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Notes on the LMS Evaluation Committee Meeting, 3/25/99

Present: Lynne Personius (chair), Steve Rockey, Diane Hillmann, Elaine Engst, Howard Raskin, Scott Wicks, Linda Westlake, Susan Currie, Jim LeBlanc, Surinder Ghangas, Mike Garcia, Jim Howell, Tim Lynch, Fred Muratori (recorder)

1. Endeavor Visit Summary
   • Lynne proposed that we provide the LMS Steering Committee with a summary report on the Endeavor visit, though the Steering Committee has not specifically requested one. Because many of us have already posted our impressions and forwarded feedback from the campus community to LMS-L, Lynne will use that information to compile a report.

2. Ex Libris Visit
   • Ex Libris is scheduled to visit the campus on Wednesday, April 21 through Thursday, April 22. Though we would have wanted them to come sooner -- and to be here for an additional day -- their schedule would not allow it. Following the form of past vendor visits, the general presentation and functional sessions will be open to all Library staff and other concerned parties. Given the relative success of the Endeavor presentation, some Committee members raised the question of whether hosting an Ex Libris visit was still worth our time and effort. Arguments on both sides were presented, but the final consensus was that an Ex Libris visit would not significantly delay either our recommendation to the Steering Committee or the LMS implementation process, and that we might gain some useful knowledge from comparing the two systems.

3. Site Visits
   • The Committee felt that visits to both Endeavor and Ex Libris sites were necessary to fill in the gaps in our knowledge, especially in the areas of technology, technical services, and access services. Ex Libris currently has only one domestic site -- Notre Dame -- and Northwestern is running Endeavor, suggesting that a trip to the midwest would be productive. Scott Wicks, Jim LeBlanc, Diane Hillmann, Susan Currie, Linda Westlake, Surinder Ghangas, and Steve Rockey will represent the Committee on these site visits. Other members of the group will very likely participate in an additional visit to a nearby Endeavor institution such as Syracuse or Rochester, depending on which one of the two is running the latest version of the system.

4. Implementation Planning
   • Some on the Committee made the point that it is not too soon to begin implementation planning, regardless of which vendor we choose. The overall design of the project and the composition of functional implementation groups should be determined without much more delay since the effort will seriously affect nearly all other Library activities for the next year or two, and we need to determine how to balance the demands of system implementation with the need to maintain regular library service.

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rev. 4/6/99,mc