Present: Sylvia Kuhlmeier, Tabor College; Ruth Cox, Kansas Wesleyan University; Kay Bradt, Baker University; Dolores Hill, Brown Mackie-Salina; Jan Lee, Ottawa; Nancy Malone, Central College; Margaret Wiebe, Hesston College; Anne Liebst, Baker University; Joseph Forte, Newman University; Max Burson, Friends University; Charles Kendall, Sterling College; Barbara Thiesen, Bethel College.

Sylvia Kuhlmeier, chairperson, called the meeting to order.

Sylvia asked for corrections to the minutes of the October 15, 1999 meeting. Max Burson moved that the minutes be approved as distributed. Motion passed unanimously.

Sylvia reported that the balance in the treasury is $908.64.

The PAL directory was distributed. The following changes/corrections should be made:

Sylvia clarified that the directory includes employees of PAL libraries, not just PAL members. There currently are 34 members. Sylvia urged all present to become members if they aren’t already.

Reports:

KLA Council: Rowena was ill, so Sylvia reported. KLA is involved in planning its centennial celebration and the 2000 Tri-Conference meeting. There is currently a lot of effort going into a membership drive. Nominations for major benefactors need to be sent to Rowena by the end of the month so that she can get the brochure done in time for Tri-Conference.

Kansas Library Network Board: Greg was not present. Sylvia handed out his report. Discussion centered on an image make-over of the KLNB and promotion of libraries of Kansas. (See attached report.) Nancy had talked to Leroy Gattin, who indicated that the KAN-ED start up funds may be taken out of the tobacco money. Legislators as a whole seem positive about KAN-ED.

Kansas Reference Committee: Sylvia reported for Rowena. No children’s database because of lack of money. The Committee is following up on OCLC’s massive increase in FirstSearch costs. Rowena has submitted a suggestion that science databases be looked at for the next possibility. Last year the number of ports to FirstSearch were reduced, but PAL members present were not in favor of further reductions as a way to cut costs.

Legislative Report: Kay Bradt. Legislative day will be February 17, 2000. Kay recommends writing legislators about the KAN-ED project. Other issues: Office of Information Technology (ALA) Digital Millennium Copyright survey--has everyone filled it out? It is important that we participate. Some vendors do not make databases available to off-campus students; so these concerns need to be raised. Kay announced that ALA is sponsoring an online copyright tutorial by Kenneth Crews, February 14-May 5, 2000.

LSTA Advisory Council Report: Sylvia reported on the October 8, 1999 meeting which was focused on allocating the funds for the Technology Development and Technology Training grants. Total Technology Training funding granted $32,377. Requests total were for less than the amount available, however not all requests were funded. Sylvia noted the importance of writing a good grant request. Evaluations were well done; projects had gone as planned. The LSTA Advisory Council had a conference call meeting on November 12, 1999 during which Duane Johnson proposed to use LSTA funds to purchase a children’s online database and suspend the 2000 competitive grant round for special population projects. The proposal was not approved. See attached report. Max Burson asked if libraries that receive an LSTA special population grants one year should really be eligible for a grant the next year. Sylvia responded that presently they can. Max felt that libraries shouldn’t get successive grants. Sylvia said the committee seemed to be in agreement that the quality of the grant should be the criteria. The committee is providing feedback as to why grants aren’t funded. Sylvia asked for creative ideas and requested that grants be submitted. Max asked if religious groups would be considered a special population. Sylvia said it would depend on what the grant request was.

New Business:

Elections this year will be for a new Nominating Committee (3 persons) and for a new Chairperson (2001-2003). Elections need to be completed for the Tri-Conference. Only paid members will be eligible for voting. Sylvia said that being chair has been a positive experience.

PAL grants: Anne Liebst set up the website so that applications can be sent via the web. Sylvia has received two so far. PAL grants are available for anytime between now and fall. A new round of grants would be available in fall. The grants are for up to $50.00. It would be helpful to list possible meetings for which grants could be used.

Tri-Conference Program: April 13, 2000 1:30-3:30; program and business meeting. Bylaws were amended last fall to include a Program Committee, which currently is Sylvia, Joseph Forte, and Gail Stucky. Proposed program: IPEDS: Good data in, Good data out.

EbscoHost: Anne Liebst reported that our representative has changed. He seems to be on top of things. New features: EbscoHost 3.2 includes new administrative package; interface is faster; icons now include a company directory. If Ebsco is your periodical vendor you will have a link to your local periodicals. Addition of persistent URLs; must be turned on through the admin, but they are tricky. E-mail Anne for step by step instructions. Copyright is then taken care of, as is security. If you subscribe to electronic journal titles, they will link through EbscoHost. What’s next: currently 11 libraries; price of $36,000.00 broken down by FTE. $4.55/student. Anne will try for $4.50 per student. Pricing will go down if we have more libraries involved. Anne wants to know intent by Tri-Conference and 1999 fall semester FTE. Newman and Sterling may be interested in joining. Expressing interest in the first round of negotiations does not mean a commitment. We expressed our appreciation to Anne for her work on this. Anne encouraged participants to subscribe to the EbscoHost discussion list. She will provide the address.

Other: Select a date and location for our January 2001 meeting. Sylvia declared that in the future, the host must be present at the meeting. Baker University offered to host the meeting on Friday, January 19, 2001. Snow date: Friday, January 26, 2001.

Next meeting, Tri-Conference April 13, 2000 in Wichita, Kansas.

Announcements:

ACCK librarians, Hesston College and Central College will be hosting CULS in October

Appreciation expressed to Sylvia for her work as chair.

Respectfully submitted,