Collections Committee Collections Committee February 16, 2009
Agenda Items
1. Alumni Services – databases for alums
2. Foundation Center Directory (Lee Ann)
3. Collections planning for lean years
4. WorldCat Collection Analysis Tool
5. Collection Reviews – in process or pending
6. Update on Committee Goals for 2008/09
Members present: Deborah Broadwater, Bill Hook, Sue Davis, Carlin Sappenfield, Mary Ellen Wilson, Mary Prince, Julie Loder, Jared Ingersoll, Roberta Winjum, Lee Ann Lannom, Kathy Smith. Regrets: Hilary Craiglow, Eileen Crawford, Holling-Smith Borne
1. Alumni Services – A recent exchange between Rahn Huber and Jared Ingersoll about database access for alumni services led Bill to add this to the agenda. The Management Library has a number of resources for alumni that they have licensed, and Divinity has one. Access to databases is frequently requested by alumni – though it is typically excluded under the licensing agreements for most databases. EBSCO is evidently offering an alumni version for Business Source Premier. The question was asked if other libraries were aware of or actively pursuing any agreements for alumni access?
No other active prospects were being pursued at this time. Bill suggested that this would be an area we might want to be looking at, and consider pursuing in selective instances.
2.Foudation Center Directory – Lee Ann has been in discussion with several units on campus that have separate subscriptions to this Directory (Development and the Medical Center each have their own access). She has investigated the costs of a campus site wide license (IP authentication rather than user/password). She has identified that such a license would not restrict, but actually would enhance the access existing subscribers have. The cost for the subscription would be $8995/year, necessitating commitments to cover $5000/year by the libraries if the other units continue to contribute what they are currently paying. She asked if other libraries were interested in this resource? Central and Divinity expressed interest. She will pursue this further with the two non-library units.
3.Update on Committee Goals - Bill told the group that one of the outcomes from the Library Council retreat was to consider an audit of our standing committees. As a part of that each committee chair has been asked to review and update the goals for 2009. Bill will circulate to the committee the stated goals and solicit any updates from the committee members.
4.WorldCat Collection Analysis Tool - Bill mentioned this subscription and inquired whether people were actively using it or not. Few were. In light of the expense of this tool, it is likely this will not be renewed next year (renewal occurs in October). As budgets tighten this tool can be useful for examining our collections in comparison with others – either with predefined groups (such as ASERL libraries) or custom defined groups. Several people expressed interest in learning more about it, Bill will arrange a session in the e-classroom to introduce it to any who might want to use it. The URL and username will be distributed to the group before hand for anyone who wishes to explore on their own.
5.Collections planning for lean years- Bill spoke about the recent meeting of the Library Council with the Provost regarding the university’s financial condition. While Vanderbilt remains in a relatively stronger position than many universities, there has been a dramatic impact, and we can anticipate several years of austerity, even if the economy does not get worse this year.
Given that the university uses a 3 year rolling average for endowment payout, the payout for 09/10 next year will be lower than last year (given the impact of 2008), but the following year may be even worse, as we lose one of the two ‘good’ years in the rolling average. We have can likely expect flat or minimal increase budgets for several years, and so we ought to consider looking at out collections commitments with a multi-year scope.
Reviewing subscriptions and considering cancellations will be more likely the norm in the next few years, rather than adding new resources. Though there will continue to be new things we need to consider. Our challenge is how to reallocate our funds to create some level of flexibility to respond to new programmatic or faculty needs.
6.Collection Reviews - Divinity will be undertaking another more extensive review of subscriptions, after having just completed one in the fall. Medical and Law indicated ongoing reviews in their collections as well.
Other Updates:
Verde – Julie Loder spoke about the Verde Implementation Teams process.
Metadata Committee- Roberta gave an update from the Metadata Committee, indicating the mapping for the Global Music Archive is almost ready for public release and addition to DiscoverLibrary.
ASERL Digital Initiative – Kathy Smith told the committee about the recently announced ASERL project that we will be participating in, seeking to solicit 150 digital objects from each ASERL member library, for a project on the intellectual underpinnings of the South during the Civil War period.
Minutes submitted by Bill Hook