ARKLink Meeting Minutes

March 21, 2003; 11:00 a.m.
Arkansas Tech University, Russellville, AR

Amanda Moore, President of ARKLink called the meeting to order after the College and University Division meeting ended.  She welcomed all in attendance. 

Henry Terrill agreed to serve as secretary for the meeting. 

Moore related a summary of the information presented at the Director's Breakfast.  Some of the points presented by Carolyn Allen of the UofA-F included:

Discussion followed. 

Discussion moved to the ASL Traveler Database package as proposed by the Network Advisory Committee.  Debbie Kirby was present at the meeting.  The 4-year college representative was not present at the Network Advisory Committee Meeting.  Several expressed concerns as to how the vote was taken, and provisions for alternates to attend the meeting.

The basic discussion was that the EBSCO package would give added transition from the high school users to the college campuses, is a less expensive package, and still covers business and even some specialized and regional databases as a bonus.  Many disagreed that the coverage was the same and that ABI/Inform is the "Standard" business database for most senior colleges. 

Some discussion on the impression that the OCLC base package is for the senior colleges only and that it continually goes up in price.  Many voiced the view that the OCLC base package should be a key database in all college libraries.  Several were willing to hold regional training sessions for public libraries and schools to help the library colleagues in these institutions understand and use the OCLC base package more efficiently.

A request will be made for the ASL contact (Hawkes) to make use statistics available on the OCLC base package so it can be determined if the academics are the only ones using the databases.  All agreed that the college libraries want to keep a positive contact with the ASL, but the relationship seems to have declined recently for some reason.

Mark Shores (secretary of ARKLink) reported that the Reciprocal Borrowing database is almost complete with Central Baptist and UCA yet to provide their information for the database.[Get that information in!]  Shores also requested input from the Task Force chairs if they would mind if their e-mail addresses were provided on the respective ARKLink pages?  Each chair should notify him of their decision as soon as possible.

Renee LeBeau-Ford reported for the Database Purchase Task Force.  The CINAHL change to EBSCO is complete.  PsycInfo is almost completed with only one institution dropping out and several being added.  Quotes for MLA are due in soon.  Responses were very favorable on the entire process.

Collection Development Task Force had no report.
Fund Raising Task Force had no report.

Henry Terrill reported for the Governance Task Force.  Paperwork is progressing on the Arkansas non-profit corporation and tax exempt status.  The Executive Committee granted Terrill permission to be the "registered agent" for the non-profit corporation filings with the state.  Several changes in wording in the Governance/Bylaws will need to be submitted to the membership for approval, but Terrill preferred to wait for the state's approval before submitting all of the changes to the membership.  All were encouraged by the progress, all-be-it slowly.

The Resource Sharing Task Force reported that the ARKLink cards have been implemented and small details are being worked out.  Several reported good responses from their patrons.  Some problems occurred with the format of the cards and printing problems, but for the most part no problems.  U of A-Ft. Smith will be sending out a card format in Word format. 

Marketing ideas expressed at the meeting were, Newsletter article (UAMS), posters by workstations, announcements through campus listserv, and adding link from library home pages to the ARKLink information.

The Reciprocal Borrowing listserv, with circ policies, etc. is almost ready.   

The 2-year Colleges program for the ArLA conference will be a panel on special issues facing higher education in Arkansas.

The College and University Division program will be an informational meeting for newcomers to the state about many of the cooperative ventures such as ARKLink, the Traveler databases, etc.  Send other ideas to Moore or LeBeau-Ford.

The Nominating Committee will propose Kaye Talley from UCA for the ARKLink Vice-President.  Ballots will be e-mailed shortly.

The next ARKLink meeting will be in late May, probably at Hendrix.  Details and date will be sent at a later date.

The meeting adjourned at 2:45 p.m.
Submitted by Henry Terrill, substitute Secretary.

 

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