University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA
R E P O
R T
In Attendance: Stanley Katz, John
Unsworth, Pat Williams, Christine Sundt, Susan Fox, Joan
Lippincott, Duane Webster, Pat Barnett (for Samuel Sachs)
Apologies: Charles Henry, Kathleen
McDonnell, Steve Wheatley
1.
MINUTES OF May 25, 2000 MEETING (see
online).
Stan asked for additions or corrections to
the meeting notes. Duane moved adoption of the minutes; Pat
Williams seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously with one
abstention (Susan Fox).
2. BOARD ELECTIONS
Stan Katz called to the attention of the
Board a ballot for new Board members and officers. Proposed new
Board members were: Michael Jensen, National Academy Press,
Winston Tabb, Library of Congress, and Patricia Williams,
American Association of Museums. Stanley Katz called for a vote
and the slate was approved unanimously.
3. BOARD OFFICERS
While Stanley Katz was due to be succeeded
as President by President-elect Charles Henry, Henry has had to
withdraw due to new job responsibilities, although he felt able
to continue on the Board. Stan offered to continue another year
as President with Joan Lippincott continuing as
Secretary/Treasurer. Susan Fox asked whether the bylaws addressed
the issue of replacing an officer who resigns. The bylaws were
consulted and it was determined that they gave the Board
flexibility to appoint a new member at any time. Stan suggested
that we try to recruit a President-elect prior to the Spring
Board meeting and conduct an election by e-mail. The nominating
committee will be responsible for recruiting a new
President-elect. Stan called for a vote of the officers and they
were unanimously approved (with Stan and Joan recusing
themselves). David asked for clarification of the possibility of
appointing someone as President elect who was not a current Board
member since it would expand the number of individuals on the
Board. The bylaws were consulted and they allow for up to
eighteen members so this would not be an impediment to selecting
someone not currently on the Board. The new member should be
somebody with some experience with NINCH.
4. PROGRAM UPDATE.
David Green gave an update on NINCH’s
work, based on the Director’s Summary Report.
Information Services
With 550 subscribers to the announce
listserv, its reach was estimated to be around 80,000, given how
much it was redistributed by other lists (such as H-Net, Humanist
and those of member associations). While re-design of the main
website is becoming a priority, much was learned in creating
freshly designed webpages for the Building Blocks project and
Charles Henry has now volunteered Rice University staff to assist
with major redesign.
Guide to
Good Practice.
After a stall in the project due to
contract negotiations with Glasgow University, this project is
now proceeding well. The working group had its second meeting
with the Glasgow group in mid-November, which took place after
delivery of a report on Glasgow’s initial survey. The NINCH
working group in its reaction to the survey report stressed the
importance of on-going analysis of data and culling of good
practice that would affect future interviews. John Unsworth
commented, as a staff member of one of the institutions surveyed,
that the survey was constructed with the assumption that those
answering it had custody of collections, e.g. library or museum,
and was less focused on development of electronic resources by
individual faculty or researchers. The next step is for the
Glasgow group to conduct phone interviews with additional sites
and to have an open call for nominations of projects. David
distributed a copy of the web-based form that would be used to
collect information on projects. Duane expressed concern that the
form was too long and that most research libraries would not
respond to a survey of this length. Christine Sundt concurred.
The Glasgow group has since designed a shorter form that will be
posted alongside the longer one. The main report will be
delivered on March 1 and the Working Group will meet with the
project team on March 15-16.
International
Database of Digital Humanities Projects.
Although this project proceeds slowly,
there is still strong interest and a re-constituted, smaller and
more focused working group will be moving this project forward to
produce a viewable prototype this next year. To date there are
records on 100 digital humanities projects imported from the
NEH’s records into a sophisticated database structure. Staff
at Michigan and Rice will next contact project managers in order
to build the records up with the information required by the
database structure. John Unsworth asked whether projects listed
by Glasgow in the Best Practice project could be added to this
database and there was discussion on this.
COMPUTER SCIENCE & HUMANITIES
Building Blocks.
David noted that evaluations of this
meeting were included in the Board packet as well as a list of
research proposals that are coming out of the meeting. He stated
that the question is where is the infrastructure to move these
projects forward. Finding the means to help the interested
parties move forward is a problem. Actually getting ideas into
proposal form and pulling together a team is proving difficult
for most projects. Stan commented that the BB process worked very
well but now we are dependent on the follow through of the
participants. Stan is encouraged that some proposals are being
developed but since NINCH doesn’t have a program officer to
help foster this, it’s up to the participants. Duane
encouraged David to continue to help the projects move forward.
David commented that the meeting meant that NINCH had many new
members and that it ignited people with excitement to do
something. Stan commented that it was a community-building
opportunity for people who normally work in isolation. He said
that having gotten so many people involved and energized, we
needed to think about how to follow that. John asked whether any
of the project proposals would have funding for NINCH to serve in
some capacity, and David replied that this would not be the case.
Pat Barnett addressed the importance of bringing the sectors
together to continue communicating.
Conference
The conference has been funded for the
initial year by the Carnegie Corporation. The first conference
would be scheduled for next fall. The thrust of these conferences
would be computer science and humanities.
Copyright
Town Meetings 2000
No new programs had been held since our
last meeting, but two Town Meetings are scheduled for 2001 –
College Art Association and Rice University. Stan stated that
NINCH needs to keep thinking of this in the context of corporate
members since NINCH organizations generally represent users. He
feels copyright will move back up to the front burner for NINCH.
Business Models Conference
Stanley katz, Patricia Williams, Charles
Henry and David Green are on the organizing committee for this
invitational conference to consider new economic models for
museums and libraries building and sustaining digital
collections. The conference will be held Feb. 14-16, 2001 at the
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
5. LEGAL STATUS
Stan reported that NINCH is now legally a
separate 501(c)(3) organization which also means it is no longer
legally affiliated with ACLS. David asked whether NINCH should
develop its own financial system. Duane stated that David’s
effort should go into program, not administrative or financial
systems. Stan stated that he feels NINCH can’t afford to
hire staff to provide services to NINCH. Stan noted that we need
Directors and Officers insurance and this should be done
immediately.
6. STAFFING
Amy Masciola has joined the NINCH staff and
Stan expressed pleasure in having her on board.
NINCH staff were excused for the discussion
of Executive Director’s performance review and contract.
Stan moved that we enthusiastically commend David for his work
for this past year and approved a new annual contract and a
salary increase to $88,687. Per year. John Unsworth seconded and
the motion was unanimously approved. Stan conveyed this news to
David and commended him on a terrific job for this year. Stan and
the committee will work with him on fine-tuning his goals for the
coming year.
7. FINANCE
Joan reviewed the NINCH budget and reported
that we expect to end the 15-month year in December, 2000 in the
black. She reviewed the revenue and expenses proposed for 2001.
David elaborated on some of the items. Stan commented that while
we have some revenue goals to meet, he feels it is a realistic
budget. Pat Williams moved to approve; Stan seconded and it was
approved unanimously. Duane asked about what would happen if some
of the revenue didn’t come in, particularly what the reserve
situation is. Currently it is $10,000 with an additional $10,000
in this year’s budget.
8. CORPORATE COUNCIL
Tom Costello, a consultant, has been
working with Pat Williams, Chuck Henry, and David to develop a
plan for a Corporate Council. The Board reviewed the list of
prospects. Joan asked if there was a plan to ask for sustained
contributions and Pat said there is. Stan asked the Board what we
do with the Corporate Council members once they are recruited.
The consultant proposes that they participate in NINCH events.
One would be the annual meeting. Is there anything beyond that?
David suggested the computer science and humanities conference.
Stan asked about representation on the Board. John described some
benefits the TEI is considering offering to corporate sponsors.
Stan raised the issue of possible tensions with corporate members
such as copyright issues. It could provide useful discussion but
limit us to a certain degree on advocacy. Stan commented that he
feels this is very important. Pat W. moved a resolution to thank
Chuck for his support of this work.
9. MEMBERSHIP
David reviewed current membership and two
members will be dropped: Arts Wire, NAAO. In the last few weeks,
eleven new members have joined. Stan sent a letter to 20
scholarly societies after Building Blocks and one has already
joined. David would like to solicit 25 museums and Pat will work
on a letter. MLA has said they will not renew and David is
following up with them. ACLS may sustain its $20,000 commitment
for another year before ramping down another $5,000. Stan
expressed support for David’s suggestion that we encourage
some university presses to join. There was a discussion of how to
represent NINCH to potential members. Stan asked that the
membership committee look at the issue of corporate membership in
terms of how they will join, whether as a regular member or part
of the Corporate Council. At the moment, we believe that all
members are not-for-profits but we are ready to build bridges to
the for-profit world. Stan asked that the membership committee
address the issue of for-profit membership and to give the Board
guidance on moving forward on this issue. Duane commented on the
informal membership dues structure and that it works at this
point but probably needs to be re-examined in the future.
10. NEXT MEETING
April 24 or 26, 2001 were suggested as
tentative dates for the next Board meeting.
11. OTHER BUSINESS
John suggested that NINCH might look for a
role in some of the projects resulting from BB. Christine
suggested a follow up would be to introduce projects to sources
of funding.
Stan offered the Board’s profound
thanks to Susan Fox (in attendance) and Steven Wheatley (absent),
who are ending their appointment to the Board.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:20 PM.
Respectfully submitted
Joan Lippincott,
December 7, 2000
Annual Board Meeting Report, December 2000