Council Meeting Minutes

Council Meeting Minutes # 7: October 7-8, 2004

Orbis Cascade Alliance Council Meeting

October 7-8, 2004
Whitman College
Memorial Building, Room 314

Present
David Bilyeu (COCC), Tom Peischl (CWU), Leonoor Ingraham-Swets (Clark), Shirley Roberts (EOU), Pat Kelley (EWU), Lee Lyttle (TESC), Merrill Johnson (GFU), Jim Kopp (L&C), Susan Barnes-Whyte (Linfield), Nancy Hoover (Marylhurst), Jan Marie Fortier (MHCC), Jim Morgan (OHSU), Marita Kunkel (OIT), Karyle Butcher (OSU), Ben Wakashige (Pacific), Berniece Owen (PCC), Terry Rohe (PSU), Vickie Hanawalt (Reed), Dalia Hagan (SMC), Ray Doerksen (SPU), John Popko (SU), Teresa Montgomery for Sue Burkholder (SOU), Deb Carver (UO), Rich Hines (UP), Karen Fischer (UPS) by phone, Betsy Wilson (UW), Ginny Steel (WSU), Janeanne Rockwell-Kincanon for Gary Jensen (WOU), Bela Foltin (WWU), Henry Yaple (Whitman).

Absent
Joni Roberts (WU).

Consortium staff
John F. Helmer, Travis Honea

The meeting was chaired by Pat Kelley.

1. Introductions
Henry Yaple and Patrick Keef (Dean of the Faculty) welcomed Council to Whitman College.

2. Review of agenda
Agenda items #5 (Retreat follow-up) and #8 (RLSC) were swapped so that RLSC could be discussed on Thursday.

3. Approval of minutes from April 8-9, 2004
Approved with one correction: Carver is "Board Liaison" to GWLA's Digital Reference Group.

4. Reports
Executive Committee
Kelley summarized Executive Committee's August 20 meeting. Executive Committee recommends that Council designate mentors for new Council members. Council discussed this recommendation and decided that mentors should be designated by Executive Committee for newly appointed directors as well as directors from new member institutions. Mentors will welcome the new director, provide background information, and make introductions at a Council meeting.

Executive Director (Helmer)
Helmer reviewed his written report covering the following topics:

- Summit Update: Portland Community College, Saint Martin's College, Seattle University, Clark College, Remarkable statistics for FY04, Summit Borrowing Day, Summit Catalog Task Force, Duplicates
- Electronic Resources Program Update: Non-member program, Oregon EBSCO and Washington members, Kluwer & Springer, Alliance and GWLA, New purchases (July- September)
- Travel pool
- Collective Purchase for III Electronic Resources Module
- Membership Discussions
- L-net Digital Reference Project
- Center for Research Libraries Proposal
- Courier RFP
- Preservation Interest Group
- Data for Local Communities meeting in Seattle
- Conferences: Acquisitions Institute, NWILL, NWIUG, ICOLC, ALA

5. Council Retreat follow-up
Council discussed various statements that were developed at the retreat, drafted by subgroups of Council, refined by Executive Committee, and presented to Council in a survey prior to this meeting.

Mission
MOTION: Kopp moved to adopt the mission statement as written with minor rewording left to the discretion of Executive Committee.
SECOND: minute taker missed the second.
VOTE: Council voted unanimously in favor of the motion.

Vision
Various Council members felt that the vision statement needed revision and action was delayed until Friday. Once revisited, the statement was revised and approved as follows:
MOTION: Hagan moved to strike the second paragraph and adopt the resulting revised vision statement with minor rewording left to the discretion of Executive Committee.
SECOND: Fortier
DISCUSSION: none.
VOTE: Council voted unanimously in favor of the motion.

Values
MOTION: Lyttle moved to adopt the values statement as written with minor rewording left to the discretion of Executive Committee.
SECOND: Peischl.
DISCUSSION: A few Council members felt that the values statement needed additional work.
VOTE: Yes - 28 votes, No - 2 votes. The motion passed.

Governance Structure:
Council decided that Executive Committee should handle more routine business so that additional Council meeting time can be devoted to topical discussions. Council determined that such an adjustment does not require a change in governance structure (e.g., Bylaws, MOU) at this time. Executive Committee was asked to review minutes from past Council meetings with the aim of better understanding the types of "routine business" that should be handled by Executive Committee. In one year Council will review the division of responsibility between Executive Committee and Council as well as approaches to communicating decisions.

Collaboration & Membership:
Council reiterated conclusions developed during the retreat, including the desire to promote collaboration in ways that do not require consortium membership. In an attempt to clearly state the intended role of member and non-member institutions, Council approved the following statement:

The Orbis Cascade Alliance promotes library collaboration as a means to achieving excellence and efficiency in library services and collections. Service to member libraries is central to our mission but we welcome, promote, and provide leadership for broader participation when such collaboration enhances our mission. Toward this end, the Alliance seeks partners and actively promotes both formal and informal collaborative models while relying on a more closely defined concept of consortium membership for selected services such as Summit Borrowing.

In its review of pre-meeting survey results, Council noted that there is currently little support for expanding membership to include non-III or non-academic institutions. As a result, the Alliance will not pursue such a broadening of membership in the near term.

Council further determined that the Membership Task Force (MTF) has completed its charge and asked that Executive Committee compose an update for those organizations contacted by the MTF: Library Media Directors Council (LMDC), Oregon Community College Library Association (OCCLA), Independent Colleges of Washington (ICW), and the Online Private Academic Library Link (OPALL). In addition to providing an update on Alliance membership discussions, this letter should invite participation in the electronic resources program, courier service, selected workshops, and suggest collaboration on the creation of a NW Academic Library Directors' Symposium.

New Services
Council reviewed pre-meeting survey results and discussed four new service areas identified at the retreat:

Develop Mechanism for Using Summit for Journal Article Sharing Service: Council approved moving forward on this initiative and asked Helmer to contact III to explore costs and implications of the Alliance becoming a "development partner" in the creation of the INN-Reach non-returnables module.

Introduce the Sharing of Staff Expertise and/or Inter-institutional Consultantships: Council determined that there is insufficient interest to pursue initiative further at this time.

Design a New Concept of Collection Development for RLSC: Council approved this initiative and assigned responsibility to the Collection Development and Management Committee (Council agenda item # 7)

Develop a New Series of Digitization Capabilities and Projects: Council determined that the cost to adequately pursue this new initiative is too high given other consortium priorities. Executive Committee was asked to compose a survey of current digitizing projects at member institutions.

6. Annual Committee Reports (Kelley)
Summit Borrowing Committee
Steering Team member Pam Mofjeld joined Council by phone and reviewed the Committee's written report. Discussion centered around the pros, cons, costs, and service implications of converting ILL requests to Summit Borrowing. The Committee has proposed discussion of this issue over the coming year. Mofjeld reported that the new committee structure is working well and that no revision to that structure appears to be needed. Council congratulated the Summit Borrowing Committee for its fine work and approved the plan outlined for next year.

Electronic Resources Committee
Chair Tim Jewell joined Council by phone. Discussion included the frequency of committee meetings and the potential for hosting an Electronic Resources Day modeled after the Summit Borrowing Day. Jewell will work with the Steering Team to determine potential interest in more frequent committee meetings or sponsorship of such a general meeting. Jewell reported that the new committee structure is working well and that no revision to that structure appears to be needed. Council congratulated the Electronic Resources Committee for its fine work and approved the plan outlined for next year.

7. Collection Management Task Force report
Chair Mark Watson joined Council by phone to discuss the Task Force report and answer questions. Council engaged in a wide-ranging discussion that included the following topics:

- Need to maintain momentum generated by the task force.
- Sense that the Alliance is poised to succeed in this area.
- Importance of cooperative collection development to the RLSC effort.
- Advisability of creating a charge that directs specific actions delivered by a particular date.
- Advisability of creating a charge that provides latitude so that a committee can organize subgroups and determine areas of greatest promise.
- Differing sense of the importance of surveying and documenting the history of cooperative collection development among member libraries. Most Council members felt that this was an important aspect of the Task Force's recommendations.
- General lack of support for spending much time assessing current collection strengths.
- Should this work be pursued by a task force or a committee?

MOTION: Owen moved to form a Collection Development and Management Committee with a charge written by Executive Committee.
SECOND: Yaple.
DISCUSSION: Discussion centered on the nature of the charge. Council members want the charge to direct the specific actions recommended in the Task Force report but also allow for broader investigation.
VOTE: Council voted unanimously in favor of the motion.

Executive Committee will draft a charge and seek appointments from Council, then appoint the chair and steering team.

8. Regional Library Services Center (Hanawalt)
Hanawalt provided an update on RLSC planning activity, reviewed results of the new needs survey, and discussed the proposed budget model.

Needs survey
A problem with the spreadsheet subtotal in one area was noted. Helmer will fix the error and redistribute the survey.

Budget model
Council engaged in a wide-ranging discussion that included the following topics:

- Several significant variables (e.g., construction budget, number and extent of founding depositors) will need to be firmed up and additional refinement is expected.
- Potential for non-member participation.
- Potential for non-library participation.
- Compelling nature of an RLSC with forward-looking collection development policies.
- Need for greater analysis of costs associated with one versus two modules.
- Questions about the advisability of leasing land.
- Challenge of coordinating access to foundations.
- Potential for expending some of the Alliance reserve.
- Shared use and cost associated with the proposed journal archive.
- Possible use of contract labor for the initial loading of the facility.

MOTION: Fischer moved to approve the budget model.
SECOND: Yaple.
VOTE: Council voted unanimously in favor of the motion.

Next steps
The next steps outlined in the RLSC report were approved by Council. These include contracting with Reese Dill, meeting with founding depositors to more precisely determine levels of commitment, and assembling a group of campus administrators to secure commitments and discuss sources of foundation support.

Given that the RLSC Task Force has completed its charge, Council discussed how best to accomplish these next steps. Council determined that a logical group would be composed of directors and representatives of founding depositors and the two potential host sites. For this phase of RLSC planning, Council asked Helmer to convene such a group.

Council thanked the RLSC Task Force for its dedication and excellent work.

9. Discussion topics
9.1 Collaborative priorities
Wilson lead a discussion of Bray & Scalzo's A Model for Partnerships. Council members expressed an interest in having Executive Committee set high-level partnering goals and consider use of this model when the Alliance seeks collaborators or analyzes partnership requests.

9.2 Open Access
Carver lead a discussion of current open access initiatives. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) was discussed and considered for funding by the Alliance. Council decided not to pursue SEP as a consortium project.

10. Announcements and reports
Kopp announced that the annual Johanna Sherrer lecture will take place on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 at Lewis & Clark College.

Minutes: Honea & Helmer