Summit Catalog Committee Steering Team
January 04, 2007
Conference Call
Members attending:
Lewis & Clark College: Mark Dahl
Oregon Health & Science University: Janet Crum
Oregon State University: Michael Boock
Reed College: Marcia Bianchi
Southern Oregon University: Kate Cleland-Sipfle
University of Washington: Joe Kiegel
Washington State University: Marilyn Von Seggern
Consortium Staff: John Helmer
Michelle Williams
Following agenda order, plus announcements:
1. Discuss temporary changes in Alliance Staffing and impact on SCC projects
(Mark)
John Helmer reported for the Orbis Cascade Alliance Office. Nancy Nathanson has been elected to the Oregon State Legislature for a term anticipated to last about 6 months (January-June 2007). Nancy is therefore on leave from her position as Resource Sharing Program Manager at OCA, and plans to be back in July. Michelle Williams, with help from John Helmer, is covering the day-to-day running of Summit and regular contacts with III. John and Michelle are covering the OCA staff liaison work for committees, and Michelle is taking care of this part of OCA web site.
Janet Crum of OHSU will take over some of Nancy Nathanson’s support duties for the Summit Catalog Steering Committee workgroups through a quarter-time assignment (January-June 2007) that combines her OCA staff and committee responsibilities. Nancy would ordinarily have been involved in liaison for the Strategic Agenda just adopted by the Council of Library Directors. Janet will take on a leadership role for the following agenda items:
Future of the Summit Interface - short-term, long-term, III and
non-III alternatives
Data Harvesting Initiative
On-going Discussion with Google
Janet will be primary spokesperson for OCA regarding this agenda, in an effort to avoid having too many people contact III about the same issues. Jerry Klein and Sandy Weaver Westall of III have been notified that Janet will have this role for now.
2. Updates on progress of working groups (working group liaisons to ST)
A. - Data Harvesting
Mark Dahl reported for the work group. Mike Spalti (Willamette) is group leader. They have met once, and were focused on what kinds of data to harvest. Mark Kibbey suggested that the group first determine what data is currently available; Jennie McKee, Claudia Weston, and Corey Murata are working on a web page that will summarize what is available from Summit. The group will survey the Summit Borrowing and Collection Development Committees. Once the data for potential harvest has been identified (must be data not currently available), the Working Group will select the most important classes of data and approach methods for data harvesting (how to get the data out of the Summit database).
Discussion: John asked if there was any challenge in getting a clear idea of what members want, especially the Collection Development and Management Committee. Do they know what they need? Mark asked if Council had any particular needs in mind when it put Data Harvesting on its agenda. Mike Boock declared that, based on the SCC Summit/Internet Search Engines Working Group work, there is a common need for efficient access to MARC records via web services. John said that what is to be considered by the data harvesting initiative includes any III data, wherever it may reside…very broad. John thought it would be more effective to get specifics on what the Collection Development Committee, as well as other Committees, want, rather than surveying Committee members. Also, Council has been working on Accreditation Standards, so are there statistical needs for accreditation that could be met by harvesting data from Summit? Users need to distinguish data available locally (as in patron data) from data available only from Summit, and not data that is already available.
Joe Kiegel asked if the harvesting charge might better be addressed in terms of how to get data out of Summit in a standard format, rather than to be concerned with the specific data needs for answering specific questions. This would allow users to manipulate the data as needed using their differing data processing tools. Approaching by data type (MARC/Bib, Holdings, Circ) also makes sense, and some research may need to combine them.
B. - Short Term Changes to Summit Interface
Kate Cleland-Sipfle and Marilyn Von Seggern reported for the group (See e-mail version of report). They have met almost weekly since the end of November. Kate Rubick (L & C) is convener. Internal communication is handled through a Google Group, plus regular e-mail and postings to the STSSIWG web page. They began by examining enhancement and fee-based options in WebPac Pro, and also looked at enhancements in Millennium Silver and earlier for OPACS and InnReach. With a charge to evaluate current Summit usability through surveys and usability testing, the group decided that a scientific usability study involving all Orbis Cascade Alliance members was not feasible in the time allotted. Nancy Nathanson had a helpful web-based summary of relevant usability studies we use as a reference. The group is currently drafting a set of 5-7 questions from the design enhancements list to be used with an informal usability test of a few students and faculty at working group member institutions. Member feedback will be elicited Feb. 1-15, with a plan to seek Catalog Committee approval in March and implement short-term changes to the Summit OPAC interface during Spring 2007.
Discussion:
Mark asked which enhancements seem most important? Right results, changes in keyword searching (search box plus Advanced search option), and cosmetic use of color to distinguish materials (as in journals) were mentioned.
Mark asked John if OCA will be able to implement the changes once they are agreed upon; John did not see this as a problem.
John noted that Council meets March 1, offering a chance to run this by them. Joe asked how much buy-in from Council was needed? John suggested that this level of committee work does not have to go to Council, but could be put before the Catalog Committee for a vote of “good enough to go,” rather than “perfection.” The next step would be to inform Council after the vote.
Joe suggested revising the timeline such that final recommendations come out by March 1 for vetting during March and then they would be ready for implementation by April 1. Feb 1-15 would be the time to check with the full catalog committee, prior to final revisions.
For clarification, Mark pointed out that SCC’s charges to its working groups specify that work done on Short Term Interface and Reduction of Duplication charges can be approved by the SCC (see Calendar, below), while recommendations regarding the Data Harvesting and Next Generation Summit charges need to go to Council.
John pointed out that our experience with the Short Term changes to the catalog group might inform how we make these sorts of changes to Summit in the future. Mark responded that, especially with more staff support, it might make the most sense to have Alliance staff initiate changes to Summit and in the course of making the changes, gain approval of the Catalog Committee.
C. - Next Generation Summit Interface
Joe Kiegel and Janet Crum reported. Terry Reese chairs the working group. Terry is setting up a Wiki for communication about the products they are investigating in teams of two:
They will meet in person at conferences (all who can at ALA Midwinter, Seattle). Their final report will include the status of the product, from “shelf ready,” to still theoretical, but likely to be important in the future (as in the case of OCLC’s developing product), if likely to be major market player. They are making a list of questions to put on a Google Group.
Discussion: At this time they have no questions to pose to the Catalog Committee or Council.
D. - Duplicate Record Reduction
Mike Boock and Marcia Bianchi reported. The group’s plan is to establish guidelines for OCA members to be posted on the Alliance web pages so members could be informed about how to format records so that duplication does not occur. This would include the issues when multiple libraries have a package from a certain vendor, large microfiche sets, etc. They are looking at the possibility of moving control numbers (usually found in the 035 MARC field) to the 001 field so uploaded records bearing the number would attach to any other with the same number in the 001 field. Their success will depend on cooperation of OCA members willing to massage their records. They are on track for their Feb. 1 deadline or a very minimal extension.
Discussion: Joe Kiegel noted that the number of records of this kind is estimated at 450,000 at U of Washington alone. Clearly, there would be a need to notify OCA staff and do large loads as acceptable times. Marcia added that it would be good to have Alliance staff involved regarding III record load support before actual purchase of record sets. We need to raise awareness among members to always consult OCA when contemplating such purchases.
In some cases licenses prohibit record contribution to Summit (examples Evans Reprints and ERM brief records). OCA needs to look at the record contribution policy, consider this conflict, recommend a policy change to permit non-contribution for this class of records, and Council might/would? need to approve any change. Mark suggested a specific recommendation specific to the ERM records. Mike said that this can be part of the current charge, as the group had not been sure about this.
This led to a suggestion to develop guidelines for negotiating with vendors for resources that come with record sets much as was done for when negotiating licenses for electronic resources in earlier years. Summit (OCA staff??) is the starting place.
Mark added that, regarding the Data Harvesting initiative, it is important to have the capability of excluding collection set records, also from Google harvest, etc. Joe agreed that it is important to keep these out of data harvesting.
3. Review of SCC timeline for remainder of academic year (Mark)
Most groups will report back March 1; Duplicate Reduction will be ready Feb. 1 or soon after. Late March looks good for the Summit Catalog Committee meeting, except for Spring Break.
The Steering Team agreed to meet again in early February. John said that there is no plan to have Steering Teams meet with Executive Council this year.
4. Announcements, other:
Mark asked about the Digital Services Position at OCA. The committee is in place, with John Helmer as Chair, Jim Kopp (L & C), Cindy Kaag, (WSU), Andrea Peterson (WWU), Terry Reese (OSU), and Greg Doyle and Michelle Williams, OCA staff. They are about ready to do phone interviews as first round.
Mark reminded us of the request from OCA to keep the conference calls efficient. Seven people on for an hour costs about $100.
Minutes prepared by: Kate Cleland-Sipfle
approved: Mark Dahl, January 9, 2007