Electronic Resources Committee

Meeting Notes

October 14, 2002

Attending: David Block, Nan Hyland, Marty Kurth, Holly Mistlebauer, Steve Rockey, Ed Weissman

1. Explicit selection of e-resources. ERC discussed the current policy that only e-resources explicitly chosen by selectors should be added to the CUL catalog. CTS is considering proposing an exception to the policy for free e-versions of print government documents. Scott will bring the exception to ERC when it is fully articulated. Our discussion ranged into concerns that the e-Reference Collection may contain resources that do not meet the criteria for the collection. At a future meeting, ERC will review a list of those resources added to e-Reference since its creation to see whether any questionable titles appear.

2. Factiva. ERC considered two issues with regard to Factiva, title-level access and browser compatibility. With regard to title-level access, we were concerned that Factiva’s selective coverage of some titles and its cumbersome searching by journal title do not make it a good candidate for title-level access. Nan will consult with Management Library staff and IRPC regarding the value of title-level access to Factiva. With regard to browser compatibility, the Factiva site states that it only supports access via Internet Explorer (IE). CUL public workstations supported by Desktop Services and workstations at Mann include IE, so Factiva access should not pose a problem for those workstations. Other units with public workstations should be aware that non-IE access to Factiva may be problematic. Factiva will likely also be problematic for Unix/Linux users and Mac users. IE is not available for Unix/Linux users, so they will have to use Netscape, even from campus IP's. Because off-campus Mac users cannot use IE with the proxy server, they will need to use Netscape 6 or 7 because Factiva does not support Netscape 4 at all. Netscape 6 or 7 may not work with all Factiva features. Nan will consult with Management Library staff to determine whether more information is available about Factiva functionality and higher versions of Netscape.

3. SourceOECD. This item was inadvertently left out of the notes from the 8/26/02 ERC meeting. Nan reported to the group that SourceOECD may implement stable title-level URLs in the future, which would allow us to offer title-level access. We will check back with the SourceOECD rep later this year to see whether the site has been modified.

The next ERC meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 11, 2002, at 2:00 p.m. in 702 Olin.

Meeting notes by Martin Kurth

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