TexShare Advisory Board Meeting
10:15 AM until 1:00 PM on March 31, 2006
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
1201 Brazos, room 314
Austin, TX
Minutes
1. Minutes from the January 27, 2006 meeting were
approved.
2. No public comment.
3. Recommendations from Database Fees Task Force:
Martha Tandy reported.
Issue #1: In response to the board’s
request (January 2006) to adjust the fee schedule to accommodate
the situation of very small struggling institutions, the task
force recommended the following adjustment:: after running
the original formula, if the database fee assessed is over
10% of the institution’s information resources expenditures,
then the fee assessed to that institution will be lowered
to 10% of its resources budget. Based on the FY06 assessments,
this change would have affected 4 academic institutions: Jacksonville
College, Ranger College, Clarendon College, and Western Texas
College. The board approved this recommendation.
Issue #2: In order to implement the board
decision (July 2005) that academic membership in TexShare
be administered in a manner consistent with statute, the task
force brought two recommendations:
A. When two academic institutions share a library, they
will be assessed fees as separate institutions, but one
invoice (with two lines) will be sent to the library that
serves both institutions. The board approved this recommendation.
B. Baylor College of Medicine, an institution served by
the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center (HAM-TMC)
Library, should be asked to join TexShare, and HAM-TMC should
be assessed a fee for both the University of Texas Health
Science Center at Houston and for Baylor College of Medicine.
Currently, all of the institutions served by the HAM-TMC
library are assessed a fee through their home institutions.
The board engaged in a lengthy debate. Members of the board
recognized HAM-TMC’s long history in TexShare as a single
library. They acknowledged that the institutional model for
HAM-TMC is not well reflected by the TexShare membership and
fee categories. The board asked that TSLAC staff contact Baylor
College of Medicine in order to establish its institutional
membership in TexShare. Action on this recommendation was
tabled pending a staff report back at the next board meeting.
4. THDI Update: Danielle Cunniff Plumer,
THDI Coordinator, presented background information and a status
report on THDI. She also reviewed funding for THDI. Dr. Cunniff
Plumer reported that she is aware of TexShare member libraries’
interest in restoring TexTreasures grants, but she is unable
to make predictions about funding and restoration at this
time.
5. TSLAC Update: Peggy Rudd reported on
the Sunset Review process. She also reported on the progress
of the building renovation, and noted the two new Commissioners,
Sharon Carr and Sally Reynolds.
6. Working Group Reports
A. Card Program: No report.
B. Courier Service Program: Jo Anne Hawkins
reported.
- The combined ILL/Courier Working Group held its first
meeting in Austin on March 3, 2006.
- WG reviewed the history of the ILL and Courier working
groups, discussed the charge of the combined group, discussed
the role of the Amigos liaison, and responded to his questions
about information the WG needs from him.
- TSLAC staff requested suggestions from the WG for the
redesign of the combined WG web site, which they will draft
for WG review.
- WG members volunteered to call staff of 32 libraries
that have not submitted TExpress statistics.
- Amigos liaison, Tim Prather, reported: Amigos is updating
ILL contact information, addressing the problem of shipments
to libraries that have withdrawn from TExpress, and will
maintain a list of these libraries at the end of the list
of participating TExpress libraries on the web. Tim will
check into what happens to misdirected packages that arrive
at Amigos, and he will also check into current label requirements.
To help address the problem of misdirected packages, WG
members may write a short piece for the Express Gazette.
- The new statistics reporting form on the web has been
enthusiastically received.
- Tim Prather commented on the Rethinking Resource Sharing
Forum, a Big 10 group that met in November 2005. The group
has received an IMLS grant and is investigating a national
courier service that links regional delivery systems.
- TSLAC is renewing the TExpress contract with Amigos. TSLAC
will notify TExpress participants of the cost of next year’s
contract as soon as this information is available.
- WG members elected Mark Dolive as incoming chair for the
term September 1, 2006, through August 31, 2007.
- The WG discussed the ILL workshop and made decisions
as follows:
One day, with a one-day pre-conference. Location is Austin
on Friday, September 29th. Theme is “Riding the Tide
and Keeping Your Boat Afloat.” Catherine Hamer and
Jo Anne Hawkins agreed to identify speakers for individual
and panel presentations. Sue Bennett will handle contract
details. The University of Texas Libraries will serve as
agent to receive registrations as it has done in the past.
Kate Cordts will follow up with potential MCs. Library of
the Year Award Committee will solicit nominations on the
conference web site. TSLAC will provide technical support
and will host the web site.
C. Education Services Program: No report.
D. Electronic Information: Sue Phillips
reported for Syma Zerkow. Ms. Phillips thanked Russlene Waukechon
and TSLAC staff for their hard work during the database bid
process.
Responses to the RFO for databases have been received; thirteen
vendors responded. Trials to all of the proposed databases
were open to all TexShare members. The State Library developed
an excellent gateway from a single web page that also offered
users the opportunity to submit their comments. The EIWG,
including representatives from the K-12 library community,
met April 3-4 in Austin for live demos. Immediately following
the demos, the Working Group made their recommendations to
the State Library. Waukechon thanked UT for hosting trials.
Rudd suggested meeting with representative of EIWG regarding
legislative appropriation.
E. Communications: Greg Tramel reported.
The Working Group met in Austin on March 3, 2006 to finalize
the TexShare Communication Plan Workbook: A Step-by-Step Customizable
Marketing Guide for TexShare Member Libraries which will be
distributed at the TLA 2006 Annual Conference program “Kindle
Your Community's Infatuation with TexShare: Marketing enhances
awareness and builds community support for statewide resource
sharing.“
Workbook sections include: strategic challenges facing Texas
libraries, target audiences, market research, goals and objectives,
strategies & tactics, budget, evaluation, and an appendix
with further resources to aid in reminding the public about
the value of libraries and increasing the awareness of all
library services. This in turn should assist in generating
more funding and support for libraries, and ensure libraries
have a say in key public policy decisions. A CD will accompany
the workbook with the updated TexSharing Toolkit, and including
the customizable TexShare Communication Plan Workbook. It
will also be available online on the TexShare web site.
The planning for the revamping of the TexShare web site is
in progress. Determining goals and audience for stage one
has been completed. The goal of the TexShare web site is to
provide news, program and working group information, services,
and resources about the TexShare consortium clearly and easily
to target audiences with different information needs. We are
ready to begin stage two for revamping the TexShare web site,
which is organizing the site structure.
A joint banner was created by ECS-20 to be used in a joint
booth at several Educational Service Center conferences and
school librarian conferences this year.
F. Library of Texas: Jeanette Mosey reported.
Recent changes made to the Library of Texas (LoT) interface
are mostly cosmetic -- showing more bibliographic data on
the brief results page, and providing increased contrast and
larger text size.
TSLAC obtained Legislative Budget Board (LBB) permission
to exceed the capital budget and issued an RFO for work on
further LoT enhancements. The RFO includes items on the LoT
Working Group priority list, as well as items needed for LoT
to search digitized special collections (part of the grant
for the Texas Heritage Digitization Initiative).
Thanks to WG member Adam Wright's contacts, Diane Neal at
Texas Woman's University (TWU), contacted the State Library
regarding a grant proposal she has submitted to develop a
usability lab at TWU. As part of her proposal, Ms. Neal will
specify use of the lab for consultation on design of the THDI
interface.
The next meeting of the LoT Working Group will be on July
10th in Austin.
7. Strategic Partner Reports
A. University of Texas at Austin: Sue Phillips
reported on the International Coalition of Library Consortia
(ICOLC) meeting held March 26-29 in Philadelphia. Russlene
Waukechon and Ann Mason also attended. In addition to consortia
from the US, consortia from Canada, Netherlands, Japan, Greece,
& Australia were represented. Vendors presented new statistical
gathering statistics. Ms. Mason presented on the TexShare
communication plan. There were sessions with various publishers
on electronic information.
B. Amigos: Tim Prather reported. He made
note of a revision to the courier statistics gathering form.
C. ESC-20: Susanna Garza sent a report.
ESC-20 has been very active in creating material to inform
K-12 school libraries about TexShare databases. They have
worked with Transition Task Force members on a communication
plan, sent a letter to all ESC Executive Directors explaining
the importance of the K-12 TexShare program, and created a
web site for the program including FAQs, a blog, a toolkit,
and other useful information.
8. Administrative Report: Beverley Shirley
reported.
A. TexShare Database Fees: As of March 20,
2006, we have collected $1,510,800 of the TexShare FY06 Database
Program Fees. 637 libraries have paid.
B. TexShare Databases: The solicitation
for bids for databases for the TexShare core database program
was posted on February 1, 2006. Bids were opened on March
3, 2006 and are currently under review. Databases that have
been proposed for the TexShare program are available in a
statewide trial for TexShare members from March 6 to March
31. The trial for public school libraries was more difficult
to establish, running from March 17 to March 31. As of March
22nd, 238 comments had been received on the trials. A recommendation
for award will be presented to the Texas State Library and
Archives Commission at its April, 2006 meeting. Our partners
at ESC-20 will start accepting orders for the public school
library database package as soon as we have commission approval
for a product. We have mounted FAQs on the purchasing process
for TexShare members and for public school libraries addressing
issues of concern.
C. Task Force on Database Fees: The Task
Force on Database fees met via telephone conference call on
February 6, 2006.
D. Public School Library Participation:
To date, no comments have been received on the Texas Register
posting regarding criteria for public school library participation
in group purchasing activities for TexShare.
At its teleconference on March 1, 2006, the Transition Task
Force discussed issues related to database contract start
dates and public school budget cycles, database training,
and an FAQ to address the questions of public school libraries.
E. TexShare Annual Report: The results
of the TexShare Annual report for FY2005 have been tabulated
and illustrate a high level of support for the program. There
were also several suggestions for improvement that will be
turned over to TexShare working groups to address.
F. Tracking consortia and opportunities:
In partnership with our strategic partners at Amigos Library
Services, we have created a Web application to assist TexShare
members locate partnerships that will yield the best discounted
pricing available to them for database purchases.
G. Library of Texas RFO: TSLAC issued an
RFO to accomplish several substantial enhancements to the
Library of Texas interface. The RFO closed on March 16, 2006
and bids are under review.
H. Outreach: With the assistance of the
TexShare Communications Working Group, we have completed a
workbook and toolkit to assist member libraries in developing
a communication plan for their libraries, including TexShare
services as part of their communications and marketing.
I. TLA Programs: TLA Programs sponsored
by LRS include:
- “Kindle Your Community's Infatuation with TexShare”
on creating an effective marketing plan for TexShare services.
- “Fired up for TexShare” explaining TexShare
governance and database selection process.
- “Sleepless in Cyberspace” exploring the TexShare
genealogical databases.
- “A Lot to LoT” preconference training on use
of the LoT resource discovery tool.
- “Promoting the LoT” on methods for informing
your community about the benefits of LoT.
It’s not too soon to start thinking about programs
for next year. If you have ideas about what type of TexShare-related
programs you would like to see us sponsor, please forward
those ideas to Ann Mason (ann.mason@tsl.state.tx.us).
Next board meeting will be June 30, 2006.
Present:
TexShare Advisory Board Members:
Eileen Altmiller, St. Edward’s University
Nancy Anderson, Howard Payne University
Steve Brown, North Richland Hills Public Library
Cathy Dean, San Antonio
Doug Ferrier, University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost
College
Kathy Hoffman, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Larry Justiss, Tom Green County Library System
Dennis Michaelis, McLennan Community College
Loriene Roy, UT Austin School of Information
Martha Tandy, Weatherford College
Texas State Library and Archives Commission:
Dave Hardy, Library Resource Sharing Division
Ann Mason, Library Resource Sharing Division
Danielle Plumer, Library Resource Sharing Division
Peggy Rudd, State Librarian
Beverley Shirley, Library Resource Sharing Division
Russlene Waukechon, Library Resource Sharing Division
Working Group Chairs/Liaisons:
Jo Anne Hawkins, UT Austin, ILL/Courier Services WG
Jeanette Mosey, Austin Community College, Library of Texas
WG
Jeff Steely, Baylor University, ILL/Courier WG
Greg Tramel, Montgomery County Memorial Library System, Communications
WG
Strategic Partners:
Sue Phillips, University of Texas at Austin
Tim Prather, Amigos Library Services
Guests:
Elizabeth Puthoff, ICUT
Amy Trost, Sunset Commission
Katharine Teleki, Sunset Commission
|
