August 5, 2008 BHL Executive Committee Notes

Biodiversity Heritage Library Executive Committee Conference Call August 5, 2008

Agenda Topics.
JSTOR Discussions with Anne Ray and Michael Spinella: Chris noted that the D.C. meeting and it follows the meeting in New York to discuss the sharing of metadata. Aluka is moving to JSTOR. Can we share metadata, do we want to and what would it look like? JSTOR sustainability model means charging. Toll-free linking one deep: allows free access to one article for a non-subscriber. Can't go to other articles in the journal or other journals in JSTOR. Tom sent some notes about questions he posed to Mike. Other issues included discussions with publishers--they aren't as plugged in to scientific publishers. Aluka which used to be part of Ithaka, has been moved to JSTOR and includes plant initiatives in Latin America and Africa thus cooperating with us will help them understand biodiversity better. Also interested in automated structural markup. Jim Edwards thinks working with JSTOR on the structural metadata piece will be right in line with EOL Steering Committee recommendation. Cathy noted that Biological Bulletin has been online in a variety of ways--can't get cover, editorial board; JSTOR doesn't do some things. So be cautious about everything in JSTOR but metadata is invaluable. We need also to consider the limited scanning budget-- could potentially pay for items that aren't in JSTOR or somewhere else. There is still a selection decision--something may be in JSTOR but we may need to scan again if there are mitigating circumstances. Once we have an agreement, we should issue a press release. If this works, it sets a great precedent for cooperation. Chris will be at meetings with Aluka in the next months.

IA Status and IA costs
IA needs a cheaper place to set up shop. It would cost $175,000 to renovate space. Tom will call Susan at NYBG to discuss strategies.

Data Gathering for the Next BHL Proposal
Tom send a document that we should review.

Desiderata for the Portal Development – a proposal
More information needed in desiderata page. Need to include user feedback, managing requests and incorporating into development path. Should we try ranking some of these suggestions. Currently Chris is compiling these suggestions in issue-tracking software. How do we get more responses and more people involved. Feedback form on BHL gets used but mostly for items not yet available. Should attach an extra day to main meeting to review technical issues. Ability to search by common name is something we need to work on. In next budget should have funding for annual technical architecture meeting. For now, some of the technical concerns and issues should be on the wiki and then someone can organize these issues for response.
Others.

Chris is making an update to the data model and thinks we should put it on the blog for open criticism. Chris will follow through.

Next call August 19, 2008 at 11 AM EST, 10 AM CST, 4 PM GMT