September 18 , 2003

10:30 a.m - 3:00 p.m.
East Greenbush Community Library
East Greenbush, NY

Present: Thomas Alrutz, Soumaya Baaklini, Jeff Cannell, Bill Crumlish, Diana Cunningham, Carol Desch, Marilyn Douglas, Randy Ericson, Dottie Hiebing, Cara Janowsky, Sara Kelly Johns, Wanda Knight, Sara McCain, Mary Redmond, John Shaloiko, Kate Storms, Linda Todd, Janet Welch

Absent: Mary Brink, Diane Courtney, Loretta Ebert, Carey Hatch, John Monahan, Jerry Nichols, Carole Huxley, James Kadamus, Susan Keitel, Mary-Alice Lynch, John Meierhoffer, Kathleen Roe, David Walsh

Guests: Assemblywoman Sandra R. Galef, Jo Brill, Julie M. Marlette

Recorder: Lorraine Deitz

Welcome and Introductions-Dottie Hiebing

Ms. Heibing convened the meeting at 10:40 a.m. and welcomed guests, Jo Brill, legislative Coordinator for Assemblywoman Sandra R. Galef, and Julie Marlette, Libraries and Education Technology Policy Analyst for the NYS Assembly. Assemblywoman Galef, Chair of the Committee on Libraries and Education Technology since January 2003, joined the group at noon. Dottie also welcomed the newest member of the Steering Committee, Randy Ericson. Linda Todd, who attended as an observer in the past, is also an official member as of this meeting. All participants introduced themselves. Because of our new members and guests, Dottie gave a brief overview of the history of the NOVEL Steering Committee:

Three years ago, a high-powered commission was appointed to look at statewide library services, resulting in the New Century Libraries initiative. NOVEL (New York Online Virtual Electronic Library) and the NOVEL Steering Committee were developed to focus on electronic resources and technology issues in New York State libraries. Because of financial constraints, members of the NOVEL Steering Committee must pay their own travel costs, so conference calls are scheduled along with the actual meetings.

Jo Brill, Legislative Coordinator for Assemblywoman Galef, is looking to the State Library and NYLA to determine priorities for next year's legislative budget. For example, how can NOVEL help bridge the digital divide in schools and address the fiscal equity gaps identified in recent court cases related to education funding? Ms. Brill requested a list of the school libraries not participating in NOVEL and a list of schools that do not have a school library media specialist.

State Librarian's Comments-Janet Welch

Mrs. Welch mentioned that 4400 libraries-all of the public libraries and college and university libraries-are using NOVEL. More work needs to be done to get schools registered since only 2700/4700 school libraries use NOVEL, most likely due to a shortage of library media specialists in the schools.
The Executive's proposed 15 percent cut in library funding for 2003 did not succeed. Mrs. Welch thanked Assemblywoman Galef and Jo Brill for their efforts in support of libraries and library systems. The veto override had the most votes of any issue in the session. Credit should also be given to Senator Farley and his staff.

Minutes

Sara Kelly Johns moved to accept the minutes of the July 8, 2003 meeting; John Shaloiko seconded-motion passed.

Committee Membership-Terms of Office

Terms of office for members of the NOVEL Steering Committee run from October 1 to September 30. Terms will be three years. The newest members, Randy Ericson and Wanda Knight, are appointed through September 30, 2006. A drawing was held to determine the terms of office of the remaining steering committee members. A complete listing of members and the year their term expires follows. The membership listing on the web site will be updated with this information.

NOVEL at NYLA Conference, November 2003, Saratoga Springs-Mary Redmond

A discussion of NOVEL will take the bulk of the time following introductory remarks from State Librarian Janet Welch on Thursday, November 6, 4:30-5:45 PM, "News from your State Library." (We would like to introduce NOVEL Steering Committee members who are in attendance.) There will be an opportunity to participate in "Test your NOVEL Knowledge" and an update on databases-developments and procedures-regarding the NOVEL Database Program. Questions will be solicited via NYLINE and NOVEL-DB prior to the conference. The session will end with a request that participants visit district offices to demonstrate NOVEL databases to legislators and legislative staff.

Ms. Johns mentioned that from 10-12 on Saturday, November 8, the NOVEL Steering Committee will provide a poster session, "NOVEL @ Your Library," featuring a poster, handouts, and people to answer questions on "NOVEL @ Your Library." If you will be at NYLA and would be willing to spend a little time at the poster session, please notify Marilyn Douglas at mdouglas@mail.nysed.gov .

Electronic Doorway Library -Marilyn Douglas

The State Library sent "A NOVEL Ready Electronic Doorway Library (EDL) Certificate" signed by Janet Welch and Commissioner Mills to all the public library and school libraries that meet the EDL Basic 2000 criteria. The State Library is in the process of sending certificates to qualifying academic libraries as well.

***Meeting Adjourned for Lunch at 12:30 PM***

(Pat Nonamaker, Director of the East Greenbush Community Library, met informally with members of the Steering Committee at this time.)

Reports from NOVEL Subcommittees

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES GROUP-John Shaloiko, Co-Chair

Progress since last meeting:
Two items have been posted on the NOVEL Steering Committee web site: Selection, Acquisition and Marketing Policy Statement adopted at the July 2003 meeting and the results of the Fall 2002 survey on Database Needs. Ms. Douglas noted that the survey results are on the web site with an invitation to comment. It was suggested that the NYLINE message about the Survey be re-posted, particularly to the school library community, pointing to the results of the survey-Ms. Douglas will handle. The Electronic Resource Group is developing a NOVEL Databases customer satisfaction survey that will be posted on the web site; librarians will be able to comment regarding their satisfaction with the NOVEL databases. A working draft of the customer satisfaction survey will be posted with a URL link in a couple of weeks for testing, and then it will be posted "live."

The group talked about the function and role of the NOVEL Electronic Collections Advisory Team (NECAT). The names of four people (a representative from NYTRO, PULISDO, SLSA, and NOVEL SC) will be submitted to Ms. Hiebing and Mr. Shaloiko by the end of October. Mr. Cannell will contact Ms. Brink and Mr. Nichols on the PULISDO side; Ms. Knight will work with SLSA; and Ms. Hiebing and Mr. Shaloiko will work with the New York 3Rs. The NOVEL Steering Committee Electronic Resources Group recommends the State Library conduct a larger evaluation of the NOVEL Databases-with the public as the target. The State Library will begin discussing this idea and explore possibilities for hiring an outside consultant, funding, and promotion. Ms. Janowsky will share meeting notes with the State Library staff. Mr. Shaloiko requested a list of current databases, vendors and licensing expiration for the committee for a face-to-face meeting of the internal NOVEL Databases Team and NECAT representatives before the end of the year (November/December).

PORTAL GROUP-Thomas Alrutz

(Mr. Alrutz has agreed to be a co-convener of the group, along with John Meierhoffer.)
Since last meeting, we reviewed the progress of the SED Virtual Learning Space (VLS) project. A meeting with VLS Project staff was held in July, with Ms. Douglas, Ms. Todd, Ms. McCain and Mr. Meierhoffer representing the Portal Group. The next meeting is October 16. Details are still not available on how VLS will add content-still in the beginning stages. We would like to provide the functionality of cross-database federated searching of NOVEL Databases to VLS in the future.
Through a COSLA meeting Ms. Desch attended, we became aware of an OCLC/Gates initiative that is moving forward to a multi-faceted portal project for state library agencies. OCLC/Gates is looking for five to ten states to develop models of statewide portals. The NOVEL Steering Committee Portal Group recommends that the NOVEL Steering Committee encourage New York's participation in the project.

Ms. Douglas has had talks with the Department of Motor Vehicles on remote access to NOVEL resources. The internal Portal Group will discuss authentication with the VLS project team.

The Portal Group talked about marketing and how to make NOVEL visible to legislators. Mr. Alrutz talked about some sort of gentle mandating-icon and words-stating "As of ___ date." library systems must have a NOVEL database credit posted somewhere on their website.

NOVEL Database Demonstrations and NOVEL Presentations

A listing of previous visits to legislators, background information and NOVEL Steering Committee representatives will be available at the NYLA Conference in November. In the meantime, Ms. Douglas cited PowerPoint presentations that could be helpful. These will be available on the web shortly.

• For a general audience--starts with, Do you have a library card?
• Overview of NOVEL-What is it all about?
• NOVEL and New Century Libraries

Other materials that will be part of a NOVEL Tool Kit include: Talking Points, NOVEL icon, a bookmark, and charts with NOVEL database statistics.

Speakers Bureau List-Promotion of NOVEL Throughout the State

Kudos to Carey Hatch for a very successful distance learning presentation at the Regents' Policy Conference on September 10.

Ms. Storms mentioned that SUNY has developed a SFX--Open URL-that is impacting the Help Desk. It goes from a hyperlink directly to the article. We will ask Carey Hatch to discuss it at our December meeting.

There is now a NOVEL Database FAQ and a general NOVEL FAQ on the web site. If you are making a presentation about NOVEL, the FAQ answers a number of questions.

Regarding open URLs, Mr. Ericson mentioned that at Hamilton College they have put in the equivalent of Proquest SFX-Co-finder Plus-with positive response from the faculty-can take people to the catalog/Google search. He will demonstrate it at the December meeting.

Conclusion

Guests expressed their thanks for the invitation to attend the NOVEL Steering Committee meeting. Assemblywoman Galef said it is her pleasure to represent libraries in the Assembly. The Assembly Committee on Libraries and Educational Technology discussed the accessibility of NOVEL and how to make it easy to use. It will be easier to get money for the NOVEL program if the legislators understand it. We need to remind them that the 15 percent cut in library funding got the most override votes of any issue this session and then build on NOVEL and what it is about. The challenge is to get it done rapidly because the Governor's budget is in development now. Julie Marlette looks forward to working with the NOVEL Steering Committee in the future.

Upcoming Steering Committee Meetings

• Thursday, September 18, 10:30 am -3:30 pm , East Greenbush Public Library
• Wednesday, October 22, Conference Call, 1-2:00 pm (note time change)
• Thursday, December 4, 10:30 am -3:30 pm, Albany Public Library
• Tuesday, January 27, Conference Call, 10:00 am
• Thursday, February 19, 10:30 am-3:30 pm, Albany area - location to be determined

**NOVEL at NYLA: Thursday, November 6, 4:30-5:45 PM, "News from your State Library"**

Action Items

• Ms. Douglas will send Jo Brill information on school libraries who do not participate in NOVEL by November 1.
• Lorraine will have the member expiration date added to the NOVEL Steering Committee roster on the web.
• Contact Ms. Douglas if you can volunteer some time at the poster session at NYLA on Saturday, November 8, from 10-12.
• Ms. Douglas will re-post the NYLINE message re; Database Needs Survey, particularly to the school library community, pointing to the results of the survey.
• The draft database evaluation link will be sent to NOVEL SC by October 30 to test it out and then posted "live" by November 5.
• By October 31, the names of four people for NECAT will be submitted to Ms. Hiebing and Mr. Shaloiko. Mr. Cannell will contact Ms. Brink and Mr. Nichols, PULISDO; Ms. Knight will work with SLSA; and Ms. Hiebing and Mr. Shaloiko will work with the NY3Rs.
• Ms. Douglas will ask Mr. Hatch to discuss the SUNY SFX/Open URL at the December meeting.
• Mr. Ericson will demonstrate Co-Finder Plus at the December meeting.
• Ms. Douglas and Ms. Hiebing will report back on their October 23 meeting at OCLC on this OCLC/Gates Portal pilot project at the December meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 3 PM.