TexShare Advisory Board Meeting
May 21, 1997
Meeting Notes

Meeting Location: Holiday Inn Select, Dallas, Texas 

PRESENT:

Advisory Board Members: Marty Adamson (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center); Dale Cluff (Texas Tech University); Lisa deGruyter (Texas State Library); Joe McCord (University of Houston - Clear Lake); Gilda Baeza Ortega (Sul Ross State University ); Ben Wakashige (Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi); Elaine Wells (University of Texas Health Science Center - Tyler); George Huffman (Amarillo College - ex officio); Bob Seal (Texas Christian University - ex officio). 

 Management Team: Jo Anne Hawkins (University of Texas at Austin); Joan Heath (Southwest Texas State University); Kathy Hoffman (University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center); Bonnie Juergens (AMIGOS); Sue Phillips (University of Texas at Austin). 

 State Library: Bob Martin Texas Higher Education Board: Roger Elliott Recorder: Susie Thompson (TexShare Administration Assistant) 

ABSENT:

Arne Almquist (University of North Texas) 

INTRODUCTIONS:

The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m. by Joe McCord, TexShare Advisory Board Chair, who welcomed everyone in attendance and gave a special welcome to Roger Elliott and Bob Martin. 

Library Card Working Group

Jo Anne Hawkins reported that the Library Card Working Group met January 31, 1997. The group has revised the TexShare Library Card program agreement, and it will be distributed soon to all participating libraries with a cover letter from Bill Mears and Jo Anne. The update will also go to non-participating TexShare libraries with a cover letter from Advisory Board Chair Joe McCord. Currently, 46 of the 52 TexShare libraries participate in the Card Program. 

The group discussed ways to make participation by more TexShare libraries feasible. The group recognized that the medical and law libraries, which limit circulation of library materials to their own upper level and/or graduate students and faculty, would be better able to participate in the Card Program if their loans to TexShare library patrons could have those same limitations. As one Advisory Board member said, "We need to let libraries know that they will not have to relinquish their local policies to participate fully in TexShare." 

ACTION ITEM: Dale Cluff moved, seconded by Ben Wakashige, to change the current Library Card participation policy so that health science and law libraries have the option of limiting loans to graduate students and faculty of participating TexShare institutions. This revision was unanimously adopted by the TexShare Advisory Board. 

Roger Elliott introduced the topic of process for adding new members to the TexShare program. Currently, TAMU System-Baylor College of Dentistry is eligible to become a member. The Management Team worked with David Gardner to define a formal process, which was discussed by the Advisory Board. In short, a letter offering participation will be sent to the institution by the Commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Juergens will send Gardner a set of attachments to include with the letter of invitation. Attachments will include a TexShare program description; information about using Ariel for electronic document delivery; the Library Card Program guidelines; and the TexShare Interlibrary Loan Protocol. The group agreed that use of Internet and Ariel constitute the minimum requirement for participation in TexShare.   

Courier Service Working Group

Jo Anne also reported on the status of the working groupâs Courier Service request for proposal. The responses from service providers were disappointing; none received in the first response was acceptable. The working group will review an additional proposal to be received by the end of May. Sue Phillips reminded the group that the AMIGOS/Federal Express reduced-rate, 48-hour service has been withdrawn by Federal Express due to lack of participation by AMIGOS libraries throughout the Southwest.  

Electronic Information Working Group

Sue Phillips reported on the ongoing high levels of TexShare web site usage: an average of 50 accesses per hour, or 1200 per day. Peak use occurs in the fall, probably because of extensive training activity on the system at that time. 

Sue also reported on the status of the working groupâs request for information for database services for TexShare. The current contract with OVID for UMI databases (ABI/Inform and Periodicals Abstracts) will end in August. The working group solicited proposals which are due later in May. The projected timeline for working group action concerning the proposals is: 

  • Receive proposals by May 23 
  • Review proposals and cut to a short list of 3 or 4 by May 30 
  • Meet with short list of respondents by June 6 
  • Continue information-gathering and negotiation of terms during June 
  • Sign 12-month service contract no later than July 
Sue reminded the group that we have tried to keep the selection process open to variations for next year that would include the community college and private higher education institutions in whatever service contracts we undertake ö depending, of course, upon funding status for those additional institutions to participate in TexShare programs next year. 

The group discussed the upcoming billing of TexShare libraries for 1 of the total electronic service expense. Because the electronic service contracts fall so late in the fiscal year, the new contract, using FY1997 TexShare resources, will actually fund the services for much of FY1998. Participating TexShare librarians need to be reminded that they will be invoiced for their part in July or August. Bonnie Juergens said she will send a reminder via the TexShare listserv so TexShare library directors will be alerted to the upcoming invoice and timeline for payment. 

Sue also reported that the Electronic Services working group is evaluating services to offer TexShare libraries via the ãTexShare Selectä program. For TexShare Select offerings, the libraries would pay the full cost for their use of each service. TexShare would not subsidize such offerings, but TexShare would actively negotiate discount rates for the participating TexShare libraries. Services currently under active consideration include Dialog @ CARL; various services from Chadwyck-Healey; Britannica Online; Texas Newspapers via UMI; and PubMed.  

ILL and Document Delivery Working Group

Joan Heath reported that she will post an Internet survey to get feedback about the participating librariesâ experience with the ProQuest document delivery service. The working group is now monitoring use of this service and recognizes that TexShare libraries have had mixed levels of success with the service so far. Sue Phillips suggested that we try to redirect the remaining funds in this service category (about $100K remaining from the FY1996 TexShare budget) to obtain other UMI database services. ACTION ITEM: The Advisory Board supported this suggestion and requested that the Management Team address this with the vendor (UMI). 

Joan also reported the group is scheduling two focus group meetings to address the ILL load-leveling issues. The two sessions will be scheduled to meet in Dallas as soon as possible.  

Acquisitions Council

Kathy Hoffman drew the Advisory Boardâs attention to the press release describing the five ãaccess to local holdingsä projects and reported that $21K rather than the $10K originally budgeted for additional projects will be available this year. Kathyâs working group will announce the availability of the project funding, along with application requirements, soon. Gilda Ortega announced that her library was able to double the value of the grant they received by obtaining matching funds. Bonnie Juergens reported that the press release ãHistory Comes Alive Through Library Holdingsä was sent to all local newspapers in cities of TexShare member libraries. Roger Elliott reported that the story had received coverage in the Austin papers. We will continue to develop TexShare-related stories of local interest in TexShare library communities to reinforce the benefits resulting from TexShare funding. 

Kathy reported that her group is also conducting a collection analysis to determine overlap of medical titles needed by non-medical academic libraries in TexShare. 

In the Legislative Update, Bob Martin, State Librarian, reported that expansion of TexShare funding to support the addition of community college and private higher education libraries is still precarious. On the positive side, House Bill 2721 was at that time already on the Governorâs desk awaiting his expected signature. This Bill defines TexShare as a program of the Texas State Library with membership open to all institutions of higher education; assigns TSL the authority to hire staff; and sets the Advisory Board at nine members representing 4-year public universities (2), public community colleges (2), private higher education institutions (2), and members of the public (2). The remaining position will represent the medical and/or legal library communities in TexShare. Bob stressed that, while the structure is almost legislated, the funding is still problematic. 

Joe McCord pointed out that John Collins' term on the TIF Board is about to expire. Collins is knowledgeable about the importance of library funding for information technology-related activity in the state, and has been an active participant of the TIF Board. ACTION ITEM: Marty Adamson moved that the Advisory Board ask Joe to communicate with Lt. Governor Bullock a request to reappoint Collins to the TIF Board. There was unanimous support for this motion.  

Administrative Update

Bonnie Juergens showed a PowerPoint presentation about TexShare that members of the Board, the Management Team, or any participating library can modify and use in describing the TexShare program to interested audiences. Interested individuals may request copies of the generic presentation on diskette (as a PowerPoint electronic presentation) or as color-printed transparencies for use with an overhead projector. Contact SusieThompson at the AMIGOS office if you would like to obtain a copy of this presentation tool. 

Bonnie also reported that 129 individuals from TexShare libraries had attended the February AMIGOS OCLC ILL MicroEnhancer videoconference at 15 TexShare downlink sites. She said that TexShare librarians are being surveyed to determine training topics for the remainder of this fiscal year. Two or three additional training sessions will be conducted through the end of August. 

Bonnie also reported that 48 TexShare libraries received upgrades to the Ariel software paid for by TexShare funding. TexShare libraries wishing to receive multiple sets of the upgrade were able to purchase them at the TexShare discounted rate. Concluding her administrative report, Bonnie distributed copies of the monthly TexShare financial report for April. 

Under New Business, the Board discussed the make-up and representation needs of the expanded TexShare Advisory Board. The point was made that, while Advisory Board meeting expenses will be paid by future TexShare funding, working group meeting expenses will not. Concern about continuation of the extremely productive working group structure that TexShare has established was expressed, with suggestions that the groups might be able to shift to more electronic communication and video-conferencing in the future. Returning to the importance of the new Advisory Board, Bob Martin urged the group to consider lining up appointments so that the currently-scheduled August 12 meeting of the Board in Austin could be a transition meeting of both groups. Suggestions for the ãpublicä or non-affiliated positions on the expanded TexShare Advisory Board included a variety of well-known individuals from private industry (especially telecommunications and information technology companies) and civic involvement. Anyone having suggestions for these very important Advisory Board positions should submit their ideas to members of the current TexShare Advisory Board. 

REMINDER: Next meeting will be held on August 12 in Austin. Chair Joe McCord adjourned the meeting at 2:10 p.m.