Professional Development

2008 NC Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU),

Purchasing Committee Meeting, May 28-29

by Lauren Corbett and Carol Cramer

• For the first time in the history of the group, sessions were not restricted to vendors and purchasing, which was discussed as a problem at the end of the meeting, with suggestions to divide into separate days for vendors/purchasing and other topics
• This year information literacy was the topic for several presentations
• References to SACS prep dominated the discussions
  • Make sure everyone knows the QEP
  • interdisciplinary learning was a SACS interest
  • feedback from users is required, not just statistics

• Members gave demos of WorldCat Collection Analysis and RCL Web. Duke uses WCCA but RCL Web seemed to elicit the most interest, perhaps due to size of institution and cost
• The Endeca implementation by Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) was demonstrated by Derek Rodriguez (formerly Davidson College’s systems librarian). It seemed resource-heavy in terms of programmers; definitely not an out-of-the box solution for faceted searching of library catalogs.
• NC LIVE will send the bill in early fall for 1008-09, which is a timeline change in response to requests, so that both libraries and NC LIVE have better cash flow.
• The only new info from the SOLINET/PALINET merger update (i.e. not already on the website) is that 2 more town hall meetings are to be scheduled for NC since several were canceled due to single person sign-ups.
• In a session on user surveys, one suggestion was to have Institutional Research help write your questions, since they are more versed in writing surveys than we are.
• And finally… Lauren and Carol brought identical T-shirts to use as sleepwear. We had both acquired these shirts at the 2007 Charleston Conference.