Minutes LRC Director

Minutes LRC Directors' meeting

October 4, 2002

		Present at the October 4th meeting at Piedmont Virginia Community College: Sandy Beeson, Linda Cahill, Gordon Cook, Gene Damon, Bill Dey, Jacque Dessino, Tracy Elliott, Mike Fein, Bill Harrison, David Hillman, Janice Johnson, Linda Larkin, Linda Luebke, Mary Mayer-Hennelly, Abdul Miah, Barry Reynolds, Anna Ray Roberts, Cathy Sabol, Aileen Schweitzer, Aggie Taormina, Linza Weaver, Bobbie White, Dave Williams, and Maggie Zarnosky.
		Information Literacy Gene Damon, Maggie Zarnosky, Tracy Elliott and Linda Larkin reported. By now, each College's Dean or Vice President of Academic Services should have received a letter from the System Office's Genene LeRosen stating that each school is to respond by November 1 with a plan for assessing information literacy competencies. Gene and our Information Literacy Committee, chaired by Laurel Reid, have provided us with an electronic test that JMU adapted from the one they use with their own students. Gene is working with JMU to finalize contract specifics. At the moment, we're not certain what the test will cost, but it'll probably be around $1.25 per test. It is also uncertain who will pay for the tests. Each college can decide who (and when in the student's career) they will test, e.g., a random sample of or all students applying for graduation, or all history students or some other scheme. The colleges are asked to identify which course the application assessment (standard 4) will be tied to. The committee recommends starting to work now with faculty at the grass-roots level to let them know this is coming and also identify ways in which these skills are already addressed in their existing assignments and exercises. An LAAC subcommittee will work on developing tutorials or resources as backup, but the greatest success will likely come from the faculty incorporating the competency into their curriculum. Maggie developed an Information Literacy Efforts Overview for the LRCs at http://www.nvcc.edu/home/mzarnosky/InfoLit/literacyefforts.htm Please look at it and give Maggie feedback on the site. We have permission to adapt JMU's Go For The Gold tutorial. Gene has the original version on a server, and Maggie will lead the effort to modify it as part of her duties on the LAAC. The goal is to have our own version up on the VCCS site sometime in the Spring. If you have staff who might be interested in this project, please send email to Maggie at mzarnosky@nvcc.edu. The more people working on it, the sooner it'll be ready to use. Since the Information Literacy Committee has completed its work, it will disband. The group thanked the committee members for their excellent work. Action: Give Maggie feedback on the information literacy website, and send names of volunteers to work on the VCCS version of Go For The Gold.
		Distance Learning Virtual Reference Service. LRCLive was launched August 19th and is receiving some use. The questions have been pretty straight forward. Gene shared copies of four pages of transcripts generated by the system after several sessions. Occasionally the system has been down. Gene recommended a free software package called Ping Plotter, if you'd like a tool for determining whether the problem is with LSSI or VCCS. Student requested ILLs. Recently a number of people have asked for the URL for the test ILL page so this is a repeat from the last meeting's minutes. Go to: http://library4.vccs.edu/webpac-bin/wgbroker?new+-access+top1a That is a link to a test version of WebPAC on the test server. If you do a search on something and go to the "full" record display you will see an option for an off-campus request at the top right of the display. Send comments to Gene.
		Budget We discussed concerns about the crisis. Gene said this year's ILL reimbursement should come through eventually, but SCHEV funds are impounded right now.
		Databases: Most show increases in use: WebPac use for September is up 41% from last year. Gale is up 27%, Ovid - 98%, and Oxford U. Press up 177%. Literature Resource Center and Access Science databases were renewed effective July 1, 2002; most IATs have been paid. Gene said we may lose SIRS through the Library of Virginia next year. PsycArticles - Gene reported that we viewed 4,166 articles between January and September, 2002. If we use the service at about the same rate for 2002/2003, the service would cost about $4.16 per article. Not a bad cost when compared to ILL costs. More importantly is the value of availability; would our students get the material if it were not available online. He noted the most frequently used journal in the set is "American Psychologist" with 450 articles viewed. (In the OVID journal collection as a whole, the "American Journal of Nursing" was the most used at 687 articles viewed.) Our subscription cost is down about $9,000 from last year. Since the budget picture is gloomy, Gene asked the group to vote again now to keep PsycArticles or not. The group reaffirmed the decision to keep this resource. Gene will send the IATs to colleges next week. Action: Talk to Gene ASAP if your college cannot pay anything for PsycArticles.
		VIVA Databases: Gene reported: SCHEV has endorsed VIVA, but the budget situation is so grim the VIVA Steering Committee has directed the RUC to start planning for another round of cuts. Up to a point, the 2002/2003 budget can support some additional cuts without immediately cutting additional resources. However, any cut will result in reductions in the resources in the 2003/2004 fiscal year. Jacque Dessino and Sylvia Rortvedt are VCCS's representatives to the Resources for Users Committee. Gene listed all the VIVA databases on the back of his report and asked that we send retention priority lists by Wednesday, October 9th. Action: Send Gene priorities for retention. List the top 10 databases to keep, and the lowest 5.
		Off-Campus Access. Gene reported Exproxy is working well. There were significant problems with student identification at the start of the term. These seem to have settled down except for some lingering confusion for those students who are not in classes using BlackBoard.
		NCES Academic Library Survey (ALS 2002) Tracy reported she has received a letter from the NCES regarding the location of the questionnaire on the Web, so look for yours. We have 4 months to respond. The NCES says responses are voluntary. SCHEV hasn't made a statement yet on participation.
		New Lib System Gene's report noted: As was reported last meeting I have been working with VCU to have the VCCS included in the ILS RFP. We were included, and VCU selected the Exlibris system. The Library of Virginia has also selected Exlibris. As a result of the system demonstrations in the Spring and other observations, I am convinced that Exlibris is the better system of those VCU considered. I am especially impressed with Exlibris' track record delivering system that support cooperative library systems. For example, they have the University of Maryland system, 15 colleges and universities sharing a system and the SUNY share system group. While we await information on the Chancellor's federal initiative to pay for a new system, I have been working on two things. Talking with Exlibris to see if we can get some planning information now "on spec." Working with VCU to see if there is a way we can cooperate on the system's operation and support. With the State's clear determination to enforce more cooperation between and among State agencies in the IT area, we feel that any effort we make to work together will reflect well on both institutions. I hope to put together a demonstration and discussion session for the Library Automation Advisory committee this Fall. More widespread demonstrations, etc. for college staff will have to wait until we are sure we are going to be able to purchase the system.
		Other News from Gene VIVA Outreach Committee Pat Butler has resigned from the committee, If you have an interested staff member who has experience writing public relations announcements, please tell Gene. Blackboard. There is a "Resources" button on BlackBoard that sends students to BlackBoard's own list of for-cost databases. We need to add a button that links to our own resources. Films for Humanities. FFH is offering to institutions and consortiums license agreements to push currently owned titles over the Internet for reasonable fees. For an $89 video, VCCS could pay $150 to license it for everyone in VCCS.
		New Business Gordon Cook has new information on Woodbridge Campus' wireless lab. Please ask Gordon about it if you are interested. gcook@nvcc.edu.
		*Charles Lewis* recently announced he will retire effective November 1. The group signed a proclamation of thanks for the valuable work Charles has done for the LRCs and will send it to him. If you'd like to get in touch with Charles his email address is cslewis1@attbi.com Everyone thanked *Linda Cahill* for arranging another tasty lunch. The next meeting will be announced later.