ELECTRONIC DATA SERVICE
MINUTES OF THE MEETING, MAY 10, 2000
Present: Cooper, Jack Pinnell, Richard McTaggart, Judy (Recorder) Rahman, Shabiran Moskal, Susan (Facilitator)
1. Additional Agenda:
Add "Data Links" as additional agenda item.
2. Minutes of Previous Meeting, April 26, 2000: Accepted.
3. Business Arising:
Item 3, UW Library Fall Publication: Susan will compose a draft copy of the write-up for the EDS/TDR service and send it to the EDS group for approval.
4. Review of Minutes of the Advisory Group Meeting, April 13, 2000:
The draft copy of the minutes needs revisions. Judy will make the corrections and distribute to the EDS group.
5. TDR Statistics (Jack)
Jack distributed copies of preliminary TDR statistics that had been generated from the log files. The statistics are a breakdown of access totals by sub-net. He noted they were broad statistics and that to obtain finer results it would be necessary to contact various systems administrators on campus. It is possible to refine the data further by breaking down the sub-nets into more meaningful categories and Susan pointed out it would be useful to group by Department if possible.
Jack indicated the statistics in the log files do not correspond with those produced by Beau. He will confer with Beau to determine what is being counted and what the counts mean. Susan and Richard will also examine the data to offer impressions of statistics that appear to be too low or otherwise not correct.
6. TDR OMG Report for the Meeting of May 8, 2000 (Richard)
Richard reported the OMG will put the minutes of the meetings on the TUG staff web. Library staff will be notified when the minutes are completed and alerted to where they can be located. This procedure is similar to the model used by the Trellis Management Group and others.
The CD-ROM holdings on the CD-ROM inventory page are being revised by Beau and only in-house CDs will remain on this page. "DreamWeaver" will be used to update this list. It was recommended that one person at UW should be responsible for updating and changing UW's unique holdings. Richard suggested Astra Goodhue may be interested in doing this.
The categories of datasets on the Web retrieval site are not concise. Susan will examine the categories and devise a classifcation system that works better. She will report back to OMG with her suggestions.
OMG accepted Shabiran's offer to be the editor of Data Links.
The issue of what user information we would like to capture with the statistics is being considered. Beau recommended the EDS group review the survey document posted on the TDR site and provide feedback to Richard. The survey can be found at the following url: http://www.drc.uoguelph.ca/cgi-bin2/otherscripts.staffsurvey.cgi
The idea of developing a Web board which could be used by anyone for the posting of notices and questions about TDR data is still being considered.
7. Ad Hoc Committee on Data Tapes (Shabiran)
The Ad Hoc Committee to review the accessibility of data on tape from the former Data Resources Centre met on Friday, May 5. Shabiran reported 55 titles were found at York or ICPSR. Ron Lambert and John Wilson were able to identify a number of the remaining titles that should be found at York or ICPSR. It was noted the proper titles for the surveys might differ from the titles on the list (UW created unique titles for the list compilation) and this may account for the fact that they could not be located. Several contact names and places where the data might be available were suggested. Shabiran will follow-up. A number of the datasets were also identified as being dated and no longer of particular value. These will not be pursued. Shabiran reported there should be very few datasets that will need to be mounted.
8. Data Links (Shabiran)
Shabiran asked for topic suggestions for the next issue of Data Links. The following were suggested: 1) statistical resources across the TUG libraries (Jack); 2) Advisory Committee report; 3) Data Tapes; 4) Reorganization of TDR services; and, 5) TUG GIS It was noted the previous issue listed future topics at the end of the newsletter. Shabiran will follow-up to determine if these topics are still valid. She also questioned how the operation will be funded (i.e. printing costs, etc.) Richard will speak with Mark. The next issue will be in paper format; however, the format of future issues needs to be considered (paper or electronic?)
Next meeting: May 24,2000; Porter 224A; 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.