§ SAALCK Directors' Council Meeting
SAALCK Directors’ Meeting
May 8, 1987
Minutes
Present: May Ellen Elsbernd, Chair (NKU); Ernest Weyrauch (EKU); Elsie Pritchard for Larry Besant (MoSU); Gail Kennedy for Paul Willis (UK); Martha Bowman (UL); Omer Hamlin, Jr. (UK Medical Center Library); Mike Binder (WKU).
The meeting convened at 8:30 a.m. in the Yorkshire Room of the Executive Inn. The minutes of the April 10, 1987, meeting were approved.
Omer Hamlin, SAALCK’s special guest and telefax expert, reported on the use of telefax in ILL at the UK Medical Center Library (MCL). Highlights of his presentation included:
MCL uses Sharp equipment which transmits approximately a single page in 20 seconds. Transmission speed varies according to the amount of print and graphics on the page. Sharp machine was purchased in March for less than $2,500. The Sharp generates a statistical ILL send and receive report and interfaces with other brands of telefax machines. In case of a busy signal, the Sharp automatically redials five times before switching from the KATS line to regular long distance.
Although MCL transmits a low percentage of its ILL’s via the Sharp, Hamlin feels it will become indispensable to libraries in the future and is quite satisfied with the Sharp’s performance. MCL does not charge the telefax transmission if a reciprocal agreement has bee made with the borrowing library. If no agreement exists, MCL charges $4.50 per ILL in-state and $7.00 out-of-state, which are the same rates charged for all ILL’s. Hamlin concluded with two recommendations: 1) buy a machine which will do half tones; and 2) buy (don’t lease) from a company which will provide good service.
Elsie Pritchard distributed a memo from Larry Besant regarding his conversation with A.D. Albright and the telefax project. In sum, Albright was enthusiastic about the project and suggested an informal approach to Gary Cox be made, as an initial step.
Other information distributed in the meeting included NKU’s and MSU’s telefax estimates; materials from Hamlin; MoSU’s ILL profile; telefax article, “Compatibility and Flexibility are the Right Stuff for Fax;” Xerox Telecopier brochures; and median and average salaries of academic librarians in selected regional institutions.
After lengthy discussion, the group agreed that Cox should be approached with a proposal which would include a request for project funds covering hardware and operating costs.
Mike Binder volunteered to draft a cost proposal based on information received from each library. Directors who were unable to bring estimates to the meeting were urged to provide Mike with their best guess by JUNE 1, 1987.
The group decided that a summer meeting would be necessary to review the cost proposal and to further discuss strategy.
Mary Ellen Elsbernd will be contacting each director to determine when the summer meeting can be held.
Submitted by,
/signed/
Mary Ellen R. Elsbernd
May 11, 1987