ARKLink Meeting Minutes

                               December 3, 1998; 1:00 p.m.

                               UALR - Ottenheimer Library

                                        People in attendance were:

The December 3, 1998 meeting of the ARKlink committee held at the
Ottenheimer Library at UALR was called to order by chair Janet Parsch at 1 p.m.
Introductions were made.

Janet Parsch gave the background of the committee starting with the spring
meeting of the Arkansas Library Association College and University Division
last spring. A distribution list of ArLA members from colleges and
universities has been established, along with other
academic librarians who are not members of ArLA.

Juana Young from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville gave a report
on the Arkansas Digital Library (ADL) initiative. This initiative
originated with the UAF Mullins Library, but has since been expanded to
include other academic libraries in the state.

The ADL has three goals which are:

I. Cooperative Purchase of Commercial Electronic Library Resources
II. Digitizing Unique and Important Arkansas Collections
III. Library Partnerships for campus and distance education

The proposal sets out a five-year project that will cost between $23 and
$24 million ($8.7 million for the first biennium, and $5 million
thereafter), and needs widespread support from across the state. (Letters
of support can be sent to Juana Young, Acting Director of Libraries,
Mullins Library 206, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville AR 72701.)
Mary Farris reported on the Association of Arkansas Two Year Colleges
(AATYC). She said that she discussed the ADL at their recent meeting. Jim
Jackson of the Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges is interested in
seeking a potential partnership for use of the ADL. Ed Franklin is the
Executive Director of the AATYC. Dr. Jackson is the project director for
AATYC's Access Arkansas which is the two-year college site for web-based
instruction. He is eager to add a link to the ADL on the Access Arkansas
home page at www.johnco.cc.ks.us/~jjackson/home.html.

Ruth Riley reported on the meeting of UA system librarians that had been
held in the morning in which distance education was the major topic.
Henry Terrill reported on the $12 million that Harding University will
receive. He emphasized that they don't actually have the money in hand yet.
Peter Picerno gave a demonstration of the Ohiolink union catalog. He also
gave background information on Ohiolink and Magnolia which are examples of
existing consortia.

Janet Parsch asked for feedback from the group on whether we are going in
the right direction and what kind of an organizational structure we should
have. It was agreed that a task force should be set up to investigate the
possibilities of consortial purchasing. This task force will proceed,
regardless of the outcome of the ADL initiative. Necia Parker Gibson
proposed that an instruction and training task force also be established.

It was also proposed that a funding task force be established. People who
are interested in serving on these task forces will be contacting Myron Flugstad
or Janet Parsch.  Necia Parker Gibson moved that Janet Parsch and Myron Flugstad
be elected co-chairs of the organization with terms running to April 2000. Cynthia
Crawford seconded the motion. No other nominations were made and the
motion was passed. Janet and Myron have been charged with presenting a
proposal for the organization of the group and name the group.

The name Arkansas Academic Libraries Consortium was proposed. The name
will be formally voted on at the January 14 meeting.
The next meeting will be held at the UALR Law Library on Thursday, January
14, 1999 at one p.m.

David Glick from Henderson State University then gave a presentation on
their digitization project and the meeting was adjourned at 4:30.

Respectfully submitted,
Myron Flugstad
Recorder ProTem

Last updated January 10, 2000
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