Present: Doug Horne, Helene Leblanc, Richard Pinnell, Bo Wandschneider
1. TDR Tour. The meeting began with a brief discussion of the possibility of a tour of the TDR. Helene and Richard were shown the facilities of the TDR and generally told that most of the TDR is virtual and resides on a server located in the Animal Sciences building elsewhere on campus. There were some questions about administration of the system and the way that business if conducted on a day-to-day basis. Finally, Carol Perry and Jenny Marvin (library staff with TDR related duties) were introduced.
2. 2001/2002 Budget The budget was introduced for the fiscal year 2001/2002. Much of this budget was taken from the previously signed TDR Service Agreement, and has been dealt with in the past. Doug asked that any additions to this budget should be mentioned before December 11th, when the TDR Steering Committee will discuss it. Some suggestions for additional items included a line for additional hardware such as scanners or zip drives, and a possible line for travel costs. In particular, members of the OMG have been interested in possible site visits to institutions that have successfully implemented GIS services.
3. Web-site Update The group had a relatively lengthy discussion of the new TDR web-site. The page was scheduled to "go-live" on December 5th (and it did). This discussion focused on the structure and layout of the site, and many suggestions were made for possible improvements. One of the most significant changes involved making buttons across the top of the page for "Search TDR", "TDR Help", "About TDR", and "Contact Us" (buttons that were previously incorporated into a navigation bar. There were also some changes to wording of links, and their positioning on the navigation bar (menu bar on the left side). It was stressed that this page can and should continue to change (many changes were being made up to the go-live date based on EDS and Helene's suggestions), and these are generally easy to accomplish. The group agreed on a model to use for the next round of changes (to be completed as soon as possible).
4. Datalinks Newsletter There was discussion of the Datalinks Newsletter. There were some concerns about the process by which this publication is produced. There was agreement that for future issues it would be desirable to have an increased amount of direction from the editor in terms of topics and suggestions for contributors. It was agreed that some standard features should be developed and that the OMG could make suggestions for added content when necessary. The next deadline is very soon, and some topics must be developed before contributors can provide content.
5. Communications It was stressed once again that we must actively communicate with users and staff about the services offered by the TDR. Beginning with these minutes, all TDR OMG and Steering Committee minutes will appear on the TUG staff web site and summaries shall be sent ti library staff at all three institutions. There was also some discussion of the new bulletin board that is currently being tested by Guelph staff. This technology could be successfully used for distributing information and for housing threaded discussions. It will likely be made live in the very near future. It was suggested that staff should be made aware of the existence of this tool as a current awareness service for the TDR.
6. Next Meeting: It was agreed that the OMG should meet early in the Winter term. (January, if schedules allow).