Present: J. Avrin, J. Cohn, G. Fallon, M. Gaunt, J. Marcum, L. Ostar, A. Scrimgeour, R. Sweeney

1. Judy Cohn convened the meeting and the minutes were approved. It was recommended that minutes not be posted to the VALE website or listserv until they have been approved.
2. Judy Avrin presented the budget report. Over $548,000 in FY05 member receivables has been received to date. Some vendor invoices have been received and will begin to be processed in the next few weeks.
3. Cohn advised that the Finance Committee met that morning and will review all current VALE licenses. A grid with license details will be posted to the VALE website. There is a two-month target date for completion. The Preferred License Terms will be updated and sent to vendors in the next few weeks. Judy Avrin distributed a spreadsheet reporting the databases and number of subscribers for the period FY01 - FY05. Database expenditures for FY05 are over $1.8 million, up from $1.4 million in FY04.
4. Cohn reported that a meeting of the Knowledge Initiative is scheduled for September 9^th at which time a revised Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will be presented. The final MOU will then be sent by the State Library to VALE institutions for signature.
5. A reception honoring Senator Wayne Bryant and Assemblyman Louis Greenwald for their support of the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative is scheduled for October 26^th at the Stratford campus of UMDNJ. A "Hold the Date" announcement will be posted to the VALE and Council listservs and printed invitations will be sent to library directors for distribution to senior academic officers at their institutions. Information on the Knowledge Initiative has not yet been sent to the library deans and directors. A one-page document explaining the Knowledge Initiative will be sent at the same time as the MOU.

The Knowledge Initiative negotiating team has worked on the development of an RFQ that will be presented to the vendors. A critical component will be the inclusion of a provision for credits or refunds for overlapping of existing subscriptions. There is a tight timeframe for implementation of trial access to the databases with a target date of mid-October for demo access with announcement of awards to vendors on November 15^th. A detailed update will be added to the September 24 Council meeting agenda. A request will go out for a representative from the State Library to attend the council meeting.

6. There was discussion about access to the databases available through the Jersey Clicks interface by the academic libraries and their user community. This issue is being raised in multiple venues and clarification by the NJ State Library is needed. Based on testing by members of the VALE Electronic Resources Committee, library barcodes issued by the academic libraries provide seamless onsite and remote access to all of the databases listed on Jersey Clicks. Further clarification by the NJ State Library is needed before any of the VALE libraries can begin linking out to these electronic resources.
7. Committee Reports - Cohn sent reminders to the committee chairs to provide annual updates on committee activities that will be compiled and distributed.
   • Assessment Committee - Susan Beck from Rutgers, Camden has agreed to chair the committee. Anne Ciliberti will continue as liaison to the Executive Committee.
   • Interface Committee - a new chair is still needed.
   • Publicity Committee - the new brochure is completed and printing quotes are being obtained. Plans for the Users' Conference are underway and Judy Cohn has spoken with a possible keynote speaker.
   • Reference Services Committee - the committee met in August and is planning an update to their brochure the committee will present a poster session at the NJEdge and VALE Users' Conference.
   • Training Committee - a meeting is scheduled for September 10^th at Caldwell College.
   • Last Copy/Repository - their white paper will be out within the next few weeks.

8. The next meeting is scheduled for October 13, 2004.

Prepared by: J. Avrin