FOLIO SC&A Working Group Zoom #24
August 27, 2018
Attending: Erin Faulder (Cornell University); Sebastian Hammer (Index Data); Aaron Rubinstein (UMass-Amherst); Mike Thuman (Arkivum); Aaron Trehub (Auburn University)
Regrets: Gregory Bailey (Texas A&M); Kathleen Feeney (UChicago); Ricc Ferrante (Smithsonian); Pablo Morales Henry (Radcliffe/Harvard); Noah Huffman (Duke); Julia Kim (LC); Peter Murray (Index Data); Christie Peterson (Smith); Sarah Schmidt (Duke); Catherine Uecker (UChicago)
The meeting began at 2:00 PM Eastern/1:00 PM Central.
Agenda
1. Minutes from August 20 call at https://wiki.folio.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=14455143. No changes to the minutes were discussed on the call, but there was a lively conversation on the subject of revenue generation—"keeping the lights on", in Genie Powell's words—for Atlas Systems and other vendors who may be interested in doing development work for FOLIO and the SC&A WG, as well as fundraising at colleges and universities. Main points:
- Smaller academic institutions will probably always need service and support from vendors. This is a reliable source of revenue for private companies like Atlas, Arkivum, and Index Data.
- Aaron R. made the point that "monetizing" archival collections is a non-starter for many institutions, including his own.
- Service contracts may be a way to fund speculative development of SC&A-specific features.
- Crowdfunding might be another way, although it represents a new approach for most SC&A departments at academic libraries.
- Next step: talk with Michael Winkler of the OLF about identifying "pain points" with current SC&A systems and, therefore, opportunities for development under FOLIO.
As on the previous week's call, the group agreed that it is useful to bring academic archivists and vendors together for these kinds of conversations.
2. SC&A White Paper: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UUqL_oGvyGSonlfgUiS2pNpYrEYdgfKh2JFRppC1RCQ/edit. No changes discussed on call. Aaron T. said that he plans to submit the White Paper to the FOLIO Product Council (PC) in early September, after the Labor Day holiday.
3. SAA debriefs, if any. Erin Faulder said that most of the people she spoke with at SAA in D.C. were concerned about interoperability between ArchivesSpace and Aeon. Top issues: duplicate data-entry and off-site storage. Not much talk about FOLIO. Mike Thuman said that he met representatives from small SC&A departments—typically 2-3 people tops—and that they are badly in need of extra help. His company provides support at multiple levels, from IT desk functions to collaborative software development. Sustainability model: five-year service contracts.
4. Other business. Sebastian suggested inviting Art Pasquinelli from the LOCKSS team at Stanford to participate on a future call. Aaron T. said that he would follow up with Michael Winkler about ways to fund SC&A development in FOLIO.
The call ended at 2:30 PM Eastern/1:30 PM Central. There will be no call on Monday, September 3 (Labor Day). The WG will reconvene on Monday, September 10 at the same time and Zoom address.