Meeting Minutes

NOVEL Steering Committee Conference Call
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
2:00-2:45 PM

Present: Baaklini, Bolton, Desch, Duncan, Ebert, Ericson, Howe, Janowsky,
Kaplan, Katzin, Killian, Klose, Knight, Krupczak, Kuntz, Lynch, McCain, McDonald, Storms, Stripling, Todd, Tuliao,

Absent: Barraco, Borges, Doll, Hatch, Huxley, Little, Redmond, Roe, Walsh, Welch

Recorder: Deitz

Welcome-Randy Ericson

Mr. Ericson welcomed everyone to the conference call, especially Tessa Killian, the newest member of the NOVEL Steering Committee, who will also be serving on NECAT as a representative of the 3Rs. Tessa is the Manager of Technology and Administrative Services at Southeastern New York Library Resources Council.

Approval of Minutes-Randy Ericson

The draft minutes of the April 5, 2006 NOVEL Steering Committee were approved.

LSTA Evaluation-Sara McCain

Information on Himmel and Wilson's web survey has been posted on the NOVEL Steering Committee listserv. If you did not get the notice, let Sara know.

The consultants have received many responses, but still need responses from business users. Focus groups will be held in nine regions of the State from July 10-18, one for librarians and one for users. Ms. McCain will send a list of the focus group sites with coordinators to the NOVEL Steering Committee. Please contact a site coordinator in your region if you have suggestions for finding users for the focus group.

Database Evaluation Group Appointments/Progress Report-Randy Ericson

NECAT has asked for the creation of a group of librarians from the field who can evaluate potential databases for inclusion in NOVEL. The group will consist of nine people: three each from academic or special, public and school libraries. Mr. Ericson is in the process of inviting the conveners of NY3Rs, PULISDO and SLSA to submit recommendations. Mr. Ericson will send the recommendations to Janet Welch for consideration for appointment to the Database Evaluation Group.

Nominations to the NOVEL Steering Committee-Randy Ericson

We have three members of the Steering Committee whose terms expire on September 30, 2006: Janie Kaplan, Wanda Knight and Kitty Little. Janet Welch will soon be issuing a call for nominations for both the NOVEL Steering Committee and the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries (RAC). If you know of people who would be good nominees, send your suggestions to Janet Welch or encourage them to nominate themselves to express interest and willingness to serve. NOVEL SC members should send their suggestions to Ms. Welch by July 7, 2006.

Regents' Review of the 2000 recommendations of the Regents Commission on Libraries in "Meeting the Needs of All New Yorkers: Library Services in the New Century"-Loretta Ebert

The ten Regents Commission recommendations, which were adopted as Regents policy in 2000, are now six years old and will be reviewed by the Regents Cultural Education Committee at their June 20 meeting. Following our discussion at the last NOVEL Steering Committee meeting concerning the NOVEL recommendation (Recommendation 1), State Library staff prepared a plan for the Regents Cultural Education Committee to examine the ten recommendations, assess their current relevance, review accomplishments and new data, and recommend revision or reaffirm priority. The results of the review will be discussed at the Regents full Board meeting in September and finalized in January 2007. The NOVEL Steering Committee will be included in the process and will have an opportunity to discuss the recommendations at the October 4 Steering Committee meeting.

The New York Knowledge Initiative-Loretta Ebert

The New York State budget gains for libraries for 2006-07 were quite successful. This may be due in part to the focus on two of the ten Regents recommendations: an effort to get support for public library construction/renovation and to address NOVEL. We were successful with $14M for construction, but not successful with NOVEL. The current thinking is that the Regents and SED do not want to go back to the Legislature with the same request or package as we have in the past. Therefore, the NOVEL request will be repackaged in a different way to include a new focus to support high-end databases and technology needs in high-need areas.

The proposal that will be before the Regents next week would change the name of New Century Libraries (NCL) to The New York Knowledge Initiative. The New York Knowledge Initiative will focus on the need for high-end scientific and technical databases to support research and development, business, and academia. The added focus will allow all of the pieces of NOVEL to attract wider support and new interest.

Included in the proposal are resources for elementary and high schools in high needs areas and funding to the systems so that they can assist their members in accessing NOVEL resources and high-end databases. In terms of legislative priorities, the Regents focus-if approved-will be to make permanent the funding gained in the last legislative session ($3M in systems aid and $14M in public library construction) and additional funding for NOVEL.

NECAT-Maribeth Krupczak/Soumaya Baaklini

• NECAT Meeting-Summer 2006. Ms. Krupczak will contact the members of NECAT via email to invite them to a meeting in Albany sometime after August 15 for vendor demonstrations and a discussion of how to proceed in utilizing the Database Evaluation Group. Please contact Ms. Krupczak to submit dates you are available to meet in Albany once you receive her email.
• Thomson-Gale will be able to provide another five years of the New York Times, going back to 1995. The company will announce this at the American Library Association conference next week. Thomson-Gale is continuing to negotiate with the New York State Library for further back coverage. At the present time, we have eight newspapers "cover to cover" and seven with selected articles-news and business sections. From the latter, we will have the Albany Times Union sometime before the end of June. Ms. Baaklini continues to work with Thomson-Gale to get cover to cover coverage on both the Watertown Daily and the Plattsburgh Press Republican.

• Notify Sara McCain if you did not receive information on Himmel and Wilson's web survey via the NOVEL-SC listserv.
• Sara McCain will send a list of the focus group sites with coordinators to the NOVEL SC.
• Contact a site coordinator in your region if you have suggestions for finding users for the focus group.
• Mr. Ericson will send recommendations from the conveners of NY3Rs, PULISDO and SLSA to Janet Welch for consideration for appointment to the Database Evaluation Group.
• Send names of nominees for the NOVEL SC to Janet Welch or encourage them to nominate themselves to express interest and willingness to serve by July 7, 2006.
• NECAT members: Upon receiving her email, contact Maribeth Krupczak with dates (after August 15) when you would be available for a meeting and vendor demonstrations in Albany.
• Mr. Ericson will send condolences on behalf of the NOVEL SC to Jennifer Morris on the death of her husband.