Database Maintenance Committee

November 2, 2005 Minutes

Connecticut State Library Van Block Storage Facility

Attending:* Kathy Swenson & Hing Wu (SCSU); Priya Rai & Edward Iglesias (CCSU); Alesia Szabo (WCSU); Steve Slovasky (CSL) convener; and Kris Jacobi (ECSU) recorder

1) Steve has convened us and will direct this meeting; Kris will record. Conversation regarding the chairing of the Committee ensued. By acclamation, Steve will serve as Chairperson.

2) Discussion centered on the draft document “CONSULS Committees” dated 10/27/04 regarding our ‘official’ name, charge, and chairperson.

As this document has not been issued in final copy, we propose that:

• Our name reflect more cataloging than database maintenance issues, therefore we submit: “CONSULS Cataloging and Catalog Maintenance Committee” as our committee name and request that in all places where “Database Maintenance Committee” is found in the draft document, that it be changed there also.
• Although we understand that Committee appointments shall be for a one year period from July 1 to June 30; and that the Chair for each Committee will rotate among the five institutions, we maintain that the CONSULS Cataloging and Catalog Maintenance Committee Chairperson should be on a two-year rotation, for consistency and continuity purposes.

3) We continued our discussion of the re-authorization and continuing authority control proposal. The CONSULS Cataloging and Catalog Maintenance Committee does not know exactly where the RFP is in the review or funding process.

We reiterated how important and vital this re-authorization project is to the usability of the shared CONSULS bibliographic database; and how significant the need for continued vendor supplied authority control thereafter.

We asked that the CONSULS Directors keep this project as the highest priority in FY2005-06, as we are still emphatic regarding same. Now, we ask the CONSULS Directors to inform us of the current status of the proposal.

4) To put it in the words of our guest attendee, Edward Iglesias, “Fred is dead.” In 1995(?), John Rutherford got a freebie Sun server, named it fred, and used it for CONSULS/III testing and other CCSU and III activities. Most recently it was used as a server for CCSU electronic theses, and as a counting device to garner stats on CONSULS MARC field 856. The "mylibrary.ccsu.edu" suffix was used in the URL as a “click through” script John developed to gauge usage of e-resources accessed through CONSULS. The death of fred left approximately 60,000 bib records in need of fixing via Global Update in late September and early October.

5) CONSULS definitions of: Internet, ebook/text, edatabase, etc. (Kristin to lead.)—Tabled until next meeting.

6) Is there need for further Millennium training? With the telnet (text-based) version of Innopac on the way out, Millennium training would be good. It was agreed that the next upgrade of the Innovative software affects Acquisitions staff the most and training is necessary on that module. But it would be good to have III training on most other modules as well (Cataloging, Serials, Circulation). We note that any CONSULS members who were proficient in one particular module might be used as local trainers for the consortium participants.

Next meeting set for Wednesday, January 18, 2006 at 9:30 AM at CCSU’s Burritt Library.

*

• swensonk1@southernct.edu
• wuh1@southernct.edu
• rai@ccsu.edu
• iglesiasedg@ccsu.edu
• szaboa@wcsu.edu
• sslovasky@cslib.org
• jacobikr@easternct.edu
• schofieldbc1@southernct.edu

Respectfully submitted,

Kris Jacobi