University Librarian's Cabinet: Minutes of the October 21, 2003 Meeting

Present:

Boyle, Fultz, Gaunt, Mullins, Puniello, Sewell, Tehrani

Videoconference:

Golden (from Camden)

Absent:

Agnew

University Librarian's Report - Gaunt

• Goals for 2003/04: Final Cabinet goals for 2003/04 will be sent out to rul_everyone; Gaunt will request that the goals also be published in the Agenda.
• ARL Annual Membership Meeting: Gaunt attended the ARL Annual Membership Meeting in Washington, DC October 14-17. Gaunt was elected by the membership to a three-year term on the ARL Board of Directors. Also elected were Camila Alire and Betsy Wilson. At the ARL business meeting, a 3% increase in membership dues was approved; Based on a recommendation from Gaunt's ARL Scholarly Communication Committee to help raise the visibility of university presses within the academic community, it was decided that 2004 will be called the "Year of the University Press," and will be co-sponsored by ARL and the AAUP (Association of American University Presses). Libraries will be asked to feature university press works in exhibits, invite university press authors and publishing professionals as speakers, and publish articles about presses in library newsletters. A joint statement on scholarly communication by AAUP-ARL was released on October 20, 2003 that "sets forth the complementary roles of press and library within higher education, and indicates a strengthened commitment to cooperation and joint action." Another major point of discussion was the concept of promoting open access on our campuses. People are not sure what open access means. Gaunt's Scholarly Communication Committee sponsored a one-day conference on Friday, October 17 called "Scholarly Tribes and Tribulations: How Tradition and Technology are Driving Disciplinary Change and Redefining the Role of the Library." Attendees from Rutgers were Larry Scanlon from the English Department and Mike Lesk from SCILS, who was also a keynote speaker. Conference handouts will be posted on the ARL Web site; Gaunt will notify Cabinet when they are available. The "Create Change" brochure has been updated and will be distributed.
• Restructuring: Gaunt attended a meeting on October 16 with President McCormick and the Rutgers chairs and co-chairs of the committees related to restructuring to go over their reports and be debriefed on where the committees stand. Sewell applauded Gaunt's leadership in issues related to restructuring.
• Coordinating Committee: At October 20 Coordinating Committee meeting, the November 14 Libraries Faculty Meeting agenda was discussed. Gaunt and Boyle will lead an open informational discussion on copyright with illustrations related to library issues, i.e., research guides or digital projects.
• Announcement for the open public hearings for the Commission on Higher Education's Blueprint was made in the Human Resources Update on October 13. Judy Cohn of UMDNJ will attend and provide feedback to Gaunt. A copy of the draft plan is available at http://www.state.nj.us/highereducation/lrp.htm.
• Libraries' Donor Recognition Event will be held Friday, November 14, 2003. President McCormick will attend and speak to the importance of the libraries and the importance of support to the libraries.

Brainstorming on Academic Excellence Funds - Gaunt

Discussed possible proposals from the Libraries for the University's $3M Academic Excellence Fund, which will provide support for initiatives that fall outside the categories typically considered in an annual budget, including but not limited to:

• Initiatives that respond to significant opportunities for Rutgers based on our existing academic strengths, comparative advantages, the needs of our undergraduate or graduate students, or the needs and interests of the citizens of the State;
• Initiatives that cut across the boundaries of schools, colleges, and disciplines and that advance novel multidisciplinary interactions and ways of thinking;
• Initiatives that leverage other resources committed to the furthering of academic excellence at Rutgers.

Following Cabinet discussion of submitted ideas from faculty, four proposals were thought to potentially meet the University's criteria and considered worthy of follow-up. Cabinet will look into developing the four ideas into proposals and make a decision at the November 4 Cabinet meeting as to whether any should be submitted. Final proposals are due to Vice President Furmanski's office by November 13.

Discussion and Participation on Topics for Next Phase of DLI - Gaunt

Cabinet discussed brainstorming ideas Gaunt sent to AULs on October 13 in preparation for the update of the DLI. The purpose is to invite teaching faculty to small discussions in areas where we think we will be expanding and to get their opinions. Over the next two months, Sewell will work with Collection Development Council and the selectors who are liaisons to their disciplines to seek input from their faculty related to collection and services that will help shape the topics for discussion in the focus group sessions; will discuss at a Libraries Faculty meeting or a special debriefing meeting.

Announcements

Fultz

• November 4 Cabinet meeting will be held at TSB and include a tour of the Annex.

Golden

• Vib Bowman and John Gibson are presenting a paper entitled "Patriot, Act! Utilizing Technology in Defense of Intellectual Freedom" at the Ethics of Electronic Information in the 21st Century (EEI21) Meeting on October 24, 2003 at the University of Memphis.
• Four personal computers with Internet access and the Microsoft 97 Office Suite and networked printing have been placed in our public area around the reference desk for the Camden County and Rowan students and for the general public to use.
• Three personal computers have been placed in the stacks, which only have access to IRIS for use by patrons wanting to check on call numbers.

Sewell

• Sewell attended the NERL Conference in Washington, D.C.; will do a debriefing at the November 4 Cabinet meeting.
• Budget allocations are being finalized; Camden is completed and entered in Unicorn.

Boyle

• Working with Procurement on the draft RFP for the communications audit.
• Communicating with the Rutgers' Washington office on the Database Protection Legislation.