Bonnie Klein, FAC Secretary Date: March 18, 1997 Re: Minutes of the FEDLINK FAC Meeting, January 16, 1997 FAC Members Agency OTHER ATTENDEES PRESENT: FEDLINK STAFF: Churchville NARA Susan Tarr, Executive Director, FLICC Grimes NOAA Milton MeGee, Network Coordinator Klein DTIC Robin Hatziyannis, Editor Lomax FBP Joseph Banks, Business Manager Porter ACE Rettenmaier NRL Updegrove CCurrency Galloway WRAMC GUESTS: Barbara Robinson Abacus Consultant ABSENT: David Allen Abacus Consultant Whitmore NIH Wright NAL AGENDA 1. Approval of the December 5, 1996 FAC Meeting Minutes 2. Election of New FAC Officers 3. Discussion and Determination of FAC Meeting Dates for CY 1997 4. FAC Issues and Topics 5. FLICC Update -- Susan M. Tarr, FLICC Executive Director RONDAC Report Network Advisory Committee 6. FEDLINK Network Operations -- Milton MeGee, Network Coordinator 7. FEDLINK Fiscal Operations -- Joseph Banks, FEDLINK Business Manager 8. Committee Reports 9. FLICC/FEDLINK Business Plan Discussion: Phase II In Susan Whitmore's absence, Doria Grimes served as Acting Chair. Agenda Item 1: Barbara Robinson's notes were accepted as the minutes of the 5 Dec 96 meeting. Agenda Item 2: Doria Grimes presented the '97 FAC slate of officers: Fred Rettenmaier, NRL, as Chair. Doria Grimes, NOAA, to serve second term as Vice-Chair. Bonnie Klein, DTIC, to serve as Secretary. The chair asked for nominations from the floor; there were none. The chair then called for a voice vote to accept the slate as presented. The action carried unanimously. Agenda Item 3: Milton MeGee presented the 1997 calendar for FLICC and FAC meetings. There was some discussion about meeting frequency. Prior FACs, for example, had chosen not to meet in August because they would not have had a quorum with members absent for vacations. MeGee also pointed out two 1997 schedule variations. The first occurs May 15; as a convenience to the FAC, the meeting is scheduled from 1-3p.m. after the FLICC Quarterly meeting. The second occurs in October; the meeting is moved from the October 16, the 3rd Thursday of the month, to October 23, the 4th Thursday of the month. Agenda Item 4: Doria Grimes will develop guidelines for moderating FEBLIB-L, particularly addressing the types of messages to post to the list. Grimes mentioned receiving several OCLC announcements which struck her as being advertisements. However, after some discussion, it was decided that those were appropriate because FEDLINK serves as the OCLC Service Coordinator for FEDLINK members. Agenda Item 5: Susan Tarr presented the FLICC Update.. Tarr mentioned that the 1997 FLICC Executive Board would meet January 23, 1997. Sami Klein, NIST/FEB member, is the chair of the Budget and Finance Working Group, charged with assisting in the FEDLINK budget process. Tarr asked for FAC participation on the Budget and Finance Working Group; Lida Churchville volunteered. Relevant to the budget process, Tarr also discussed a prior Abacus study that focused on FEDLINK cost accounting and fee structure recommendations. Agenda Item 6: Milton MeGee reported on FEDLINK Network Operations. He announced that FEDLINK OCLC User Council representation had been reduced from 3 to 2 delegates. He also reported that the consolidated Computers In Libraries registration was having a good response from members. Agenda Item 7: Joseph Banks reported on Fiscal Operations. Agenda Item 8: The FAC heard reports about the activitities of the following Working Groups: Information Technology; Preservation & Binding, and Education. Education plans for 1997 include a Subject Classfication Institute, an Acquisitions Institute, a MARC Workshop and Library Technicians Training. Agenda Item 9: Barbara Robinson continued Phase II of the Strategic Planning Session begun at the December 5, 1996 FAC meeting. The FAC voted and Fred Rettenmaier volunteered to send a get-well card to Carol Bursik, former FAC member, to cheer her recovery from a broken ankle. The next FAC meeting is February 20, 1997. ______________________________________________- Bonnie Klein, FAC Secretary Date: March 18, 1997 Re: Minutes of the FEDLINK FAC Meeting, February 20, 1997 FAC Members Agency OTHER ATTENDEES PRESENT: FEDLINK Staff: Churchville NARA Susan Tarr, FLICC Executive Director Klein DTIC Milton MeGee, Network Coordinator Wright NAL Joseph Banks, Business Manager ABSENT: GUESTS: Grimes NOAA Marcia Talley, FEDLINK OCLC Delegate Lomax FBP Porter ACE Rettenmaier NRL Updegrove Ccurrency Whitmore NIH AGENDA: 1. Approval of the January 16, 1997 FAC Meeting Minutes 2. OCLC Users Council Report by Marcia Talley, Delegate, U.S. Naval Academy 3. FLICC Update Abacus Studies OCLC Institute OCLC Users Council Representation Formula OCLC Planned 3.5% Price Increase for FY98 4. FEDLINK Network Operations 5. FEDLINK Fiscal Operations 6. Committee Reports 7. New Business In the absence of Fred Rettenmaier, FAC Chair, and Doria Grimes, FAC Vice-Chair, Bonnie Klein served as Acting Chair, as well as Secretary,. The meeting was called to order at 9:20 a.m. The FAC did not have a voting quorum. Agenda Item 1: Approval of the January 16, 1997, FAC Meeting Minutes was delayed to the March 20, 1997 meeting. Agenda Item 2: Marcia Talley, Naval Research Laboratory, reported on the OCLC Users Council Meeting held January 27-29, 1997, in Dublin, Ohio. Talley is one of two FEDLINK delegates and has two years to serve. Bernard Strong, National Defense University, is the other delegate and has one year to serve. Talley's report is Attachment 1 to these minutes. There was discussion about OCLC's proposal to offer subsidies, possibly a $700 credit, to encourage members who have older workstations to upgrade. As of January 1, 1998, OCLC will not support DOS programs. Windows 3.1 support will be discontinued later. Talley said a recent OCLC newsletter included a chart of the planned phase-out. Susan Tarr suggested that FEDLINK Tech Notes print an article about this, including a reference to the OCLC newsletter article and the OCLC URL. FEDLINK members will need this information to justify and budget for hardware upgrades. Agenda Item 3: Susan Tarr presented the FLICC Update. RONDAC Report. Tarr announced she is the incoming chair of the Regional OCLC Network Directors Advisory Council (RONDAC) and had attended a joint meeting of the OCLC User Council Executive Board and RONDAC Executive Board meeting held February 16, 1997, during ALA Midwinter. RONDAC delegates noted that the OCLC Strategic Plan did not address the need for OCLC to consult and coordinate with its member Networks. Neither the '96 or the '91 plan acknowledge the importance of OCLC network partnerships. There was also concern that the plan did not focus on the needs of small libraries. Regarding OCLC Reference Services, members felt FIRST SEARCH pricing was expensive and needs watching. In Cataloging Services, OCLC is moving to subscription pricing. Although subscription pricing provides a stable, upfront cost and may aid in a library's planning and budgeting, it is not always cheaper than unit pricing. Vendors price their subscriptions conservatively to protect themselves. Marcia Talley commented that OCLC intends to review and adjust pricing annually to reflect customer activity. However, if activity was less than anticipated, no refunds would be given. DIALOG also does this and notifies customers of pricing changes for future service. OCLC and Faxon have signed an agreement for Electronic Collections Online - ECO replaces EJO. OCLC provides a gateway to electronic full-text publications. Customers pay for ECO gateway service and also for content licenses which must be established directly with subscription vendors and publishers. A centralized service is desirable to simplify the process. OCLC has started a pilot electronic archiving program. Libraries will pay OCLC to electronically archive holdings. Users fees may then be credited against the depositing library's archiving cost. The future of EPIC is in question; OCLC estimates it is too expensive for Year 2000 conversion of EPIC software - that may signal its death. If so, it would force libraries to upgrade to Internet telecommunications. OCLC's Planned 3.5% Price Increase for FY98. RONDAC members believe that the OCLC justification about holding the line on prices over the past several years is not a valid excuse for an across the board 3.5% increase when measured against flat library budgets. Susan Tarr asked FEDLINK members to contact her with their opinions about whether an across the board increase or specific product increases are preferable. OCLC Institute. Martin Dillion is the Head of the OCLC Insitute. The Institute will operate on a cost recovery basis and is geared for library managers. Susan Tarr will investigate the possibility of scholarships. OCLC is looking at obtaining grants for international library managers. Tarr commented that the Institute did not currently fill the need for the training of library network staff in such areas as WebZ and SiteSearch or for training about complex products. OCLC Users Council Representation Formula. As reported by Marcia Talley, FEDLINK OCLC User Council Delegates were reduced from three to two. Milton MeGee provided the FAC with copies of the OCLC Users Council Bylaws section which outlines the Delegate Algorithm. The complex formula is based on core service members contributing to the Online Union Catalog (OLUC). A library needs to add at least one original cataloging record a year to be counted. Page 3 of the bylaws gives weighting percentages. For example, online original cataloging is weighted at 23% and is given more weight than tapeloaded cataloging. Susan Tarr will ask OCLC whether the activity of the National Libraries figure into the FEDLINK calculation. In any case, FEDLINK still has three User Council representatives because Tarr will attend as the RONDAC Chair. Abacus Studies. FEDLINK has three contracts with Abacus. The first with a June 1996 deliverable is a Cost-Benefit Analysis to assess whether FEDLINK's 8% surcharge and negotiated service discounts are less expensive for agencies than in-house competitions and contracts. FEDLINK did not accept the Abacus deliverable because the Abacus findings, based on a survey, were inconclusive. FEDLINK wants to know what steps are involved and which things it does that anyone would have to do. This model would be used for justification to support overall savings and benefits for agencies using FEDLINK services. The second Abacus study is an analysis of Cost Allocations and the issue of setting fees on an activity basis. Preliminary findings show that the amount of service varies by products purchased which sometimes equates to the size of the purchase. FEDLINK does not want to have tiered pricing other than Direct vs. Transfer Pay. The purpose of the study was to either substantiate or call for the modification of the current Direct or Transfer Pay fee structures. The study determined that FEDLINK's basic cost in setting up and maintaining an account averages $1200 for either Direct or Transfer Pay customers. Currently, Direct Pay accounts under $100,000.00 incur a $850.00 fee. The March 4, 1997, Budge and Finance Working Group will address this during the 1998 budgeting process. Tarr felt that the Direct Pay base fees may rise some, but not could not jump to cover the full $350.00 difference. She also felt that the single fee level for products is still appropriate for now and should be looked at during the 1999 budget process. The third Abacus contract is the FEDLINK Business Plan. Agenda Item 4: Milton MeGee reported on FEDLINK Network Operations. The Statement of Work (SOW) for the Request for Proposals (RFP) for Database Services is complete and is at the contracting office. FEDLINK is developing some new services to include research services and book purchases from database suppliers. An Acquisition Institute is being planned possibly for August 1997. A second Position Description Workshop may be taught in Norfolk, VA, in April; fourteen people are needed to hold the workshop. Erik Delfino has coordinated office automation upgrades. FEDLINK staff have been trained in Windows '95 and Word Perfect 7.0. Delfino is working on the homepage redesign. Content additions include the FLICC '95 and '96 Newsletters, the '96 TechNotes, and the FEDLINK Handbook. FEDLINK will survey members regarding the homepage and publications. The next edition of TechNotes will highlight electronic invoicing on ALIX. FEDLINK is working on Internet access to customer account information. The FEDLINK booth activity at ALA Midwinter was slow. FEDLINK consolidated over 300 member registrations for the March 10-12, 1997, Computers in Libraries Conference. FEDLINK may also consolidate registration for the national Online Conference. Lida Churchville suggested FEDLINK add Archives USA, a Chadwyck-Healy product, to the Database RFP. Agenda Item 5. Joseph Banks reported on FEDLINK Fiscal Operations. He stated that this year is going well with 82% of Interagency Agreements (IAGs) in process and 68.8% signed with funds committed. Looking at expenditures, he forecasts that there will not be a surplus, but that FEDLINK will make its budget. Banks spent time with auditors during January and February who determined that FEDLINK was solvent and had sound financial management. The only criticism was that some invoices were paid beyond their due date. Banks noted the interest penalty amounted to $3.97. The second FLICC Budget Meeting will be held March 4, 1997, at FEDLINK. The first meeting summarized issues; this next meeting will look at numbers. Agenda Item 6. There were no formal Committee Reports. Susan Tarr discussed the upcoming '97 FLICC Forum which will focus on telecommunications technology vs. content. In an effort to encourage attendance, FEDLINK lowered the registration fee from the $150.00 charged last year to $100.00 for this year. Agenda item 7. Milton MeGee presented new business. FEDLINK is looking at future dates for educational programs. FEDLINK staff asked if the FAC would approve moving the Fall Membership meeting from November 13, 1997, to October 14, 1997. Because the lack of a quorum prevented a vote, MeGee will poll the FAC via email. MeGee will send this meeting's hand-outs and a reminder about the next meeting to all FAC members. The next FAC meeting is March 20, 1997. The meeting adjourned at 10:50. OCLC User's Council Report to FAC, Marcia Talley (Fedlink delegate) Under the direction of Users Council President Victoria Hanawalt, results of the recent meeting include: 1. Edward Meachen (WILS), Associate Vice Chancellor, Information Services, University of Wisconsin-Parkside was elected as Delegate-at-Large to fill a vacancy on the 1996/97 Users Council Executive Committee. 2. Brad Baker, Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee to Review Nominations and Elections Procedures reported that the committee has completed its deliberations and will submit its final report shortly. 3. In her Executive Committee report, Victoria Hanawalt stated that the annual calculation of the Users Council Delegate Algorithm resulted in the number of delegates for FEDLINK changing from three to two and the WILS delegates increasing from one to two. Planning for the May meeting on "Model Partnerships: Information Producers, Libraries, and OCLC" has begun. New Users Council Assistant Jessica Smith was introduced to delegates. 4. Delegates listened to Dr. K. Wayne Smith, OCLC President and Chief Executive Officer, report on the status of OCLC's activities in its three priority areas of reference services and electronic publishing, enhancements to cataloging and resource sharing services, and international expansion. In addition, he spoke to delegates on the importance of strategic planning and the process for accomplishing it at OCLC. Donne Olvey, Vice President and Assistant to the President, gave an overview of OCLC's draft strategic plan. 5. Delegates met in small groups by type-of-library and service area to discuss the plan and to respond to questions prepared by the Executive Committee. Betsy Wilson (OCLC Pacific) summarized the type-of-library and interest group discussions. Users Council recommendations included: - OCLC should continue to expand WorldCat with specific emphasis on enrichment. - Delegates reaffirm the direction of controlling library costs as a fundamental purpose. - Increasing global expansion and perspective is crucial for OCLC, but requires changes. - OCLC should focus on what it has always done best - cooperation and sharing. - Integrating core services is critical for seamless delivery and access for library users. - Libraries need OCLC to integrate its services with local systems. - Delegates encourage OCLC to develop integrated solutions via network consultancies. - OCLC must use and promote standards that facilitate integration and local customization. - OCLC's work was applauded and it was asked to encourage electronic archiving. - Delegates reaffirm OCLC*s emphasis on education/training & encourage a broader focus. 6. Dan Iddings (PALINET), Assistant Director at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, moderated a panel discussion on "Partnerships As a Means of Achieving Strategic Goals." Participants included Dan Arbor, Vice President of Marketing/Serials Publishing at UMI; Dan Halloran, President of Academic Book Center; and Don Muccino, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at OCLC. 7. Other news, by topic. Cataloging: Since 1989, OCLC has extended $26 million in credits for original cataloging and member contributions to the Online Union Catalog. PromptCat is now shelf ready. The Cataloging Micro-Enhancer (CAT ME) for Windows is now ready. The 36th million bibliographic record was entered by Cornell University. Reference: 6,000 libraries in 47 countries are using First Search and other reference services. First Search has moved to first place in electronic reference, passing Lexus/Nexus (2nd place), Westlaw (3rd place) and Dialog (4th place). There are now over 200,000 searches a day in First Search. Databases added include Chem Abstracts, Student Edition; AIDS and Cancer research. The basic package has expanded to 13 files and full text reference materials have increased with the addition of the World Almanac, World Book, New York Times, Book of Facts and Wilson Peopleline. The First Search homepage should be ready in Febrary, 1997 at: http://www.oclc.org/oclc/menu/eco.htm. Interlibrary loans: 78.8 million interlibrary loan transactions have been processed. The Interlibrary Loan Micro-enhancer (ILL ME) for Windows is now available. The Interlibrary Loan Fee Management (IFM) program is growing, with850 libraries participating. International: International use of OCLC products is increasing. Fastest growth is the Asia-Pacific area. Pricing: OCLC remains commited to holding prices at or below inflation rates. OCLC has cut costs, and has fewer people on the staff today than in 1989. They will try to hold price increases to 3.5%, the estimated inflation rate. Computers: In 1996, OCLC paid $1.6 million in subsidies to encourage members to trade in 3,000 older workstations. There are still many older workstations (M300s, 286s and below) in the system. 900 M300 workstations (circa 1985) are still in use. Although OCLC had originally said they would not sponsor any "buy back" program, they are now considering offering $700 in credits to members who upgrade. OCLC is striving for secure and effective means of access. They have entered into a partnership with Sprint to avoid the common Internet problems of brownouts and overload. DOS is dead, and DOS programs will not be supported by OCLC after January 1, 1998. Windows 3.1 software and products support will be discontinued at a later date. OCLC Institute: As part of the strategic plan, OCLC will develop an institute for the training and education of library managers. OCLC Strategic Plan: OCLC is developing a strategic Plan for the next five years, concentrating on the "Four I's Goals": Integrate, Innovate, Internationalize and Inform. Integrate and enhance all the core services. Innovate by providing new, cost effective alternatives. Internationalize by increasing global expansion and global perspective. Inform by adding training and educational service, the OCLC Institute.