Meeting minutes August 15, 2006

Present: John Haar, Janice Adlington, Mary Beth Blalock, Sue Davis, Bill Hook, Lee Ann Lannom, Mary Prince, Carlin Sappenfield, Kathy Smith, Holling Smith-Borne, Deb Sommer, Mary Ellen Wilson. Absent: Deborah Broadwater.

1. Discussion of how we track information about our online subscriptions.

The committee discussed problems in tracking and interpreting information about electronic journal subscriptions. With the proliferation of package deals and electronic-only subscriptions, it has become more difficult for each library to be certain of order and payment information for ejournals. Mary Ellen explained how Order Services posts subscription information. Members noted that they cannot be sure of exactly which titles they should be receiving electronically or exactly what archival access we pay for.

We decided to address the problem by enumerating what kinds of information the libraries need about ejournal subscriptions. We will follow up at our next meeting by determining whether and where the needed information is stored and how it can be provided to the libraries.

We identified the following needs:

• Each library wants to be able to create or be provided with lists of periodical subscriptions for which it pays. The list should show whether each subscription is print, print/electronic, or electronic-only.
• Each library wants to be able to create or be provided with lists of titles in Sciencedirect, Wiley Interscience, Springerlink, Project MUSE and other ejournal packages for which we share the cost.
• We want to know the length of renewal cycles for each subscription package and any cancellation limitations.
• We want to know what backfiles we are licensed to access and whether our access is perpetual.
• We want to know which journals are archived in LOCKSS.