The following minutes were approved with an addition at the December 11, 1996 meeting. UNIVERSITY LIBRARY COMMITTEE Minutes November 13, 1996 PRESENT: Lance Matheson, Business, Chair Eileen Hitchingham, Library Stephen Donohue, Agriculture & Life Sciences Karen Inzana, Veterinary Medicine Richard Helm, Forestry & Wildlife Raymond Plaut, Engineering Calvin Ribbens, Arts & Sciences Humberto-Rodriguez-Camilloni, Architecture & Urban Studies Rajiv Khosla, GSA ABSENT: Anna Marshall-Baker, Human Resources Bradley Klein, Faculty Senate Peggy Quesenberry, Staff Senate GUESTS: Donald Kenney, Library The minutes from the October 9, 1996 meeting were approved as submitted. 1. Letter regarding serials cancellation L. Matheson opened the meeting with reference to the letter that had been drafted by R. Plaut on behalf of the ULC to Earving Blythe expressing concerns about the anticipated serials cancellation. He invited E. Hitchingham to share the feedback from her recent presentations to the Dean's Council and the Commission on Research. She discussed some of the questions that had come up in her communications with Earving Blythe about the materials budget. These included: Is there a long term technological solution worthy of major investment?; What benchmarks would the library be looking to meet in the coming years and are there compromise areas? P. Torgersen has been made aware of the situation and has asked E. Blythe to look into and come forward with some suggestions about the programs. L. Matheson commented that the intent of the letter was to express concern about the perpetual nature of the materials budget problem as well as the current anticipated serials cancellation. There is also concern about maintaining a ranking within the top 50 of the 108 Association of Research Libraries for overall materials. It is projected that the anticipated serials cancellation will put us below that desired standing. During discussion among ULC members it was noted that the budgetary shortfall of a million dollars roughly translates into cancellation of 3,000 journals. The University Libraries currently purchase 12,900. Questions were raised and discussed about how the overall library budget was allocated and how serial cancellations are decided across subject areas. L. Matheson volunteered to incorporate issues raised in this discussion in the letter. He will distribute the revised letter electronically to the ULC and ask for comments. 2. Fines C. Ribbens relayed a comment he had received from faculty in the college of arts and sciences as to whether the fining of faculty for overdue books would help generate money to ease the materials budget shortfall. E. Hitchingham noted that faculty comprise about 15% of all borrowing and that revenue from fines does not necessarily come back to the library. The intent of fines is meant to be preventative rather than punitive. R. Khosla, GSA representative, raised the issue of why graduate students are fined for overdue books when faculty are not. He noted that many graduate students feel that their roles in research (sometimes as principal investigators) and teaching warrant the same treatment as faculty in relation to the fines policy. E. Hitchingham commented that a no-fines policy for all would be detrimental to the whole community, and that this points back to the other question - why are faculty not fined? The members of the committee were asked if they personally were in favor of fines for faculty and all present indicated support for the idea. After some discussion, ULC members decided to go back to their colleges to gather feedback from faculty about a proposed change in policy requiring faculty to pay fines for overdue books. E. Hitchingham announced that the University Libraries will be extending library hours during exams. With no additional funding to do this, the library has worked with the GSA and the SGA for the last two years. This year the library staff will be handling the extra hours without GSA and SGA help. Services will not be provided after what would be the normal closing. The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for December 11, 1996.