Libraries: DEDCC : Meeting Notes

Meeting Notes > 2009 Minutes

03/11/2009
Meeting Notes
by:Rachel Beckwith

DEDCC Minutes
March 11, 2009 at Five Colleges

Attendees: Rebecca Henning, Chris Loring, David Podboy, Kelcy Shepherd, Mary Stettner, Rachel Beckwith, and Stephanie Schmitt

1) Agenda Review
a) minutes-taker = Rachel
b) introductions to Stephanie

2) Updates
a) FCLC Update from Chris – None
b) WorldCat Local Updates – Not much to report.
c) Five College Libraries Webpage – Everything submitted has now been updated.
d) 5 Colleges Shared Imaging- Rachel reported on the new committee’s first meeting. Janet Ewing also attended the meeting as well as representatives from each of the five colleges, including visual resources staff, IT staff, and faculty. The group now has several sub-committees: one to write a proposal to ARTstor about the possibility of hosting our shared images; one to look into the possibility of building our own federated search; and one to investigate rights issues and draft talking points for legal counsel.

3) Diane Hillmann Planning Update
• We are up to 25 RSVPs thus far.
• Diane Hillmann has a reservation at the Marriott for the night of April 30.
• Rebecca will look into coffee break details.
• David will keep tabs on the RSVPs, but assuming we still have space, we can send an email reminder to 5-college staff in early April. At that point we can open it up to invite people outside the 5 colleges.
• Rebecca will check with Diane about whether she would like to go out to dinner the night of April 30 (keep the evening open for now). Some members of the cataloging committee and other interested people will take her out to lunch on Friday. David will check in with Janet about what DEDCC did for the next gen guests.

4) Syndetics Review
a) Current cost: ,211.73
b) Options
• Syndetics feedback: RIO people definitely want something in the catalog—the visual element is important, but people seem to think students don’t click on the cover images and aren’t aware of all the other features. We discussed whether we could pay for fewer options as most felt that not all of the current 9 features are well utilized. David calculated that if we just paid for cover images and the tables of contents (and didn’t get the discount for the bundle) our costs might be around 60. We will get user stats from Syndetics next month. David will ask for a sample statistics form. Would we even have time at this point to implement something else before the Syndetics contract expires (especially given the work involved with Aleph v. 19)?

• Other options – Amazon, Google Book Search, LibraryThing
Library Thing: the covers are separate for LibraryThing for Libraries. The free ones are uploaded by members. The covers they do get from Amazon you can’t get through their API. Stephanie says there is still a cost for LTFL. There is a cost for most options except Google book search. The Google book search terms of service are vague, however, and some libraries have been having problems with the API working correctly. There may be a degree of difficulty doing anything in Aleph. The marketing aspect of Google books doesn’t seem as troublesome as with Amazon. Chris brought up the question of whether we would be willing to get a cut from Amazon every time one of our patrons bought a book? In general, academic librarians don’t like the sound of that, but Chris thought that in this economic climate the library directors might entertain the idea.

• Moving forward: We can investigate a reduction of Syndetics features based on data and put it out to the community at large. There doesn’t seem to be any great alternative at this point. Mount Holyoke colleagues like the tables of contents, but the fact that it is clickable is not very obvious. Perhaps if we could add, “look inside for more” or similar text, this feature would see more use. Stephanie suggested that we play in Test with Google books or other options and actually see what it would look like in Aleph. She also wondered if we did only purchase the cover images and tables of contents from Syndetics (instead of all 9 features), if we could use the cost savings to explore alternatives? Chris will update FCLC on the nature of our discussion. David will ask Syndetics for a quote for just a couple of features and will ask if we can get monthly statistics from now on.

5) Federated Searching Project
a) Review “List of desirable features” and checklist(s)
b) Discuss products – Ebsco integrated search: David reported strong interest from other librarians at Smith. Stephanie said that Proquest has a similar integrated search. We then discussed how we should go about the federated search project, and it was agreed that we should have a scope statement and we should refine our list of essential features on the wiki (using the Palinet presentation, the next gen list of features, and the 100 questions for vendors list) and come up with a more comprehensive list for the five colleges. Mary began to revise the wiki list at the meeting as we talked. Kelcy will continue to work on the list of desired criteria and will recruit another DEDCC member to help her. David
will continue working on the scope statement that we began to discuss and will send it out for feedback. We will have our scope statement and list of features by our April meeting and can then start trimming down the list of products that apply to our needs.

6) Wrap up
a) action items & communications
o Rebecca will ask Diane Hillman about dinner and will upload the proposal to Ella.
o David will contact Syndetics for usage stats and will ask for a quote for fewer features.
o David will work on the scope statement for federated searching.
o Kelcy will work on the federated search desired features list and will recruit someone to help her.
b) Next meeting: More on Syndetics, Diane Hillmann event, and Federated Search project.


	Meeting Notes > 2009 Minutes 03/11/2009 Meeting Notes by:Rachel Beckwith DEDCC Minutes March 11, 2009 at Five Colleges Attendees: Rebecca Henning, Chris Loring, David Podboy, Kelcy Shepherd, Mary Stettner, Rachel Beckwith, and Stephanie Schmitt 1) Agenda Review a) minutes-taker = Rachel b) introductions to Stephanie 2) Updates a) FCLC Update from Chris – None b) WorldCat Local Updates – Not much to report. c) Five College Libraries Webpage – Everything submitted has now been updated. d) 5 Colleges Shared Imaging- Rachel reported on the new committee’s first meeting. Janet Ewing also attended the meeting as well as representatives from each of the five colleges, including visual resources staff, IT staff, and faculty. The group now has several sub-committees: one to write a proposal to ARTstor about the possibility of hosting our shared images; one to look into the possibility of building our own federated search; and one to investigate rights issues and draft talking points for legal counsel. 3) Diane Hillmann Planning Update • We are up to 25 RSVPs thus far. • Diane Hillmann has a reservation at the Marriott for the night of April 30. • Rebecca will look into coffee break details. • David will keep tabs on the RSVPs, but assuming we still have space, we can send an email reminder to 5-college staff in early April. At that point we can open it up to invite people outside the 5 colleges. • Rebecca will check with Diane about whether she would like to go out to dinner the night of April 30 (keep the evening open for now). Some members of the cataloging committee and other interested people will take her out to lunch on Friday. David will check in with Janet about what DEDCC did for the next gen guests. 4) Syndetics Review a) Current cost: ,211.73 b) Options • Syndetics feedback: RIO people definitely want something in the catalog—the visual element is important, but people seem to think students don’t click on the cover images and aren’t aware of all the other features. We discussed whether we could pay for fewer options as most felt that not all of the current 9 features are well utilized. David calculated that if we just paid for cover images and the tables of contents (and didn’t get the discount for the bundle) our costs might be around 60. We will get user stats from Syndetics next month. David will ask for a sample statistics form. Would we even have time at this point to implement something else before the Syndetics contract expires (especially given the work involved with Aleph v. 19)? • Other options – Amazon, Google Book Search, LibraryThing Library Thing: the covers are separate for LibraryThing for Libraries. The free ones are uploaded by members. The covers they do get from Amazon you can’t get through their API. Stephanie says there is still a cost for LTFL. There is a cost for most options except Google book search. The Google book search terms of service are vague, however, and some libraries have been having problems with the API working correctly. There may be a degree of difficulty doing anything in Aleph. The marketing aspect of Google books doesn’t seem as troublesome as with Amazon. Chris brought up the question of whether we would be willing to get a cut from Amazon every time one of our patrons bought a book? In general, academic librarians don’t like the sound of that, but Chris thought that in this economic climate the library directors might entertain the idea. • Moving forward: We can investigate a reduction of Syndetics features based on data and put it out to the community at large. There doesn’t seem to be any great alternative at this point. Mount Holyoke colleagues like the tables of contents, but the fact that it is clickable is not very obvious. Perhaps if we could add, “look inside for more” or similar text, this feature would see more use. Stephanie suggested that we play in Test with Google books or other options and actually see what it would look like in Aleph. She also wondered if we did only purchase the cover images and tables of contents from Syndetics (instead of all 9 features), if we could use the cost savings to explore alternatives? Chris will update FCLC on the nature of our discussion. David will ask Syndetics for a quote for just a couple of features and will ask if we can get monthly statistics from now on. 5) Federated Searching Project a) Review “List of desirable features” and checklist(s) b) Discuss products – Ebsco integrated search: David reported strong interest from other librarians at Smith. Stephanie said that Proquest has a similar integrated search. We then discussed how we should go about the federated search project, and it was agreed that we should have a scope statement and we should refine our list of essential features on the wiki (using the Palinet presentation, the next gen list of features, and the 100 questions for vendors list) and come up with a more comprehensive list for the five colleges. Mary began to revise the wiki list at the meeting as we talked. Kelcy will continue to work on the list of desired criteria and will recruit another DEDCC member to help her. David will continue working on the scope statement that we began to discuss and will send it out for feedback. We will have our scope statement and list of features by our April meeting and can then start trimming down the list of products that apply to our needs. 6) Wrap up a) action items & communications o Rebecca will ask Diane Hillman about dinner and will upload the proposal to Ella. o David will contact Syndetics for usage stats and will ask for a quote for fewer features. o David will work on the scope statement for federated searching. o Kelcy will work on the federated search desired features list and will recruit someone to help her. b) Next meeting: More on Syndetics, Diane Hillmann event, and Federated Search project.