Library Management Team

Notes from November 16, 2005 Meeting

Attending: Ross Atkinson, Karen Calhoun, Lee Cartmill, Claire Germain, Tom Hickerson, Janet McCue, Jean Poland, Sarah Thomas, Ed Weissman

1) Announcements

Tom announced that Oliver Habicht is the Library's representative on the IT Security Council that is chaired by Steve Schuster, Cornell's IT Security Officer. Tom expects to form a group to advise Oliver.

2) Janus Conference follow-up

LMT discussed the Library's response to the action items endorsed by the participants at the Janus Conference in response to the six key challenges presented to them by Ross, as well as to Don Waters' Urgent Action Needed to Preserve Scholarly Electronic Journals. The Library planned and hosted the Janus Conference from October 9-11. In brief, the six key challenges are:

a. RECON. Convert print holdings to digital form.

b. PROCON. Ensure that scholarly publications in the future are available in digital form.

c. Core definition. Define items that compose a core collection in each discipline and ensure that all research libraries have access to the same core.

d. Publisher relations. Negotiate collectively with publishers.

e. Archiving. Develop and implement cooperative methods to maintain traditional and digital holdings for the long term.

f. Alternative channels for scholarly communication. Create a network of publishing structures that scholars can use as a supplement or alternative to standard scholarly publishing channels.

Conference participants formed six working groups to recommend concrete action plans for each challenge. The groups are conferring by e-mail, and results of the discussions will be considered at the ALCTS Chief Collection Development Officers meeting at the ALA Mid-Winter meeting. With regard to action at Cornell:

-RECON. Sarah said that she would move to create a retrospective digitization fund. There was agreement that we needed to better understand what we are spending on retrospective digitization now and that it was important that information about material converted in large scale digitization projects like Google Print be available in OCLC WorldCat.

-Archiving. If we say that publishers must deposit their materials into a trusted digital repository then we must do so as well. We must be able to say that we are employing "best practices" for our locally produced and managed digital files, such as arXiv, Euclid, MOA, and CHLA. Tom will ask Priority Implementation Team #2 (Build an OAIS-Compliant System for Managing Cornell's Digital Assets) to provide "best practice" guidelines.

LMT will return to the issue of Janus Conference follow-up at a future meeting. See the Janus Conference web site for additional information about the conference.

3) DLF Aquifer

Tom presented information about Aquifer and estimates of the resources CUL will have to commit if we are to participate in the Aquifer Project Aquifer is a Digital Library Federation initiative to create a test-bed of tools for selecting, collecting and providing access to quality digital content. The initial theme that is serving as a content focus is Lincoln and the Civil War. To participate in Aquifer, we must commit to contributing staff to one of the project working groups (or run one of the Aquifer servers) and have our representatives attend two meetings each year. Tom estimated the cost at $30,000 per year. LMT agreed that we should participate and Sarah authorized the commitment of the resources for up to three years.

Edward Weissman