Ibero-American Science and Technology Education Consortium
Consorcio Iberoamericano para la Educación en Ciencia y Tecnología
Consórcio Iberoamericano para a Educação em Ciência e Tecnologia

ISTEC Library Linkages Initiative News

ISTEC LIBRARY LINKAGES
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF NOVEMBER 18, 1998

ISTEC will place $5000 in a deposit account for CISTI orders for all members. CSEL will keep statistics and report on use in six months to the Board of Directors (ExCom). Further decisions will be made after that.

Members agreed on an important principle: Digital Library Linkages document delivery services should be free for everyone, with as little bureaucracy as possible. Other libraries could, on their own account, decide to offer cost recovered services to local industry and non-ISTEC libraries. Brazilian ISTEC libraries will offer this service to these third party members, and charge accordingly.

2. OTHER PROJECTS
RandeX was discussed. Oscar Marquez will present a revised version and asks for two or three libraries to volunteer for testing as soon as possible. However, ISTEC libraries are committed to the international standard, ARIEL, and see RandeX as an adjunct to this service. ARIEL is the de facto international standard for all libraries.

3. REVISION OF THE 1998 GOALS
- LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT:Building management experience and influence for libraries in their organizations. We want to do more in this area. At the next General Assembly we will have workshops.

- EXTENDING DOCUMENT SUPPLIERS: This has been accomplished at this meeting with the decision to extend the pilot project with UNLP to all other Digital Library Linkages members . ACTION: Chaouki and Marisa will ask for $5,000 from the ExCom to fund this pilot. Johann will implement if it gets funded and let all members know.

- JOINT ELECTRONIC PURCHASES: We discussed the potential of Academic Press Electronic Journals. It will be beneficial for the smaller libraries, as they will only have to pay the minimal member price. The problem is that AP requires that the large subscribers, like UNM, re-subscribe to their canceled journals from the previous two years. This is unacceptable to UNM and they will only do this if ISTEC pays the cost for re-subscription to these journals ($15,000 annually). ACTION: Digital Library Linkages is not satisfied with this arrangement and will not subscribe at this time.

- EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF AN ELECTRONIC SCI/ENG JOURNAL FOR LATIN AMERICA: This has been accomplished at UNLP and the ExCom needs to ensure its funding and further support.

4. GOALS FOR 1999
- LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: See above.

- EXTENDING DOCUMENT SUPPLIERS: See above.

- RECRUIT MORE ISTEC LIBRARIES TO JOIN Digital Library Linkages: There are many ISTEC organizations who have not involved their libraries with Digital Library Linkages. This is especially true for smaller organizations. ACTION: Johann will list all the current Digital Library Linkages libraries and their library Directors and the Digital Library Linkages Contact on the ISTEC Homepage. Johann will also list all the ISTEC members whose libraries have not joined Digital Library Linkages. ACTION: All members should work with other librarians in their area to join ISTEC and Digital Library Linkages. (See also below)

- TRAINING: