Present: Alfred Hopkins (Chair), Alan Benkert, Cheryl Beturne, David Bretthauer, Samuel Brown, LuAnn Cogliser, Edward Murray, Jenifer O’Connor, James Smith, Kendall Wiggin. Others: Anita Barney, Sharon Brettschneider, Stephen Cauffman, Patricia Copes, Nancy Goodwin, Gail Hurley, and William Sullivan. Absent: Betty Goyette, Alana Meloni, and Jonas Zdanys

1. Call to Order
Alfred Hopkins called the meeting to order at 1:03 p.m.

2. Approval of Minutes
Alfred Hopkins asked if there were any corrections to the minutes. Anita Barney said that she had not attended the last meeting. LuAnn Cogliser MOVED (2nd A. Benkert) to approved the minutes as amended. VOTED unanimously.

3. Approval of Agenda
The agenda was approved as presented. VOTED unanimously.

4. Public Comment
There was none.

5. State Library Report – Kendall Wiggin
Kendall Wiggin reported on the State Library Budget situation. He stated he was pleased to report that the Digital Library was appropriated $500,000. Other areas of the State Library budget were cut including materials, Grants to Public Libraries, Connecticard and Cooperating Library Service Units.

6. Department of Higher Education Report.
There was none.

7. Other Reports
a. Commercial Database Discount Program.
Patricia Copes of the Capitol Region Library Council distributed a Database Discount Program update for the fiscal year 2001-02. She reported that libraries purchased 57,090 subscriptions for a total value of $460,758. She also discussed her suggestions for trials for fiscal year 2003. Pat explained that she can add trials at little cost but asked how the decision should be made to add a database to the discount program. It was agreed that this decision should be brought to the database subcommittee. Sharon Brettschneider agreed to set up a meeting.

b. Digital Library Budget Appropriation: Status of databases and administration for Fiscal Year 2003.
Kendall Wiggin stated he is working with the Department of Higher Education on the allocation of the $500,000. Since it is not the full amount we needed, some databases may need to be eliminated. With the contribution of federal LSTA funds, all public and school databases will be renewed through June 30, 2003. Academic libraries will be notified next week on which databases, if any, will be eliminated.

c. Digital Library Progress Report.
Bill Sullivan reported on the two public awareness initiatives, a link to iCONN on the UTC Corporate intranet and information on iCONN included in a CL&P newsletter mailed to 60,000 senior citizen customers in September. Bill reported on the status of negotiations with Auto-Graphics regarding their portal product, AGent. We are currently not using the number of basic/ILL or cataloging licenses that we committed to under the contract. We are currently using the value of these unused licenses for the enriched records on reQuest and z39.5. We hope to use the remaining value on these used licenses to “pay for” AGent which may replace the current iCONN homepage and search interface.

Bill also reported that a meeting with DOIT and CSU is planed to explore the possibility of ending the old CLN telecom service by the end of the year and having the libraries currently connected switched over to the CEN network.

d. Currency of reQuest Catalog. Gail Hurley distributed a report on the reQuest Main Catalog Update Frequency as of June 2002. She reported that there was an increase in the number of libraries contributing holdings, the number of library holdings, and the percentage of holdings updated on a monthly basis. The number of holdings only updated annually has dropped. The goal is to have the entire database updated daily or monthly. A discussion followed on ways to reward libraries for updating more frequently. Al Hopkins suggested we publicize the good news about the currency of the catalog, possibly with a note on the main reQuest page.

e. School Library Participation in reQuest. Stephen Cauffman and Gail Hurley reported on their efforts to increase school library participation in reQuest. They have presented six information sessions for school library media centers. They developed information sheets on “Why Should Your School Library Participate in reQuest WebCat” and “Why Should Your School Library Participate in reQuest Interlibrary Loan.” They will be presenting a session at the Connecticut Educational Media Association (CEMA) 2002 conference. They also will make themselves available to present at other library media specialist roundtable meetings. There was a discussion about why more schools don’t participate in reQuest. It was suggested that a survey would be helpful to find out why they don’t. It was also suggested that iCONN/reQuest may wish to pay for the conference folders for CEMA in order to advertise reQuest to each attendee.

8. Old Business
a. Unfilled positions on the Board.
Sharon Brettschneider indicated there was no update.

9. New Business
a. reQuest – Auto-Graphics renewal, Request for Proposal (RFP) process.
Bill Sullivan gave an update on the RFP process for reQuest. The State Library has signed a one-year renewal with Auto-Graphics for July 1, 2002 – June 30, 2003. One more is allowed under the current contract. A new system should be implemented no later than April 1, 2004 in order to allow for possible transition of the database to a new vendor. Bill and Sharon Brettschneider will be meeting with DOIT to review the current RFP procedures. Bill and his staff are working to convert the current Request for Comments (RFC) document into an RFP. Bill, Steve Cauffman and Gail are using the old RFP as a base, deleting irrelevant requirements and adding the functionality from the RFC and from reviews of other significant RFP’s from other states. Bill distributed a copy of the current RFC and encouraged comments from the Board.

10. Any other business to come before the Board.
Gail Hurley distributed a copy of an article she wrote titled “CatExpress Provides a Solution for Connecticut” which was published in the March/April 2002 OCLA Newsletter.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:47 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for September 4, 2002 at the Middletown Library Service Center.

Respectfully submitted,

Sharon Brettschneider
Connecticut State Library