University Librarian's Cabinet: Minutes of the September 3, 2002 Meeting

Present:

Agnew, Boyle, Fultz, Gaunt, Golden, Mullins, Puniello, Sewell, Soong, Toyama

University Librarian's Report - Gaunt

• First Deans Council Meeting on September 9, 2002.
• Email sent from President Lawrence listing September 11 activities on all campuses; requested that faculty/staff be allowed to attend as scheduling permits.
• Planning meeting with Dr. Seneca on September 16, 2002. Will focus on funding and personnel issues in the context of changing roles of university libraries; look at information technology infrastructure, investments in services and collections; and staffing support.
• Soong, Toyama, Puniello, and Gaunt met with Kyu Whang and Frank Wong from Rutgers University Facilities and the planning firm, Ayers Saint Gross, regarding the University's Master Plan. A new group was hired to look at the geographic aspects of expansion and the Libraries needs.
• Agnew and Boyle involved in statewide committees. Agnew is participating on a State Library task force, along with Tom Frusciano and David Murray of Brookdale Community College as the academic librarians on the task force, to support the creation of a digitization project plan for NJ libraries. Boyle is involved with NJEdge committee whose focus is a faculty development center. Boyle will be providing copyright as well as librarian expertise.
• Rutgers University Libraries is the recipient of a gift of $2M from the estate of Edgar Van Wagoner, RC '32 for collections.

Budget - Gaunt

• Soong and Gaunt will be reviewing the budget and making some budget adjustments to the units based on replacing staff computer equipment.

Educational Portal Collaborative Grant Discussion - Agnew

• Agnew made presentation on Building an Educational Repository consisting of overview of involvement, persons and departments responsible, and benefits. The goal would be to build on the anticipated NSF grant for the moving image gateway by expanding the metadata development to educational materials in the Libraries and at the University. Following discussion, it was agreed that for the next Cabinet meeting we should review an outline of how this would fit into an overall plan for developing the information technology infrastructure of the Libraries.

State of the Libraries - Soong

• State of the Libraries will be held November 11, 2002 at the Livingston Campus Center. Following Cabinet discussion, it was agreed that in addition to digital demonstrations and introduction of new staff, the program would consist of a presentation and discussion of what it means to build an information technology infrastructure for the Libraries, and a presentation on reviewing workflows using TAS as an example. Soong will send out a request for volunteers who might want to provide demonstrations during the program.

Announcements:

Toyama:

• NBL Staffing: NBL is currently operating with 14 staff and 5 faculty vacancies including a half-time position at LSM. Filling all these positions will take some time; contact Toyama on any urgent matters or any NBL matters you do not know where to direct.
• Orientation: NBL librarians participated in the fall orientations of the Graduate School of Social Work, the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers College, and Cook College, with more orientations the week of September 3. Several librarians contributed to English 101 TA training.
• Music Library: Roger Tarman is working as a part-time voucher employee while we search for a Music/Performing Arts Librarian. We are also looking for a temporary Music librarian for reference/instructional services.
• NBL Annual Reports: 5 sets of reports in 2 bound volumes are available at Reference desks of Alex, Douglass, Kilmer, LSM, and UL's office. Please feel free to review.

Boyle:

• RRS has become RDS. The new umbrella name Rutgers Delivery Service reflects the growth of our delivery services. The recently launched user-initiated holds process is going well. There have been some bumps, but staff is reporting improvements in workflow.
• JerseyCat is not yet available to our users since it includes a patron request form that does not integrate with our services. We have requested the State Library to work with Autographics to make it possible to repress the patron services menu.
• Recent communications work has included the Friend's calendar, the RUL Report, the glossy annual report, updating publications and brochures, and a new publication for IJS.
• WAC is working on assigning responsibility for Web pages and will now take down outdated pages. A recent example was the music research guide, which had many outdated links but which has now been updated by Stephanie Bartz.
• Work on the think tank sessions for the content management system is proceeding, with the invitation sent to the facilitator.
• New members are still needed for IPAC.

Golden:

• Julie Still was one of only 240 participants at the August 13 Economic Forum held in Waco, Texas. She was asked by the Secretary of the Commerce to be a part of this Forum. Her remarks were quoted on various wire services and Lou Dobbs Money Line.
• Vib Bowman had the following article published: Bowman, Vibiana. "Reading Between the Lines: an Evaluation of WindowEyes Screen Reader as a Reference Tool for Teaching and Learning." Library Hi Tech 20 (2002): 162-168.
• RUNet 2000 wiring will begin at Robeson this month.
• The new Master of Criminal Justice program began this Fall with 12 MA students.
• Working with Chris Sterback, Terry McNally completed a project using a handheld scanner to scan barcodes of books that were having location changes from stacks to folio. The scanner is actually a palm pilot with a built in scanner. Of 1,942 books scanned, there were only 26 errors; 21 were actual errors and the remaining 5 either charged to Missing, In-Transit, or not ours. The handheld scanner gave us the ability to scan books at the shelves and to upload the data to IRIS.

Agnew:

• Work continues on Luna; two departments received ASIC grant.
• Agnew, Gaunt, Page, and Boyle will be attending the invitational, NSF sponsored National Middleware Initiative/Digital Rights Management workshop in Washington, DC September 9, 2002.

Puniello:

• Work on the Annex continues.
• Jaws screen reading software has been acquired and installed; Marilyn Wit will be conducting training programs on September 24 and 26.

Mullins:

• An IJS donor has agreed to provide financial support for three IJS staff over the next two years.
• Opening reception and painting demonstration of Hsu Dan's Chinese Watercolor Paintings to be held on the 4th floor of Dana Library, Thursday, September 4, 12, 2002 from 4 p.m.-7 p.m.
• Jazz Jubilee to be held at Dana Library on October 23, 2002.

Sewell:

• The Binding Working Group met several times this summer and developed a questionnaire which was sent out to the people involved in binding on all three campuses. The questionnaire looked at what is being bound, why things are bound the way they are, and pricing. In one case, the same binder has different charges on different campus. In the process of developing an RFP to send out to binders. Should wrap up by the end of the semester.
• Cancellations: decided to cancel print titles that were redundant with electronic. For ABI titles we will cancel all but one archival print copy and most titles will be in Dana; Gale print publications related to Gale Literary Resource Center are being cancelled, as are Project Muse titles. Significantly below the target of $300K needed to reach last year's level of spending on non-fixed purchases.
• Allocations: Made to units early this year. Allocated $50K for outstanding firm orders already committed. Continuing to analyze.
• Approval plan is continuing and reserve requests are going through.
• Even with the additional shelving in the back bay of the Annex, there is a concern for space. The first levels for Special Collections materials are full, and the Lautenberg papers will go in the next level.
• Tom Frusciano is the co-editor of the new Journal of Archival Organization.

Soong:

• Current priority is to get open positions filled. Let Soong know ways you may be helped.
• One of the goals of the Assessment Committee for the coming year is to try to identify a process assessment tool with an ease of application. Sherrie Tromp of the University Center for Organizational Development and Leadership (ODL) will attend next Assessment Committee meeting to discuss applications.
• During the intersession, many libraries were able to conduct emergency drills in order to increase our preparedness and reduce our vulnerability.
• Annual reports should be finalized and submitted to Soong as soon as possible.

Gaunt:

• Distributed OCLC White Paper on the Information Habits of College Students: How Academic Librarians can Influence Students' Web-Based Information Choices. This study concentrates on the web-based information habits of college students and their use of campus library websites, in particular, finding that college and university students look to campus libraries and library websites for their information needs.
• Encouraged Cabinet to read the Scholarly Communication Steering Committee report. The NBFC will review recommendations and decide priorities for faculty to pursue. Gaunt will also take up recommendations with Dr. Seneca and library wide advisory committee.