VALE Steering Committee

Minutes of the June 3, 1999 Meeting

Present: P. Chervenie, A. Ciliberti, Judy Cohn, J. Gaboury, J. Hunt, P. Price, P. Rigby, B. Simpson Guest: D. Hoover

1. In Marianne Gaunt's absence, John Gaboury opened the meeting with a report on VALE lobbying efforts. He indicated that Jack Livingstone, the State Librarian, remains optimistic that his proposal for $6 million will be funded. We are encouraged to attend Legislative Day in Trenton on June 7 and 10 and to keep up the letter writing campaign.

2. The issue of representation on the VALE Steering Committee was discussed in view of the fact that Barbara Simpson, currently a state college/university representative, will assume the chairmanship of the Council as of July 1, thus occupying two "seats" on the Committee. The group discussed whether this was a good idea or whether another state college/university representative should be elected by the Council to complete the term begun by Simpson. After discussion, it was decided that the Steering Committee had no particular recommendation to make in this regard to the Council.

3. Anne Ciliberti reviewed the results of the first round of responses from the member libraries regarding "new" database possibilities.

4. Rich Sweeney reviewed the status of negotiations with a vendor of scientific electronic journals.

5. Judith Hunt reported on a meeting of the Electronic Resources Sub-committee. She noted that they have made progress on recommendations for adding web sites to the VALE suite but that details need to be worked out. She also reported that the group expressed considerable dissatisfaction with a number of aspects of the project, including the database choices, the interface, help screens and lack of communication.

6. The group discussed these concerns at length and agreed to try to address the concerns through several strategies:
a. Develop, mail and put on the web, a VALE Progress Report summarizing VALE achievements and challenges to date. Distribute the Report to all librarians at all the institutions, not just the directors. Describe the user groups, ask for volunteers, include a tear-off for volunteering and for other feedback. Put a similar "button" on the VALE homepage. Include plans for training and help desk concerns.
b. Reconsider the database selection process and begin a database planning cycle in the summer and early fall for implementation the following summer. Survey institutions to determine their budget cycles so that planning and database decisions can be made appropriately.
c. Begin planning for a self assessment to the project to take place in Year 2.

7. Paul Chervenie and Paul Rigby reported on the preliminary work done on VALE usage statistics. Dave Hoover explained the kinds of data available from the software and the group discussed various issues pertaining to the security and display of the use data. The Assessment Committee will make a recommendation based upon this input at the next meeting.

8. Anne Ciliberti described two new initiatives in the planning—that of making the APA Thesaurus available online and of the State Library's project to make the NJULS available through VALE's Sitesearch interface.

9. Given Marianne's absence, no date was set for the next meeting.

Minutes prepared by Anne Ciliberti

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