Texas State Library and Archives Commission
April 19, 2016

Minutes

The meeting of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission previously noticed for 8:30 a.m. on April 19, 2016 in the Hilton Americas, 1600 Lamar Street in Houston, Texas, was held via telephone due to the flooding in and around Houston making it impossible to convene a quorum of Commission members. A conference phone was set up at the posted location where members of the public could still attend. Only those matters on the previously-posted agenda that were time-sensitive and required immediate action were considered at the meeting.

Chairman Waters called the meeting to order at 8:34 a.m. and asked Joe Thrash for clarification on the meeting’s legality. Mr. Thrash said the flooding in Houston was an unforeseeable circumstance and that conducting the meeting by phone was reasonable and legal. Chairman Waters asked each person to identify themselves prior to speaking and noted that the commission would consider one item, Agenda Item 9 Review and approve contracts greater than $100,000, and contract renewals. All other business would be held until the Commission’s June 3, 2016 meeting in Austin.

Chairman Waters called upon Mark Smith to introduce the agenda item. Mr. Smith turned the meeting over to Deborah Littrell who requested approval to extend and amend the contract with Mother Goose on the Loose, LLC, for an additional amount not to exceed $7,700 for the period June 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016 increasing the total contract amount not to exceed $29,978. Commissioner Carr moved to approve the contract addition. Commissioner Holt seconded. Mr. Thrash advised taking roll call votes due to the nature of the meeting. After a roll call vote, the motion passed unanimously.

Deborah Littrell requested approval to renew online database contracts for the core TexShare database program for Texas libraries negotiated by TSLAC. Selected through a competitive bid process and recommended by the Electronic Information Working Group, all contract subscription periods run from July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017, as follows:

Commissioner Carr moved to approve the contracts. Commissioner Wong seconded. Responding to a question from Commissioner Givens, Ms. Littrell said the amounts represent a three percent increase.

After a roll call vote, the motion passed unanimously.

Deborah Littrell requested approval to renew TexSelect online database contract renewals with EBSCO, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Gale Cengage, RAND, and R.R. Bowker. All contract periods are July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017. No TSLAC funds are expended for TexSelect resources as TexShare member libraries use their own funds to subscribe to TexSelect resources which are recommended by the Electronic Information Working Group. The agency negotiates the contract on a statewide level and can thereby provide the databases at a larger discount than would be available individually.

Commissioner Carr moved to renew the TexSelect contracts. Commissioner McAfee seconded.

Commissioner McAfee said it would be helpful for the Commission to receive usage statistics on TexSelect products two times per year, and Commissioner Holt said he hoped Texas receives discounts as great as other large states such as California and New York. Commissioner Wong asked if the agency evaluates the resources by surveying the libraries. Mark Smith said libraries are not surveyed because of the selection process but staff will consider this. After a roll call vote, the motion passed unanimously.

Deborah Littrell requested renewal of Gale Cengage Learning and Encyclopaedia Britannica online database contracts for the TexQuest program which provides Texas K-12 public school libraries with statewide access to online subscription databases. The contract subscription period runs from June 15, 2016 through June 14, 2017 and amounts which did not increase are as follows:

Commissioner McAfee moved to approve the contract renewal. Commissioner Carr seconded.

Ms. Littrell said there are no price increases for the contracts. Responding to a comment from Commissioner McAfee, Ms. Littrell noted the steady growth in the program with 850 school districts now subscribed to TexQuest and attributed much of the growth to training provided by agency staff, the contracted educational partner ESC 20, and the vendors. Commissioner Givens expressed concern that the vendors paid by the agency provide the statistics. Mark Smith concurred and said staff will review data collection. Commissioner Wong suggested requiring the vendors provide both statistics and graphs rather than staff having to convert the data into charts. After a roll call vote, the motion passed unanimously.

Deborah Littrell requested approval of new online database contracts for the TexShare program with Ebsco, Gale-Cengage, Learning Express, and ProQuest for the subscription period July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017 in the following amounts:

Commissioner Carr moved to approve the contract. Commissioner Holt seconded.

Responding to a question from Chairman Waters, Ms. Littrell said that bid evaluations were conducted by TSLAC staff and members of a subcommittee of the TexShare Electronic Working Group. Commissioner Givens requested amounts for the four ProQuest Science components which Donna Osborne provided as follows:

Commissioner Givens noted that the SciTech Collection is comprised of very high level abstract scientific documents and didn’t expect that there would be interest in this level at the public library level. Mark Smith said one of the challenges for the TexShare program is to provide a range of products for the smallest public libraries to the libraries of clinical medicine and large universities. After a roll call vote, the motion passed unanimously.

Deborah Littrell requested approval of new online database contracts with Britannica Digital Learning, EBSCO, and ProQuest for the TexQuest program with subscription duration from June 15, 2016 through June 14, 2017, as follows:

Commissioner Carr moved to approve. Commissioner Givens seconded. After a roll call vote, the motion passed unanimously.

Deborah Littrell requested approval of new online database contracts with Gale Cengage and TeachingBooks.net for the TexQuest and TexShare programs to run from June 15, 2016 through June 14, 2017, as follows:

Commissioner Carr moved to approve the new contracts. Commissioner Holt seconded. Commissioner Wong suggested that throughout the year staff or vendors provide demonstrations of the databases to the Commission. After a roll call vote, the motion passed unanimously.

There being no further business before the Commission, Chairman Waters adjourned the meeting at 9:37 a.m.