Minutes of the July 20, 1998 Meeting

Present: Brother Paul Chervenie, Anne Ciliberti, Judy Cohn, John Gaboury, Marianne Gaunt, Joan Getaz, Judith Lin Hunt, Pamela Price, Paul Rigby, Barbara Simpson, Richard Sweeney, Pat Tumulty, Marilyn Veldof

1. Marianne Gaunt hosted this initial meeting of the newly elected VALE Steering Committee and welcomed the group to Rutgers and to the exciting challenge of implementing the VALE initiative. She announced that formal application for our own URL had been made and that it is likely to be http://www.valenj.org.

2. John Gaboury reported on the latest VALE developments as follows:

   a. The Commission on Higher Education voted unanimously on June 26 to release $500,000 of higher education technology infrastructure bond funds to implement the VALE project. Copies of the authorizing resolution were distributed.

   b.. The two servers were ordered by Rutgers last week from Sun Systems, which has agreed to discount them significantly beyond their standard 43% educational discount.

   Given the magnitude of this discount, it is likely that this aspect of the project will come in under budget, so the Steering Committee may decide how to reallocate the funds.

   c. Discussions with Robert Goertz at the Commission on Higher Education and the Educational Finance Authority have clarified that the VALE fiscal agency must be a state agency, so that Palinet does not qualify. William Paterson University has agreed to serve as the fiduciary agent and to bill the VALE institutions as appropriate. Individual institutions can still authorize Palinet to pay their invoices from their deposit accounts.

   d. Technical support staff from both Rutgers and Seton Hall will be attending the OCLC training in Dublin later this week. OCLC has agreed to provide additional training for four more staff in October at no cost so that we can be assured of a critical mass of trained personnel here in NJ.

   e. The State Library has inquired about the possibility of extending the VALE project to include the legislators and members of the Governor's office. OCLC is exploring this issue with the database vendors to determine licensing and price requirements. This is an important opportunity to provide the legislators with a service which they will value and may support with continued funding.

   f. John clarified that the VALE billing period for database licensing will be July 1, 1998 to June 30, 1999 and that all bond-related invoices must be encumbered by June 30, 1999. He also indicated that implementation of the databases may be phased in over the course of September and that the full implementation will most likely be towards the end of the month.

   g. A brief report on these developments and information needed from the library directors will be prepared and sent via the Council listserv and US mail as soon as possible. Every effort will be made to ensure that all Council members keep up to date by reading the listserv.

3. Anne Ciliberti reviewed with the group several spreadsheets indicating the database selections of the VALE participants. She noted that 45 institutions had committed to participate in the project and that the per FTE costs of three of the databases and the servers are either exactly on target with the estimates or lower. The cost of the fourth database, CINAHL, will rise from $.13 to $.14 per FTE.

4. Marianne Gaunt reported that the presidents have requested that VALE be directly accountable to the Presidents' Council, so VALE's relationship to NJIN becomes questionable. After discussion, it was agreed that John Gaboury, also a member of the NJIN Executive Board, will serve as a liaison between the two groups.

5. Marianne initiated a discussion of the Steering Committee administrative structure and proposed that John Gaboury continue to serve as the project's lead person in the position of Executive Director. The group approved this proposal unanimously.

6. Marianne also proposed that a member of the Council of NJ College and University Library Directors serve as Chair of the Steering Committee, working closely with John on the implementation and administration of the project. Richard Sweeney nominated Marianne for this position and she graciously accepted with the unanimous approval of the group. Draft job descriptions outlining the responsibilities of these positions will be prepared and distributed shortly. The group also agreed to a two-year term for the chairperson.

7. John Gaboury suggested, and the group agreed, that Anne Ciliberti will continue to work on the VALE project as his assistant.

   Implementation Work Groups Established

8. By general consensus, the following work groups and chairpersons were identified. It was agreed that a message would be posted on the directors' listserv suggesting that nominations for staffing these groups be sent to each chairperson directly. The chairperson will be responsible for selecting his or her members.

   Interface Design-Richard Sweeney

   Technical Implementation-John Cohn nominated

   Training and Help Desk Support-Barbara Simpson

   Collection Development-Judith Hunt

   Assessment, Evaluation & Statistics-Paul Chervnie and Paul Rigby

   Publicity and Communications-Joan Getaz and Pat Tumulty

9. A ninth group, the Day 1 Team, consisting of Sweeney, Cohn (nominated), Simpson and Getaz and chaired by Marianne Gaunt, will be charged with the task of crossing workgroup lines to ensure the implementation on time.

10. In final business, the group agreed to meet at Rutgers regularly at 2 pm, with the next meeting be held on Thursday, August 20.

Minutes prepared by Anne Ciliberti

Top of Page | VALE home page

This page last modified: 7/22/98 3:52:35 PM KWW