MEETING, Feb 26, 2008 @ Wisconsin Library Association Office, Madison

9:30-12:30

1. Update/Status Report

NOTE: Summary of previous meeting with some updates is attached

2. Future Directions Committee & WHO Grant Proposal

3. New Digital Content projects

4. Financial Plan FY09 - Discussion, recommendations

DRAFT plan will be sent prior to meeting

5. Other Business

Most recent meeting minutes:

Board Meeting Notes 2008 Feb 26.doc

Board Mgt March 2007 Summary.doc 

WHO Board Meeting Notes   Feb 26, 2008

Proposed NEXT meeting: Friday July 25^th, 2008

Present: Kathy Schneider, Matt Blessing, Debbie Cardinal, Jonathan Cooper, Sally Drew, Ed van Gemert, Peter Gilbert, Rita Magno, Cristin Waterbury, Josh Ranger, Cathy Markwiese.

To-Dos, Follow-ups, or Watch items in BOLD below. Assigned responsibility is in YELLOW HIGHLIGHT.

1. Introductions

2. Update/Status Report

·         WHO is working as originally designed now, with links going back to the originating institution, after concerns expressed at the March meeting about image display staying in SiteSearch for single items but not for compound objects.

·         Josh Ranger announced that a Teaching American History grant, for $998,158, was awarded in June for training of 50 teachers in three Cooperative Educational Service Agencies in northern and northeastern Wisconsin. The project will include the history departments at UW-Oshkosh, UW-Green Bay and UW-Marathon County, plus the Wisconsin and local historical societies.   WHO could develop a plan and apply for funding to create teacher workshops that would ultimately make the WHO collection more useable for teachers.  Teachers could evaluate what is there and guide us on how to develop the collection.  Would also be a good promotional opportunity as teachers know about the Wisconsin Historical Society resources but not about the WHO collection.  Josh will meet with those managing the grant to discuss the possibility of working with WHO.  Perhaps a pilot…

·         A discussion followed regarding the audience for WHO (students, teachers and geneologists were readily identified) and how to make the collection more useful to them.  Regarding additions to the WHO collection, current  practice is to work with participants that are ready to submit collections to WHO.  If WHO is able to obtain grant funding, it would be possible to seek out collections that satisfy specific criteria.

3. Future Directions Committee

·         The future directions committee is currently evaluating potential foundations/grant funding agencies.  They are creating a draft application document.  Regarding the purpose for the grant, they are emphasizing the need to bring various communities from across the state together  (particularly museums and historical societies) to make hidden collections available; and to get people started with digitization by providing support and education.  Ultimately, the effort would bring more collections to WHO and therefore more WHO users. Cathy Markwiese or Kirsten Houtman will add a statement to the document about recipients providing public programs or public exhibits to show the benefit of receiving the grant. It will be good public relations.

·         The Historical Society reaches users through National History Day.  Subject specific collections that correspond with regional or national events are another potential area for growth.  This would provide a theme for a given collection and possibly potential partners.  Once partners come in with one collection, they may add other collections.  One such national theme is the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War.  An idea was proposed that a general template could be made available on a website for various institutions to use to contribute (1-3 images) to a single collection such as a Civil War collection.  Re-enactment groups are very active currently, and civil war music is very popular.  There are a number of potential underwriters for this idea.  Collections would have to be available and promotional materials would have to be ready by January 2011.  Possible Working Group for the Civil War project: Matt Blessing (volunteer but NOT project manager); Steve Platteter; Veterans Museum; Civil War Veterans groups; Civil War Band groups; Katie Sanders (Carroll College), and her contact, who may provide help locating corporate financing. Find out more about the Abolishtionist Papers at Waukesha Freeman??. Debbie Cardinal will approach these contacts for interest and availability. Also talk to Janet Seymour and Rick Bernstein, local history contacts.

4. Financial Plan

·         Wisconsin Heritage Online is supported by UW-Madison, WiLS, and the Wisconsin Historical Society plus revenue from membership fees.  Membership fees are not going to work in the long run as a source of major funding.  Board members recommended determining what costs should be covered by membership and then simplifying membership costs, such as $50.00 for small institutions and $100 for larger ones. Kathy Schneider will do this.

·         UW-Madison’s Division of Information Technology (DoIT) is currently providing the technical support for WHO.  DoIT is paid a monthly charge according to the contractual agreement.   Fees are not tied to the number of collections that are added, and server hosting is part of the cost.   Since the retirement of Nolan Pope, there has been less communication between WHO and DoIT.  It would be helpful to have regular reports and to know the cost per record.  Are we doing the best we can do with the money that is being spent?  Ed Van Gemert will invite Peter Gorman or Dave Luke to the July WHO Board meeting to discuss how funds are being used and where technology will take us in the future.

·         UWDC is committed to supporting WHO through June 30, 2009.  The Wisconsin Historical Society hopes to be able to support WHO’s technological infrastructure within 2 years, including possibly the monthly harvesting.  Those adding collections will need to provide their own scanning and metadata.  There are currently 6 parties taking advantage of hosting services through the Historical Society.  WiLS support is currently committed through June of 2008.  Kathy will recommend to the WiLS Board that support continue through June 2009.

·         Sally Drew expressed an interest in working with WHO to land a LSTA grant.  In Debbie Cardinal’s proposal, institutions would digitize and scan their own collections; and contribute them to WHO through the Wisconsin Historical Society’s hosted CONTENTdm service.  The idea would be to get people going on their own digital programs using local start-up funds.  This would give them the flexibility of adding daily to their collections.  Neither WHO nor the Wisconsin Historical Society are offering cradle-to-grave services.   Ultimately, preservation and collection creation and development decisions must be made at the local level.

5. New Digital Content Projects

·         WHO is becoming better known, and people are approaching Debbie Cardinal with an interest in adding to the collection.  Some are interested in the preservation component of digitization.  They are concerned about the deterioration of the original resource.  Potential projects:

§   Chippewa Valley Museum

§   Outagamie County Historical Society

§   Whitefish Bay Historical Society

§   Mineral Point Historical Society

§         Should we try to find some financial support for our current partners, such as the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS)?   WHS is relying on limited term employees and also has lost a number of regular staff recently.  Perhaps the DPI, UWDC and WHS can draw up a proposal for LSTA? Jonathan Cooper will ask WHS about this idea.

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