| Minutes of 6/26 | Minutes of 7/17 |
Present: Ciliberti, A. ( WPUNJ); Cohn, John (CCM); Cohn, Judy (UMDNJ); Gaboury, J. (WPUNJ); Gaunt, M. (Rutgers); Greene, P. (EBSCO); Hafner, A. (Seton Hall); Lancaster, T. (NJIN); Long, Phil (WPUNJ); Michelson, L. (UMDNJ); Oswald, Jean (NJCHE); Ross, G. (IAC); Ridgeway, M. (Ovid); Rush, J. (Palinet); Simpson, B. (Kean); Tumulty, P. (NJLA); Veldof, M. (NJSL); Wilbur, H. (IAC).
(Please note that B. Simpson was inadvertently omitted from the list of those present at the July 14 meeting).
1. John Gaboury called the meeting to order and, following introductions, stated that the final reports and recommendations from the VALE workgroups should be submitted by September 10. He requested that all reports be written in Wordperfect or Word, version 5.1 or higher and submitted on floppy disk. A smaller group will write a full VALE draft by September 30. This timetable will afford the Task Force time to share the draft with the Presidents' Council and the Commission on Higher Education as well as the consultant.
2. Jean Oswald from the NJ Commission on Higher Education explained that due to scheduling difficulties and vacations, the bond legislation still has not been signed by the Governor. However, no difficulties are expected and the legislation should be effective in September.
3. Ms. Oswald clarified the process for distribution of the $5 million set aside for interinstitutional projects. She explained that a consultant will be hired to draft an RFP for appropriate infrastructure projects, to which projects such as VALE may respond. She noted that the regulations and other ground rules for use of the bond funds are still being developed.
4. Ms. Oswald also noted that the tax attorneys had clarified that bond funds could be used for the purchase of electronic databases, but not for subscriptions or updates.
5. Anne Ciliberti reported on the preliminary results of the Electronic Resources Survey. Responses obtained from 37 institutions showed that nearly all institutions provide at least one general periodical database and that most are obtained via direct negotiations with the vendor, not through consortial arrangements. The most popular medium of access to electronic databases is via CD-ROM and there is a wide variety of titles recommended for inclusion in the VALE project. Anne explained that the Electronic Resources Workgroup still needs to review the results.
6. Les Michelson and Phil Long reported on results from the Library Automation Technology Survey which showed that nearly all libraries have automated systems and that while there are many systems in use, DRA is the most popular. A rather large number of respondents indicated that they plan to replace their systems in the near future. Other results showed that DEC and IBM are the most prevalent hardware vendors and that character-based interfaces outweigh either graphical interfaces. Some inconsistencies in the data were noted and these will be clarified by phoning the respondents.
7. Barbara Simpson reported that her Training Workgroup has had difficulty getting together and that they will begin work using the web and meet on September 10.
8. Anne Ciliberti reported for Navjit Brar that the Ariel Workgroup distributed a survey and that responses are due back by August 15. She will report the results on the Web Forum.
9. Marilyn Veldof reported that the NJ State Library is actively engaged in finalizing plans for several new technology initiatives made possible by the Technology Bond ($5 million), the Bell Atlantic/BPU agreement ($4 million) and LSTA ($3 million).
10. With respect to how the required VALE "matches" can be calculated, John Gaboury suggested two alternatives. One model could be that each institution could meet its portion of the VALE match by contributing the same percentage as they receive under the sector appropriation. A second scenario could be based upon the number of FTE's of each institution. The group agreed to have these two options developed in writing for presentation at the next Task Force meeting.
11. The group agreed to meet again on Thursday, August 28 at 10 am at Rutgers. The meeting will be in the Seminar Room of the Scholarly Communications Center on the fourth floor of Alexander Library.