group meeting. VLUG wants to have a block of time to elect a slate of officers and to talk about the goals for the organization. A natural thing for the VLUG would be the continuing adult education training.

Focus groups: If there is to be an annual meeting, this would be a perfect place for focus groups.

11. Developments from Around The State: Rader implemented a new “around the table” report on new developments at our institutions and organizations.

UK (Molinaro): A project, funded by a grant, to digitize a collection of books on Kentuckiana is under way. The books to be digitized are on preservation microfilm. The full collection totals 950 historic books. The goal is to provide a model for other libraries that wish to make microfilmed items more accessible. The collection will be searchable through the online catalog and FirstSearch and will be also available on the Digital Kentuckiana page. Molinaro proposed demoing the collection at a future VLAC meeting.

The UK Library is holding a symposium on scholarly communication on April 7th. It is aimed at faculty and will feature speakers of national renown. Issues will include serial prices, publication and tenure, copyright, and what this all means to access. This will be an all day seminar and admission is free.

Hansen: Hansen described a DOD project on virtual reference: The Defense Digital Library Research Service. They are working to offer 24 x 7 digital library reference using OCLC QuestionPoint software. The service became operable over the past couple of weeks. The service may be made available to a wider audience in the future.

Rader mentioned the similar project that SAALCK has in the planning stage. She has spoken with librarians in Scotland and Australia regarding a potential 24 x 7 collaboration.

Onkst: A similar project is in the planning stages among the three public libraries in Northern Kentucky.

KDE: The state budget has been the foremost issue of late.

Media Specialists: Budget issues. Schools are looking at eliminating positions, etc., to save money. By law, every public school has to have a certified media specialist. However, the law doesn’t say that the position has to be full-time. Some have as little as 1/6 of a position.

Davis: KDLA and public libraries will probably be hit harder by budget cuts since higher ed is apparently not being hit that hard. The agency is continuing to operate in a very strict fiscal environment.

Rees: Q: Explain possible enhancements that may come from Ex Libris, Endeavor, etc.

What is being looked at is an extension of the catalog that pulls everything together: Internet (Google type searching), purchased electronic resources, OPAC, consortial catalogs, KYVL databases, e-journals. You would get all formats in one search. The current state of the technology, a combination of Z39.50 and a newer technology, is problematic. Also, Encompass doesn’t run on AIX. We are watching to see products mature and to see which would better interface with Endeavor. This would be a replacement for the SiteSearch software that we are currently using.

Midway: Pricing from MLA for the 18 privates has been obtained. They are meeting with Tony Crewe (sp?) from the Appalachian College Association to see if they get better group pricing.

Next Meeting Date: April 14, 2003

Respectfully submitted by Arne Almquist

Last Updated: 7/22/03