FEDLINK Advisory Council Meeting June 21, 2001 Minutes FAC Present: FLICC/FEDLINK Present: Maxine Brown Susan Tarr Judy Bullwinkle (Phone) Lynn McDonald Louise LeTendre (Phone) Joe Banks Carla Pomager Fred Rettenmaier (Phone) Denise Lomax Sheila Riley Cheryl Thomas (Phone) FAC Absent: Bonnie Klein CALL TO ORDER Denise Lomax called the meeting to order at 9:10 AM. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the June 21, 2001 were approved with editorial changes. FAC ISSUES AND TOPICS No FAC issues and topics REVOLVING FUND UPDATE - Susan Tarr, FLICC Executive Director There have been no changes in the status of the revolving fund since the June 7 FLICC meeting. FEDLINK is still waiting for a response from GAO to the Library of Congress's letter asking for a written opinion. Susan is hoping to get a response from GAO by the middle of July. The membership needs to vote on budget and FEDLINK needs to send out registration information. There are two alternatives. If GAO says yes, members can spend the members previous years surpluses and the Budget Working Group would have to revise budget proposal. FAC & FEB would have to vote, possibly using the closed list serves, and the members would vote by a paper ballot. If GAO says no, members would vote on budget and FEDLINK would develop a process to transfer member's money to the FEDLINK operating fund. BUSINESS PLAN - Susan Tarr, FLICC Executive Director On June 19, 2001 the FEDLINK staff decided to work on a vision statement that looks forward instead of changing the mission statement. The FAC was asked to validate or add to the following suggestions: Leadership/spokesperson/lobbyist for federal libraries Cost Effective Rapid Response Clearinghouse Service aggregator Preparing next generation of library workers Spokesperson/facilitator to move vendors to constructive future for libraries Promoting best practices/standards/benchmarks (procurement and training) Facilitate information access by all federal users of information Vision for libraries Digital how we help them achieve it The FAC agreed that the vision for Libraries should include end user focus and moving to more digital service. Denise Lomax asked how FEDLINK could help libraries be digital or be a clearinghouse or service aggregator. It seemed to be too much. Susan Tarr said in the vision we did not have to limit to things that can be done today. Lynn McDonald said that FEDLINK could work with the practical aspects of helping the libraries become digital. Fred Rettenmaier suggested that "Libraries should be the central information point for agencies" be added to the libraries' vision. Susan asked if licensing should be a part of the vision. Are libraries becoming the prime licenser for agencies? Should FEDLINK market to agency procurers? Do libraries want the role to license? Fred said that if libraries are to survive, they must be the information procurers for their agencies & departments. Judy Bullwinkle said that if libraries do not get on the bus they would be left sitting at the bus stop. Lynn McDonald mentioned that some vendors wanted FEDLINK to negotiate one license for federal libraries, because it is much easier for them. Susan mentioned that FEDLINK now has a model license on the web. The model license is linked to the licensing video page. Denise Lomax worried about taking over information services. She felt that libraries would get the work of administering and no longer be thought of as information providers. Maxine Brown mentioned it is hard to get the money if you are the procurer. Sheila Riley added that at her agency, the library is being forced to procure databases for the agency. Susan Tarr felt that even though the procurement of database licenses is a lot of work the library would be positioned as the information procurer. "Knowledge Management" was suggested to be added to the libraries' vision by Judy Bullwinkle. The libraries vision should be modeled on business practices (metrics, best practices, e-business, Knowledge Management, consortia etc.). FAC Members added the following items to be considered in the vision for FEDLINK: Centralize expertise sharing knowledge Strong centralized focus on the business of federal libraries Consortia The FAC felt consortia should be included in the vision even though they are a lot of work. Vendors have a problem with Federal consortia because it is not a fixed locality. The vendors fear that a FEDLINK contract for consortia will cover the world. The FAC discussed one of the Market Environment Brainstorming issues determined by the FEDLINK staff. There was much discussion on contracting out and the FAC felt that it was a very important issue. Ken Nero testified at the June 11, 2001 hearings about contracting out. Louise LeTendre also attended. Most of the government speakers were very negative about contracting out. However, many speakers were not government. President Bush has not excluded libraries from his effort to contract out more of the government and has a goal of 50% in the next four years. If library staff makes procurement decisions for the organization's information, the library would be inherently governmental and therefore should not be contracted out. Carla Pomager mentioned that MWR libraries would be affected by a new law that creates the Unified Resource Expanded Program (UREP). This program allows MWR to use appropriated money to pay for non-appropriated library staff and services. This will not go into effect until 2003. MWR libraries will then have an alternative to A76. Currently, FEDLINK's business place in the industry is largely as broker for commercially published information. Maxine said that the business plan should state that FEDLINK's position at Library of Congress (LC) is important because of LC's reputation and size of its procurements from vendors. The group discussed who is FEDLINK's competition: GSA, DTIC, NIH/NLM, vendors directly to users & libraries, procurement offices, credit card, deposit accounts (one click order against a deposit account), other federal library cooperative, activities & services, agency partnerships or mandates. As government goes more business-like, agency procurement offices will be charging. Fred Rettenmaier says that Naval Research Lab procurement office is already charging for its services. NTIS was discussed and it was determined it was not a competitor because it is only a broker of federal information not commercially published information. Louise LeTendre sees DTIC as a competitor to its library and DTIC does do some of the same things as FEDLINK. So DTIC is a welcome competitor but NTIS is not a competitor. Denise Lomax asked if FEDLINK lost customers to competitors. Susan Tarr said that FEDLINK hasn't lost many customers, but the amount spent has gotten smaller. FEDLINK did lose two large direct pay but their fees were not large. Susan Tarr said the staff agreed in the brainstorming that FEDLINK needs to do more analysis of customers. Denise asked about the study of libraries outside the beltway. Susan said that FEDLINK mailed promotional information to 200 libraries. None of the 200 became FEDLINK members. The direct mail marketing did not work. Lynn McDonald asked if because FEDLINK does not procure the ILS and other information systems does that discourage libraries from buying the information services? Fred Rettenmaier expressed concern that the staff might not have time to be able to handle automation contracts. Lynn said work might be reprioritized, if the need was there. Susan Tarr asked if providing a central portal would be helpful. Carla Pomager mentioned that libraries are having a hard time accessing their digital resources. Maybe FEDLINK could help. Who is FEDLINK's target audience? The customers are libraries, information centers, data providers, legal offices (without librarians), personnel offices, procurement offices (FEDLINK does not know for whom they are buying), federal library contractors, distance learning, and education programs. Services that FEDLINK does not provide, that might be helpful: Understanding taxonomies (actually subject cataloging librarians need to learn to use the language of knowledge management.) Digitization, full text, linking Creating National Digital Library Web Skills Web Services/Portals/Knowledge Management Digital Reference Archiving Solutions for perpetual access Education new trends, new services, new technologies Distance learning (even for free) License Agreement Skills Back-to-Back workshops "Trends in Federal Libraries" FLICC/FEDLINK UPDATE - Susan Tarr, FLICC Executive Director Lynn McDonald, FEDLINK Network Coordinator Joe Banks, FEDLINK Business Manager IT Working Group & Content Management Working Group have merged into the Content Management Working Group with co-chairs. First joint meeting will be this afternoon, June 21, 2001. FEDLINK web site has been expanding its web videos. The site now has the IT Brown Bags discussion series at http://lcweb.loc.gov/flicc/vidlib.html. The pages have link to the Info Tech Working Group Web Bulletin Boards. The following IT Brown Bags Discussion Series are available: "Dynamic Databases/Site Administration", "Reference/Citation Linking in the Federal Government" and "Web Redesign". Joe Banks discussed FEDLINK's financial status. FEDLINK is running behind in transfer pay. Some accounts switched to direct pay. In terms of revenue, FEDLINK is 3% behind this time last year. Lynn McDonald reported that NetLibrary signed a BOA with FEDLINK. FEDLINK and Inspec are still talking about a contract. FEDLINK staff has been traveling to train Air Force librarians. FEDLINK will be adding links for 508 information to their web page. The contracts office is working on getting 508 requirements in next year's BOAs. Libraries using current FEDLINK contracts are grand fathered and do not have to worry about the 508 requirements this year. Information about 508 is in the FLICC meeting packet. There may be something in the next FEDLINK Tech Notes. Maxine Brown asked about OCLC's Passport software. OCLC will stop supporting Passport Cataloging end of December 2002. Users can change to the Cataloging Microenhancer or web interface. The web interface will be built on CORC. The current CORC interface does not have the same capabilities as the Passport software (e.g. macros) but it should be comparable in many respects by December 2002. The Passport Interlibrary Loan (ILL) module does not have a scheduled end date yet. The OCLC Web Interface ILL will go live in August. FEDLINK will start teaching the web interface to ILL soon. Passport does not work with Microsoft ME operating system, and Passport is 16 bit. The Cataloging Microenhancer is 32 bit so it will work with the Microsoft ME system. The Name Authority Cooperation (NACO) decided to stay with Passport until the web interface is available. COMMITTEE REPORTS Education Working Group Susan Tarr The Education Working Group will meet with Donna Sheeder, past president SLA. The September FLICC meeting will focus on educational needs of librarian community. The major focus will be on librarian competencies and education needs. At the FLICC meeting, the members will be in small groups with the Education Working Group members acting as facilitators. Nominating Committee Carla Pomager is on the Nominating Committee and asked members to send names for nominations to her. The Personnel Working Group - The Personnel Working Group will not pursue moving the Librarian Series into Professional & Scientific Series. Susan Tarr has asked the Personnel Working Group to move more towards recruitment issues, such as promoting Federal Libraries at Library Schools. Maxine Brown mentioned that it is hard to find librarian series on the OPM web site because it is not under Professional & Scientific Series. One must know the series number (1410/1412) to find announcements. Susan Tarr said that she would look into that. OLD BUSINESS The Institute for Federal Library Technicians still has openings. NEW BUSINESS No new Business NEXT MEETING Thursday, July 12, 9:00 am 12:00 noon (changed to July 19, 2001, 1:00pm-3:30pm) ADJOURMENT The meeting was adjourned at 12:15 pm.