Rankin Arts Center, Columbus, GA
Friday, March 26, 2004
9:00AM - 12:00 Noon

Attendees:

Nancy Anderson, Charles Beard, Liz Bagley for Charlene Hurt, Pat Borck, Carol Bray, Raymond Calvert, Betty Childers, Kim Eccles, Mary Jo Fayoyin, Bob Fox, Doug Frazier for Ben Lee, Kathy Gallo, George Gaumond, Ann Hamilton for Bede Mitchell, Debbie Holmes, Rebecca Homan for Byron Drew, Lynn Kelly, Mary Kitchens for Lorene Flanders, Lydia Knight, Marilyn Lary, Kay Lowry, Laverne McLaughlin, Richard Meyer, Marilyn Miller, Joyce Mills, Bill Nelson, Bill Potter, Paul Robards, Gene Ruffin, Brenda Sellers, Carole Taylor, Vera Weisshopf

1. Welcome (McGinnis)

   McGinnis welcomed everyone and asked all attendees to state their names and institutions.

2. ACIT Report (Johnson)

   Bill Johnson of Columbus State, the RACL Liaison, chaired the original ACIT/RACL workgroup established for UC/UB that was formed to maintain contact between these two groups of employees. He read a list of issues that were still pending:

   Standardizing barcodes, Library facility planning, campus security policies (network and physical), the integration of Voyager/Banner/PeopleSoft, SS numbers as IDs (GA Tech and Kennesaw have migrated to non SS# IDs). He reminded us to notice and be aware of computer/network system changes on our campuses and how these changes might affect Voyager. He asked us to meet with our campus ACIT reps. and send a list of issues and concerns to the workgroup, whose members are Rich Meyer, Phil Williams, Byron Drew, and Bob Fox. Johnson wants this list by April 5. His email is <Johnson_Bill@Colstate.edu>.

3. Report of the Nominating Committee and Elections (Fox)

   Bob Fox, chair of the Nominating Committee for RACL/GALILEO Steering and GIL Steering Committees, presented a list of positions and nominees. Other members of the committee were Charlene Hurt and Debbie Holmes. Discussion ensued about the rotation of chairing responsibilities among the levels of institutions and governance issues.

   Fox discussed the governance documents for these committees and stressed the need to review the GIL Governance document. The ballot was put forward and the slate of nominees was approved. The GALSTEER 2004/05 members are: Ray Calvert, Chair Elect; Bob Fox, Secretary; Kim Eccles and Pat Borck, at-large. The GILSTEER members are: George Gaumond, Regional University; Bob Fox, State College/State University; Marilyn Miller, Two-year College; and Tom Frieling, at-large.

4. Institutional Repositories (Meyer)

   Meyer began his presentation by commenting on the collaboration among UGA, GA Tech, GA State, and Emory on the SFX pilot and pointed out that SFX is a very 'clean,' effective tool for institutions who depend on access to full text journals. He distributed a hand-out entitled "Institutional Repository" and discussed the importance of libraries being able to capture and maintain the "national intellectual output." The Georgia Tech Library, along with the Computer Center, has two computer servers set aside as digital repositories for the institution's intellectual content. Working with the Graduate School, the Library now digitally stores all dissertations and theses and no longer catalogs and shelves print copies. Virginia Tech developed this process and helped start the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertation. Georgia Tech is using the Virginia Tech model. Further plans are to create a repository for 'working papers' being written for various "Conferences" and "Proceedings." This initiative brings a 'positive' branding to the institution. The GA Tech Library is working with departments to generate learning objects. Meyer mentioned that lines, buttons, and content need to be threaded into applications such as Banner and WebCt.

5. Update on Valdosta Library Program (Gaumond)

   The Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS) is in its 3 rd year of pre-candidacy. In Fall 2004 the program will enter the candidacy phase. In academic year 2005 the accreditation team will visit and view the "application for candidacy." Other issues Gaumond mentioned were: some courses may be taken via Continuing Education; upon the program's accreditaion, retroactivity applies; students are available for internships; discussions with Clark Atlanta are still on-going. McGinnis mentioned the 'graying of the profession' and the state's need for the 'home-grown' program.

6. Salary Survey (McGinnis)

   McGinnis stressed the need for the survey and the need for raising the bar for professional positions. The USG cannot compete with the salary scale for public libraries. The Southern University Group (SUG), although closed to non-members, does a survey and may have a useful form that RACL can use. McGinnis will be contacting that group for more information.

7. National Library Legislative Day (Holmes)

   NLL Day is the first Monday in May (May 3). Bede Mitchell, Debbie Holmes, and George Gaumond are attending the event in Washington, DC . Holmes mentioned the success of Georgia Library Legislative Day on February 12.

8. Report from Executive Director for Library Services (Penson)

   GIL Update:

   • UC/GIL Express (for Bede Mitchell, GIL Steering Committee):

     Following discussions with Endeavor, the RACL Executive Committee and the GIL Steering Committee agreed that the GIL Steering Committee would make a recommendation for moving forward with UC/GIL Express. An implementation plan was developed, but additional problems were identified. First there was a board that had to be replaced in the UC Machine. Then the UC was reloaded, updates begun, GIL Express testers identified, but a number of performance issues arose . USG tried to fix it, re-tests were done, and finally Endeavor acknowledged there were some problems with the UC because of similar problems with other UCs in other locations. Endeavor has applied some patches which may fix the problems. Bob Trotter has been working on the scripts for GIL Express.

   • GUGM

     The GIL UserGroup Meeting (GUGM) is May 20. Registration site had some problems but is now up and running. Crit Stuart from GA Tech is chair of the GUGM Planning Committee. Julia Zimmerman, Dean of Libraries at Ohio University, will be the keynote speaker. Zimmerman was previously the Associate University Librarian at Georgia Tech and represented Georgia Tech in RACL.

   • GIL Costs for FY05

     OIIT has sent the Presidents an estimated cost for technology services for FY05 including GIL. Since GIL costs are allocated based on graduate and undergraduate FTE, changes in the way FTE graduate students are calculated may affect the allocations slightly. Endeavor costs will increase by 8%. We don't have the final costs for maintenance.

   • GIL Staff

     Jane Chu, programmer at the UGA Service Site is retiring at the end of March and will be missed.

   GALILEO: Three hand-outs were distributed: GALILEO TRAINING/Spring/Summer 2004 describing training opportunities sponsored by various databases. (Look for "Lexis Nexis" form sent by Penson); GALILEO Activities Report ; and GALILEO Vendor Database Usage Summary, January - December 2003 .

   Budget: To replace the $1.939M that GALILEO received as lottery money, the governor has recommended that $2M be budgeted in the state's budget. That slight increase does not account for the extra $176,000 needed for increased enrollment. Penson asked for comments about the GALILEO databases, Cambridge (CSA) in particular. Southern Polytechnic and Georgia Southwestern responded that they could not afford Cambridge . Doug Frazier from Armstrong/Atlantic discussed the Wilson representative's visit to his campus and asked about consortial pricing for Wilson indexes among USG, AMPALS, AND GPALS. He mentioned interest in a subscription to Wilson 's "Omni" file. Marilyn Lary asked about the cancellation of Art Index. Discussion ensued about cost-sharing among various institutions for selected databases and potential cancellations/priorities for GALILEO. Beard discussed the willingness of students at West Georgia to pay a special fee for SFX. It was suggested that another survey was needed to determine what libraries had and what they wanted in case various scenarios of cost-sharing can be determined.

   Integrated Learning Environment (WebCT/Learning Object Repositories): The OIIT's technology vision is an integrated learning environment where student services (Banner, PeopleSoft, WebCT, GALILEO/GIL, Luminis Portal, etc.) are linked/integrated using Peachnet as the basis for data delivery. Another project is Multi-institutional Functionality (MIF) which allows students to go to one institution and enroll in another. SCT will build a module that integrates PeopleSoft and Banner and allows students to be in multiple databases. What do libraries need to do to assist this endeavor? The WebCT/GALILEO integration has been slowed down due to Vista 's slow response. A meeting will be held on Tuesday with ALT staff to discuss learning object repositories. More discussion on this topic will take place at GUGM.

9. SFX Pilot Project (Penson)

   Ex Libris Upfront Pricing Components/SFX for USG Pricing was handed out. Ex Libris' linking tool, SFX, and the pilot project was briefly described. Endeavor has a similar product named Linkfinder Plus, but SFX works in a consortial environment. Penson demonstrated SFX and its ability to link a citation in one database to a full-text article in another database or to the library's catalog, thus exposing more readily the access to the library's electronic and print collections. There was a discussion about the pricing and the desire to purchase this product as a consortium. Holmes suggested that Penson investigate gaining access to a canned version as well as a password version of this product for demo purposes with academic leadership, student groups, etc. A question was asked about the similarity of Webfeat to SFX and Penson answered that these two products are related but are not exactly alike. Encompass and MetaLib are similar to Webfeat. It was suggested that the Collection Development Committee look at SFX. Smaller libraries indicated they could not afford the up-front costs, but could pick up the maintenance. It was mentioned that libraries should look into getting Student Technology Fee monies to fund the up-front costs.

10. Budget Crunch (McGinnis)

    A few comments were made about how libraries were coping with frozen and deleted positions. Fayoyin commented on the 'ratio of librarians to students' as a factor in dissuading deletion of positions. One Library reported having their new materials budget for the year frozen.

11. Fall 2004 and Spring 2005 Meetings (dates/locations/topics) (McGinnis)

    Meyer, chair elect, suggested that the Fall meeting be held at Tech Square in the Global Learning Center and that the group consider returning to St. Simons for the Spring meeting.

    Other topics:

    Georgia Library Learning Online (GALILEO) Makes a Difference in Georgia was distributed and McGinnis referred to the GALILEO 'PR' sheet as a useful way of advertising GALILEO. It will be loaded on GLA's website and we are free to copy and distribute.

    RACL/IT Guidelines Committee, chaired by Bede Mitchell, is on course.

    Two RACL librarians are retiring June 30, 2004 : Charles Beard and Carole Taylor.

    Kelly asked which libraries benefited from student technology fees and how much and for what did each library receive. She will survey RACL.

    Potter thanked Callie McGinnis for hosting the meeting and planning the activities on behalf of RACL. McGinnis received applause.

12. 12:00 Adjourn.

    Respectfully submitted,

    Carol Bray, RACL Executive Committee
    Director, East Georgia College Library