CONSULS Information Resources Committee

CCSU Burritt Library

November 17, 2005, 2:00 pm

 

 

Present:  Carol Abatelli (ECSU, 2005-2006 Chair), Nancy Bobrek (SCSU), Carolyn Coates (ECSU), Xiaomei Gong (WCSU), Ed Hoyer (SCSU), Lynn Johnson-Corcoran (CCSU), Chip Marlor (CCSU), Diane Pizzo (CSL)

 

On the agenda:

 

  1. Retaining JStor journals in print:  The group discussed the possibility of a collaborative agreement for retaining “last copy” issues of JStor journal titles in print.  Ed Hoyer and Nancy Bobrek reported that Southern has already deaccessioned back issues of JStor titles, with many of them going to the academic departments to be shelved in their conference rooms, a boon for departmental faculty who enjoyed having them at hand for browsing.  Central reported that they are canceling print JStor titles.  Diane Pizzo reported that some back issues may be of interest to the Center for Research Libraries, which is creating an archive of these journals.  Also discussed were the potential issues for ILL (probably few) when volumes are removed from the collections, and the fact that not all campuses subscribe to the same JStor collections.  All present agreed to bring this question back to their directors.

 

  1.  Millennium Training:  Diane Pizzo offered informal training in the use of Millennium to staff from other libraries.  Some trepidation was voiced about the upcoming new release of Millennium and its consequences for the Acquisitions Module in particular.  Diane reports she largely uses the Millennium version of Acquisitions and that she is comfortable in walking others through Millennium procedures.  She is also confident that the new release will correct some of its shortcomings.  We agreed that these training sessions could be available to interested library staff on an informal basis, beginning with the Acquisitions Module.  Serials and Circulation might also be addressed in the future if there is enough interest.  Others expressed our perennial interest in training on Create Lists and Statistics and the hope that others might be recruited to help with this.

 

  1. Collection Assessment:  Nancy Bobrek introduced the topic of collection assessment, specifically WorldCat Collection Analysis, and asked if other campuses were interested in this product.  Eastern reported that they had looked at this product but needed to ensure that the timing was right so as to maximize its use.  Central reported that they had purchased the Bowker’s Serials Analysis product [Ulrich’s Serials Analysis System] and that they were still working with it.  CCSU might be interested in the WorldCat product in the future but wanted to work with the serials analysis project first.  Nancy Bobrek also mentioned another product, Library Dynamics’ Spectra CRC product that has the advantage of incorporating circulation data into its analysis but the disadvantage of needing to have data loaded (as opposed to the WorldCat product, which relies on OCLC holdings data).  We also discussed the construction of “institutional peers” that theses analyses require and source for that data.  Apropos of collection assessment, the need to review III’s scat tables and related issues were raised.

 

  1. Lynn Johnson-Corcoran brought up the question of e-books and was interested to hear about procedures for acquiring them and usage statistics on other campuses.  Carol Abatelli reported on Eastern’s e-books and offered to send statistics on usage for NetLibrary titles.  A discussion ensued on the pros and cons of various e-book models and packages in relation to several academic disciplines.  The question of reference books was raised and several agreed that reference works are well-suited to electronic access, and that purchasing packages of books allowed for cost-effectiveness and an opportunity to try new titles though no campus reported on any project aimed specifically at exchanging print reference titles for the electronic equivalent.

 

  1. Related to the above discussion, Nancy Bobrek raised the question of how funds for reference were allocated. Eastern reported that, like Southern, it used one fund for reference and one for reference continuations.  Lynn Johnson-Corcoran mentioned specific reference funds tied to subject areas, and also commented that, on allocations in general, that the past year’s spending plays an important role. Also mentioned were allocations for non-print media.  Carolyn Coates reported that Eastern uses the same formula for media that it used for books.  Other campuses generally relied on a single fund for all media overseen by one librarian.  The difficulties of applying book allocation models to aggregated databases and other non-traditional library resources were also raised: Carol commented that ECSU tried to use an allocation formula for databases, but that the process proved problematic because: 1) many of the databases are interdisciplinary; 2) some key databases are received at no direct cost to ECSU; 3) the price paid for databases varies depending on whether consortial deals are available.

 

The meeting adjourned at approximately 3:30 pm.  The next meeting was tentatively set for mid-March, 2006, with specifics to be determined later.

 

Carolyn Coates, recorder.