University Librarian's Cabinet: Minutes of March 4, 2003 Meeting

Present:

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

Videoconference:

Golden

Guest:

Karen Novick, Coordinator, Professional Development Studies, SCILS

University Librarian's Report - Gaunt

• Gaunt received an invitation from President McCormick to serve as a member of his presidential advisory body that will represent the interests of faculty, students, and alumni. The advisory committee will communicate, consult, inform and advise the President and help to support his role as a member of the New Jersey Review, Planning, and Implementation Steering Committee for the implementation of the public university restructuring. The first meeting is scheduled for March 7.
• At its regular meeting on February 21, the Senate approved a resolution in opposition to proposed and continued budget cuts and in support of excellence in higher education in New Jersey. The resolution can be found on the University Senate web page at http://senate.rutgers.edu/budgetresolution.html
• President McCormick is encouraging advocacy as a way to raise public awareness of the damage to Rutgers due to significant budget reductions. McCormick is requesting that we contact elected officials and to send letters to the editors of New Jersey's major newspapers to express their support for Rutgers. Information from the President regarding state budget cuts and what we need to do can be found at http://www.rutgers.edu/statebudgetcuts/. The Libraries are encouraged to do their part in advocacy; Harry Glazer will prepare approaches, which will be sent out to the rul_everyone@email.rutgers.edu listserv to assist faculty and staff in drafting letters to their state representatives and/or to their newspapers and remind them that it is the President's priority to advocate for the University and to direct them to the President's web page for further information. A letter will also be sent to members of the Friends of the Rutgers University Libraries to encourage them to contact their legislators. Gaunt will speak at the Coordinating Committee meeting and Cabinet members are encouraged to urge their librarians and staff to take a lead in advocacy. Gaunt will speak at the VALE Executive Committee meeting to encourage advocacy as a priority at the other colleges and universities in the state. Will discuss at the Council of New Jersey College and University Library Deans, University Librarians and Directors to decide if we should take the issue further.
• Susan Quinn, SCILS graduate student, has been appointed as a GA to assist Julia Zapcic, Director of Development, and will be managing the Development Office while Zapcic is out. Quinn is in the process of putting together information on foundations and locating potential grant support that might be of value to the Libraries. Information will be sent to Cabinet member relevant to their areas; follow through and submission of proposals is urged.
• Librarians from New York University will meet with Gaunt, Sewell, Agnew, and Boyle to discuss projects and potential areas of collaboration.

SCILS/IMLS Grant Funded Projects – Novick

• Following an update by Karen Novick on the Online Library Assistant Training Program, the IMLS-funded project of SCILS, Rutgers University Libraries, and New York Public Library, a discussion followed to determine how RUL will nominate 10-15 library associates to participate in the pilot class this fall. The pilot project is bound by rules of human subjects research and will have to follow an informed consent process when staff are nominated for the program; each staff member and each supervisor will be interviewed confidentially about the program. Cabinet agreed that there are benefits of involving some new library staff members (hired during the last three years) in this project. Cabinet members will each nominate a few staff members to be interviewed and selected by Novick. Chosen staff members will spend about five hours a week over 20 weeks beginning in September for a total of 100 hours. Novick would reimburse the library units accordingly. Soong will send Cabinet a list of new hires (hired within the last three years) and nominations will be completed by April.

Strategy for Information Literacy – Boyle/Gaunt

• Discussion of this agenda item tabled to future Cabinet agenda.

2004 Budget Scenarios - All

• Soong presented to Cabinet several budget scenarios – one based on the base budget with reductions ranging from 5-2%, and three scenarios with salaries and below-the-line taking 1-3% less than the required cuts. It is too early to predict the magnitude of the cuts. Need to decide potential reduction scenarios by mid-April so we can consult as necessary with teaching/research faculty. Any major expenses that will come due next year should be reported to Soong by Friday, March 7.
• Sewell made a report on “Comparisons With Public ARL Libraries 1990-2001” to show where Rutgers ranks in the figures compared to other institutions and to put us in the context of what we are facing. The data supports that even a 2% budget reduction will be critical to our budget. Sewell will work with Collection Development Council on alternative scenarios, which can then be presented to faculty.

Announcements:

Boyle:

• PALCI began February 14, 2003 and 88 items were loaned and 249 were borrowed in the first eight days. A number of items borrowed were for library personnel. After start up, some adjustments were required, and Judy Gardner answered questions from staff and gave additional demonstrations in New Brunswick.
• Boyle has been invited to participate on the RU-TV Advisory Council. Gus Friedrich chairs the council, which met for the first time February 25. The Council will meet once each semester, with subcommittees working between. One subcommittee is to be called the Acquired Programming Committee and is to recommend acquired educational series and single titles for library programming. Learned that delivery to Newark and Camden would require digital delivery and funding is not yet available.

Toyama:

• A film review by Kayo Denda and Jane Sloan was published in Educational Media Reviews Online, 2003.
• Tom Glynn and Connie Wu wrote an article, “New Roles and Opportunities for Academic Library Liaisons: A Survey and Recommendations,” which was accepted for publication in Reference Service Review.
• Ronald Jantz and Rodolph Bell published an article, “How We built a Reusable Web Platform For Studying World Culture,” in Syllabus (February 2003), pp. 25-27.
• James Niessen's article “Habsburg: H-Net's International Network for Historians of Eastern Europe” was published in Newsnet (News of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies) 42:5 (December 2002), pp. 9-10.
• James Niessen's report, “The University Library in Bucharest,” was accepted for publication in ALA's IRRT International Leads (March 2003) as the lead article.
• James Niessen's report, “History Librarians Discussion Group at Midwinter” (January 27, 2003) is available in H-HistBibl.
• Howard Dess and Myoung Chung Wilson wrote an article, “The Bewildering New World of Scholarly Communication: Helping Faculty Understand the Issues,” which will appear in the April 2003 issue of C&RL News.

Soong:

• The University intends to go forward with the P4P evaluation program this year although there are questions about available funding. We are waiting for the University's new guidelines, but Cabinet members should alert their staff to begin the self-assessment if they prefer to have more time for the process.

Sewell:

• Chris Sterback from Systems is working with Sewell and the Collection Development Council to develop a SIRSI report (an Excel spreadsheet) which takes fund code information and groups them into the following broad subject categories: STM (Science, Technology, Medicine), Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities, and General/Interdisciplinary. These reports will give accounting information (allocation, encumbrance, expenditure) for these broad categories to help subject selectors manage their funds.

Mullins:

• Thanked Agnew for visiting the Institute of Jazz Studies and educating personnel on what it means to build a digital library.
• Gaunt and Mullins met with Felissa Lashley, the new Dean of the College of Nursing in Newark to discuss the Libraries. Dana has been asked to make a presentation to the College of Nursing about new initiatives and services. Will do a three-campus assessment with the equivalent of a focus group to get an understanding of their research and electronic resources needs.
• Anker West: Thirty Years of Newark Wares/Fine Arts Ceramics Exhibition Opening and Reception will take place Thursday, March 6, 2003 from 5:00-7:30 p.m. in the Dana Room of the Newark Dana Library. The exhibition will run through the end of May 2003.

Agnew:

• Renovations in the Systems Department area are underway at TAS.
• Discussed the IMLS Leadership National Leadership Grant for Library-Museum Collaborations in which RUL will partner with the New Jersey State Library, the New Jersey State Archive, the New Jersey Historical Society, and others in a collaborative project to build the New Jersey Digital Highway. Agnew requested that letters of support be sent to the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Golden:

• Camden has completed the first test of an automated withdrawal project. Books are selected for withdrawal that are not last copy, charged to a Camden technical services withdrawal patron and are automatically removed from IRIS. A report is run that will then remove the copy level record from Unicorn. Teri McNally and Chris will test this process a few more times.
• Julie Still is a member of the Library Board for the Camden County Historical Society. We hope to do some cooperative projects with them in the future.
• For the past several months Golden has been writing a short online informational newsletter to inform Robeson Library faculty and staff about processes, procedures, and other interesting information. The newsletter, Whispering Down the Line, can be found at (http://library.camden.rutgers.edu/newsletter/index.php).

Puniello:

• Puniello prepared a preliminary concept document for an addition to the Annex. This is proposed to be a high-density storage facility with a conservation/preservation laboratory, swing space to receive collections, cold storage for the preservation of film and other audio-visual material, and staff space.
• Construction for D21 is still scheduled to start at the end of March.