TexShare Task Force on Database Fees
Conference Call Minutes
February 17, 2006
Attendees: Brenda Branch, Willie Braudaway,
Joan Heath, Kathy Hoffman, Pamela Hutchinson, Meller Langford-Allen,
Deborah Littrell, Ann Mason, Margaret Peloquin (for Julie
Todaro), Sue Phillips, Beverley Shirley, Martha Tandy, Russlene
Waukechon
Issue #1:
At the January 2006 meeting of the TexShare Advisory Board,
the board heard one appeal to reduce the database fee for
Jacksonville College. It was unanimously approved. The board
requested that the task force consider the situation of very
small struggling institutions (like Jacksonville College)
and recommend an adjustment to the fee schedule to accommodate
their situations.
After much discussion, the task force decided to recommend
a change in the fee structure. After running the original
formula, if the database fee assessed is over 10% of the institution’s
information resources expenditures, then their fee will be
lowered to 10% of their 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. When the fee schedule is determined
for FY07 in August, we will see exactly who will be impacted
next year.
Issue #2:
The task force has to decide how to implement the decision
the board made last July regarding multi-institutional libraries
so they can be invoiced correctly for FY07. Per the minutes
of that meeting:
Mr. Brown reported that the committee on multi-institutional
libraries reached consensus that institutional membership
for academic institutions is the correct unit of membership
in conformity with the letter of law. The task force agrees,
however, that the statute does not reflect the true complexity
of library organizations. The task force recommends a review
of statute during TSLAC’s Sunset process. Voting members
of the board unanimously approved the recommendations (Ferrier
abstaining).
This impacts several joint libraries and the medical libraries
affiliated with HAM-TMC.
a. Joint libraries
- Texas A&M Univ. – Texarkana/Texarkana College
- Univ. of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College
- Univ. of Houston – Victoria/Victoria College
The fee formula will be run as separate institutions, but
one invoice (with two lines) will be sent to the library
that serves both institutions.
b. Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center (HAM-TMC)
Library
In order to determine the recommendation, the task force:
- Reviewed the history of the HAM-TMC membership, which
has been continuous since the beginning of TexShare
- Recognized HAM-TMC’s uniqueness and the variety
of institutions that it serves
- Reviewed the statute defining units of membership
- Discussed the definition of a “library of clinical
medicine,” determining that HAM-TMC does not fall
under this membership category.
Currently, all of the institutions served by the HAM-TMC library
are access the TexShare databases through their home institutions,
paying their own fee, with the exception of the University of
Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the Baylor College
of Medicine. UT Health Science Center at Houston is a TexShare
member; Baylor College of Medicine is not. HAM-TMC is paying
the TexShare database fee for UT Health Science Center at Houston.
The task force recommends that Baylor College of Medicine
join TexShare. Then HAM-TMC would be sent one invoice with
two lines – one fee for the University of Texas Health
Science Center at Houston, and one fee for Baylor College
of Medicine.
|
