TexShare Advisory Board Meeting
February 22, 1996
Meeting Notes

TexShare Advisory Board Meeting 

February 22, 1996
Wyndham Warwick Hotel
Houston, Texas

PRESENT: Joe McCord (University of Houston-Clear Lake), Arne Almquist (University of North Texas), Nancy Bierschenk Casillo ( (Houston Academy of Medicine), Robert Chang (University of Houston-Downtown), Lisa de Gruyter (Texas State Library), Benjamin Wakashige (Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi), Elaine Wells (University of Texas Health Center at Tyler), Roger Elliott (Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board), George Huffman (Amarillo College), Robert Seal ( Texas Christian University), Dana Rooks (University of Houston), Linda Thompson ( University of Houston), Jo Anne Hawkins ( University of Texas at Austin), Sue Phillips (University of Texas at Austin), Joan Heath (Southwest Texas State University) 

INTRODUCTIONS 

The meeting was called to order at 9:55 a.m. Dana Rooks welcomed everyone in attendance. She introduced Bob Seal, representing private universities, George Huffman, representing community colleges, and Roger Elliott, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. 

MINUTES 

Joe McCord, Advisory Board Chair asked for comments on the minutes of the Advisory Board meeting held on November 30, 1995. None were offered. A motion to accept the minutes was made by Elaine Wells and seconded by Arne Almquist. The motion was approved. 

TEXSHARE MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES 

Private College and Universities: On December 11, 1995 several members of the TexShare Management Team met with nine representatives from private colleges and universities. The meeting was hosted by Bob Seal at Texas Christian University. Dana Rooks reported that it was a positive meeting. She noted that the present structure of TexShare does not permit private college and university libraries to participate but the long term goal is to include all academic libraries in Texas. 

During the meeting the management team received a variety of responses on what TexShare participation means to the representatives of the private institution libraries. Also, a list of librarians belonging to the Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas has been provided by Norman Hood, Vice President for Public Affairs, ICUT. 

Bob Seal also felt it was a positive meeting. Bob distributed a survey to the 38 ICUT libraries asking about their interest in participating in TexShare. Of the 25 responses received 20 libraries indicated an interest in full or nearly full participation. Five preferred selective participation. Private instituions expressed greatest interest in the commercial database agreements. Interest n the TexShare borrowing card, ARIEL, and other programs was mixed. 

Joe McCord asked if the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund would be limited to public institutions. He suggested that perhaps this would be a place of support for the private institutions and others. Dana Rooks summarized the discussion by welcoming the continuing interest of the private libraries. Bob Seal indicated his willingness to attend Advisory Board meetings as an observer. 

Texas Junior College and Teacher's Association: The TJCTA was holding its convention in Houston on the day of this Advisory Board meeting. Dana Rooks was invited by the association's Legislative Committee to address the convention in the afternoon. George Huffman indicated that the TJCTA Legislative Committee has been active on faculty related issues in the past. He noted the importance of being added to this organization's legislative agenda. Roger Elliott commendted that the Community Colleges President's group would likely entertain a presentation from TexShare. He offered to contact Ray Garcia the Executive Director. 

Other Meetings: Dana will speak before a group of Dallas area library directors (public and private institutions) on February 23rd. The purpose of her talk is to give an update on TexShare activities. Joe McCord recently hosted a meeting of library directors from Mexico during which the TexShare program was discussed. Dana hopes to make more TexShare presentations as opportunities become known. 

Chronicle of Higer Education: Reference was made to the TexShare program and Sue Phillips was quoted in a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The subject of the article was statewide library resource sharing projects which involve consortial access to electronic resources. 

TexShare Meeting Locations: A contract with the Wyndham Warwick Hotel in Houston has been completed. However, the contract with the Clarion Hotel in Dallas has been continued. Some Working Groups may continue to meet in Dallas. Advisory Board meetings this year will be held in Houston. 

Texas Library Association: Linda Thompson is scheduled to speak as part of a panel on library resource sharing projects along with representatives from the Texas State Library and Texas Education Agency during the TLA Conference. Joe McCord reported that the TLA Ad Hoc Committee on Resource Sharing has met twice. The Committee is in the process of creating a mission statement and composing a plan of action. The Ad Hoc Committee will work with the House Interim Committee charged with considering what legislative action might be taken to more effectively pursue resource sharing among all types of libraries in the state. 

WORKING GROUP UPDATES 

Commercial Indexing Services: Sue Phillips reported that ABI Inform and Periodical Research Abstracts II are being heavily used and are being used around the clock. The average load during weekdays in November was 40 concurrent users. However, 69 concurrent users were recorded in November. The average number of sessions between November and February was 34 with use peaking during the afternoon hours. March and April usage is expected to be higher. During the Fall semester ABI usage was heavy but Sue expects ABI and PRA II use to become more equal. 

Seven libraries are not using the service or only have it available to their staffs at this time due to equipment or connectivity problems. UT Austin staff are also working to increase machine capacity since it did seem to slow down some last November. Ovid has a web version. Sue reports they are trying to arrange for test access for TexShare libraries. 

Two replacements for the Commercial Indexes Working Group are needed, one to represent a "large" university preferably someone with reference area experience. Also, a representative from a medical library is needed. 

Ben Wakashige noted that recently users at his library were unable to access the commercial indexes. Sue asked everyone to report situations such as this ASAP to staff at UT Austin. Reasons for blocked access can vary including such things as new IP addresses which TexShare needs to be notified of. Joe McCord suggested putting a message out on the TexShare listserv reminding people to report access problems quickly. 

TexShare World Wide Web and Gopher: Increased use of the TexShare WWW and Gopher continues. February requests may total to between 45,000-50,000. 

Document Delivery: Libraries are in the start up phase of using UMI's ProQuest document delivery service. Comments from TexShare libraries to date include concerns about the availability of articles from the service and workflow issues e.g., staff cannot request articles using normal ILL routines. The Working Group will need to evaluate the service at a later date. Sue noted that she has met with the UMI representative on the issue of compiling usage reports. Hopefully, monthly reports will be sent to each library starting soon. 

The contract for the ProQuest service allows TexShare libraries to pay $6.75 per article rather than the standard contract price of $14.00/article. UMI has set up 52 individual accounts for TexShare libraries. In addition, UMI agreed to extend contract pricing once libraries have exhausted their TexShare allotment for the length of the contract. In response to a question Sue stated that the contract with UMI permits staff access to ProQuest only and does not permit end user access. 

Z39.50: The Managment Team is investigating Z39.50 capabilities of the TexShare membership. A survey currently being drafted to collect relevant information will also be used to gather additional information on the "state of automation" in TexShare libraries. Dana noted the survey will be sent to TexShare library directors. Lisa deGruyter, George Huffman and Bob Seal offered to survey their member groups similarly. 

ILL Protocol: Joan Heath reported that 38 libraries have signed up for the ILL Protocol trial period including six medical science libraries. A statistical report from OCLC to track ILL activity among participants has been drafted. Currently we are waiting for a modified report from OCLC. Dana Rooks expressed her gratitude to those libraries that signed up for the trial despite reservations. A 75% response rate is encouraging and will result in a representative trial. 

Regional Library Materials Acquisitions Councils: Joan Heath reported that all five of the Regional Library Acquisition Councils have met. She attended RAC meetings in the following locations: Dallas, Lubbock, Houston, Corpus Christi and Austin. At each meeting the OCLC/AMIGOS Collection Analysis CD proposal was discussed. Under this proposal TexShare libraries are able to purchase or renew their subscription to the product at a discounted price. The greater the number of participating libraries, the greater the discount. A tentative deadline of March 22nd was set for TexShare libraries to submit their orders for the CACD to Joan Heath. Bob Seal suggested that AMIGOS be approached to extend the CACD offer to private institutions. 

Also discussed at the RAC meetings were other ideas for collection analysis projects. Joan indicated that reference was frequently made to the high proportion of collection budgets devoted to serials making this an important issue. Cooperative database agreements were viewed as a good direction for TexShare to take and additional efforts of this type were encouraged. Support for document delivery was also mentioned as helpful. Other means to cooperatively deal with serials were more difficult to identify. Cooperative serials cancellation projects were generally not viewed as viable solutions because cuts have already been so severe, because of the difficulty in honoring commitments, and/or because of logistical difficulties in coordinating cancellations. 

A variety of other ideas related to collection analysis and sharing information among regional libraries were suggested at RAC meetings. A representative from each regional council will be asked to join the TexShare Acquistions Council. The members of this working group will share information and will determine priorities for funding access to unique collections as submitted last year in the "Survey of Library Holdings". 

TexShare Card: Jo Anne Hawkins distributed a handout titled, "TexShare Library Card Program Summary of Statistics, August 1, 1995-January 15, 1996". Joe McCord mentioned that the community college libraries in the Houston area have a borrowing card program which emulates the TexShare card. The LEAN group in West Texas also has a card exchange program. 

Courier Service: The Courier Working Group met for the first time on January 12, 1996 in Dallas. They looked at other existing consortial courier services in the state. The group will survey TexShare library directors and possibly in March have presentations from courier service vendors. Jo Anne Hawkins indicated that AMIGOS is pursuing a courier service which could be online as soon as August. She asked the Advisory Board how the working group should proceed given AMIGOS plans. It was suggested that the working group continue its investigation. 

FUTURE STAFFING OF TEXSHARE 

Joe McCord opened a discussion on the future staffing of TexShare. He explained that it is not likely that any steps regarding permanent staffing could be expected during this biennium. Also, this issue could be affected by how the House Interim Committee addresses library resource sharing at the state level. Given this background Joe suggested that the Coordinating Board be asked to issue a TexShare management contract RFP. 

The Advisory Board discussed who would be eligible to submit a RFP. After some discussion a motion was made by Arne Almquist, seconded by Ben Wakashige to recommend that in addition to Texas public universities and health science centers, RFP's may be submitted by government or non-profit agencies. The motion was approved. 

In the course of the discussion other points were made related to future funding and the next TexShare contract. Roger Elliott stated that institutional contributions to TexShare programs promote our case. Increasing the current rate of library contributions was suggested. Regarding the content of the RFP, the Board felt the RFP deliverables should be modified to reflect what has happened with TexShare during the last year. It should address control issues: the necessity to be responsive to members and to continue the same structure (e.g. working groups). Roger felt it likely that a one year contract would be awarded and that the contract would be extended for a second year subject to additonal funds and satisfactory performance. 

Budget recommendations for the next biennium will have to be submitted to the Coordinating Board by May. Roger suggested that the budget request also outline what is needed to include community colleges. Joe McCord suggested that library staff who have contributed their time and expertise (in kind contributions) should be documented. 

QUARTERLY MEETING SCHEDULE 

Dates for the remaining Advisory Board meetings this fiscal year were proposed. The proposed dates were May 9th and August 1st. Meetings are tentatively scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m. and will be held at the Wyndham Warwick Hotel. 

ADJOURNMENT 

Dana thanked special guests Bob Seal, George Huffman and Roger Elliott for attending the meeting. There being no other business to conduct at this time the meeting was adjourned at 2:45 p.m. 

Minutes respectfully submitted,

Joan L. Heath