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CVHL
BVCS

Canadian Virtual Health Library
Bibliothèque virtuelle canadienne de la santé

## Report on activities May–October 2012

The Directors of the Canadian Virtual Health Library/ Bibliothèque virtuelle canadienne de la santé (CVHL/ BVCS) were busy on many fronts over the summer months.

The Board began receiving Status of Operations reports. These are helpful in understanding the progress on licensed content negotiations and funding. A secure section on the CVHL/BVCS website has been set up for the Board of Directors to house minutes of meetings and other documentation.

The Board approved the creation of a Management Committee, made up of the three CIHR Investigators: Patrick Ellis, Jim Henderson, and Jessie McGowan. Meetings of that committee were held on 31 July and on 29 August. The terms of reference for the Management Committee include that it meet monthly, (or as often as required), until April 2013, when the CIHR grant funding ends. At that time, the Management Committee's terms, membership, and mandate will be re-assessed.

An updated Business Plan that includes a literature search service for unaffiliated users was presented and discussed. The start-up costs for this service will be $350 000, and will create a second income stream for CVHL/BVCS.

Fundraising continues to be a major focus. The new target is $750 000, which will allow for a successful literature search service and provide support to improve the uptake of licensed content by Network subscribers.

It was reported to the Board that the Free Content Expert Panel has agreed that the website contains most of the appropriate free Canadian content, and the Panel will now focus on creating user guides.

At the most recent meeting held on 2 October 2012, Cathy Rayment and Andrea McClellan were acknowledged as the new Network Subscriber members on the Board of Directors. Also at that meeting, a list of potential funders was circulated, and a revised Content Resources Status list was circulated with the status of discussion points and decisions made.

Table 1 shows a list of titles that have licenses available. Several other titles are still under negotiation.

Adalstein Brown, Chairman of the Board, noted that this is a crucial time for CVHL/BVCS. He sees three possible scenarios:

<table><caption>Table 1. CVHL/BVCS Content Resources Status</caption><thead><tr><td>Publisher/Vendor</td><td>Product Title</td><td>Current Status</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Ebsco</td><td>Dynamed</td><td>License Available</td></tr><tr><td>Canadian Electronic Library</td><td>Canadian Health Research Collection</td><td>License Available</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">McGraw Hill</td><td>Access Medicine</td><td>License Available</td></tr><tr><td>Access Physiotherapy</td><td>License Available</td></tr><tr><td>Access Surgery</td><td>License Available</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>JAMA Evidence</td><td>License Available</td></tr></tbody></table>

1. continuing to focus on encouraging Network Subscriber uptake of licensed content offerings;

2. shifting the focus to obtaining revenue more quickly by setting up a profitable literature search service while maintaining efforts on licensed content negotiations; or

3. putting CVHL/BVCS work on hold until the economy improves.

Submitted by: Penny Logan and Rebecca Raworth, CHLA/ABSC representatives on the CVHL/BVCS Board of Directors.

**Penny Logan**

Manager Library Services
Capital Health Libraries
1796 Summer St. #2212
Halifax, NS B3H 3A7
902-473-4383

Fax: 902-473-8651

E-mail: penny.logan@cdha.nshealth.ca

**Rebecca Raworth**

Island Medical Program Librarian
University of Victoria Libraries
PO Box 1800 STN CSC
Victoria, BC V8W 3H5
250-721-8269

Fax: 250-721-8235

E-mail: raworthr@uvic.ca