PRESENT: Jack Cooper; Richard Pinnell; Susan Moskal (Chair); Shabiran Rahman; Judy McTaggart (Facilitator)
From Previous Business Arising (Budget funds for purchasing cd-rom storage cases): Susan reported she would like to wait and consider the space in the new EDS office before approaching Lorraine about funds. It was suggested this may be a matter that should now go through Margaret Aquan-Yuen (ISR management team member responsible for facilities, furniture & equipment). Action: Susan will direct the request through Margaret.
From the same business arising: Richard noted he had visited Canadian Tire and obtained information on both cost and functionality for cd storage. He will give this information to Margaret Aquan-Yuen also.
ICPSR cd-roms: Richard reported he sent the tiles “Intra-Corporate Ownership” and “The Time Series for State of Food and Agriculture” to Michele Edwards and Bo Wandschneider for possible mounting on the TDR site. In order to do this, however, a read me file needs to be created. It was suggested that, due to the amount of work involved to do this , a more viable option might be to add a note to each record that states “available in EDS office” Action: Richard will take this suggestion to the next OMG meeting.
Item 4, Data Links: Shabiran reported the latest electronic issue had been sent out but the date had been omitted and needs to be added. Paper copies will also be distributed. The group discussed the cost and amount of work involved with distributing paper copies. There was discussion about faculty computer access and proficiency and the group agreed it is still necessary to produce a paper version. Richard noted he will get an update about information for the next issue at the upcoming OMG meeting.
Item 5, CARL Survey: Susan noted there was an error on the survey form submitted to CARL: Shabiran Rahman (alternate contact) was listed as the contact. The space should have been left blank.
Item 6, GIS metadata project: Richard reported he has written the charter and received approval and funding up to $10,400. Two students are currently working on the technical aspects of editing and tweaking the standards. The creation of records will begin in approximately two weeks. Susan suggested a description of this project would be good for a future issue of Data Links.
Item 6, notification and cataloguing of new EDS resources: Richard reported the process is now working well.
Susan noted Val Huggan has obtained some department aliases that can be used for distribution of the newsletter. She will send copies to the Department secretaries to distribute for those that do not have an alias. Susan noted there was no alias for the IST Department. Action: Jack will follow up on this.
Richard asked if anyone had something they wanted to get published in the next issue of Data Links. Shabiran noted that the article on the use of the Data Research Centre has been submitted Susan will confer with Jane Forgay about asking one Economics professor who uses a lot of data to write an article. Richard suggested it would be good to do something for Data Links that relates to EDS and the recent changes. Susan volunteered to write an article on that. Richard will ask Bo if he is writing something about SWORDC. It was suggested that it might be more appropriate to ask Pat Newcombe-Welch, manager of SWORDC, to write something. Shabiran will follow up on this..
Susan gave an update on the relocated EDS Office. Space in the new office does not allow for two cd-rom machines. As a result, one machine will be removed. The Systems co-op student (Joe) has created a directory for the front page and is in the process of installing all the cd-roms. When this is completed, the one machine will be removed and the printer moved to its place. The telephones still need to be installed.
The workstation that was originally in Porter 224 will stay in the new meeting room on the fifth floor (512A).
Richard suggested it might be time for a mini-upgrade to the EDS machine – for example, the addition of a cd burner and an upgrade of the zip drive. Action: Susan will follow up on this with Carl Nagel.
Richard reported OMG is scheduled to meet on January 16 th and he will email a complete update following the meeting. He did note the first draft of the policy on access to TDR data by external users would be discussed at the meeting.
Susan noted that, in light of Shabiran’s additional work responsibilities, it would be advisable to have an additional person from Porter on the EDS committee. She will approach Jane Forgay to determine her interest in joining the group. There was further discussion about the committee membership, the need for additional members, and the need to have members who have relevance to the material.
Susan noted the biennial meeting of the ICPSR official representatives will be held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, October 9 – 12, 2003. Richard attended the last meeting two years ago. Susan noted the importance of attending the meetings and that application for funding to attend should be made as usual.
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