ATTENDANCE: Sandy Beehler, Carole Kiehl (ODU), Lucious Edwards, Gail McClenney (VSU), Jay Gaidmore, Lyn Hart (LVA), Edward Gaynor UVA), Jim Gwin (UR), Jodi Koste (VCU), Gail McMillan (VT, scribe), Susan Riggs (W&M), Elsie S. Weatherington (VSU) Chair and VIVA Steering Committee Liaison
NEH Award
Congratulations! Elsie brought sparkling cider, with cheers and kudos. Edward shared review comments with the members. Essentially all excellent reviews by all reviewers and NEH.
Grant Implementation Plan
Budget Revision
Edward and Jodi revised the budget to return to NEH by May 1, 2000. Edward distributed handouts for budget summary, summary contracts for each institution, and a draft memo requesting funding from VIVA steering committee for travel and consultant. The revised budget eliminates travel and fees for the consultant. In the budget request to the VIVA Steering Committee, the request for travel and consulting are detailed by institution.
The VHP also discussed the need to have a different structure for the implementation of the grant and for other projects initiated by the VHP. It was strongly recommended by the VHP that a Steering Committee comprised of the 11 project directors be established. An executive committee of 5 institutions including VSU, UVA, WM, VT and VCU be established to develop the detailed implementation to feed back to the Steering Committee. The Steering committee would meet bi-monthly and receive reports from the Executive Committee which will meet monthly or more. The VHP also proposed that the Special Collections Committee be re-established as a sub committee or standing committee to continue with the development of other initiatives such as the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Project. The VHP is one project out of possibly several other projects that may be undertaken to improve access to primary resources, create teaching/training models for the SOLs, and other innovative initiatives. Edward and Elsie will draft the reorganization as a formal document to be submitted to the VIVA Steering Committee for review and action.
Elsie Weatherington, chair of VHP, discussed with the group the possibility of resigning her post as chair due to the demands of managing the library renovation project at her institution. The VHP members expressed their desire to have her continue as chair. Elsie informed the members she would re-think her decision and let them know by the next meeting.
EAD Project Implementation
The EAD project is scheduled to start July 1, 2000. Year one participants can expect to hire their EAD Processing Assistants for July 1, 2000. The proposed Executive Committee will meet May 24, 2000, 10:30 am at UVA Law School.
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Project
Susan Riggs gave a report on the Proposal for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. The target date for submission of the grant is September 2000. Susan discussed in detail the brainstorming and visits made with the Virginia Historical Society’s Jim Brock and Professor Wheeler in the School of Education at William and Mary. The question is what do teachers need and what works for them. The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Project Committee must work closely with teachers to finely focus on SOL needs for primary resources. Grant would pay for substitute teachers to allow classroom teachers to travel to meetings to meet with archivists at our institutions. These educational specialists also suggested that the Committee seek a grant that would fund the process, not the finished product. There was further discussion about the process of selecting teachers, the future of the SOLs, and how to create an effective model for teaching the use of primary resources on the web. Susan Riggs and other sub committee members will meet with Edward Gaynor in May to continue to develop this project.
Open Discussion
The EAD template is being tested. Glitches were discovered and resolved. Large finding aids will be tested next. Template should be fairly stable by end of May. Edward reported that the public reorganization of search interface is working well. Good for initial union database–flexible, fast, good functionality, better layout using SGML. Window with image links allows zooming. XML converted to HTML on the fly using Stylesheets. Rough stylesheet is ready and will be basis for VHP. Stylesheet will be customized for institutions.
Jodi distributed VIVA HP Task Force chart with survey of archival repositories at VIVA institutions. Elsie asked Jodi to prepare executive summary sheet to accompany survey results. The results will be sent to all survey participants.
Next Meeting: June 23, 2000, 10:30 at UVA.
http://spec.lib.vt.edu/viva/VHP/minutes/20000414.html
December 29, 2003 (MBG)