Coordinating Committees

CUWL Library Technology Coordinating Committee (LTCC)

Minutes
September 29, 2008

Attending: Jon Mark Bolthouse, Marlys Brunsting, Leanne Hansen, Lisa Jewell, Sharon Knight, Jim Lowrey, Mitch Lundquist, Terry Muraski, Jon Musselman, Maureen Olle-LaJoie (via conference)
Excused: Bill Doering
Minutes: Jim Lowrey 

Agenda:

CUWL highlights - Leanne Hansen (attached)

D2L Library Integration

The general consensus is that the model to use for D2L integration is now dated. The preferred ‘Colleges’ model is now in limbo as a system-wide resource due to recent personnel changes and the need to coordinate the variances between campuses with some detailed technical assistance. One option may be to go outside for specific technical assistance. As of now, the source of that assistance is uncertain, plus the idea of maintaining the subject-driven system is still not universally popular. The conclusion was that this project is effectively stalled at this point. While some sites are using or considering using LibGuides, this is a different approach than the original intent of the Colleges model which is link to library resources from specific courses in D2L.

In the general related discussion, Mitch relayed that Madison has found that an unexpected number of students use the Madison portal, which indicates that they need to push more content to the portal. This triggered more discussion related to breaking out resources into modules that can be made available as an option to monolithic 'home pages'. Mitch indicated that anectodal  research is that students don’t expect to find the library on Facebook pages, so the question arises ‘where would they expect to find it?’ D2L is seen as a logical location. There may be some prospect via the D2L Learning Object Repository, but that remains to be seen.

Jon Mark will form a subgroup to see what we can do and how.

Web training Sessions

Jon Mark has coordinated some sessions to be held via Wisline Web. These will be 35-45 minutes plus questions.

Jim Lowrey will present Google Analytics during November
A Q&A for SFX/Metalib will be coordinated with Sue D. and Curran R
Bill Doering has offered to do a session on EDI Promptcat
Jon Mark has offered to do a session on RSS feeds.

Other ideas;
Library Thing, which has recently been implemented at Stout.

Other Updates

Jon Mark – the architecture of v.7 Voyager will be challenging – new file structure, etc. – changes will be interesting. 
Jon Musselman - V7 comes w/ 6.5.4 ‘classic’ interface option, so the catalog may not need to be changed immediately

Bill Doering and Marlys are working on Access queries for ALS survey
Marlys is working on developing a document on how sites are using Media Scheduling
Marlys is working on coordinating searches for UB.
Records retention

ILLiad logs/historical requests

Lisa will contact Atlas re options
We all have individual databases, therefore there is not necessarily one answer.  Some sites choose to keep requests longer.
We need to confirm the minimum retention requirements

Voyager logs, etc. - requirements have been communicated to Brian

Voyager Web Administration was turned on at Milwaukee last week.  Marlys will contact Brian re future installations.

New Goals

No new goals, but a reminder of the importance of continuing to assist campuses w/ automation issues

Resource Discovery Tools

Sue Dentinger from UW-Madison joined the discussion

Open discussion of where the Resource Discovery Task Force is, options, where to go from here.

Madison’s status (Mitch and Sue)

There is no clear or direct charge at this point past the initial investigation.
A technical assessment of WorldCat Local is likely, as replacement for FirstSearch (Badgercat) or  the OPAC.
Other interesting open-source products are VuFind and Project Blacklight.
Mitch is attempting to coordinate gathering other studies of WorldCat Local.
There is some feeling that supporting Worldcat Local is logical, however, there is concern that it is not really tuned for large academic libraries.

Sue– An ideal world could mean a decoupled, open source interface (such as VuFind or Blacklight).  We need a more flexible environment where we can respond to technical changes and expectations.  Vendor solutions are invariably going to fall behind.  Can the library put themselves where the users are - widgets instead of full-interfaces?  Can the library be at peoples’ ‘home base’?  An example is the Medical library, which has a whole set of toolbars and extensions. 

Re Endeca, which was such a major advance when first introduced, it may no longer be a viable option, given their commercial focus and pricing.  Also, there are now a number of Endeca-like options available from a variety of sources.

Jon Mark  - we’re still all doing local stuff – we need standards-based solutions, with a programming team spread across institutions.  Is it time for a UW union catalog with a new discovery front-end? This would allow us to see all our records, not just the ones in OCLC (a limitation of the WorldCat Local solution).

We also discussed the fact that the Voyager ILS is not going away in the near future, and current practical discussion is really about options for new discovery front-ends.   There is little enthusiasm for looking at a new ILS, and the traditional RFP plus other state procurement rules will likely make that a very tedious process.  Several people felt that a new resource discovery tool is important, but doesn’t solve the inefficiencies on the staff side and means an increase in  maintenance of multiple systems.  Work on resource discovery can’t happen in a vacuum—the ILS—current and future--must also be considered. 

The goal is to decouple public discovery from processing, which is both more efficient and, most important more flexible.  Given the very slow process of advancing the commercial ILS, the consensus is that it is far more practical to focus on the user end.

Jim added that Madison has its own pressures, scale, peers, etc., so they need to proceed w/ researching options that work for them.   One question is how or whether UW System assists in how the other campuses participate in whatever solution Madison arrives at, assuming that’s the ultimate goal.

The group agreed that an Open Source discovery tool, which could be maintained and modified efficiently, would be the most logical.  Jon Mark mentioned that the lack of coordination between major universities to pool resources to develop open-source solutions is a major failure.  (Duke put out a call to universities to help develop an open source ILS using grant money, but to our knowledge, there are no takers and it will take several years.)

Mitch – We have 3 years to the last version of Voyager ILS – maybe 4 years to new ILS?  However, could easily be longer.  

Mitch – Resource discovery can be researched separately from ILS.  Maybe we need 2 tracks.

We need to work with user services, focus groups, etc. better define the discovery side. This must be driven by the user side, not the back room. The solution must be standards based in order to work with any ILS system.  LTCC should watch tech issues such as database harvesting issues. 

In terms of proceeding with the investigation of a new discovery tool, the consensus is that the User Services and Library Technology Coordinating Committees should investigate jointly. A small group could be effective in moving this issue forwards. The suggestion is for 7 people total – 3 each from USCC and LTCC, plus Lisa Jewell. Mitch volunteered as one member from the Tech. committee. Marlys will take the idea of a joint working group to Steve Frye and also to CUWL.   
Don’t need to rewrite the Madison report.  The LTCC will investigate future possibilities for an ILS

Meeting adjourned.

Jim Lowrey


CUWL LTCC meeting Sept 29, 2008:  Highlights of CUWL and Coordinating Committee Chairs meetings

From July 22 CUWL meeting action items e-mail from Chair Ewa Barczyk:

  • Annual conference set for June 3-4, 2009 at the Pyle Center, Madison. Conference organizing working group to be established by CUWL Executive Committee
  • Faculty Rep to CUWL Executive Committee elected:  Michael Pickart from UW-Stout
  • Document Delivery proposal for colleges and comprehensives accepted as outlined with more vendors, expanded participants and use of a purchase card to be set up through WiLS
  • All campuses to send LibQUAL data to Nola Walker at nwalker@library.wisc.edu to begin analysis across campuses
  • CUWL Executive Committee to work with Kathy Schneider to draft a position letter on OCLC changes
  • WLA Foundation:  Anita Evans and Leanne Hansen to co-chair a working group to develop a proposal for funding and promotion of academic libraries for WLAF funding prior to Sept 8th meeting
  • Wisconsin Research Scholars program will be a pilot with Oshkosh for fall, River Falls for spring
  • Passed on UB recommendations; including UB pickups from holding library and UB blocks extended to local circulation transactions; simulsearch interface issue referred to LTCC/User Services for further exploration
  • Explore possibility of joint CUWL Fall meeting with ITMC in Green Lake in lieu of spring joint meeting; topics:  RIAA/Copyright and D2L integration  [Since the meeting both of these topics have been discarded.]

Other items of interest from the CUWL meeting:

  • Ed Meachen reported on the state budget that UW System is still expected to handle a $25 million lapse, much of which will be covered by utility savings
  • A study group on the learning object repository from D2L has been formed; library automation funds will be sought for this project.
  • Reviewed the successful summer conference
  • UWSAC report: primary focus has been the standardization of circulation policies across campuses, digitization, concerns about users brining in their own cameras; and charges for various services
  • Summaries of the UW DIN planning process as of July and a summary of the COLAND Visioning Summit

Coordinating Committee Chairs monthly meetings:

  • CUWL Chairs Group Membership will include:  chair of CUWL, vice-chair/chair-elect of CUWL, past chair of CUWL, 4 CUWL CC chairs, 4 CUWL CC liaisons, rep from UW System
  • Decided that each committee chair would write an annual report linking activities to the CUWL strategic directions; annual reports due 9/8; feeds into past CUWL’s chair report to UW System, especially  Rebecca Martin
  • Developing the next annual conference working group – as of 9/8:  Dina Kaye (Parkside for CRS); Mitch Lundquist (Madison for LTCC); Lisa Jewel.  Chairs working group should iron out some parameters (locations, budget, date, times, etc.) based on this year’s experience prior to handing off planning to next group
  • Steve Frye agreed to write a summer conference report to be used as a guidepost for organizers of next summer’s conference
  • Updates from CC chairs:  CRS: shelving survey results coming; charge for documents delivery working group has been revised and approved; question about Library Dynamics and how will people be informed of its capability; looking at reducing content overlap between CUWL wiki and web page; problems with “reply” in group lists in going to everyone rather than just sender-Lisa will looks at changing setting   /  LTCC:  Voyager upgrade went well; discussed ELUNA conference   /    USCC:  not very active during summer    /    DICC:  working on two reports – digital strategy document and fate of Minds@UW document, both to be ready for November CUWL meeting