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CARLI BOARD OF DIRECTORS MINUTES
Meeting 7

November 18, 2005

Summary of Actions Taken:

Members Present: David Carlson, SIU Carbondale; Scott Drone-Silvers, Lake Land College; Linda Morrissett, DePaul; Mary Munroe, NIU (by phone); Lynn Murphy, Illinois Board of Higher Education; Dave Stewart, University of Illinois; Ellen Sutton, College of DuPage (by phone); Jay Starratt, SIU Edwardsville (by phone); Carla Tracy, Augustana College; Kathy Walsh, National-Louis University (by phone); Anna Maria Watkin, Parkland College;

Members Absent: Anne Craig, Illinois State Library; Sylvia Jenkins, Moraine Valley Community College; ; Paula Kaufman, UI Urbana-Champaign; Eric Welch, Highland Community College

Guests Present: Kathy Bloomberg, Illinois State Library; Susan Singleton (incoming CARLI Executive Director)

CARLI Staff Present: Elizabeth Clarage, Tom Dorst, Kristine Hammerstrand, Bernie Sloan, Connie Walsh

Anna Maria Watkin presided with Mary Munroe participating by phone.

Susan Singleton was introduced.

Minutes of Meeting 6:

David Carlson moved and Linda Morrissett seconded the approval of the minutes of Meeting 6, October 21, 2005. Motion passed.

Additions/changes to the agenda:

Mary Munroe indicated that Kathy Bloomberg had several announcements from the State Library that would be handled under New Business.

Committee reports:

Executive Committee
Mary Munroe reported that the committee set agenda for the November Board meeting. It was decided that all committees, task forces and working groups will be informed that written reports should be submitted by the Monday before Executive Committee meeting. The committee also reviewed the evaluations of the membership meeting.

Collections Working Group
Linda Morrissett indicated that the group had discussed the collection development policy for digital collections. A designated sub-committee should have a draft for Board review at its next meeting. Mary Munroe will present a workshop on the OCLC Collection Analysis on December 15.  Elizabeth Clarage reported on the grant program planning for next year. The organization of the program will be similar to that used previously by ICCMP. The grant program will be open to all CARLI member institutions. The development and submission of grant proposals is done during the current fiscal year so that awards can be made as soon as possible in the next. Recipients then have the maximum amount of time to execute the grant. All CARLI library directors will be asked to score proposals. The Collections Working Group proposed to the Finance Committee that the total amount available for grant awards be increased from its current level (between $170,000 and $180,000) to $250,000.

The Board elected to deal with the issue at this point. David Carlson, as Finance Committee chair brought forward a motion to set the pool of available grant funding for FY 2007 at $250,000. Clarage reviewed the grant cycle timeline and related informational memoranda prepared by the working group. Kathleen Bloomberg asked that in future documents be labeled as Draft, if they have not been finalized. She asked how many directors actually review proposals. Clarage indicated that between 20-30 have provided reviews in past cycles. It was asked if there was any discussion of expanding the review to staff other than directors. The logistical problems in such an expansion were outlines. Clarage indicated the staff at Eastern Illinois have collated review responses in the past and have agreed to do so for the next cycle. The consensus was to leave the review process as is for the FY 2007 cycle. David Carlson asked how project assessments are handled. Clarage responded that no systematic evaluation of past assessments has not been done and that reports from grant recipients are not in a consistent format. Next year there is an expectation that reports will follow a proscribed format. Carlson asked if any usage studies have been conducted for collection resources acquired through the grant program. Such an analysis has not been undertaken, but could be for the I-Share libraries, at least. Morrissett indicated that expectations for usage analysis would need to be established. The consensus of the Board was there needs to be more accountability from recipients and analysis of usage. It was agreed that the working group should attempt to accomplish these objectives for the FY 2008 grant cycle. An expectation for assessment will be added to the documents that will go out for the FY 2007 cycle. Scott Drone-Silver called the question and the Finance Committee motion passed.

Clarage reported that the existing ICCMP listserv used by bibliographers and collection managers is in the process of being migrated to CARLI servers in Champaign. It will be named the Collections and Content listserv. The Board directed that its action on the funding  the Grant Program for FY 2007 be circulated on the Announce list. Clarage reported that a bibliographers meeting is being planned (tentative dates - February 3 or 10).  Comments on COUNTER draft release on statistics have been solicited. A formal response to COUNTER will be presented to the Board for action at its December meeting.

E-resources Committee
Tom Dorst reported the committee has met twice since the last Board meeting. Jim Mouw of the University of Chicago has agreed to chair the committee. The committee will submit a revised charge for Board action in December. The committee has established a schedule of monthly conference calls to review proposals. They will use the committee listserv extensively, as well. The committee is placing its emphasis on the Spring database selection cycle. It will submit a plan of action as soon as possible along with an analysis budget allocations for electronic resources in the legacy consortia and a proposal for the future.

Delivery
Tom Dorst reports that a meeting has been scheduled for November 29 at the State Library. A plan of action will be submitted to the Board at its December meeting.

Digital Products
Mary Munroe reported. The SFX activity is winding down.

The CONTENTdm group is working with Collections Group on standards and guidelines. Dave Stewart indicated that disk storage has been ordered and a test server has been set up. The first round of implementations is in planning for soon after the after new year. Staff training will be conducted on December 6. Fifteen schools will be in the first (Spring round). The Collections Group is working on a collection policy. Anna Maria Watkin asked if there has been an announcement. An announcement was made when the contract was finalized, but there has not been information on how members beyond the I-Share (ILCSO) group can participate.

WebFeat second round implementation is underway. Kris Hammerstrand indicated that the work to set up WebFeat is done directly with the vendor, so there is nothing to report from the staff.

Several questions were about the negotiations for the Saskia Archive images. Tom Dorst reported that there were two parallel components to the Saskia acquisition. Contract negotiations are underway and Connie Walsh reported that the procurement process had been initiated. Dave Stewart noted that with the establishment of an agency accounting structure the purchase did not need to go to the University Board of Trustees, which both simplifies the process and shortens it. The second part of the project was the implement. As was reported earlier, the CONTENTdm server has been configured and test images from Saskia can be loaded and evaluated. The identification of a metadata format still needs to be accomplished and there are issues associated with the authentication of CARLI members other than I-Share users. There is not yet a firm timetable for providing access to the Saskia images, but it will not be at the beginning of he next semester. The Board will be updated monthly on the project.

Finance Committee
David Carlson reported that the committee had reviewed current expenditures. An equipment order for $79,000 was made to support the CONTENTdm implementation and Saskia acquisition. The reserve account is essentially unchanged. Dave Stewart gave a general economic review. The state has a broad array of obligations that will fall do in the near term. It will be difficult for higher education to obtain any substantial increases in the foreseeable future.

Future VisionsTask Force
No report.

IUAG
No formal report. Kathleen Bloomberg noted that the Web Usability Task Force report has been completed and will be submitted to Board. There was discussion of the impending Voyager upgrade.

Membership Committee
Kathy Walsh indicated that she was somewhat disappointed in response at membership meeting. She had the impressions that potential members are not buying rationales for membership, especially with regard to fees. There was concern expressed that schools will be shut out of the process. She stressed the importance of Kate Nevins’ point that meeting local needs must be a consortium’s principal focus. Kathy is working under the assumption that the current Bylaws need to guide the discussion of membership. She will attempt to approach the discussion of fees from new perspectives. She thinks that the  model of pilot participants for new services that was used in the planning for the ILSCO digital products might be useful. Dave Stewart addressed some confusion about the use of fees for specific initiatives, rather than research and development. There must be a clear purpose for funds collected and a way to account for their use. Mary Munroe asked how the consortium would fund innovation. Dave responded that there were several strategies to do so. What couldn’t be done was to collect fees that were for no defined purpose.

David Carlson noted a discrepancy between the comments he heard and Kathy’s review.  He was not as pessimistic about the outcome of the meeting and noted that this was a first attempt. Ellen Sutton said that she agreed with David’s assessment. He argued that a strategic planning process needs to be initiated, so that a more comprehensive vision for CARLI can be presented at a next meeting.

Kathy indicated that she wants to call a face-to-face meeting of the committee as soon as possible.

Personnel Committee
No report

PR Committee
Bernie Sloan presented the latest versions of the I-Share logo for review and action. The consensus of the Board was that the colors should be the same as the CARLI logo, rather than complementary. They felt that there was value in establishing a branding consistency. They also asked to see the arrows in the design rearranged. The changes will be requested and transmitted to the Board for an electronic vote as soon as possible.

Users Group Task Force
Written report submitted.

Staff reports:

Dave Stewart reported that ILA Legislative Day in March 1, 2006 due to shortened legislative calendar. ALA Legislative Day in Washington, DC will be May 1-2.  The Patriot Act reauthorization is up for a vote in the near future. It’s fate is unclear. ALA favors the Senate version.

Elizabeth Clarage reported that the OCLC Collection Analysis product will be available to participants on November 15 and that the free year of service will run until November 30, 2006. A Chicago area workshop will be presented by Mary Munroe in December and a site for a downstate workshop is being sought.

Kris Hammerstrand reported that there will be a Voyager upgrade meeting next week to inform a decision on the appropriate version of the software for the upgrade. This is a major upgrade, and there will be significant period when staff access will be unavailable. While there is virtually no optimal time to schedule the upgrade, the staff are currently considering around the Memorial Day holiday, with August as an alternative. She recommended that the Board discuss this issue in detail at its December meeting. Anna Maria Watkin asked if there was information on the future schedule for upgrades. Kris responded that there was not.  

Tom Dorst reported that the Fall selection cycle was concluding and that he would report on the results in December. This cycle included the first databases that were migrating from ICCMP’s operation at NIU to CARLI in Champaign. The annual interest survey for the  Spring selection cycle (July 1 start dates) will be out in the next week.

Connie Walsh reported on various finance matters, including the establishment of agency accounts. There are advantages for flexibility of operation, but staff are still how the accounts function.

Old business:

Membership meeting

A summary of the comment sheets was distributed and discussed. Staff pointed out that it would be increasingly difficult to find space to meet in member institutions, and that the use of commercial space should be considered, as necessary. Early planning will also be essential to the success of future meetings. The consensus of the discussion was to aim for a September/October in a more central location. Mary Munroe will send thank-you letters to the speakers and host institution.

New business:

The plan proposed is to verify the scope of the problem, and detail the options for addressing the issue. He requested the Board’s endorsement of the contents of the letter and the proposed plan of action. While noting that this issue is beyond the library’s ability to address independently, the Board acknowledged the need to proceed and endorsed Stewart’s proposal.

The Board discussed the Preservation Committee’s draft charge. The noted that it is not a mission statement and raised several other points. Elizabeth Clarage was asked to communicate with the chair and revise the charge for review at the December meeting. they also discussed the appropriate name of the group? Should it be a standing committee? There were no volunteers to act as Board liaison to the Preservation Committee, but it was suggested that the position be offered to Paula Kaufman, because of her interest in the topic. Linda Morrissett asked about the relationship between this new group and the Collections Working Group. The Board decided to establish the group independently to start and then determine its final affiliation later. There was a general belief that the Board needed to devote an appropriate amount of time to considering the organizational structure of the consortium. It was noted that the final report of the User Group Task Force is due in January, and that it will have an impact of the organizational structure.

Mary Munroe discussed several guidelines and statements from the International Coalition of Library Consortia that had been adopted by one or more of the legacy consortia.  After discussion the Board directed the staff to register CARLI as a member of ICOLC. They also agreed to review the ICOLC documents for endorsement at the December meeting.

Kathleen Bloomberg reported that the State Library has established a statewide license to College of DuPage web courses. She also reported that an announcement was imminent about the creation of a joint virtual reference service with Wisconsin.

The meeting was adjourned.