University Librarian's Cabinet: Minutes of May 27, 2003 Meeting

Present:

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

Videoconference:

Golden

University Librarian's Report - Gaunt

• ARL Meeting: Gaunt reported on the successful ARL meeting in Lexington the week of May 15. The theme was library as place, and Sarah Thomas gave an excellent presentation on how the physical library has changed over the years. There is a greater acceptance on compact shelving in open areas, much more group study space, cafes, wireless and wiring, instructional labs, and shared space with other campus organizations. The library is still viewed as a place where the community gathers.

  Wendy Lougee spoke about her CLIR publication on diffuse libraries—libraries that are more integrated into the work of the university. This can work in concert with libraries as place; it expands our role and value to the university. Lougee pointed to many examples of how diffuse libraries work but suggested that there are no organizational structure models as yet that support these new concepts.

  There was a good deal of discussion regarding access to information (government and non-governmental) that is deemed to support terrorism. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget has been requested by the Department of Homeland Security to draft guidelines for what may be considered "sensitive" information. ARL considered whether it should make a statement regarding this issue. There was concern of overreaching on definitions of "sensitive" and that scientific organizations had not yet agreed on a position to take on this issue. ARL agreed to make a statement that acknowledged there are issues concerning access to certain types of information in the current environment and that it would be difficult to implement within higher education; that if this class was to be defined, that it be done narrowly and after discussion with the science community; that there be review mechanisms and time limits on a review of this body of literature.

• Budget Advocacy: The Libraries have ordered a large supply of postcards prepared by University Relations that can be signed and sent to legislators regarding the budget for Rutgers. Everyone is urged to sign and send these to the legislators indicated. We will make a supply available at reference and/or circulation desks for others to use.
• NJEDge: There will be a rollout conference on NJEDge in late October. The theme is collaboration across all sectors of education in New Jersey through the use of technology. Target audience includes academic administrators, faculty, librarians, teachers and technologists. There will be an opportunity for VALE to showcase activities, and for the New Jersey Digital Highway to demonstrate its role. Poster sessions will be held and vendors will be exhibiting. The planning has just begun, so more information will be forthcoming.

CLIR Symposium Report – Boyle

• Boyle reported on the CLIR Symposium, "What Users Are Telling Us: A Symposium," that she attended in Washington, D.C. on March 28. The meeting was one of a series of annual Sponsors' Symposiums for representatives of libraries and other institutions that provide financial assistance to CLIR. Seven speakers provided answers to the questions of what user studies are revealing as libraries, publishers, and other information providers try to understand how information use is affecting them in the digital era. PowerPoint slides for each speaker's presentation are available on the CLIR Web site at http://www.clir.org/pubs/archives/symp2003PPT.html.

Information Technology Coordinating Committee (ITCC) Update – Agnew

• Agnew reported on recent Information Technology Coordinating Committee (ITCC) meeting. She distributed a handout from the meeting that listed "RUCS Suggested Enhancements and Operational Practices" and discussed the ones on which they will officially work.

Shibboleth Report – Agnew

• Agnew distributed and discussed a PowerPoint handout by Nate Klingenstein, Shibboleth Deployment Guide. Shibboleth is a system designed to exchange attributes across realms for the primary use of authorization and provide a secure framework for one organization to transmit attributes about an individual across security domains to another institution. Intended to provide a secure framework and support active privacy.

Budget Planning Scenarios – Gaunt/Soong

• DRAFT Budget principles were reviewed. Feedback is requested so that they can be distributed to staff and librarians. Gaunt will ask Coordinating Committee for feedback. In reviewing our reduction strategy, we will focus on a 2.5% reduction, even though this may change when more information about the budget is known. It was agreed that for planning purposes we would look for a base collections reduction of $400,000, staffing at $125,000 and below-the-line of $50,000. For staffing reductions we will try to gain 50% from salary dollars on lines and the remaining from lines themselves (2-3 lines). Priorities for which lines to be affected to be discussed at the next Cabinet meeting, but they will most likely be faculty lines, as we have more flexibility there and there are fewer staff lines vacant.

  The strategy for collections will be to attempt to reduce our ScienceDirect costs by $500,000 and balance the remaining cost between full-text and article delivery. We will look for $50-75,000 savings from bindery costs through the new RFP; investigate any savings potential from moving from Ovid to FirstSearch because of Ovid's interface charges; evaluate RLG databases now that costs have shifted in the tech services area to OCLC, making the packaged deal for databases less advantageous; look at database indexes that may overlap; use gift funds to cover New Brunswick monograph purchases and approval plan. These collections reduction strategies include the permanent budget cut as well as the loss of the $1.1 million that we had this year as one-time funding and carry over from last year.

Announcements

• Jim Niessen is the new chair of the ARL German Resources Project Collection Development Working Group.
• Illionois State University and Milner Library will honor Mary Fetzer as a distinguished alumna at the annual Homecoming Celebration in October 2003. In the letter of invitation, Dean of the University Libraries, Cheryl Asper Elzy, mentions "Milner's distinguished alum would play an important part in our continuing program of recognition and growth."
• The project of upgrading brief records for the Art Library has begun with cooperation between TAS, Systems, and Art History librarians. When completed, 95% of the Art Library collection will have online records.
• Dean Mary Davidson of the Graduate School of Social Work funded $20,000 toward the Social Work collection. A group of selectors completed the ordering. Mary Hartman, Social Sciences Librarian, met with the Dean and began to work on the 50th anniversary events in 2003-2004.