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Notes from the 11/25/97 meeting
Attending: Ross Atkinson, Lee Cartmill, David Corson, Tom Hickerson, Jan Olsen, Sarah Thomas, Ed Weissman
1. Making of America (MOA) I Project
Anne Kenney reported on the status of the MOA project:
Anne then presented a proposal to use the money remaining from the Mellon grant to contract with the University of Michigan to generate OCR and markup (based on the article level indexing done at Cornell) for the periodical image files and to provide Cornell with the access system being used at Michigan for its own MOA files (see http://www.umdl.umich.edu/moa/). The money in hand would allow approximately half the periodical image files to be processed and cover the one time installation as well as the first year programming costs. The licensing cost for the Open Text software that is required would not be covered. Anne said the total cost for OCR and encoding comes to $.1793 per image. The advantage of following this path is that it appears to be very cost competitive and we would take advantage of Michigan's development work (Michigan is a Digital Library Federation partner). Anne mentioned that the MOAI evaluations indicate that researchers want full-text searching capabilities for these kinds of materials.
We discussed the importance of mainstreaming MOAI and other full-text materials we have digitized, of providing access to this and other digital files through the Library Gateway, and of sustainability. We need to be careful about how we select the access systems for our digitized files. We agreed that we would ask the new Electronic Resources Council being proposed by the Library Gateway Steering Committee (see 2. below) to review the proposal in this light. Anne will present the proposal to this group with the expectation that review on it can be done in January.
2. Proposals from the Library Gateway Steering Committee
The Library Gateway Steering Committee presented proposals to set up an Electronic Resources Council and an Information Technology Group. It also requested authorization to continue managing the implementation of the Library Gateway through the spring semester. We approved these recommendations and supported the Steering Committees proposal to announce a December 5 deadline for accepting requests to catalog networked resources that will appear in the Library Gateway when it "goes public" on January 5--day 1.
Ed said that the Gateway Steering Committee intends to draft proposals relating to user support and trouble shooting at its next meeting on December 5 and will present them for discussion at the ET meeting on December 10. The proposals will be distributed to the ET as soon as possible after the December 5 meeting to allow as much review as possible prior to the December 10 meeting.
3. Equipment Upgrades
Tom reported that the memory upgrades of the 41 public access Power Mac's have been completed. All now have between 32 and 40 MB of RAM. LTD is investigating alternative models of 15" multiscan monitors to replace the 14" monitors now being used with the Power Mac's. The multiscan monitors will support 600x800 resolution, ideal for the Library Gateway design. Since we have exhausted our supply of back-up monitors for the public access work stations, we agreed to allocate $10,000 to buy multiscan monitors. Tom estimated that this would pay for thirty (and possibly more.) Whether we can replace the monitors on all the Power Mac's this year will depend on the recommendations regarding replacements of the LCII's by the Public Work Station Replacement Group.
Up to now, the Library Gateway implementation effort has focused on designing the Gateway pages and incorporating into the Gateway the networked resources now available through the Mann Gateway and the Bear Access menus. Now that the major Gateway design decisions have been made, the Steering Committee is turning its attention to other important issues. These include the process by which resources are selected for the Library Gateway, user support and troubleshooting, and Library Gateway governance. This proposal, relating to the process by which resources are selected for the Library Gateway and the coordination of technology resources across CUL, is the first we are bringing to you for your consideration.
The Library Gateway Steering Committee proposes the creation of two new groups: 1) an Electronic Resources Committee (ERC) and 2) an Information Technology Group, with the chair of each group serving on the Steering Committee. We also propose the extension of the Library Gateway Steering Committee, at least until the full implementation of the Library Gateway at the start of the summer term in June 1998.
1) Electronic Resources Committee (ERC)
The role of the ERC would be to specify the criteria and procedures for selecting resources for the Library Gateway and also to insure that the process runs smoothly. Selectors must take into account a number of issues before deciding to spend cataloging resources to add networked resources to the Gateway. The report of the Committee on Electronic Resources provides some guidance with regard to the criteria for selection (specifically, the Electronic Resources Assessment Form). The procedure for sending resources for cataloging and for making sure that all bases are covered, however, needs to be specified. The identification of key issues will be particularly important as we add networked resources in genre that we have less experience dealing with, such as audio-visual. Selecting and providing Gateway access to new networked resources will involve staff from all functional areas of the library and from all CUL libraries and departments. The ERC would serve as the catalyst to insure that the proper communication channels were set up and utilized. It would be modeled on the Electronic Resources Council in Mann Library. Representatives from collection development, public services, technical services and information technology would develop criteria and procedures to insure the smooth integration of new networked resources into the Library Gateway.
The Gateway Steering Committee suggests that the members of this group be selected as follows: representatives for collection development, technical services, and public services by the Deputy University Librarian in consultation with the AUL for Science Libraries and the AUL for Humanities and Social Science Libraries; the information technology representative(s) should be selected by the AUL for Library Information Technology. We also suggest that the chairs of the Gateway Public Services Design Committee and the Gateway Technical Services Implementation Committee serve as hoc members of this group, at least through June 1998, so that their detailed knowledge of the Library Gateway is available to the ERC during that group's deliberations.
2) Information Technology Group (ITG)
The implementation of the Library Gateway is making cooperation and coordination between the technology departments and staff across the Library increasingly important. The Steering Committee proposes that a library-wide technology group be established, chaired by the AUL/LIT. In a similar manner to the Public Services Planning Committee, this group would bring together staff with mutual concerns and with shared commitments to the implementation of integrated technological solutions. This group would include staff of LTD, Mann ITS, CIDC (Cornell Institute for Digital Collections), Engineering, and any other library staff who actually have "systems" job descriptions. ITG meetings would serve as a forum for sharing information and expertise and supporting the development of common approaches.
The ITG would also provide a foundation for system-wide technology coordination by the new AUL/LIT and enhance his ability to represent library technology concerns university-wide. Additionally, as in the membership of the new ERC, the Information Technology Group would serve as a vehicle for representation and participation of information technology staff in library-wide planning and policy development.
3) The Library Gateway Steering Committee
The Library Gateway is being phased in during the spring semester. A list of enhancements is now being compiled for implementation during the spring semester. The Steering Committee would like your authorization to continue to manage the implementation process, at least until the implementation is completed in June 1998.
4) Deadline for Getting Networked Resources Cataloged for the Library Gateway Implementation on January 5
The Steering Committee would like your authorization to establish a deadline of December 5 for selectors to send requests for cataloging new networked resources. The deadline will apply to selectors in all CUL libraries. Requests for cataloging of networked resources for the Gateway that are received by cataloging units after December 5 will be held and processed after January 5.
A copy of the Mann Library Gateway database will be made during the week of November 24 and mounted on the Library Gateway platform. This is the copy that will become the Library Gateway database. The Gateway Technical Services Committee anticipates that all titles currently represented in the Mann Gateway and from Bear Access pages, plus titles for which cataloging requests are received by December 5, will be present in the Library Gateway database when it goes public on January 5. Instituting a temporary freeze on new networked resources being cataloged for the Library Gateway is important to support the work of programmers, database and interface developers, and catalogers who are responsible for creating the Library Gateway infrastructure and database for the January 5 production date.
Without such a freeze, the database implementation work will be more complex and prone to error.
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rev. 12/19/97 dih