Minutes

Steering Committee

January 20, 2003
W.A.C. Bennett Library
Simon Fraser University Harbour Centre, Vancouver

Minutes

Present

Magdalene Albert, Executive Director, Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions
Claude Bonnelly (Chair), Directeur Université Laval Bibliothèque
Lynn Copeland, University Librarian, W.A.C. Bennett Library, Simon Fraser University
Chris Petter, Head, Special Collections, McPherson Library, University of Victoria
Leigh Swain, Representative National Librarian, National Library of Canada
Karen Turko, Director of Special Projects, University of Toronto

By Teleconference 10:00 .m. - 1:00 p.m.:

Brian Bell (Vice-Chair), Director, Virtual Library Services & Tech, HALINET Suzanne Bureau, Director, Information Resources Management, CISTI

Secretariat Present:

Ralph Manning, Heritage Officer, National Library of Canada

Call to order

Claude Bonnelly called the meeting to order on January 20, 2003 and welcomed the committee to Vancouver.

1. Approval of Agenda

The agenda was reviewed. Agenda approved.

2. Minutes, October 9, 2002

The Minutes of the last Steering Committee were approved.

2.1 Business arising from minutes:

Discussion: ALA/CLA Conference, Toronto, June 2003 M. Albert reported that joint booths are often not very successful because of the importance of having clear visibility. CIHM/ECO prefers to have its own booth at the conference, but is happy to provide documentation for CIDL/ICBN and Our Roots.

NLC will have a booth and the members of the CIDL/ICBN Steering Committee could be co-opted to help the booth staff to promote CIDL.

2.2 CIDL Sponsorship Category

Discussion: R. Manning explained what he had learned from the IFLA experience with sponsors. Essentially, sponsors are non-voting members who receive special rights to advertise and promote their products with the membership, at levels consistent with their sponsorship levels.

It was decided that CIDL should establish a new category of membership - Sponsorship Category. The fee would be set at $1,500. Sponsors in this category would be able to participate in Open Meetings, include their logo in publications and advertisements, and be promoted on the CIDL Web site.

There were some suggestions for possible corporate sponsors. M. Albert will approach 2002-2003 member Cold North Wind and advise them of the new category. C. Bonnelly will approach SOCAMI. K. Turko will approach OCLC and ProQuest.

It was decided to delay approaching the above-named organizations until the proposed CIDL researcher position and responsibilities were clarified. This may become part of that person's responsibilities as part of an overall fund generating strategy, which would include increasing memberships and attracting sponsors.

Action: Secretariat

2.3 Copyright Issue

CIHM made suggested changes to the contract with Canadian Heritage, but is still waiting for a response.

3. Secretariat Report: (Ralph Manning)

3.1 CIDL/ICBN Budget

a. Finances: Current free balance at $20,533.02

b. Admin: Salary committed to March 31, 2003.

3.2 CIDL Membership Fees 2003 - 2004

The SC agrees that there will be no increase in membership fees.

3.3 CIDL Brochure 2003

Discussion: regarding the number of brochures to be printed. The SC agreed that 3,000 copies is insufficient, and we should plan on distributing a certain number at the ALA/CLA conference, and possibly at IFLA. Other conferences could also be targeted. The National Library has a list of conferences and L. Swain offered to provide this list to the SC.

Action: L. Swain

4. A National Strategy

4.1 Collaborative Strategy

Discussion: In preparation for the CIDL/ICBN meeting, Susan Haigh prepared a discussion document incorporating information from various sources, including the 2002 Open Meeting, Brian Bell's paper, and CIDL/ICBN committees.

One of the main issues was how CIDL/ICBN could move to the next step and become a more meaningful, sustainable body to move the national digitization/preservation initiative forward. The committee recommended funding a study to research this issue and provide recommendations. Funding for the study was to come from the Digital Library Task Force of the NLC, CIDL, and others (library associations and CARL were also to be approached).

Following the outcome of the study, CIDL would concentrate on increasing membership and seeking sponsors. These sponsors would be in a new membership category, much like the sponsors for IFLA. In other words they cannot vote (conflict of interest), but they can support the work of the committee by essentially paying for ads in CIDL brochures, covering some conference expenses, etc.

The following points were made:

• Key is to expand CIDL/ICBN and increase membership

• Important to find someone who can help CIDL/ICBN raise funds and increase membership

• Important that National Librarian and National Archivist be made aware of the eventual strategy

• Consider a secondment from the NL to work closely with CIDL/ICBN full time

• CIDL/ICBN is a membership initiative; it is therefore essential that CIDL/ICBN work in collaboration with key players. Preservation is key and is the mandate of the National Library, so CIDL/ICBN and the NLC must work closely together. On the other hand, there is need for an independent national organization that is at arm's length but which works closely with the National Library. R. Manning noted that the original intent was independence.

• There is a need to clarify the relationship between the NCL and CIDL/ICBN, keeping in mind the decentralized approach and the role of the regions. The Steering Committee expresses a wish to find money for a secondment to undertake a study on directions for CIDL/ICBN.

It is therefore proposed to hire somebody with the following workplan elements:

• Develop organizational model

• Develop budget

• Deal with funding issues and expansion of membership

• Sustainability

• Fundraising

• Regional expertise

• Clarify NLC and CIDL/ICBN roles

• Explore partnerships with PCH, NTL, Archives, Museums

B. Bell noted that Mike Ridley (University of Guelph) spoke of this in November and might emerge as a champion.

Various funding sources were identified. It was agreed to contact a consultant in Montreal, Jocelyn Godolphin, who is known to L. Copeland. The project will be treated as a 5-year renewal focus. The project will re-assess and re-evaluate the requirements of CIDL/ICBN as the environment has changed considerably since CIDL/ICBN was founded.

4.1 Action Items

4.1.a L. Copeland will contact the contractor.

4.1.b L. Swain will provide funds for the contract. This will be considered a CIDL/ICBN study to which the NLC has provided support. CIDL/ICBN will continue to seek other funds.

4.1.c B. Bell will contact Mike Ridley for OLA funding, to be a conduit to CARL, and to provide funding from U of Guelph.

4.1.d C. Bonnelly will approach CARL for funding.

4.1.e R. Manning will send out an e-mail list of associations to assign responsibility for contacting them.

4.1.f C. Bonnelly will approach CISTI.

4.1.g CIDL/ICBN Secretariat will target CARL/CALUPI/CASUL members who could become members once the product becomes concrete.

4.1.h L. Swain will edit S. Haigh document for the CIDL/ICBN Website.

4.1.i CIDL/ICBN should approach CLA for funding.

4.1.j CIDL/ICBN BURSARIES: In addition to the annual CIDL/ICBN $500 bursary to attend the UNB Text-encoding session, a second bursary will be offered to attend the 2003 UVic Workshops in Humanities Computing, June 23-28, 2003. There was discussion of a third bursary of $500 to attend the BC Electronic Library Network Access Conference being held this year, October 1-4, in Vancouver.

5. Other Business

5.1 OCLC

C. Bonnelly presented a letter received from B. Dumouchel, Director General, CISTI and an OCLC Director (attached to minutes). B. Bell expressed concern about private sector partnerships. Open access is a fundamental goal for CIDL/ICBN, and Canadian cultural content should remain free of charge. S. Bureau notes that libraries may find themselves pulled between OCLC and CIDL/ICBN. For that reason, we should openly entertain some form of partnership. If OCLC were to establish a digitization centre in Canada, this would add to the options available to Canadian libraries - some large projects are already out-sourcing. The Steering Committee is open to dialogue and is interested in further exploring the options presented by the OCLC. It is agreed that a special meeting of the Steering Committee be held in March, 2003 to which B. Dumouchel will be invited to discuss OCLC collaboration (looking for ways to partner, work together).

5.2 Cataloguing Electronic Texts

C. Bonnelly presented a letter received from the Library of Congress regarding the linking of LC cataloguing records to electronic texts. The Steering Committee agreed that this should be left to the discretion of individual libraries and agencies, but would support this approach for Our Roots / Nos racines. The National Library has also responded to a similar letter, and L. Swain will make this response available to the Steering Committee. CIHM's ECO was mentioned in the correspondence that NLC had with LC, but CIHM has not yet been contacted.

5.3 0ur Roots Project

C. Bonnelly gave a brief status report on the Our Roots / Nos racines project. He noted that copyright is still an issue. Copyright remains the single largest cost in creating digital collections. Our Roots is not dealing with any commercial publishers who want monetary compensation and is opting instead to work with local histories in the public domain or those who are donating their materials. Their agreement with PCH has not been officially acknowledged, but Our Roots is going ahead. Université Laval has created a model contract. Leigh Swain confirmed that copyright has a substantial cost.
(Leigh Swain / Gary Cleveland NLC-BNC: "overall average cost of assessing copyright status, and clearing copyright if required is $33./item".)

The Our Roots request for Year 3 funding was submitted to PCH, and it is hoped that a response will be forthcoming in March. The two original nodes (Laval & Calgary) have expanded to 5 to include U of T, U Vic and SFU. Some of the partners are involved with the scanning, others with selection, still others with metadata. Partners under consideration for the next phase are UNB and U of Winnipeg. The Our Roots project has up to 30 partners and is going very well with lots of enthusiasm.

5.4 Due North (Pre-Conference at CLA/ALA Conference, Toronto, June 2003

Ernie Ingles expressed interest in a panel involving Frits Pannekoek as moderator (and speaker) and a panel of three to discuss Canadian digital contributions. Ian Wilson was to speak on the NA/NL, Claude Bonnelly as CIDL Chair was to speak on CIDL and Our Roots, and Magdalene Albert was to speak on Early Canadiana Online (ECO). This session was to be part of the Due North Pre-Conference at the CLA/ALA Conference in Toronto this June.

There was confusion about how this 11/2 hour session fits into the whole 2-day pre-conference. L. Swain will inform E. Ingles that Frits Pannekoek will be the moderator and L. Swain will also speak with Mr. Pannekoek.

Action: L. Swain

5.5 Synergies Project

L. Copeland gave an update on the Synergies Project. This project has multiple components in scholarly communication and scholarly publishing, including the transition of the Canadian Social Science and Humanities journals to online delivery and the digitization of the backfiles to foster the transformation of scholarly research. The intent to submit a CFI grant was made and the grant is currently in the process of being prepared. The value of the journals, which shall be incorporated into this new virtual unit counts as matching funds in the grant application. Some of the participants: Université de Montréal and Érudit Project including Laval, and UQAM, UNB, UofT andUofT Press, and SFU. They are planning a colloquium in March for scholars to speak on this proposal. The application is due in May.

5.6 CIHM 25th Anniversary

CIHM will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year. M. Albert outlined a number of events including an event at Government House and a reception on May 30 at the NLC. CIHM will complete 250k images this year and will undertake a pilot project with NLC on directories. They are currently doing government documents and work has started on planning for the next phase (periodicals).

The pilot phase of the joint NLC-CIHM directories project is complete and will soon be available for searching on NLC's web site. CIHM's list of events for 2003, including the anniversary events, can be viewed on their web site at:
www.canadiana.org/eco/index.html

6. Next meeting

Ralph Manning reminded members that Steering Committee elections will be this year, as the current two-year terms come to an end in the Fall. The next Steering Committee meeting will be a special meeting arranged in Ottawa in March, 2003 to discuss collaboration with OCLC and progress on the direction of the CIDL strategy.

Action: C. Bonnelly to set date.