Brief topics

• EC action items: Decision: EC decided to take a more formal approach to approving action items and to begin linking action items on the Council Web site. Starting with the current meeting, all EC members will have an opportunity to provide feedback on draft action items, with final approval given by the chair. As time allows, Helmer will also link emailed action items from past EC meetings.
• Financial support for other organizations: Helmer reported that the Alliance has received requests for financial support from two library organizations. EC discussed and reiterated Alliance policy not to contribute such financial support.
• New members: WWC & LCC
• eBook group: This group will begin work soon. Greg Doyle is coordinating.
• ContentDM group: This group will begin work soon. Helmer is coordinating.
• Summit PR assignments: Some aspects of this PR plan are complete. Decision: EC decided not to continue pursuing the remaining assignments.

Council Retreat, April 13-14, 2006

Confirmed guests:

• Joan K. Lippincott, Associate Executive Director, CNI
• Lorcan Dempsey, Vice President and Chief Strategist, OCLC

Action:

• Hagan will invite Steve Liffick, Corporate VP, MSN Communication Services & Member Platform Group. Backup: seek a suggestion from Liffick for another speaker from MS.
• Barnes Whyte will ask Deb Carver to invite James Hilton, Associate Provost for Academic, Information, & Instructional Technology Affairs, Interim University Librarian, and Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan. Backup: John Price Wilken, Associate University Librarian for Library Information Technology & Technical and Access Services, University of Michigan.
• Barnes Whyte will chair a retreat planning group composed of Kelley, Carver, Bilyeu, and Helmer to discuss topics, format, etc. A likely theme is "Anticipating tomorrow's learners."

Membership application: Warner Pacific College

EC reviewed the application and asked Helmer to proceed with scheduling a site visit. The application will be forwarded for initial Council review in October.

As is often the case, the receipt of an application caused EC to review the membership process and question whether or not current membership criteria provide sufficient guidance. City University and Multnomah County Library were mentioned as examples of types of institutions that might express an interest in membership in the future and whose applications could raise issues not adequately addressed in our current guidelines.

Decision: EC members will use the occasion of this application to analyze criteria and process for potential future revision.

Regional Library Services Center

• Financial Planning Meeting
• Discussion of the next phase in project leadership

  "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 Minutes, October 2004

Helmer reviewed plans for the forthcoming Financial Planning Meeting and suggested that EC discuss how the RLSC project will be lead once this meeting has taken place. Helmer suggested that we may be nearing the end of the time when it is appropriate for the Executive Director to serve as point-person with no other task force or committee overseeing the project.

Decision: EC discussed the RLSC project and decided to forward as an agenda item for Council. Helmer will prepare a short written overview. Council's agenda will include an overview, project leadership, and site selection process.

Joint NWACC Task Force

EC discussed the charge and membership of the NWACC & Alliance Task Force which Kelley will chair. EC feels that it is most appropriate for this group to include 6-10 members and to create a charge that includes the following activities:

• assess current activities
• define common terminology
• make recommendations regarding what NWACC and the Alliance can accomplish together
• report to the NWACC Board and Alliance Council

Action:

• Helmer will seek volunteers.
• EC will select 3-5 members from among the Council volunteers.

Continuing Education

EC discussed the potential for the Alliance to take a more intentional role in sponsoring continuing education events. For example, the Alliance might arrange regional workshops on a topic of interest to the membership. After discussing a range of possibilities, EC members saw much promise in considering the organization of a leadership institute.

Decision: EC will include the concept of sponsoring a leadership institute in Council's October agenda. Such an institute might be jointly sponsored by NWACC. This topic should be scheduled for Friday in order to benefit from the previous day's discussion of the Frye Institute.

Decision: EC encourages Alliance committees to take advantage of the opportunity to annually sponsor a special topical event. Helmer will convey this information to committees.

Finance

6.1. Council and Executive Committee travel funds

In order to reduce administrative costs, Helmer suggested that EC consider the potential for distributing an EC travel pool rather than reimbursing expenses. EC members felt that this might work well if funds can be distributed in the same fiscal year in which travel occurs. As a rough predictor of travel costs, Helmer suggested that funds be distributed at the beginning of the fiscal year based on each member's distance from the Portland/Vancouver area.

Action: Helmer will produce a model for EC consideration.

6.2. "New Initiative"

"Executive Committee will consider an appropriate mechanism for determining what the 'new initiative' will be." -- Council Minutes, April 2005

EC did not discuss. This topic was forwarded for consideration at a future EC meeting.

6.3. Budgeting without membership growth

"In order to plan for the future, Executive Committee was asked to work with Helmer to create a conceptual budget based on no growth in membership." -- Council Minutes, April 2005

EC did not discuss. This topic was forwarded for consideration at a future EC meeting.

6.4. Policies governing the reserve

"Council asked Executive Committee to review and propose policies for the management of reserve funds. Topics of interest include the amount and purpose of system reserve, expenditure of general reserve, and distribution of funds should Council decide to discontinue the consortium or change its legal status." -- Council Minutes, January 2005

Helmer reported briefly on background gathered to date. EC discussed briefly. This topic was forwarded for consideration at a future EC meeting.

Summit

7.1 Summit Borrowing Committee and "in-house" loan rule

See additional input from Summit Borrowing Committee Steering Team included in minutes for July 21, 2005, topic #2 "In House loan rule."

"MOTION: Ask the Summit Borrowing Committee to investigate and implement an in-house loan rule.
DECISION: Yes. By unanimous voice vote the motion was approved." -- Draft Council Minutes, July 2005

EC discussed feedback from the Summit Borrowing Committee (SBC). Although a very broad application of an in-house loan rule is clearly problematical, EC discussed the potential for a more narrowly-defined approach. For example, SBC might find that they could create an option that applies only to print material and limits such in-house loans to one checkout. EC feels that, if properly defined, such an option would encourage the lending of more materials and provide experience with in-house lending.

Decision: EC will forward SBC's feedback to Council and recommend that Council ask SBC to consider ways to define or limit in-house lending with the goal of encouraging the lending of more materials without creating a service that is overly burdensome to administer. Example: in-house loans of print material limited to one check out. As part of such an investigation, III should be asked to address the multiple checkout problem. If approved by Council, SBC would be asked to report back for EC's March 9, 2006 meeting.

7.2 Duplicate records

BNA and WLN-source bibliographic records lacking OCLC and ISBN numbers:

• UO, 1995: 125,000 (BNA).
• Lewis & Clark-Law, 1996: 34,525 (WLN).
• Whitman, 1997: 208,000 (WLN). Contracted with OCLC Western for service to add OCLC numbers to WLN records. 207,951 matched but upgraded records have not been loaded to Summit.
• SPU, 2000-2001: Contracted for service to add OCLC numbers to WLN records. Solved all record number problems caused by DRA numbers and WLN records prior to loading.
• PCC, 2004: <32,000 (WLN). Total is less than 32,000 due to an unknown number of matches based on ISBN.
• WWC, 2005: 51,000 (WLN). Currently exploring options with OCLC Western but "WLN-OCLC converter program" may have been sold to Backstage Library Works.

"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." -- Council Minutes, January 2004

Helmer reviewed the history and current state of duplicate bibliographic records in Summit caused by BNA and WLN records that lack both an OCLC number and ISBN. In working with WWC, Alliance staff have learned that OCLC Western no longer offers a "WLN-OCLC converter" service such as that used by SPU and initiated by Whitman to fix WLN-source dups. Initial alternatives offered by OCLC look very time-consuming or expensive. Although membership criteria clearly assign responsibility for solving such problems with the member library, Helmer and Nathanson have been helping WWC investigate this problem with OCLC Western. Discussions are currently underway.

EC reviewed Council's January 2004 decision (see above) and reiterated the importance of making reasonable efforts to minimize dups. Duplicate records impact searching accuracy and skew load balancing.

Decisions:

• Alliance staff are asked to continue working with OCLC Western on behalf of those members that may need the "WLN-OCLC converter" service: Lewis & Clark-Law, PCC, Whitman, and WWC. Helmer will report on the status of this investigation at the October Council meeting.
• Alliance staff will seek updates from current members regarding the extent of the remaining problem and plans for fixing records.
• The second sentence of the Alliance policy regarding dups will be revised to replace "asked" with "required." Thus the revised policy is as follows:

"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 required 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."

7.3 Reimbursement for lost items

See background report produced by Nancy Nathanson.

"Council asked Executive Committee to investigate ways to reduce or eliminate the overhead associated with reimbursement for lost items. In the mean time, SBC is asked to continue current practice and look for ways to make it easier." -- Draft Council Minutes, July 2005

EC reviewed Nathanson's report and discussed the two approaches that seem most promising: 1) member libraries write-off lost items, 2) the Alliance serves as a "bank." Data provided by Nathanson clearly demonstrate that the net loss or gain experienced by each member is very small and that it would be desirable to find a way to minimize or eliminate payments between member libraries. If members are able to write-off lost materials, EC feels that this is the most promising approach.

Decisions:

• A revised version of Nathanson's report (including institution names and raw data) will be forwarded to Council for discussion in October.
• EC will recommend to Council that members write-off lost items. Council members will discuss this approach at the October meeting but it is expected that some may wish to conduct additional investigations prior to deciding about such a policy.
• Helmer will estimate the administrative overhead associated with having the Alliance serve as a "bank" so that members can send a single payment to Alliance for everything they owe.

7.4 Summit Borrowing performance and courier service

"EC was asked to examine Summit Borrowing service expectations and advise Council on the implications of a member accessing the courier system as a forwarding site. As part of its investigation, it is expected that EC will consult with the Summit Borrowing Committee and consortium staff about workflow, shipping accuracy, and performance implications for Summit Borrowing. While WWC may provide a useful test case, recommendations should be general in nature and apply to all members." -- Council Minutes, April 2005

EC reviewed the history of this discussion. If our purpose is to achieve fast service, EC believes that requiring all members to support at least one dropsite might be an unnecessarily crude policy. For example, does it make sense for a large institution with widely separated branches (e.g., UW or PCC) to have only one dropsite while two members in close proximity (e.g., Whitman and WWC) are each required to support a separate dropsite?

Decision: EC will ask Summit Borrowing Committee to consider the service and workflow implications of having members libraries served as forwarding sites as opposed to dropsites. SBC will be asked to report back for EC's March 9, 2006 meeting.

Council Mentors

David Bilyeu will serve as Council mentor for Glen Jenewein, Clark College. WSU has not yet identified an interim director. The full list of recent mentors is as follows:

New Director
Deb Dancik
Helen Spalding
Scott Harrison *
Bryce Nelson
Teresa Montgomery *
Glen Jenewein *
Nadine Williams
Carolyn Gaskell
?
* = interim director

Confirmed guests for discussion session:

• Andrew Bonamici, UO Libraries, Associate University Librarian for Instructional Services
• Dale Smith, UO Computing Center, Assistant Director for Network Services
• Jennifer Ward, UW Libraries, Head of Web Services

Decisions:

• Barnes Whyte will ask Dena Hutto (Reed College) to participate.
• Agenda will include
  • Frye Institute discussion (Thursday afternoon)
  • RLSC
    • overview
    • project leadership
    • site selection
  • Leadership Institute
  • Summit topics
    • In-House Loan rule
    • Reimbursement for lost items
    • Duplicate records
  • Retreat planning

Council Meeting discussion topic for January 12-13, 2006

EC did not discuss. This topic was forwarded for consideration at a future EC meeting.

Teleconference reports from ICCL & OUS

"Council expressed a continuing interest in investigating teleconferencing options, especially for the January meeting. ICCL and OUS libraries all have teleconferencing equipment available. For Executive Committee's next meeting (March 11), ICCL and OUS will report back on options. Aspects to consider include system compatibility, need for and availability of a bridge for connecting several sites, scheduling, appropriate regional groupings, costs, and technical support staffing during a teleconference." -- Council Minutes, January 2005

Actions:

• Kelley will check on progress with ICCL.
• Kunkel & Bilyeu will check on progress with OUS.

UW & Cascadia Community College: topic waiting for further information from UW.

"Include Cascadia Community College for a two-year transition period and consider options by the end of that period ... CCC student FTE should be included in UW's FTE for the purpose of determining membership fees. Because this is a pre-existing arrangement in Cascade, it will be continued for now as the consortium mission, membership criteria, and policies evolve." -- Council Minutes, April 2003

Review of Interest Groups

"Interest Groups are evaluated by Council every three years and will be sustained, discontinued, or revised as needed." -- Committee Structure

Action items -- John F. Helmer