Board Meeting Minutes, June 2, 2004: Wisconsin Public Library Consortium

WPLC Board Meeting Minutes: June 2, 2004
Location: South Central Library System

Present: David Weinhold (ESLS), Stef Morrill (SCLS), Mellanie Mercier (WCFLS), Phyllis Davis (SCLS), Bernie Bellin (LLS), Steve Platteter (MWFLS), Peter Hamon (SCLS), Mark Merrifield (NLS), Evan Bend (OWLS), Inese Christman (WVLS), Kathy Schneider (WiLS), and Linda Miller, Project Manager.

The meeting came to order at 10:00 A.M.

1. Partner Reports SCLS announced a new member for the netLibrary Selection Committee to fill a vacancy. An agreement with the service provider allows SCLS to use the Spanish language services of the virtual reference service.

MWFLS is beginning virtual reference services with West Bend and Fort Atkinson playing key roles.

SRLAAW is investigating alternatives for interlibrary loan. The OCLC option based on WorldCat has been adopted by consortia in other states. The existence of a statewide catalog, WISCAT, makes Wisconsin somewhat unique.

Nicolet is using Gates training funds for training on a variety of databases and applications, including netLibrary. The system is working on its technology plan and planning a digitization project.

OWLS is planning its migration to a new integrated library system. Training for netLibrary is planned. The system and libraries are evaluating electronic databases for subscription. Evan asked if WPLC might be interested in a group project. He also wants to know how authentication for access to the various databases is handled by others.

Discussion continued on whether there was value in determining what subscriptions library systems and libraries have for the purpose of learning the extent of duplication. Linda will collect information and report. WiLS can provide a list of subscriptions handled through its office.

2. Membership Update Milwaukee County Federated Library System has joined. CESA 10 will probably join.

3. netLibrary WiLS will provide the number of authorized users statewide annually. OCLC has reorganized, and the e-journals are now under netLibrary. Additional subject-based collections will be offered. The option of contracting only for netLibrary titles will continue to be available. The glitch with the full text interface is being fixed. Currently, statistics on the number of page views are available via special request, and Kathy will try to get these. Later, the statistics will be available through the resource center. A new service under development is the ability to request customize reports which will be automatically pushed to the user based on a report request list. Linda reported that there was a 34% increase in usage in 2003 over 2002 based on the annual usage statistics.

Linda shared the responses to the WPLC questionnaire regarding e-book collections and services available from vendors. OverDrive and Baker & Taylor were asked to respond and did. Inese had reviewed the title lists from both companies and believes that OverDrive has newer titles. David believes that the best compliment to netLibrary is a vendor which can provide newer best sellers. Evan is concerned that having some e-books that require downloading and others that cannot be downloaded may be confusing to library customers.

Other concerns include the matter of OverDrive's financial stability and whether content that was purchased from Baker & Taylor could be hosted by OverDrive on its servers. Linda will pursue the answers. Kathy will discuss with the Michigan consortium the possibility that WPLC might partner with it and be a user within it.

4. New Projects Stef reported on the work of the Virtual Reference Review committee. She distributed a list of questions for current users that the committee developed. Phyllis mentioned that Charles McClure is already doing a national study on this topic. One person from each of the Wisconsin virtual reference consortia will be asked to respond to the questions. Stef may send the question to others, such as the digref discussion list, for additional input.

An update on discussion on using WorldCat in Wisconsin was given. Too few libraries committed to the project to move it forward. Kathy will discuss other options with OCLC based on the dollars that are available. She asked if WPLC would be interested in spearheading a project. Bernie stating that having to use both WorldCat and WISCAT creates too many issues, including the matter of paying for both. Peter shared that SCLS may consider using OCLC for ILL rather than WISCAT. SCLS has a quote from OCLC showing that the cost to use OCLC for all of the SCLS ILL activities would be between $20,000 and $22,000, which he believes is reasonable. Bernie stated that Lakeshores would be willing to drop WISCAT if it could use only WorldCat. Inese had questions about paying for shipping charges and being able to provide all of the materials that are listed in WorldCat. She said that MCPL has found that the personalized and customized service available from Books In Print is of more interest to its users than WorldCat. SCLS has found that most of its ILL requests are filled within SCLS. Some users find WISCAT ILL to complicated and labor intensive, while others commented that the patron-initiated ILL is a plus. WorldCat can be scoped, but for a fee.

David wondered if WPLC could subsidize the cost of WorldCat for libraries but was concerned that the cost to the libraries would still be too high. Kathy reported that she received commitments of $114,000 for the project. Steve reported that MWFLS is going to rely on Z39.50 connectivity between WISCAT and a shared system and would not be uploading local holdings to WISCAT anymore. Peter stated that SCLS does not have plans to implement Z39.50 server. WorldCat does include an option or redirecting ILL requests to a library system ILL office. The report from SRLAAW is not due for awhile. Discussion will continue at the next meeting.

5. Next Meeting Topics for the next meeting include the 2005 budget.

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 11, 2004 at 10:00 AM at the SCLS offices.

The meeting adjourned at 12:30 PM


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Members Bylaws Committees Meetings Discussion List Statistics Current Projects Proposals for Future Services Reports Links Home Contact Us		WPLC Board Meeting Minutes: June 2, 2004 Location: South Central Library System Present: David Weinhold (ESLS), Stef Morrill (SCLS), Mellanie Mercier (WCFLS), Phyllis Davis (SCLS), Bernie Bellin (LLS), Steve Platteter (MWFLS), Peter Hamon (SCLS), Mark Merrifield (NLS), Evan Bend (OWLS), Inese Christman (WVLS), Kathy Schneider (WiLS), and Linda Miller, Project Manager. The meeting came to order at 10:00 A.M. 1. Partner Reports SCLS announced a new member for the netLibrary Selection Committee to fill a vacancy. An agreement with the service provider allows SCLS to use the Spanish language services of the virtual reference service. MWFLS is beginning virtual reference services with West Bend and Fort Atkinson playing key roles. SRLAAW is investigating alternatives for interlibrary loan. The OCLC option based on WorldCat has been adopted by consortia in other states. The existence of a statewide catalog, WISCAT, makes Wisconsin somewhat unique. Nicolet is using Gates training funds for training on a variety of databases and applications, including netLibrary. The system is working on its technology plan and planning a digitization project. OWLS is planning its migration to a new integrated library system. Training for netLibrary is planned. The system and libraries are evaluating electronic databases for subscription. Evan asked if WPLC might be interested in a group project. He also wants to know how authentication for access to the various databases is handled by others. Discussion continued on whether there was value in determining what subscriptions library systems and libraries have for the purpose of learning the extent of duplication. Linda will collect information and report. WiLS can provide a list of subscriptions handled through its office. 2. Membership Update Milwaukee County Federated Library System has joined. CESA 10 will probably join. 3. netLibrary WiLS will provide the number of authorized users statewide annually. OCLC has reorganized, and the e-journals are now under netLibrary. Additional subject-based collections will be offered. The option of contracting only for netLibrary titles will continue to be available. The glitch with the full text interface is being fixed. Currently, statistics on the number of page views are available via special request, and Kathy will try to get these. Later, the statistics will be available through the resource center. A new service under development is the ability to request customize reports which will be automatically pushed to the user based on a report request list. Linda reported that there was a 34% increase in usage in 2003 over 2002 based on the annual usage statistics. Linda shared the responses to the WPLC questionnaire regarding e-book collections and services available from vendors. OverDrive and Baker & Taylor were asked to respond and did. Inese had reviewed the title lists from both companies and believes that OverDrive has newer titles. David believes that the best compliment to netLibrary is a vendor which can provide newer best sellers. Evan is concerned that having some e-books that require downloading and others that cannot be downloaded may be confusing to library customers. Other concerns include the matter of OverDrive's financial stability and whether content that was purchased from Baker & Taylor could be hosted by OverDrive on its servers. Linda will pursue the answers. Kathy will discuss with the Michigan consortium the possibility that WPLC might partner with it and be a user within it. 4. New Projects Stef reported on the work of the Virtual Reference Review committee. She distributed a list of questions for current users that the committee developed. Phyllis mentioned that Charles McClure is already doing a national study on this topic. One person from each of the Wisconsin virtual reference consortia will be asked to respond to the questions. Stef may send the question to others, such as the digref discussion list, for additional input. An update on discussion on using WorldCat in Wisconsin was given. Too few libraries committed to the project to move it forward. Kathy will discuss other options with OCLC based on the dollars that are available. She asked if WPLC would be interested in spearheading a project. Bernie stating that having to use both WorldCat and WISCAT creates too many issues, including the matter of paying for both. Peter shared that SCLS may consider using OCLC for ILL rather than WISCAT. SCLS has a quote from OCLC showing that the cost to use OCLC for all of the SCLS ILL activities would be between $20,000 and $22,000, which he believes is reasonable. Bernie stated that Lakeshores would be willing to drop WISCAT if it could use only WorldCat. Inese had questions about paying for shipping charges and being able to provide all of the materials that are listed in WorldCat. She said that MCPL has found that the personalized and customized service available from Books In Print is of more interest to its users than WorldCat. SCLS has found that most of its ILL requests are filled within SCLS. Some users find WISCAT ILL to complicated and labor intensive, while others commented that the patron-initiated ILL is a plus. WorldCat can be scoped, but for a fee. David wondered if WPLC could subsidize the cost of WorldCat for libraries but was concerned that the cost to the libraries would still be too high. Kathy reported that she received commitments of $114,000 for the project. Steve reported that MWFLS is going to rely on Z39.50 connectivity between WISCAT and a shared system and would not be uploading local holdings to WISCAT anymore. Peter stated that SCLS does not have plans to implement Z39.50 server. WorldCat does include an option or redirecting ILL requests to a library system ILL office. The report from SRLAAW is not due for awhile. Discussion will continue at the next meeting. 5. Next Meeting Topics for the next meeting include the 2005 budget. The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 11, 2004 at 10:00 AM at the SCLS offices. The meeting adjourned at 12:30 PM

		Updated January 31, 2005