Coordinating Committees

Progress Report to CUWL – October 30, 2007

Collections and Resource Sharing Coordinating Committee (CRSCC)

During its first four months of existence the Collections and Resource Sharing Coordinating Committee has met once, that occurred earlier this month in Madison.  At the half-day meeting the committee clarified the uses of the two email lists, discussed approaches for evaluating Blackwell as the System’s recently selected primary book vendor, presented information on Library Dynamics about how this vendor could address our collection assessment needs, and engaged in discussion with Pat Wilkinson on CUWL’s strategic plan and developing CRS’ own action items.

Action Items agreed upon by the CRSCC

  • Conduct a “quick bid” for selecting commercial software so that UW libraries can evaluate their collections individually as well as consortially with respect to the strengths, weaknesses, usage levels and overlap of holdings.   
  • Review current methods by which library collections are assessed for insurance purposes and make recommendations, if necessary, for reducing variations in assessment methods.
  • Survey each campus’ space needs for future planning and in order to strengthen the case for a Systemwide preservation facility.
  • Determine the budget needs for a comprehensive Shared Electronic Collection budget if access to all resources licensed for the Madison campus were expanded to the entire UW System.   
  • Evaluation of Blackwell as CUWL’s primary domestic book vendor
    • Prepare a report in early 2008 showing the distribution of each campus’ domestic monograph expenditures for the first six months of FY08.
    • Evaluate Blackwell’s performance for the first year of the contract by requesting the Book Procurement Working Group, which had prepared the 2006 RFP, to identify the critical service specifications.  The impact of the primary vendor model on collection development purchases will be also be evaluated.

Progress to date

  • Drafted specifications for soliciting collection assessment software bids.  The “quick bid” document is being finalized by UW System’s Office of Procurement and should be released within the next week.
  • Clarified the relationship of the coordinating committee with the Collection Development Committee (CDC) which has representation from each of the comprehensives and the two doctoral-granting campuses, and one member representing the 2-year colleges.  The CDC’s primary responsibility will be online resource recommendations funded by the Shared Electronic Collection. 
  • Considered and ultimately rejected an offer presented by SciFinder Scholar for a systemwide license. 

Other issues/items

  • Email communications have been limited so far, with most being circulated regarding housekeeping matters preparations for the October meeting just among the CRS members.  In the future agendas and minutes will be regularly sent also to the broader committee list.
  • Consideration of the January 2008 Shared Electronic Collection renewals was deferred at CRSCC’ October 12th meeting because the CDC hadn’t been able to discuss and make their renew/cancel recommendations.   CDC’s recommendations will be reviewed and, it is expected, generally endorsed before forwarding to CUWL.  After CDC meets on Nov. 2nd and submits its renewal list to this committee, CRSCC will arrange a conference call.  CRS’ recommendations will then be sent to CUWL for final approval, probably in late Nov./early Dec.

 

Respectfully submitted by
Richard Reeb  - Chair, Collections and Resource Sharing Coordinating Committee