TexShare Advisory Board Meeting
October 17, 1994
Meeting Notes

Present: Joe McCord (University of Houston-Clear Lake), Dottie Eakin (Texas A&M University), George Huffman (Community College Liaison, Amarillo College), Dale Cluff (Texas Tech University), Sue Phillips (University of Texas at Austin), Lisa deGruyter (Texas State Library), Robert Chang (University of Houston- Downtown), Joan Heath (Southwest Texas State University), Allan Watson (Alliance for Higher Education), Mary Lou Goodyear (Texas A&M University), Dana Rooks (University of Houston), Linda Thompson (University of Houston) 

PROJECT OVERVIEW 

Joe McCord presented a brief history of the TexShare project from its beginning in 1988 to the present. He highlighted the contributions of the various organizations and people over the years including TCSUL, TLA, Texas Libraries PAC, THECB, and Bob Bullock. The three basic elements of the original plan were: planning, access, and delivery. These elements continue to exist in the program that is being implemented. 

OVERVIEW OF INITIAL PROGRAMS 

Mary Lou Goodyear stated that the RFP issued by the Coordinating Board was very specific as to the components which should be included in the 1994/95 fiscal year. These components were described briefly as follows. 

Texas A&M University will be responsible for implementing Ariel, providing access to the Federal Register, and for assisting the Commercial Indexing Service Working Group with its activities. 

The Coordinating Board has provided additional support for Ariel by giving each library a copy of the software and $3000 to use to purchase equipment. Ariel will enable all 52 libraries to transmit documents over the Internet. The benefits of this mode of transmission are the savings of fax long distance charges and better quality reproduction capabilities. Texas A&M will provide technical assistance for the installation and operation of Ariel. Regional training sessions for Ariel will be given by A&M staff. Mel Dodd is the person who will provide Ariel assistance and training. 

A contract with Counterpoint to provide online access to the Federal Register has been negotiated. Access will be controlled by Internet IP domain which means that anyone from that domain will be able to have access to the Federal Register. The file will include the previous two years. The contract includes all publicly-supported K-12 schools and community colleges in Texas. The cost for a one-year subscription is $12,000. The question was asked as to why TexShare is not using the GPO offering. Currently GPO does not see a legitimate use for service to individuals (e.g., faculty offices, etc.); it only wants to make the Federal Register available to depository libraries (some TexShare libraries are not depository libraries). Texas A&M staff will continue to monitor the search software provided by both Counterpoint and GPO. Currently the Counterpoint software is more sophisticated. 

In order to assist the Commercial Indexing Working Group with its task Texas A&M staff are gathering information on both general, broad-based interdisciplinary services and more specialized services (primarily those of interest to medical libraries, e.g., BIOSIS). Table of contents services such as OCLC FirstSearch, IAC, and Wilson also are under consideration. 

The University of Houston will be responsible for the following components: establishing the Regional Library Materials Acquisitions Councils, conducting the survey of library holdings, and facilitating the work of the Electronic Document Delivery, ILL, and THEcard groups. 

Regional Library Materials Acquisitions Councils will be established throughout the State, and it is likely that these regions will correspond to the 10 library districts already in place (although some districts in West Texas may need to be combined so that there will be enough libraries in each district for a council). Each Council will have a representative from each state-supported university, health science center, or law library in the region. These representatives will possess in-depth knowledge of their own libraries' collections in particular, and broad knowledge of collection management practice in general. The regional councils will share information regarding holdings, planned acquisitions, reductions in materials expenditures, serials cancellations, and programmatic changes in curricula. This information exchange will serve as the basis for the development of cooperative collection management policies for each region. 

The survey of holdings will identify valuable published and unpublished information which in many instances may be unique to the library where it is located. The regional council members will be responsible for identifying such materials in their own libraries and for describing the format and accessibility of these materials. A single list of these items will be compiled which will be sent to all TexShare libraries for review and to determine relative interest. Those items which generate the most interest will receive further consideration as to the appropriate means for making them available. The costs associated with making these materials available on a state-wide basis will be determined. Libraries would receive some portion of the funding required to make local data available based upon the interest elicited through the survey and recommendations from the regional councils. 

Information on document delivery options will be gathered via an RFI sent to vendors of these services. The Electronic Document Delivery Working Group will use this information to develop specifications for an RFP. The RFP process will lead to the selection of a vendor (the decisions of the Commercial Indexing group will be taken into consideration in the selection process) with whom a favorable contract will be negotiated for such services to TexShare libraries. (It is possible that contracts will be negotiated with more than one vendor.) The working group also will devise an equitable formula for apportioning the 25 percent of the cost for document delivery service that must be paid by the libraries. (this formula will be compatible with the one developed by the Commercial Indexing group for charging for those services.) 

The Texas Higher Education Inter-Library Loan Protocol Working Group will be composed of interlibrary loan librarians representing all regions of the State and all types of TexShare libraries. This group will develop a state-wide interlibrary loan protocol that can be applied to transactions between TexShare libraries. The protocol will include provisions for all formats of library materials and will cover all options for delivery of materials. When an equitable protocol has been designed, the working group, in conjunction with project staff and the Advisory Board, will work to secure adoption of this protocol by all TexShare libraries. 

Another working group with appropriate state-wide representation will develop policies and procedures for a Standard Texas Higher Education Library Card (THEcard). Implementation of THEcard will enable faculty and students affiliated with any TexShareinstitution to use the materials and services of the library of any other TexShare institution. 

ROLES OF THE PROJECT STAFF AND THE ADVISORY BOARD 

The Co-Principal Investigators, Mary Lou Goodyear and Dana Rooks, will serve as chief spokespersons and overall coordinators for the project. The Co-Project Directors, Anne Highsmith and Linda Thompson, will implement and manage the programs. Sue Phillips will continue to manage the TexShare Gopher which will be a major distribution channel for TexShare information. The project staff will report to the Coordinating Board. 

The Advisory Board will provide advice and guidance to the project. Another very important role for the Board is one of advocacy. The Board members will keep the project staff apprised of feedback they receive regarding TexShare. 

BOARD CHAIR  

A question was raised as to whether or not the Board should have a Chair. The consensus was that it should. Joe McCord was elected to this position by general acclamation. 

WORKING GROUP MEMBERS 

Lists of proposed members for each working group were presented. A question was raised regarding State Library representation on these groups. It was agreed that a representative from the State Library in the capacity of consultant (pro bono) to the ILL Working Group would be appropriate. Approval for this addition to the membership will be sought from the Coordinating Board (it has been granted). Otherwise the proposed membership for each group was approved. It was agreed that the TexShare Mailing List will be used as a means for communicating the activities and decisions of the working groups to the TexShare community-at-large. 

FUTURE MEETINGS 

 and will be finalized in the near future. The proposed dates are: January 12 or 19, April 20 or 24, and August 10 or 14.