logo Council Meeting Minutes #4: January 22-23, 2004

 

Orbis Cascade Alliance Council Meeting

January 22-23, 2004

Washington State University - Vancouver

Vancouver, Washington

 

Present: David Bilyeu (COCC), Tom Peischl (CWU), Patty Cutright(EOU), Pat Kelley (EWU), Lee Lyttle (TESC), Merrill Johnson (GFU), Jim Kopp (L&C), Susan Barnes Whyte (Linfield), Nancy Hoover (Marylhurst), Jim Morgan (OHSU), Marita Kunkel (OIT), Karyle Butcher (OSU), Ben Wakashige (Pacific), Berniece Owen (PCC), Tom Pfingsten (PSU), Vickie Hanawalt (Reed), Scot Harrison (Thurs.) & Dalia Hagan (Friday) (SMC), Ray Doerksen (SPU), Sue Burkholder (SOU), Deb Carver (UO), Rich Hines (UP), Karen Fischer (UPS), Betsy Wilson (UW), Leslie Wykoff for Ginny Steel (WSU), Gary Jensen (WOU), Béla Foltin (WWU), Henry Yaple (Whitman), Joni Roberts (Willamette)

Absent: none

Consortium staff: Greg Doyle, John F. Helmer, Travis Honea, Nancy Nathanson.

Guests on Friday: Tom Stave (UO), Lori Robare (UO)

Welcome from Leslie Wykoff, Director of Information Services, WSU-Vancouver.

Meeting was chaired by Carver.

1.      Introductions 

2.      Review of agenda (Carver) 

3.      Approval of minutes from October 9-10, 2003. 

** DECISION: Approved with no revisions.

4.      Reports 

4.1.  Executive Committee (Carver) 

EC's January 6 business meeting and membership visit to Seattle University were rescheduled for January 15th due to weather.

EC proposes an annual meeting schedule based on three Council meetings in the Portland/Vancouver area, and one outside this area.  Campuses with new library buildings or renovations should be given preference as meeting locations.  Retreats should be held as needed and probably occur outside of the Portland/Vancouver area.  EC proposes to hold a business meeting (i.e., not a retreat) on April 8-9 in Eugene.  Whitman would be a good choice for the next retreat.

Carver reviewed the document "Summary of appointments to Task Forces and changes to Steering Team appointments" included in Council's packet.

** DECISIONS:

-        April Council meeting location: University of Oregon

-        July Council meeting: Portland Community College

-        Council asked Executive Committee to appoint chairs for the Summit Catalog and Collection Management Task Forces.

Butcher suggested that EC or a new task force investigate creation of an option for affiliate membership.

4.2.  Executive Director (Helmer) 

Helmer reviewed his written report.  Additions to the written report include:

-        Courier service: Helmer, Nathanson, and Honea had a productive meeting with Steve Schmidt, CEO of Edge Logistics, the parent company of Consolidated Routing. Consortium staff reviewed service concerns, changes at Consolidated Routing, and ways to improve to courier service.

-        Helmer provided copies of his recent article concerning statewide database purchasing in Oregon.  This article will be included in a special issue of OLA Quarterly devoted to an assessment of progress toward OLA's "Vision 2010."

-        Helmer reviewed a proposal to work with OCLC Western on a conference called the Western Forum on Newspaper Digitization.  Helmer indicated that hosting duties will probably be modeled after the annual OCLC/Alliance Northwest ILL and Resource Sharing conference.

-        WSU has made progress on plans to build a storage facility and Helmer suggested that an update on RLSC be held to Friday when Steel is expected to join the group.  Council agreed.

4.3.  ICCL (Kelley) 

ICCL is discussing their financial request for next year, CLP committee structure, and filtering legislation.

4.4.  OUS Library Council (Jensen) 

Jensen reviewed changes in the State Board of Higher Education, impact of Measure 30 (defeating a temporary tax increase), and collaborative possibilities within OUS.

4.5.  PORTALS (Johnson) 

PORTALS Council met in October to discuss a consultant's report on options for the future of the organization.  Council decided to continue PORTALS as an organization and to fill a staff position.  Dues structure is under consideration.  Jan Fortier is continuing as chair through July.

4.6.  GWLA (Butcher, Carver, Steel, Wilson) 

GWLA has been awarded an IMLS grant for "Waters in the West," a digitizing project focusing on four western rivers. They are considering ways for non-members to contribute to the project.  Topics of interest include bioengineering portals, institutional repositories, and OCLC pricing on CJK cataloging.  GWLA's next meeting will focus on capital campaigns.

4.7.  OCLC (Carver, Hanawalt, Wilson) 

The new chair of OCLC is Betsy Wilson.  Liz Bishoff is joining OCLC to develop their digitization program.  OCLC's recently published "Environmental Scan" is quite good, recommended reading for Council members.

5.      Summit (Nathanson)

Nathanson reviewed her report on progress and issues related to the creation of Summit.

5.1.  Union Catalog 

Nathanson's report included two recommendations:

1.      Assign a catalog task force to review policy and procedures for cataloging electronic resources (multiple vs. single records; links)

2.      Consider the duplicate record issues, with respect to both policy and cost, and whether to adopt expectations or guidelines for new and current members. For example: Initial loading of new member records: expectations for record enhancements, etc.? Cost to consortium for dealing with duplicate records (patrons; staff) vs. cost to individual member to "clean up" duplicate records.

** DECISION: Summit Catalog Task Force charge will be revised to include a review of policy and procedure for cataloging electronic resources.

** ACTION: Helmer will draft changes to the Summit Catalog Task Force charge for approval by Executive Committee.

** DECISION:  Applicants for membership will be asked to report on extent of duplicate bibliographic records that would be created if their catalog records are added to Summit.  New members will be asked to update records to add OCLC numbers or take other actions aimed at avoiding duplication prior to loading.  Current members are urged to investigate duplicates and schedule appropriate database work.

** ACTION: Consortium staff will draft changes to the membership application process and Contribution and Display Policy (http://www.orbiscascade.org/staffhome/contribution_and_display_policy.html) to address Council's interest in avoiding duplicate records.

5.2.  Summit Borrowing  Additional topics explored included

-        concern that increased Summit Borrowing volume may yield a rise in courier fees.

-        interest in revising the page 3 pie chart to indicate size of population (undergraduate, graduate, staff) relative to number of requests.

5.3.  Fines and return of materials 

Council reviewed Nathanson's discussion of the impact of fines on the timely return of materials.  This topic and an analysis conducted by Butcher, Nathanson, and Mark Kibbey (UW) grew out of Council's decision of differing Orbis and Cascade policies concerning fines.

** DECISION: Council concluded that no problem is evident at this time and the present policy should stand. (http://www.orbiscascade.org/staffhome/OB,ILL,onsite_borrow-policy.htm)

6.      Interest Groups (Helmer) 

** DECISION: Music and Science Interest Group proposals were approved.

** ACTION: Consortium staff will work with facilitators, set up email lists, etc. to get these groups started.

7.      Data for Local Communities (Stave & Robare) 

Stave and Robare provided a demonstration of the DLC Web site (http://libweb.uoregon.edu/dlc) and participated in a discussion of future directions for this resource.

Council congratulated Stave, Robare, and the former Orbis government documents committee on their achievement and suggested that Stave consider forming an interest group to help support the project.

8.      Governance (Carver) 

8.1.  Bylaws 

Council discussed revisions to Bylaws recommended by Executive Committee.

** DECISIONS. Expand Executive Committee to seven members (chair, past chair, chair-elect, and four members at large) and define a quorum as two-thirds rather than a majority present.

In addition to Executive Committee's recommendations, Council identified the following Bylaws amendments:

Article III, number 4 Existing text: "In the event that a member of the Executive Committee is unable to serve, Council may elect any eligible Council member to fill the seat." Amendment: "In the event of a vacancy on the Executive Committee, Council may elect any eligible Council member to fill the seat."

Article V, number 1 Delete: "In the event of a vacancy, the Committee shall select a replacement immediately, with approval by Council."

** ACTION: In accordance with Article IX, Helmer will distribute Bylaws with proposed amendments to all Council members at least 14 days prior the April Council vote.

8.2.  Election of Executive Committee 

** DECISION: Council approved revised procedures for Executive Committee elections with the clarification that "majority" is defined as the majority of those votes cast, not necessarily a majority of all Council members.  Council recognizes the election of additional members-at-large will not be valid unless bylaws are revised as previously discussed.

** ACTION: Helmer will proceed under the revised February through March voting process in expectation of Council's approval of revised bylaws in April.

[The election process is available at http://libweb.uoregon.edu/orbis/staffhome/Council-EC_election.html]

8.3.  Transitional Executive Committee for FY03/04 

Council discussed Executive Committee's proposed process for selecting a Transitional Executive Committee for FY04/05.  Council members generally agreed with the process outlined but some advised that the bylaws define eligibility.

** MOTION:  Yaple moved to accept Executive Committee's proposed process as written.  Seconded by Butcher. After discussion, Jensen called for the question.  The motion passed with 23 YES votes, 4 NO votes, and one abstention.

9.      Membership applications (Carver) 

9.1.  Clark College 

** DECISION: Council voted to approve Clark College's application for membership.

9.2.   Seattle University: discussion and vote

** DECISION: Council voted to approve Seattle University's application for membership.

** ACTION Helmer will draft letters offering membership to Clark College and Seattle University.

9.3.  Mount Hood Community College: review and discuss

** DECISION: Council briefly reviewed this newly received membership application and asked Executive Committee to schedule a site visit, per standard application procedures.

10. Discussion topics 

10.1.                   Community colleges: membership models and priorities.  Should the Alliance explore additional financial, governance, or technical models for community college involvement? (Bilyeu)

Council discussed Cascade and Orbis history with regard to membership criteria and costs.  Issues explored included:

-        Benefits of collaboration among diverse academic institutions

-        Availability of resources needed to add more members

-        High cost of adding institutions one at a time; should we be encouraging shared INNOPAC systems among groups of new participants? See MOBIUS (Missouri) model

-        Challenges growth will pose for governance; how big can Council get and still be effective?

-        Alliance model may not be affordable for some smaller institutions

-        Experiences (pro and con) of establishing an associate member category at other consortia

-        Potential for group memberships as proposed by OPALL

-        Importance of accreditation

-        Should we be looking at models for non-academic libraries?

-        Should we confine an investigation to community colleges or should private colleges be considered as well?

-        Is a moratorium on membership applications needed while Council completes its analysis?

-        Is there a finite aspect to the Alliance?

-        Should we evolve a membership model that is user centered as opposed to focusing on type of institution?

** DECISION Council decided that the Alliance should discuss obstacles to membership and investigate other models for collaboration.  Past experience has shown that an overly broad investigation of membership issues can be unwieldy and unproductive.  As a result, Council decided to confine investigation to institutions that are already qualified for membership under current Alliance criteria.  i.e., two and four-year accredited non-profit academic institutions in Oregon and Washington.

** MOTION.  A motion was made to place a moratorium on membership applications for six months (note taker missed who made and seconded the motion).  Motion failed to pass: 2 YES votes, 25 NO votes.

** DECISION: Council decided to form a broadly representative Council task force to investigate membership.  Early activities should include discussions with the Independent Colleges of Washington (ICW), Oregon Private Academic Library Link (OPALL), Library and Media Directors' Council (LMDC) of Washington State, and the Oregon Community College Library Association (OCCLA).

** ACTION: Executive Committee will draft a charge and membership for Council approval via email.

10.2.                   When should the Alliance accept partnership offers or seek partnerships with other organizations? How do we determine priorities for collaboration and degree of resource commitment?

Council ran out of time but may elect to discuss this issue in the future.

11. Announcements 

RLSC

Steel was unable to join Council on Friday due to inclement weather. As a result, Council's discussion was brief and based on partial information Helmer provided.

Helmer understands that WSU is likely to have funding available to begin construction in summer 2005 with building occupancy in spring 2006. Construction is contingent on the Washington Legislature appropriating funds.

Council discussed the merits of broadening our RLSC investigation to include these developments at WSU and concluded that Helmer and Hanawalt should investigate further with Steel.  Such an investigation does not impact our continued work with OHSU and Linfield College.

Council ran out of time for other announcements.

Minutes -- Honea & Helmer