Collections Advisory Council
Minutes
November 9, 2000


Present: C. Diedrichs, C. Popovich, B. Leach, N. Courtney, L. Krikos, M. Scott Absent: Predrag Matejic, Trisha Davis

1. One-Time Budget Requests not funded at CAC meeting 10/12/00 were reviewed and evaluated. C. Diedrichs to issue information announcing CAC decisions on these requests.

2. New One-Time Budget Requests, submitted since the 10/12/00 meeting, were reviewed and evaluated. C. Diedrichs to issue information announcing CAC decisions on these requests.

3. Discussion surrounding the question of whether or not OSUL should catalog web sites occupied the remainder of the meeting. Three possible paths were outlined: 1) we decide not to select and catalog web sites; 2) we select and catalog web sites for inclusion in Oscar; 3) we select and catalog web sites for inclusion in some other finding aid, not Oscar.

   After discussion the group consensus was that the second option, selecting web sites and cataloging them for inclusion in Oscar, would be the best path to follow at this time. It was noted that OSUL already does this for some types of materials, e.g. government documents.

   Another question raised was what criteria should we use for the selection of web sites? Stability of the site is an example of selection criteria considered important. C. Diedrichs offered to review selection criteria established by other institutions and share the information with CAC for further discussion and possible refinement. Seeing what others have already done seems the most sensible first step.

   Some of the limitations of OCLC's CORC Project, originally outlined by T. Connell at the 7/6/00 ASC meeting were reviewed. Many improvements have now been made in this product; CAC agreed that it makes sense to participate in a product backed by OCLC.

   Capabilities of URL checkers were discussed. There is a URL checker in CORC, but it would not check URLs in Oscar. OSUL needs to pursue acquiring URL checking software for Oscar if we are going to include web sites as a type of material included in Oscar.

   URL checkers will notify us if an address is no longer accessible but only the collection manager can monitor the relevance of the site. CAC agreed that collection managers will need to periodically review and "weed" web sites just as they would for any other type of material.

   Many sites require additional plug-ins for use. Would we provide our users with the necessary plug-in software? The consensus was no. Comparison to our CD policy was made: we acquire and make available CDs, but we do not necessarily provide everything necessary for the use of the CD. It was also noted that many web sites make it possible for the user to acquire the plug-in on the spot for no cost.

   CAC concurred that OSUL should move ahead with selecting web sites and adding them to our catalog, with ongoing review of problems, suggestions for improvement, procedural revisions, etc. C. Diedrichs suggested that a training program similar to that used for ORTs be devised for training collection managers who wish to select a web site for inclusion into the catalog to submit this request through CORC. Ideally the collection manager could enter as much or as little information as they want in the record.

   Once completed by the collection manager, the CORC record would be received by a designated person in technical processing for refinement. Work load would be distributed on both ends, ie. both the collection manager and technical processing would be taking on new tasks. CAC agreed that work load priorities would have to be defined and understood by all, but this issue merits moving forward.

   General discussion of short cataloging records vs. full cataloging records resulted in agreement that the benefits of full records outweigh the convenience of creating short records. It was noted that we are spending a great deal of time and effort now to rework short records of the past, and that it does not make sense to create short records today that someone will have to rework in the future. Also, the amount of information (call number, subject headings) in a full record were deemed important and valuable.

   CAC agreed that OSUL should move into production and start selecting and cataloging web sites for inclusion in Oscar. Our first step will be establishing selection criteria. Second step will be creating a workflow and training process for the use of CORC. Then training sessions can be offered for those collection managers/selectors who wish to participate. Establishing work load priorities will be an essential step as well.

Recorded by Susan Wyngaard 11/9/00.