20180305 SC&A WG Meeting Notes

Owned by Aaron Trehub
Last updated: Mar 26, 2018 by Jeanine Nault

FOLIO SC&A Working Group Zoom #6
March 5, 2018

Attending: Gregory Bailey (Texas A&M); Ricc Ferrante (Smithsonian); Sebastian Hammer (Index Data); Pablo Morales Henry (Harvard/Radcliffe); Aaron Rubinstein (UMass-Amherst); Sarah Schmidt (Duke); Aaron Trehub (Auburn University); 

Regrets: Julia Kim (Library of Congress); Peter Murray (Index Data); Catherine Uecker (University of Chicago); Christine Wise (SOAS); Jeanine Nault (Library of Congress)

The meeting began at 2:00 PM Eastern/1:00 PM Central. Aaron Trehub welcomed Ricc Ferrante, Pablo Morales Henry, Aaron Rubinstein, and Sarah Schmidt to the SC&A WG. Sarah is also a member of the Metadata Management SIG.

Agenda:

1. Review minutes from last week's call at https://folio-org.atlassian.net/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=3051664. There were no changes.

2. Address questions about WG's charge from Aaron Rubinstein (UMass-Amherst). The bulk of the call was devoted to a discussion of the questions raised in an e-mail by Aaron Rubinstein. Among other things, these questions touched on the scope of the WG's work, its timeline, its place in the larger FOLIO landscape, and its deliverables.

Aaron T. gave a brief account of the WG's origins, its standing as an exploratory Pre-SIG, and its (and other SIGs') relationship to the FOLIO Product Council. He emphasized that the group is currently working on gap analysis—that is, identifying areas in which current SC&A solutions are deficient. He needs people with experience using those solutions to weigh in.

Sarah Schmidt and Sebastian Hammer compared FOLIO to a smartphone and an SC&A module to one of its apps. On the question of WG membership, Sarah suggested reaching out to would-be members in other (non-SC&A) library departments. Aaron R. said that the WG is a good venue for having a "gentle discussion" among ourselves, but we need to make sure that we have a good line of communication to the other FOLIO groups and the PC.

Aaron R. asked Sebastian what he would need to build an SC&A app for FOLIO. Answer: specific use cases, range of SC&A activities, SC&A workflows, information on types of materials handled by SC&A departments. Sebastian said that once he has that information, he can put UX designers to work on producing a behavioral model.

Sebastian offered to give a short presentation on a future WG call on the FOLIO model, how it works, and where things currently stand. Ricc Ferrante, Pablo Morales Henry, and Aaron R. said that that would be very helpful. Aaron R. encouraged Sebastian to give his presentation sooner rather than later.

3. Review SC&A needs/functionalities wish-list at https://folio-org.atlassian.net/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=3047435. Sarah offered to encourage her department to contribute to the list. Speaking of deficiencies: she said that ArchivesSpace requires considerable in-house IT expertise and support, and for that reason tends to scale better for large institutions than for small ones. She also said that it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. On the question of gap analysis more generally, Aaron R. suggested that the group set a deadline for submitting information to the Wiki in order to meet the May 1 reporting deadline.

4. Date change for WOLF-Con in Durham, NC. Aaron T. provided an update on his conversation about the WOLF-Con meeting with Michael Winkler of OLE and the FOLIO PC. Top location candidate is the CIC Center near O'Hare Airport in Chicago. Runner-ups include Atlanta and Nashville. Preference is to have it near a FOLIO member institution, but that may not be possible. Most FOLIO member libraries are not located near major airports. UPDATE from the FOLIO PC call on March 8: The WOLF-Con meeting will take place in downtown Durham, NC on May 7-11.

5. Other business. Sarah and Sebastian gave a brief summary of the data repository workshop at Duke at the end of February. Sarah said that her main takeaway from the workshop was that SC&A work is so varied that one app may not be enough. Example: a calendar app for managing embargoed collections.

Sebastian said that the software development RFP for the Hungarian National Library has been accepted, but that there is some red tape to be gotten through before his and the other four companies that responded to the RFP can start work. Aaron R. asked whether the software developed under the RFP will be released under an open-source license. Sebastian said that it would be.

Aaron T. said that we will need to change the time of the SC&A WG calls to late morning Eastern time to accommodate Christine Wise in the UK. Christine should be joining the calls after March 12.

The call ended at 2:40 PM Eastern/1:40 PM Central. Since Aaron T. will be out of the office on Monday, March 12, Aaron R. suggested that we use that date for Sebastian's presentation on the FOLIO model.