ARKLink Meeting Minutes

June 9, 2003; 12:00 p.m.
University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR

The ARKlink meeting began at noon on the campus of University of Central Arkansas in Conway, AR.  Those in attendance were:

After brief introductions, ARKLink chair Amanda Moore asked for reports from the task forces.

Database Purchasing

Task Force chair Renee LeBeau-Ford reported that most ARKLink subscriptions have been renewed. Next up is the MLA Bibliography.  Librarians should let Renee know if they are interested in joining the other ARKLink institutions who are participating in a group purchase of the database.  Renee has also been in contact with a vendor called the American Council of Learned Societies, who are offering an electronic history book product.  Price is based on FTE.  ProQuest is eager for ARKLink to look at its Safari product, which offers electronic computer books and manuals.  The product is unique in that libraries decide each year which titles to keep, add or remove from their subscription.  ARKLink's purchase of Safari would mean that ARKLink itself, not each individual institution, would have to make those decisions. This may be a product that information technology departments on our respective campuses would be willing to help pay for, Renee said.

Resource Sharing

Kristine Shrauger reported that the ARKLink Reciprocal Borrowing program is working well at her institution. There have been many requests for materials at UA-Fayetteville.  Kristine said AMIGOS is preparing a presentation on the courier service for the Arkansas Library Association conference this fall.  Wendy Davis at Pulaski Tech was successful in putting her institution's specific information on their ARKLink cards and have issued seven of them so far.  Davis added that using the campus listserv was a great way to publicize the program.

Dena Plaisted (UAMS) said her institution would prefer not to operate both the ARKLink Reciprocal Borrowing program AND a similar agreement between University of Arkansas system libraries. A meeting of University of Arkansas system library directors may be convened at some point to discuss doing away with the latter program.

Some lag time in deliveries via the ARKLink Courier program have been reported.  Shrauger said it has taken 8-10 days to send some items to Oklahoma and Texas.  Other librarians reported some variation in delivery times.

Governance

Henry Terrill said we are waiting for the State of Arkansas to confirm ARKLink's non-profit status.  Once that is approved, the group can begin applying for funding.  Henry is the "authorized agent."

Collection Development

No report.

Fund Raising

No report.

Other Discussions

Amanda Moore apprised the group that the FirstSearch Base package, usually funded with LSTA monies, will probably not continue past Fall 2004.  In meetings with a State Library official, Moore was told that the State Library's mandate is to help public and school libraries and, given the financial state of said libraries, it behooves the State Library to narrow its focus on them.  The State Library's Network Advisory Committee may meet in February 2004 and will likely decide at that time not to renew the FirstSearch Base package.  Usage statistics distributed by Peggy Morrison showed that approximately 3/4 of the usage is by academic libraries.  Moore already spoke with AMIGOS and they are coming up with a FirstSearch price quote for ARKLink libraries.  The current subscription is based on 18 ports (or users) and that would probably not change with an ARKLink subscription.  In regards to the upcoming switch from ProQuest to EBSCO (the LSTA funded databases), Renee suggested that, in the future, each librarian speak to your representative on the Network Advisory Committee to ensure that they know of our concerns.  The committee listing is at: http://www.asl.lib.ar.us/traveler/netcommittee.htm

There was much discussion about what kinds of projects for which ARKLink could solicit funding.  Morrison suggested that the group focus on 1 or 2 projects.  The online Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was one suggestion.  There were concerns that the price was high and that it's already full-text in LexisNexis Academic. A print index has been put out for many years by the librarians at Arkansas Tech.  Renee LeBeau-Ford reported that, at some point, the index may be available in an online format.  Peggy suggested that soliciting funding so that more libraries can join the ARKLink courier service.  Any kind of library could join, and many libraries are saving money on postage.  Some librarians said the courier service wasn't necessarily cheaper, but that the books were being handled better than through interlibrary loan.  Currently no public libraries are participating in the courier service and there are three "shared" sites (i.e. two adjacent libraries share the cost of the courier service by pro-rating or equally dividing the cost between the two.  An example would be Henderson State Univ. and Ouachita Baptist in Arkadelphia, AR)

Another suggestion for grant funding was the Iliad interlibrary loan software.  It could be pitched as a boon for distance learners, since it offers desktop delivery of journal articles.  Cost is based on the library's volume of borrowing, and there is an extra charge to host the Iliad software on a non-local server.  It was decided that the courier service and the Iliad software would be the main focus of the group's fund raising efforts.  Fund Raising task force chair Janet Parsch is asking for volunteers to help with the grant writing process.

The next meeting is tentatively scheduled during the fall Arkansas Library Association conference in Fort Smith.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 2:15 p.m.
Submitted by Mark Shores, Secretary

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