Meeting of the Governing Board, January 12, 2001 Meeting, Washington, D.C.

Minutes

Attending:

• Bill Gosling (Chair)
• Dan Arbour
• David Ferriero
• Deanna Marcum
• Sarah Michalak
• Brian Schottlaender
• David Stam
• John Tuck (for Reg Carr)
• Bill Walker

Guests:

• Mark Sandler, University of Michigan
• Hillary Nunn, University of Michigan

Introduction-brief discussion of comment sent in advance of the meeting by Deanna Marcum that the project should determine more clearly if it is "a partnership or a product." Comment was offered that it is a "partnership to create a product." The issue was raised whether creating levels of pricing would affect the level of partner participation but examples of other organizations were offered where differential fees for participation has not adversely affected partner participation or voice. Broadening access to the resource was noted as a worthwhile goal.

Agenda:

Introductions and review of agenda
The Board agreed to consider scheduling future meetings in conjunction with the ARL, in May and October.

Update on Partner recruitment
Mark Sandler informed the board that more than forty institutions had joined the TCP, presenting a list of new members along with a list of those actively considering membership. Sarah Michalak suggested that schools in the Big 12 be targeted for membership. Mark agreed that such efforts would be worthwhile, since the TCP already enjoys strong representation in the East and Midwest. The discussion then shifted to the international market, and John Tuck reminded the board that the Contents Working Group in the UK would be meeting with representatives from Chadwyck-Healey on January 18, and that all parties hoped that some agreement could be made to allow all UK institutions access to EEBO images and membership in the TCP.

Dan Arbour reported that the number of institutions interested in EEBO has continued to grow, noting that the TCP has helped Proquest Information and Learning marketing efforts. He noted that the project has helped steer interest toward the complete EEBO corpus rather than to the subsets that Proquest Information and Learning has developed. While there has been some progress in international sales, especially in Wales, Australia, and New Zealand, Dan expressed hope that new pricing models would allow for national licenses and would help in negotiations with the Contents Working Group.

The board also approved in principle the idea of using the EEBO-TCP as a model for encoding other microfiche collections. Mark recounted his proposal to the DLF that the EEBO-TCP model be used to create a single interface for searching multiple digitized collections. The board was enthusiastic about such efforts to help establish standards for future digitization projects.

User outreach
To give the board background on outreach to users, Hillary Nunn provided a list of conferences that she and Mark Sandler had been attending in hopes of reaching faculty members. She outlined the ways that EEBO was being used in teaching, and the board approved her efforts, suggesting that IT groups become a focus of such outreach as well. Hillary described the EEBO Undergraduate Essay Contest, sponsored by ProQuest Information and Learning and the TCP, and the board approved. Press releases were also discussed, and David Ferriero stressed that paid advertising would prove effective for reaching faculty members. He also suggested that publicity should highlight EEBO's potential for those using WebCT and electronic coursepacks. In addition, John Tuck suggested that the EEBO-TCP make an appearance at the European Research Libraries conference in Europe.

Production update
Hillary then offered an outline of the production process, explaining how the RFP was written and outlining the decision processes that went into the selection of vendors. A brief discussion about selection followed, where the board expressed that the first texts to be encoded should cover a wide array of subjects and time periods so that users might see the breadth of the EEBO corpus; then, selections might be chosen to reflect the depth of knowledge that the corpus offers on particular subjects. They suggested that ProQuest Information and Learning's data about text usage would serve as a valuable guideline in selection as well. The board also approved the TCP's working in conjunction with the ESTC to create a tracking database to be used at Michigan and Oxford during the production process.

Financial Report and discussion of EEBO-TCP Organization
Bill Gosling reported that contracts had been difficult to push through legal channels at Michigan, but that the involvement of the universityıs high level administration would ensure their completion before the February billing cycle. A review of project expenditures then ensued, and Bill requested that a subcommittee for finance be formed so that a standard for budget presentation might be prepared. Brian Schottlaender, Bill Walker, and Deanna Markham agreed to serve on the subcommittee.

The board considered whether members who wanted to pay their membership all at once should be entitled to a discount, and the finance subcommittee agreed to investigate how much the price could be adjusted in such situations. The board did not approve a pricing model that used library budgets as the basis for membership costs, suggesting instead that Carnegie classifications might allow for a more acceptable model for pricing. John Tuck pointed out that pricing based on the size of budgets is seen as the norm in the UK and suggested that such a structure be approved for the UK, but the board reached no agreement on the matter.

Next Steps
Bill Gosling restated the action steps that emerged from the day's discussion:

Near term:

• Devise several models that would provide fair pricing for institutions of different sizes
• Investigate pricing models for institutions beyond the United States
• Settle contracts among participating institutions
• Explore the effects of offering discount for institutions that pay membership as lump sum (Brian, Bill, and Deanna)
• Develop advertising for scholarly journals

Long term:

• Consider grant funding opportunities
• Develop and propose initiative with DLF to apply EEBO-TCP model to other text digitization projects.