University Library Committee
Wednesday, March 25, 1998
Minutes

Present:
Stephen  Donohue, Agriculture & Life Sciences, Chair
Eileen Hitchingham, Library
Stephen Baehr, Arts and Sciences
Bert Fox, GSA
George Graham, Teaching and Learning
Karen Inzana, Veterinary Medicine
Humberto Rodriguez-Camilloni, Art and Architecture
Lance Matheson, Business
Deborah Mayo, Faculty Senate
Milko Maykowskyj, Staff Senate
Raymond Plaut, Engineering
Mechelle Haga for T. Berescik, SGA

ABSENT:
Thomas Gatewood, Education

Discussion of library renewal policy and questionnaire

S. Donohue noted that ULC members had returned their votes to him on their
recommendations for survey content as suggested at the last meeting.  The
survey questionnaire will consist of a basic statement about the intent of
the university committee, a stating of the old renewal policy and the
current one, followed by options to consider and choose from:  a)  keep
current policy, b) extend current policy by an additional 90-day renewal by
phone, or c) extend current policy by two additional 90-day renewals by
phone.  S. Donohue noted that a number of members had wanted to make sure
that the persons filling out the survey know that the current policy allows
for one 90-day renewal for faculty and graduate students before the item
needs to be physically returned to the library.  

R. Plaut noted that there should be some indication in the stating of the
options that a book can be re-checked out upon its physical return to the
library, enabling the user to continue to have the book.  There was
discussion about the need to include a consistent statement of background
information and an area for additional comments.  Also discussed was the
possibility of asking for impact of current policy on research and teaching.

There was discussion about which groups of patrons would receive the
survey.  It was decided that ULC members who are representatives of their
colleges will poll their respective faculty and B. Fox will put it out on
the GSA listserv (for graduate students).  M. Maykowskyj will create a
web-page, pointing the staff senators to the URL and letting them alert
their constituency to use the site to participate in the survey.
Undergraduates will not be polled.  The committee decided to assume that
undergraduates would want the shortest policy possible for most
availability of books.

ULC members decided to compile comments from the survey, categorize them
and bring those to the next meeting for possible discussion.  L. Matheson
noted that during the examination of the survey results the committee will
need to be aware of how their various constituents use the library.  For
example, faculty in arts and sciences are more likely to be using many
books over a long period of time, whereas faculty in business are not.  S.
Donohue noted that the results of the survey will not be used as an
end-line vote;  open discussion will lead to a recommendation to be given
to the Dean of Libraries.

D. Mayo reported on discussions about the renewal policy held at the recent
Faculty Senate.  A vote had been taken between the option of keeping the
current policy or extending the period before physical return of materials
to one year.  There were two votes in favor of current policy and the rest
in favor of extending the period.  D. Mayo noted that the occurrence of
book weeding and recycling was brought up by some members of  the senate
and seen as a confounding issue in light of the stated intention of the
renewal policy to make more books available.  E. Hitchingham commented that
the issues were of a different nature.  Weeding is an ongoing function of
the library to remove materials and duplicates (often to storage) that
haven't been circulated for a long time while making room for new
acquisitions.  The renewal policy was to bring back materials that might be
wanted by students or other faculty.    While recall is noted as a
solution, there was a counter argument that recall places the burden upon
the patron to initiate the process.  The patron is also not finding what
they might potentially want on the shelves.  

S. Donohue noted that during this meeting several committee members had
mentioned concerns about the blocking aspect of the circulation policy.
This may be an issue to be discussed in the next academic year.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m.; the next meeting will be Wednesday,
April 22 at 4:00 p.m.