Attending: Anita Carrico, Claudia Covert, Lamia Doumato, Elizabeth Harter, Sheila Klos, Pat Lynagh, Karen O’Connell, Eilzabeth Smith, Joan Stahl, Linda Tompkins-Baldwin, Sharon Wasserman, Reiko Yoshimura

Liz Harter began the meeting by recapping an organizational session that took place this summer between current and past officers. The meeting was primarily an information-gathering meeting to make sure that current leadership knew the history of the group and the current status to enable them to act as more efficient leaders. One of the concerns that arose during this meeting was the status of the web site. With the departure of Lynne Woodruff and her student assistant, who had maintained the site, there was a question of the viability of continuing to host the web site at The University of Maryland. George Martin suggested that some of WALRC’s funds could go toward redesigning/hosting the web site and he recommended that Sarah Cormeny of Paperlantern.com be invited to meet with WALRC.

After introductions, Sarah Cormeny discussed the pros and cons of moving the web site from UM to a commercial host. Among the pros of leaving it at UM are that it is free, reliable, and supports connections with professionals. On the con side are limited control and access, it requires dealing with the University’s bureaucracy, and limits WALRC’s exposure to search engines.

The pros of going with a new host are increased search engine exposure, greater control over the content, and it is relatively inexpensive. Among the negatives of a new host are that it may require semi-technical trouble shooting and requires on-going business responsibilities.

Joan Stahl said that although she does not have a student assistant to maintain the web site, there is no problem with UM continuing to host it. Access to the server at UM is available through web spinner accounts and Joan and another staff member have access through this method. Joan does not have any problem editing content and has been doing so in the past year. Sarah said that a redesigned site could be done in such a way as to make it relatively easy for Joan to make content changes.

Sarah presented some of her designs to the group and reviewed the current WALRC web site, which was founded in 1999. Some of the off-hand suggestions she had were to add more color, make use of the inverted L design, move the logo, incorporate new information boxes and add pictures. She also said that to increase the hits to WALRC, members should add a link to WALRC on their institutional web sites. Members discussed incorporating an on-line publication proposal form, summary of member collections, inclusion of minutes, maintaining the resources list, and emphasizing WARLC’s geographic coverage. It was also suggested that the names of committee members to review proposals be removed.

In conclusion, Sarah said that to proceed she would need a budget, goals for the web site, who our target audience is, and an outline of the materials to be included in the web site. The cost could run from $300 for a simple design to $2,000 for a total web site and assistance through the year.

After Sarah left, there was a discussion about the pros and cons of moving the web site to a commercial host. The main advantage to moving it would be the ability to get more hits from a new domain name. However, the domain names would require and annual registration fee and the group felt that because of the limited interest in WALRC, it was not a significant reason to change hosts. Also, in addition to a continued monetary drain on the funds, it would require more administrative overhead. The group decided to leave the web site at the University of Maryland, but to hire Sarah to redesign it.

Joan and Claudia Covert were named to a task force charged with gathering information for the web site and to act as liaison with Sarah. They will compile ideas and recommendations and send them out to the membership for discussion. Members should e-mail Joan and/or Claudia with their recommendations, suggestions, and preferences. It was agreed that once we are ready to proceed, we will offer Sarah $2,000 with the request that, if possible, she do it for less.

The idea of changing the name of WALRC to better reflect the actual geography of the membership was raised. After discussion, it was agreed that we would not change the name, but would emphasize the geographic makeup of the group in text and visually make it clear through the use of a map on the web site.

In George’s absence, Pat Lynagh presented the treasurer’s report. In 2002, $1,000 was donated to ARLIS for their travel fund. The funds have done well considering the economy and have now rebounded to overtake the 2000 balance, even after the $1,000 was deducted. The current total stands at $64,460.52, which is a little over $300 more than the 2000 balance before the market fell.

Pat gave a brief history of the funds. The money originated from a grant to publish a Washington/Maryland art periodical serials union list in 1980. The original amount of the investment, $50,000, was from money left over from the grant and from the sale of the union list. The split between the grant and sales revenue was about 50-50. The Smithsonian held the money until Pat and Anita Carrico successfully pushed to divest the funds when they were moved to a non-interest bearing account. The intent of the original group when they set up the current account was to not let it fall below $50,000.

The question was asked about using the funds for projects other than publications, such as paid internships. Because of time constraints, it was decided to table the discussion for another meeting.

The bylaws state that preference for project funding goes to WALRC members. The question was asked as to whether we want to continue that practice and the response was a resounding yes.

Joan Stahl discussed a proposal she is working on to survey materials of the 1893 World’s Fair Columbian Exposition. She is looking at developing a web site that includes images, essays and teacher’s tools. The project will survey institutional holdings and choose an array of images for the web site, which will reside on the WALRC site. The University of Maryland has a professor who teaches courses on world fairs and may help with the project. The group thought the project was well suited for WALRC.

Liz Harter decided to remain as president for another year with eye to incorporate new members into leadership roles. Linda Tompkins-Baldwin will serve as co-president.

Claudia Covert offered to give a tour of the Corcoran library to interested parties after the meeting.