ERC ST 060621

Electronic Resources Steering Team

June 21, 2006

Teleconference

Members attending by phone:

Joanna Haney, Lewis and Clark (incoming Chair); Teresa Hazen, Mt. Hood CC; Greg Doyle, Orbis Cascade; Diane Carroll, OHSU; Laurel Kristick, OSU; Heather Whipple, Reed; Carrie Fry, Seattle Pacific; Susan Hinken, UP; Donna Packer, Western Washington; Lee Keene, Whitman

Members not present: 

Emily Miller-Francisco, SOU; Tim Jewell, UW

At the start of the meeting Joanna asked if anyone had additional agenda items; Diane asked that we add a discussion of the Nature license.

1. Minutes of the May 17 teleconference

The minutes of the May 17 conference call are still awaiting Tim’s review. It was suggested that Joanna send them to steering team members for review and corrections and then have them posted to the ER web pages.

Decision: Joanna will send the minutes to the ERST for review and then have them posted.

2. Joint ER/CDMC meeting in October

Joanna met with Sarah Beasley to draft a preliminary agenda for the joint meeting in October. She reviewed the agenda and said she would send it to steering team members after the planning committee had a chance to comment. Please send any thoughts to Joanna.

3. Meeting schedule for coming year

The committee discussed the meeting schedule for the coming year. It was felt that meeting monthly helped to keep the committee moving forward. It was noted that while face-to-face meetings are valuable they can be time consuming and expensive and a plan that incorporates monthly teleconference with the possibility of face-to-face meetings might work best. 

Decision: teleconferences the third Monday of each month at 1:30 pm unless cancelled. Face-to-face meetings as needed in addition to the spring meeting that coincides with the one with the Executive Council. The next teleconference will be on Monday August 21 at 1:00 pm.

4. Housekeeping details

With the agenda for this meeting Joanna sent out links to past minutes and the minutes template. Diane suggested that new members look at the minutes for the ERST’s first meeting. They describe the committee’s background and how the original steering team outlined structure and function. She also suggested that new members feel free to step to the plate to take the lead with new ideas and initiatives. New members were also asked to bring issues to the group if they heard concerns from other ER Committee members.

5. Nature

Diane is pulling together an ad hoc group of Nature subscribers to develop a license template that could be used by all the members or Orbis Cascade. Nature is requiring all subscribers to sign a new license and, although this is not an Orbis Cascade purchase, she would like the publisher to know we are working together as Orbis Cascade libraries as leverage. Diane, Joanna, Lynn Chmelir, and Wendy Stewart will be talking with Nature and Diane would like our okay to mention the consortium. 

Decision: The ERST affirmed the plan was a good one and also useful to other members interested in subscribing.

6. Communication

Communication within ERC and between the ERST and committee members can be a challenge. Last year the ERST members called committee members and attempted to keep lines of communication open especially through the list serve. Joanna said that she had been emailing the entire committee when the ERST meets and she said she would continue to do that. It was suggested that ERC members get both the ERST agenda and a notice about the minutes and Joanna said she would follow up. 

It was suggested that ERST decisions and other important information be communicated on an as needed basis and not wait until the minutes are posted.

The issue of using technology such as blogs and wikis was raised. Greg said he felt that a recommendation to develop new communications technology from the ERST was more effective than a suggestion coming from him. He suggests that if we have ideas that we would like to move forward, the ERST could send them to John Helmer, who would then take them to the Executive Council.

Decision: Joanna will post ERST agendas and minutes notice to the ERC. Other information will be posted to the committee list as needed. Laurel volunteered to gather information on using communication technology (e.g. RSS feeds) to share at the next meeting.

7. Sage Proposal

Greg will be meeting with the Sage folks at ALA and needs feedback. For big schools such as OSU, the proposal seems overpriced for what they would get. Others mentioned the possible resistance to the cumulative impact of additional costs, as we are looking at a number of these proposals. Greg said the feed back he had already received suggested that the proposal included nothing either outstanding or outrageous.

The ERST had no other business and the meeting was adjourned.

Minutes prepared by: Susan Hinken, June 21, 2006

Approved: Joanna Haney, June 22, 2006