University Library Committee Wednesday, September 22, 1998 Minutes Present: Stephen Donohue, Agriculture & Life Sciences, Chair Eileen Hitchingham, Library Ansar Ahmed, Veterinary Medicine Richard Helm, Forestry and Wildlife Raymond Plaut, Engineering Humberto Rodriguez-Camilloni, Art and Architecture Peter Wallenstein for Stephen Baehr, Arts and Sciences Milko Maykowskyj, Staff Senate Tim Copeland, GSA Angela Barger, SGA Absent: Thomas Gatewood, Education George Graham, Teaching and Learning Deborah Mayo, Faculty Senate Doug Patterson, Business Guest: Linda Richardson, Library Following introductions, S. Donohue reviewed the charge of the University Library Committee to disseminate knowledge and make recommendations concerning policies, services and development of the libraries. College Librarian Program E. Hitchingham introduced Linda Richardson, Head of Users Services of the library, to update ULC members on the College Librarian Program. Linda noted that the program began in 1994 with four librarians to serve in four different colleges. Currently, there are College Librarians in all of the colleges, with two in Human Resources, two in Engineering and three in Arts and Sciences. Serving as the main contact person for library services for their college, they are involved in library instruction to faculty, students in classes, reference help and collection development. Faculty feedback from a Spring '98 survey indicated that in general this program is well appreciated, with reference assistance valued most highly. Hands-on type instruction was preferred, with the library as the choice location. Other institutions have shown interest in the program's innovative concept of outreach and interactive connectivity to faculty and students. Building Renovations E. Hitchingham reviewed the building renovation projects that had been completed over the summer. Concurrent with the asbestos abatement on parts of the first and fourth floors, new lighting and new floors were installed. Government documents were moved to the second floor for better proximity to reference assistance in their use. The Media Center on the second floor was moved and merged with the microfilms and maps areas on the first floor to create an area called the Center for Alternative Media (CAM). One expanded service desk provides access to these resources. A second classroom was also created on the second floor. Further renovation is planned for the fourth and third floors this spring and next summer. Library Instruction A group of librarians are working with the English department to provide library instruction to thirty classes as part of their core requirements. It is hoped that by linking library instruction to assignments students will pick up useful research skills early in their career. The library instruction group, which includes Nicole Auer and many of the college librarians, will be meeting with the University Curriculum Committee to further explore ways for students to have a common thread of library instruction. SACS Accreditation In the overall library section of the SACS report, there were two recommendations: 1) To provide timely access to adequate library learning resources for all off-campus students; and 2) to include non-local constituents in the library surveys. Addressing the first recommendation, E. Hitchingham noted that most of the support for off-campus programs will be through digital resources that can be made available. In this past year many more of the top journals have become available. Turn-around for book requests has been shortened by the use of Federal Express, allowing the requestor to receive the material within 24 hours, provided it was here in the library. Journal articles are being faxed or mailed to sites. Interlibrary loan turnaround time has shortened: from the moment you put your request in, 60% of materials are turned around within 8 days or less, and a significant portion come within 2-3 days. E. Hitchingham noted that with no new resources, the additional costs of providing services to remote areas have to be accounted for within the current level of funding. The library will be better poised at the end of the year to determine what those costs are and to put them in the regular funding cycle. Outcomes of University Serials Committee The University Serials Committee was a group commissioned by Erv Blythe last fall to affirm the process used to review serials, address a budget plan for a six year period and consider a mix of digital alternatives. In its report the committee recommended a number of things related to building digital content for those programs that are located externally to the campus, to look at support for the current collection at least for one additional year, and to support the electronic theses and dissertations project. While that report recommended agenda items totalling more than a million dollars, the library did get one-time money, $175,000 for this year to cover some of the materials increase in price. There may be the possibility of additional money toward the electronic theses, curriculum grant projects and to license or lease more scholarly-time journals digitally. E. Hitchingham thanked the ULC members for the letter they sent to Dr. Torgersen encouraging increased funding for the libraries. One of the recommendations of the committee was for the library to survey faculty about journals they would require if the serials collection was to be started from scratch, asking them to name those most prominent journals needed for their research and teaching, whether the library has them currently or not. This would not be a survey connected with a possible serials cancellation, but intended to determine the cost of providing those publications considered by the faculty to be critical to their teaching and research. Future Agenda Items S. Donohue noted that S. Baehr would like to discuss access to physical renewal of books. The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m. The next meeting of the committee will be Wednesday, October 28 at 4:00 p.m.