Minutes of the German Resources Project Advisory Board Meeting
Society Hill Sheraton
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Saturday, January 30, 1999
This was the first meeting of the reconstituted Advisory Board, and a good part of the meeting was devoted to organizational issues and discussing the ways the Advisory Board would work both together and with the larger general membership. Sarah Thomas and Winston Tabb, the Co-Chairs of the German Resource Project, began the meeting by introducing themselves to the group. John Van Oudenaren was then introduced as the Advisory Board Chair, who led the meeting. Also in attendance were the four Working Group leaders: Karl Fattig, Coordinator of the Bibliographic Control Working Group; Michael Olson, Collection Development Working Group; Michael Seadle, Digital Libraries Working Group; and Sem Sutter, Document Delivery Working Group.
Discussion began with the role the working groups will play in developing Project initiatives. The discussion groups are now active, and these lists will become an important means for working group communication. Working group leaders will work closely with the Advisory Board in both communicating and coordinating their respective initiatives, and the Advisory Board will assist in setting priorities for Project activities. Each of the working group leaders were asked to spend the following weeks actively leading discussion on their respective lists in developing and prioritizing individual working group initiatives. Some concern was expressed regarding sufficient communication among the working groups, and with the Advisory Board, and it was emphasized that the Project Website would be the primary means that the working groups would share information outside the groups themselves. The Project is now maintaining eight listservs, and the project coordinator has thus far found it a challenge to coordinate the selective dissemination of information among the myriad of lists. The importance of maintaining active communication among the participating groups was discussed, and the role of the Advisory Board in making its decisions and other activities known to the broader membership was highligted.
The next part of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of the upcoming spring meeting in Göttingen, Germany. This is the second and last meeting funded by a special Mellon grant, and its primary intent is to explore, in pursuing the goals of the German Resources Project, possible areas of collaboration with German academic libraries. Members of the group stressed the importance of focusing on substance and potential projects at the meeting, and on the need to invite a broad array of German participants - both from different libraries and institutions and representing different interests and specializations. Details of the general itinerary were reviewed, which are still being worked out with colleagues in Göttingen. Though still subject to change, the trip will include the three day visit to Göttingen, a brief visit to the Frankische Stiftung in Halle, and a three-day stay in Leipzig. The latter will include an a visit to the Leipzig Book Fair, as well as participating in an important meeting of the EXPLOIT initiative, which involves maximizing the collaborative efforts of European research libraries. All of these activities are intended to provide further opportunities for learning more about and exploring possible collaboration with German colleagues.
In developing an agenda for the meetings that will take place over the course of two days in Göttingen, it was decided that an important part of the meeting should be devoted to the still developing agendas of each of the working groups. The working group leaders were charged to continue working out their respective agendas with the working group membership, and based on their discussions (using the listservs) to prepare presentations that outline ideas, proposals, and initiatives they would like to pursue. Because of the nature and purpose of the meeting in Germany, the particular emphasis of these presentations will be to outline possible areas of collaboration with German libraries. Ideally, the working group leaders would be in a position to present concrete ideas to their German counterparts at the March meeting. They then would be able to develop concrete proposals on a cooperative basis for possible submission to funders in the United States and Germany. A summary, or abstract, of these working group presentations will be made available as part of the meeting agenda before the meeting will take place at the end of March. The project coordinator was charged with contacting colleagues in Göttingen in planning the meeting, and to coordinate structuring a part of the meeting agenda around the presentations of the working group leaders.
An important priority this year is to actively seek and identify external sources of funding to sustain the Project's future activities. Special funding has been provided for the current budget year (July 1 to June 30) to develop and maintain the current activities of the Project, and in order to sustain its growth and development, more permanent funding will be necessary for the period after June 30, 1999. This was discussed at the meeting, and in particular a special proposal requesting funding to the Bertelsmann Foundation was discussed. A final, 12-page, draft of the proposal has now been prepared, and it was decided at the meeting to distribute a copy of the current version to all in attendance. The idea was raised that representatives from the Bertelsmann Stiftung be invited to the meeting in Göttingen. This would allow staff from Bertelsmann and the Project to become acquainted, and Project participants could introduce the myriad of initiatives currently underway. It was felt that this direct contact with Bertelsmann staff would provide a conducive climate for introducing a grant proposal to the Stiftung, and for this reason meeting participants were in agreement that Sarah Thomas initiate contact with Bertelsmann representatives to extend the invitation. After the conclusion of a successful meeting, the Advisory Board could formally submit the grant proposal to Bertelsmann. In addition, attendees felt that the spring meeting in Göttingen should be utilized for inviting representatives of other potential funding bodies, and Michael Olson mentioned the Bosch Foundation as a organization that may be interested in the goals of the German Resources Project. Invitations would be pursued in collaboration with Dr. Mittler.
Another important issue at this point in the development of the Project is to continue to look at and develop general Project priorities. It was agreed that because of the anticipated impact on enhancing the availability of materials from middle Europe, the launching GBVdirekt/North America should possess a high priority for the German Resources Project. A working prototype now exists for GBVdirekt/NA, but it has yet to be tested and refined. The ARL account for GBVdirekt was recently replenished, so the prototype is now ready for general testing. It was agreed that all members of the Document Delivery Working Group should receive administrative test accounts for the GBV as soon as possible, and with their accounts they should use actual document delivery requests to fully explore and become familiar with the GBVdirekt search and ordering system. The GBV recently upgraded the PICA database software underlying GBVdirekt, and so changes to the North American interface will be necessary. Based on their experiences, the interface would be refined and made ready for a production roll-out of GBVdirekt/NA later this winter or early spring. At the same time, the project coordinator and Mary Jackson would work with ARL staff in setting up the fund accounting for the service.
As part of the discussion of the GBVdirekt/North America project, Advisory Board members also strongly felt that the question of ‘returnables’, or books and other resources, be included on the agenda of the spring meeting. Current planning has it that GBVdirekt/North America will include only document delivery in its initial phase. However, since the GBVdirekt system also includes interlibrary loan transactions for books and other materials, the circumstances are highly conducive for serious discussion with our German partner libraries for considering formal interlibrary loan between German Resources Project participants and GBV member libraries. It was decided that the Project coodinator would discuss the possibility of adding a discussion of interlibrary loan of book materials on the agenda for the spring meeting.
Minutes prepared by Roger Brisson