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UW Library Electronic Data Service

MINUTES OF THE MEETING, APRIL 4, 2005

Present: Christy Branston (Facilitator); Sandra Keys; Judy McTaggart(Recorder) Richard Pinnell; Mark Polger     

Regrets: Neil Patterson, Shabiran Rahman

  1. Minutes of the Meeting, March 7, 2005: 

    Item 4, Beyond 20/20: Change Christy’s action to read …“Christy will follow-up with Ray Wright when new updates are needed”.

  2. Business Arising:

    From previous business arising:

    • Item 5:  Christy noted it is expected the design of the new homepage will be completed by June.
    • Item 6:  Sandra will meet with Christy to discuss what cd’s need to be installed on the EDS machine.  The new co-op student will work on this project over the summer.

    Item 4: Christy will contact Ray Wright to discuss upgrading of the Beyond 20/20 software in the computer labs.

    Item 5:

    • Richard”s action:  TDR will meet on April 13th.  He will take the suggestion about posting a notice to the TDR page to that meeting. 
    • Sandra will meet with Rachel Caldwell this week to work on the content for the “News at Your Library” article.  She has sent the article for Data Links to Carol Perry.

  3. Additional Agenda:

    The following were added as additional agenda items:

    • Item 4, Nesstar & Proxy
    • Item 6, Listservs
    • Item 7, ICPSR Summer Program Calendar

  4. Nesstar & Proxy (Richard):

    Richard reported the problem affecting access to Nesstar through the proxy server has not been fixed. He referred to the message sent from Bo Wandschneider and noted that the origin of the problem has not been determined.  The group agreed that Chris Gray should be involved in the event the problem originates at UW.   Action:  Richard will invite Chris to the next TDR meeting (to be held at UW) for that agenda item. 

  5. Planning For EDS Advisory Meeting:

    Christy, Sandra and Richard reported on the follow-up responses for faculty who had not responded to the meeting invitation.  Mark will phone those faculty reps in Psychology and Sociology who have not responded.  To date, a total of 11 have indicated they will be attending. 

    The meeting is set for Monday, April 25, 12 noon – 1:30 p.m. Porter 428. Lunch will be provided.  Actions:  Sandra will take care of the lunch arrangements and Judy will confirm the room booking.

    The group agreed the original agenda that had previously been sent out could be used.  The agenda was set as follows:

    • Introductions
    • Nesstar Demo (Richard)
    • Previous Minutes (November 26, 2003)
    • Additional Agenda
    • Discussion of the role and function of the EDS Advisory Group
    • Terms of reference- http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/uweds/
      mandate.html
    • Membership
    • Proposed name change
    • Data Sets – New data sets and suggestions for acquisitions (Sandra)
    • Data Links – Thoughts on the content – can we improve it? (Richard)

    View the most recent issue: http://tdr.tug-libraries.on.ca/NEWS?DOCS1/dff04.pdf

    The group discussed how to approach the topic regarding the role and function of the                Advisory Group.  It was agreed that a draft should be scripted that details the group’s rationale for the proposal to be presented.  Actions:  Christy will look at the existing terms of reference for the Advisory Group, draft a script, and send it to the EDS members.  She will send out the agenda a week before the meeting.

  6. Listservs (Richard):

    Richard reported that Carol Perry said there were several UW people (outside the EDS group) who have signed up for the TDR web board and asked if changes needed to be made.  Richard noted that the board was set up to be a forum for discussion that relates to TUG/TDR but it is possible for anyone from UW to follow the links from the EDS page and get to the web board.  The concern may be that this should be a “staff only” board.  The group agreed they would be interested in seeing who is signed up; however, because the board is intended for TUG/TDR only it might be useful to have a disclaimer to that effect added to the page.  Action:  Richard will ask Michelle for clarification on her concern and ask about having a disclaimer added.   

  7. ICPSR Summer Program Calendar (Richard):

    Richard distributed copies of the calendars and brochures for the ICPSR Summer program.  He will also send a poster to SWORDC.  He noted May 9th is the deadline for returning the MIP form for funding.  He will send the information as soon as it is received.  Richard will also check to see if there is a web copy of the program and send the url.

  8. Other:

    Sandra shared a discovery she made during the process of helping a student. She was able to access data from the UK data archives supposedly available only to consortia members. She described how she had followed links and simply registered and was then able to access the data.  She suggested it might be useful to have similar “information sharing” as part of the regular EDS meetings.

    Richard reported he has just purchased the US 2000 Census long form and boundary files.  Users can now work with statistical data or map the census.

    Mark asked for clarification on the subscriptions of the DLI member institutions.  Do all members have the same datasets?  It was noted that all data is made available but each institution downloads only what it needs. 

Next Meeting:  May 2; Porter 407; 3:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m.

Facilitator:  Sandra

Judy McTaggart

September 23, 2009