COMMITTEE:    LIBRARIES COMMITTEE

MEETING DATE:  January 17, 2007

PERSON PRESIDING: Marianna Walker

REGULAR MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: Salman Abdulali, Juan Daneri, Michael Duffy, Marianna Walker    

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: Larry Boyer, Dottie Spencer, Kathy Cable, Sharon Collins (for Elmer Poe)

OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE, Jeff Coghill,  Michael Poteat

ACTIONS OF MEETING:

Minutes of the November 15 meeting were approved.

Presentation on the Sedona System for recording academic publications:

Michael Poteat, Director of Institutional Effectiveness, discussed the adoption of Sedona by East Carolina University for its academic publication database. He handed out a fact sheet on the uses and objectives of Sedona. Poteat described how Bob Thompson had developed the original database through ITCS, and he (Poteat) took it over last spring 2006. Chris Smith was instrumental in having ECU purchase Sedona. Poteat is presently populating the database for Sedona. Rosters of faculty are currently being prepared from personnel data files in the possession of IPRE. Excel files will be sent to all Schools.

Sedona was piloted in the School of Business. It is being successfully used by UNC-G at this time. Sedona uses a Microsoft access data base using Excel files. The templates can be customized. Woodruff Consulting, who administers the system, has created a template for our annual reports. We can operate discretely with SOIS student data; bins can be labeled for special categories by schools and departments. Annual reports and cvs can be produced the way NIH, FS and other institutions like them. Sedona can track faculty qualifications and identify teachers as SACS qualified. Poteat noted that SACS tends to tie competency to courses and not degrees. Sedona of course can document our compliance here.

Poteat hopes to have Sedona up and running in February. The old database will be rolled over and cleaned up by faculty. We are having to deal with a small business and some awkwardness in entering data into the template; yet, it is easy to generate reports and enter templates. A webmaster will be identified for each college. Sedona will not be required for annual reports this year.

Spencer asked if Sedona will address the strategic plan, perhaps in a narrative way (since old annual reports never asked for it; e. g., the second page asked for progress over the previous year). This would call for flexibility to do a narrative report. Spencer suggested entering data as it actually appeared in the publication (it was changed in the older database).

Poteat noted that he had attended the ACRL institute on scholarly education in Durham, NC. He said that Sedona will not be a substitute for an institutional repository. Themed repositories were the most successful application. At the institute Poteat was made aware of the concerns over copyright issues.

Spencer brought up theses and dissertations as a good place to start in this role. She also recommended that Sedona not duplicate imagery recorded in the established press. Spencer also asked how we would perform metadata tagging for access.

Boyer followed up Spencer’s query and noted that the library is presenting to the University Graduate Council an initiative through ProQuest to go to electronic theses and dissertations.

Spencer said that the University’s reputation will be enhanced as the quality of electronic repositories grow.

Walker asked if ProQuest will be an additional cost. Boyer replied that the cost of the service will not be so great; but we will incur costs when we buy a server and have people to do the metadata. Walker would like to make this a goal. Boyer will have a report made for a future meeting.

Joyner and Laupus are working on SFX, a document retrieval program. Coghill described this program. Spencer and Coghill talked about the license recently written for the Lippincott contract that would make available 260 titles and 960 reels of microfilm. Spencer noted that Laupus modified its operating hours to please different populations in Medicine.

Boyer discussed the appointment of a 14 member group to look at the structure of the library, which will be a yearlong process. He would like the task force to talk with the Libraries Committee. Boyer mentioned the invitation to the February 23 lunch honoring Bill Powell, editor of the Encyclopedia of North Carolina.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:15 p.m.

NEXT MEETING: February 21 at 3 p.m. in the administrative conference room of Joyner Library

Respectfully submitted,

Michael Duffy

Secretary