Steering Committee Meeting
18 January 2002
New Orleans, LA

Present

Helene Baumann, Barbara Walden, Deborah Jakubs, Tom Kilton, Lou Pitschmann, Michael Seadle (minute taker), Lynn Wiley, Roger Brisson.

Absent

Mary Jackson.

Minutes

The minutes of 15 June 2002 were approved.

Bylaws

Draft bylaws were distributed. Tom suggested adding that the co-chairs submit a semiannual report to the Director of the Global Resources Program by 15 September and 15 April of each year. We considered whether we wanted to designate the co-chairs as chair and chair-elect. There was some discussion in support of this, but the details need to be worked out. Tom will discuss this with Helene and let others know by email. A question was raised about the limit of 7 members on working groups. Some balance between an active membership and being welcoming is needed. We will add a sentence that says that members of working group should be active. We will do the official vote on the bylaws by email after these changes are made.

We need to develop a procedure for people to join working groups when they join the project, perhaps by updating the instructions on the Website. This does not need to be part of the bylaws. In the past we had not been seeking new members actively, but now we should. People who continue to contribute should not be dropped.

Bibliographic Control Working Group

Roger presented the report. Most of the working group's energies have been focused on the AACR2 translation report. The editorial work is mostly done, and an announcement of its publication is available in the Sauer catalog. The real problem was finding technical correspondences in vocabulary. This has become part of an IFLA database of library terms. (See: http://www.arl.org/collect/grp/aacr2/glossaries/transhelp.htm for the dictionary and http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla67/papers/093-152ae.pdf for the IFLA proposal.) A decision has been made in Germany to move to MARC and AACR2: eine Grundsatzentscheidung. The GRP was instrumental in this. The Working Group will continue to play a role by being available as a resource.

Collection Development Working Group

Barbara presented the report. Xipolis database has been announced and is receiving subscribers. All of the things we wanted are there. The Erfurt exchange project (48,000 titles) still depends on developing a mutually agreeable arrangement, but it should depend only on getting Ministerial clearance. Where it would go is one of the issues. One option would be for Erfurt to divide the collection by broad topic, and have Knut Dorn arrange billing for getting particular sets to North American institutions. This worked with earlier Leipzig materials. A subcommittee will discuss issues such as: what the criteria are for deciding who gets the materials if more than one institution wants them? The working group is discussing discounted rates for members to get MARC cataloging records for the Bibliothek der deutschen Literatur microfilm set. If it succeeds, it could provide money for travel for contact partners and possible digital partnerships.

Digital Library Working Group

Michael presented the report. The clearinghouse site is ongoing, as well as providing information about funding sources. Meetings are planned at the Bibliothekartag in Germany and at ALA Annual. Efforts are being made to revitalize the US side of the working group, such as advertising it among the CIC Digital Library Initiative Overview Committee.

Document Delivery Working Group

Lynn presented the report. GBV Direct continues to be used actively. A concerted publicity effort needs to be done, including some revisions to the website. There is a perception that these are German-only materials. Handling returnables is still in the planning stage. RLG held a training session in July for the ILLManager software so that North American libraries can provide materials in return. Work is partly stalled due to communication problems. If we can go directly with our own credit cards, ARL will not have to continue to be involved.

GRP Website

Tom suggests that each Working Group provide news, perhaps in What's New with a link to the WG's section. Deborah suggests that the main page is prose-heavy. Michael agreed to simplify it. The blurb on the Global Resources Projects website needs revision. Roger has a draft and will send it out.

Articles

The Bibliotheksdienst article is out. We need a version for CRL News. Michael will develop a translation draft. Barbara raised the question of whether we should do a research article for CRL.

German Library Membership

Michael will add all the institutions in the Collection Development contacts list. We may also want to consider Austrian and Swiss members in the future.

Affiliates

Barbara will find out from Mary about the Opfermann collection.

ARL Report

Deborah reported on the ARL steering committee meeting. She will be stepping down as the program officer in June. The Steering committee expressed its thanks to her for her work and support.