Myron called the meeting to order. The minutes of the Dec. 11th meeting were approved.

1.  David Glick announced that the ARKLink website is up.  http://library.hsu.edu/ARKLink
It includes the database survey & needs assessment surveys. A login & password is required.
Bookmarks with the ARKLink Library Consortium, Inc. were distributed. A list of Arkansas academic library
directors was also distributed. Myron requested that Arkansas Baptist College &
Shorter College be kept abreast of ARKLink's activities, since they do not currently
have network access. Virginia Perschbacher of Philander Smith volunteered for this.

2. Database Purchasing Task Force: Access to the CINAHL (Cumulative Index to
Nursing and Allied Health Literature) database is activated. As for the PSYCInfo
database, the American Psychological Association (which produces the database)
decided it needed its own licensing agreements with the individual ARKLink institutions.
Licensing agreements were not accepted via fax; they had to be submitted via U.S.
postal service, which undoubtedly slowed the process down. No progress has been
made with the MLA Bibliography database. Bob said the task force was waiting for
PSYCInfo to start up before moving on to MLA. We may have to re-survey the
ARKLink institutions to see if there is still interest in the MLA.  Smaller academic
libraries may find consortial pricing more advantageous than larger institutions, Bob said.

3. Resource Sharing Task Force: Peggy noted that the resource sharing survey has
been posted to the ARKLink website.

4. Collection Development Task Force: Amanda reported that the group hasn't met in
awhile. She did report that in talking with book vendors, they seemed willing to work
with ARKLink in purchasing materials. Group discounts of 15-25 percent may be
available. Amanda suggested that focus groups be created to assess how much each
institution can contribute to consortial purchasing. These focus groups would be
comprised of collection development & acquisition librarians.

5. Funding Sources Task Force: The group did not meet. If anyone is seeking funding
they should contact Kathy Sanders for possible sources with which to match their
ideas.  Much of the meeting was taken up with going through Draft #4 of the
Position Paper for ARKLink. This document has been edited and streamlined since the
December meeting. The portion of the document concerned with how ARKLink can
support distance education was removed. The consensus of the group was that the
removed portion should be condensed and inserted into the goals section of the
document. This will make the document more concise thereby having a more immediate
impact on interested parties. The committee consists of Kathy Sanders (chair),
Linda Bennett, Martha Coleman, Myron Flugstad, Janet Parsch, Virginia Perschbacher,
Peggy Morrison, Bob Frizzell & Amanda Moore.

Sharon Kerr reported that the arklink.org domain name was not currently in use by another
organization or registered in Arkansas.  Juana Young volunteered to proceed to get the
domain name set up.

Janet Parsch ran through a PowerPoint presentation of the Arkansas Digital Library initiative.

Jan Hart reported that the University of Arkansas System is looking at creating a joint
catalog & check-out system using INNReach software from Innovative Interfaces, Inc.

David Glick presented the ARKLink webpage.

The next meeting will be held in conjunction with the College & University Division
meeting of the Arkansas Library Association conference, which is Friday, April 14.
Exact time for the ARKLink meeting is yet to be determined.

Minute-taker: Mark Shores

Last updated March 10, 2000
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