University of Waterloo Library
		Electronic Data Service Committee
		     Meeting Nov. 6, 1996
			Porter Rm 428

Present:	Albert Kemp		Richard Pinnell
		Doug Morton (Secy)	Carol Vogt
		Susan Moskal (Chair)

Absent:		Shabiran Rahman

1.  Additional Agenda:
	Data Release Form (Pinnell)
	Project Report Document incl. discussions with M. Haslett (Moskal)
	
2.  Minutes of the Previous Meeting
	3. Change M.A.D. to FES Mapping, Analysis & Design Unit in order
	to avoid confusion with the Library Dept. of the same acronym.

3.  Business Arising
	none

4.  CANSIM
	Susan Moskal reported pressure to release the disc space occupied
	by the CANSIM Mainbase as well as concerns about staff time to
	maintain the files and run updates.  The CANSIM CD-ROM does not
	provide sufficient material to be a complete replacement. We will
	again investigate contracting with U of T CHASS (EPAS) to provide
	access. A request for temporary access and costs has gone C.
	Leowski but there has been no response so far.  It is expected
	that the cost will be on a par with the fees we are currently
	paying for delivery of CANSIM.  When access is arranged all
	committee members will be asked to compare the local Websim with
	the CHASS CANSIM.  Any changeover should take place between terms. 

5.  CENSUS 1991 data on Ollie
	There have been no requests for the 1991 Census data currently on 
	Ollie; we have not had the manpower or the expertise to get it
	fully set up and the CD-ROMs are satisfying most users. Our
	options to free up the disc space are: 
	  -  Load it to a CD-ROM
	  -  Use the data stored already as part of the backup routine.  Carol 
	suggested this was not the best way to archive the data.
	  -  Load the data onto ATTIC (IS&T's archive system) which is set up
	for archival storage and retrieval. Costs are $.20/Meg/year of
	data stored plus $.05 /Meg of data transferred on to or off of the
	server, minimum fees of $.01 in both cases

	There was discussion of the quality of the data and the chance of
	replacing it if lost. 

	Both Susan and Richard are attending meetings, soon, at which they
	will have a chance to see what others are doing. 

6. Leisure Studies Data Bank
	Richard has distributed a list of datasets currently available 
	through LSDB. A couple of sample datasets may be made available
	soon.  As the data is stored on ATTIC a suggested model would be
	that LSDB would pay the annual storage fees (approx $33.00) and
	UWL-EDS could cover the I/O fees. 

7.  UWL-EDS web pages
	Susan has been examining different ways of listing the datasets 
	which we have here, linking to further information about the
	datasets (abstracts, codebooks, command files, etc.). In the
	process, she has identified several old files that are probably
	from ICPSR and several inconsistencies between our records and the
	catalogue records.  She distributed two models of how the web
	pages could appear; committee members are asked to review the
	models and send suggestions to Susan, who continues to work on the
	problem. 

8.  Location of UWL-EDS on the UW-Elib home page.
	Richard described how the Internet Resource Committee is 
	revamping the library's home page. The suggestion from us was to
	move EDS from "databases" to "resources". 

9.  Purchase of Datasets
	Susan recapped the story of a researcher looking for trade data 
	wrt Japan.  It turns out the most effective way is to purchase
	only that data from the supplier rather than purchasing access to
	all of their datafiles. Susan's question was how to handle the
	billing. It was suggested that the most effective way would be to
	say that the Library had facilitated _finding_ the data and
	passing the appropriate contact information to the researcher who
	could then purchase the data from his research grant. This would
	eliminate the need for the library to order, pay for, and in turn
	bill the researcher for the purchase. Currently there are not
	accounts set up in the library for such transactions (as there are
	for WATMARS). 

10.  Project Outline
	Susan reported on meetings with Mark Haslett about a project to 
	set up an anonymous FTP space on Ollie. Mark is reviewing the proposal.

11.  Next meeting
	The next meeting may be delayed due to several absences.