November 5, 2004
Georgia Tech Library

Attending: Nancy Anderson (Gordon), Carol Bray (East Georgia), Laura Burtle for Charlene Hurt (PM) (Georgia State), Ray Calvert (Coastal Georgia), Betty Childres (Kennesaw), Lyn Dennison for Tamera Lee (MCG), Byron Drew (Gainesville), Blanche Farley (Middle Georgia), Bob Fox (Clayton), Tom Frieling (Bainbridge), Kathy Gallo (Georgia Perimeter), George Gaumond (Valdosta), Willie Gordon for Marilyn Lary (North Georgia), Debbie Holmes (Floyd), Charlene Hurt (Georgia State), Lynn Kelly (Waycross), Ben Lee (Armstrong), Kay Lowry (Darton), Frank Mahitab (Fort Valley), LaVerne McLaughlin (Albany), Mark McManus (West Georgia), Rich Meyer (Georgia Tech), Joyce Mills (SPSU), Bede Mitchell (Georgia Southern), Bill Nelson (Augusta), Merryll Penson (BOR), Bill Potter (UGA), Gene Ruffin (Gwinnett), Rachel Schipper (Georgia College), Brenda Sellers (ABAC), Vera Weisskopf (Georgia Southwestern), Tracey Westmoreland (Dalton)

Chair Rich Meyer opened the meeting at 9:00 a.m. and new directors present for the first time were recognized.

The group received a report from the RACL/WebCT Working Group from members Tyler Walters and Carol Bray. Copies of the full report and the executive summary were distributed prior to the meeting.

Bede Mitchell gave an update on the RACL Task Force for IT Facilities Report. He previously emailed draft documents to RACL concerning facilities/functions such as learning commons, automated information retrieval, and library computer labs. These documents are intended to be attachments to the BOR "Facilities Guidelines for Instructional Technology." Bede recommends that the task force be suspended at this time though until the entire BOR document is revised and that libraries be represented in that revision.

Lonnie Harvel, Senior Research Scientist at Georgia Tech gave a presentation entitled Distributed Learning via eClass.

Linda Daniels, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Facilities gave a presentation entitled Campus Fabric - Campus Threads. She discussed the status of capital projects including several proposed library facilities and recommended the publication "Libraries Designed for Learning"; by Scott Bennett.

Following lunch, Bill Nelson reported on the status of the GIL Governance Structure Revision committee that he heads. Other committee members include Bede Mitchell and Debbie Holmes. They distributed a draft recommendation that called for dissolving the current GIL Steering Committee but leaving in place the GIL functional committees. Their proposal includes a position of GIL Coordinator that would coordinate the activities of the functional committees and serve as a liaison between those committees and the RACL Executive Committee. A new GIL standing committee of RACL would be formed by the GIL Coordinator and the chairs of the functional committees and would be responsible for planning the annual GIL User Group Meeting. The GIL Coordinator would be the RACL Chair-Elect. Based on recommendations from the RACL membership, Nelson’s committee will revise the draft. Plans are to finalize and approve the report at the Spring 2005 RACL meeting.

Crit Stuart (Georgia Tech), Bill Potter, and George Gaumond then made presentations in a report called "Synergies: Library and IT Components."; They individually discussed recent construction/renovation projects with their libraries that resulted from collaborative activity with departments outside the library.

Merryll Penson distributed a report on GALILEO/GIL activities including such areas as database changes, access issues, training, and GIL Express. She also distributed a separate report with GIL Express statistics by institution. She discussed a number of proposed collaborative opportunities such as potential database additions and the current status of productivity tools such as SFX. She noted potential impacts from the current budget situation.

RACL approved the following motion proposed by Rich Meyer. Move that Library Services, OIIT, BOR, provide costs for a three year implementation plan for SFX, EZProxy, E-Res, and cross database searching options for the USG libraries, including support and possible implementation services from the vendor(s). At the March RACL meeting, the options, implementation plan would be reviewed and sent forward to the Vice Presidents for Academic Affairs for consideration for the FY06 budget. [This assumes the funds would come from the institutions and might be financed over three years] [If information is needed earlier than March, the executive committee would act on RACL’s behalf.]

Rich Meyer concluded the meeting by noting plans for the Spring 2005 meeting to be held at the Georgia Archives in Morrow adjacent to the campus of Clayton State.

The meeting concluded at 4:00 with attendees offered a tour of the library information commons area at the Tech library.

Respectfully submitted,

Robert Fox
RACL Secretary & Director of Library Services
Clayton College & State University