University Librarian's Cabinet: Minutes of the January 6, 2004 Meeting

Present:

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

Videoconferenced:

Golden

University Librarian's Report - Gaunt

• Cabinet discussed Business/Accounting Certificate Program that is being offered by University Human Resources to ensure that Rutgers employees who hold business/accounting positions have the information and skills necessary for responsible management of Rutgers assets. Employees newly hired or promoted into Business/Accounting group titles are required to enroll in the program within 90 days of their start date and to complete a series of foundation courses and relevant electives over an 18-month period as a condition of continued employment. Boyle will ask Sandra Troy to inquire as to whether other individuals can take the business training.
• Gaunt received a memo from University Vice President Furmanski reviewing the subject of salary savings and how all the units in Academic Affairs will handle it during FY2002/03. Under the revised budget policies disseminated in September, salary savings generated by Academic Affairs units will now remain with Academic Affairs instead of being returned to Central Administration. Each of the units in Academic Affairs may use up to 90% of their gross annual salary savings for whatever below-the-lines purposes it deems necessary. A unit may use 100% of their salary savings if it can document that it was all used to pay for replacement staff as had been allowed under previous budget policies. In the third quarter of the year, 10% of salary savings will be returned to the university; these funds will subsequently be made available for campus-wide priorities or for special unforeseen needs. Gaunt will ask Nancy Hendrickson to attend a future Cabinet meeting to review the new procedures and reports.
• Gaunt attended a meeting of the new Information Technology (IT) Project Governance Committee on November 10. The next meeting will be held January 16, 2004 and the purpose will be to present overviews of RUCS and Administrative Computing Services (ACS) and to provide information about the IT projects that ACS supports. The second meeting will be an all-day retreat on January 27 and facilitated by Susan Dallas and Mike Zastrocky of the Garter Group, a research and advisory firm with a well-developed higher education practice, that assists clients to leverage information technology. At this session, Gartner will provide information regarding best practices in IT. We were given a list of materials regarding IT governing processes to review in advance of the meetings.
• The Coordinating Committee held a constructive discussion regarding the idea of combining the function of the Planning Committee with those of the Coordinating Committee. The discussion will continue at the next Coordinating Committee meeting.

Themes from Student Focus Groups - Gaunt

• President McCormick held a retreat for students and service administrators, facilitated by Brent Ruben, with the purpose of clarifying students' concerns, areas of dissatisfaction, share highlights of service improvements, create a constructive dialogue between students and providers, identify student priorities, brainstorm new possible service improvements, and set the state for collaborative follow-up planning and student involvement. A summary of the results of the student focus group themes/issues was sent to the President's Administrative Council for information. Many of the themes addressed specific areas where students felt university service should be improved. While the Libraries were not mentioned (the groups involved were specifically administrative), some of the themes addressed generic issues: staff knowledgeabiity, responsiveness, follow-through, respectfulness, etc. Gaunt asked Cabinet to take a look at the themes and consider whether there was a need for any Cabinet action related to those themes that might affect the Libraries. Following Cabinet discussion, it was decided that the most effective follow-up would be to ask the Assessment Committee to include any relevant student service issues in the benchmarks for excellence that the Libraries are now developing. As Cabinet liaison to the committee, Gary agreed to carry this forward.

UMD Collaboration - Gaunt

Gaunt gave an overview to Cabinet of the small Rutgers/UMDND committee that has been meeting to discuss library issues between the two universities. The committee held two focus group meetings with professors in New Brunswick in April to study library collections, services, and facilities needed by faculty and students on the New Brunswick/Piscataway campuses of Rutgers and UMDNJ; identified areas of concern were collection issues, authentication, electronic reserves, space orientation of students and communication. Since there may be a need to look at all three campuses and collaboration with UMDNJ and NJIT following the proposed restructuring, Cabinet might want to expand the discussion and decide how best to move to the next step. We may want to review the things actually happening now, the issues that have surfaced thus far, where are we in dealing with any of these in the small group, then look at other things not mentioned in those discussions that are big issues that could be rolled into future planning. Not always will be a cost issue. Will discuss at a future Cabinet meeting to determine next steps.

Demo of myRutgers Portal - Boyle

Boyle gave an overview of a demonstration that was presented to the Public Services Committee by Joe Percoco, Director for Application and Development and Data Management and Bill Thompson, Associate Director for New Technology. The purpose of this portal is to provide a single intuitive gateway to academic and administrative online services at Rutgers and fits with the Public Service Council's goal of looking at undergrad services in terms of a research university. The portal has been in production since fall 2002; the audience is being expanded on a limited basis and should be available to all by late 2004.

Announcements

Agnew

• Will present "New Jersey Digital Highway: A Statewide Portal to New Jersey Cultural and Historical Resources" at the VALE Users' Conference 2004 on January 7, 2004.
• Mary Mallory nominated Digital Architecture and Infrastructure Working Group (DAWG) FEDORA group for the NJLA New Jersey Technology Innovation Award. Ron Jantz, Mike Giarlo, Dave Hoover, and Jeffrey Triggs will make a presentation as part of the selection process.

Boyle

• Judy Gardner, Chair of the VALE Resource Sharing Committee, will present "ILL Management Systems: Determining Which One is Appropriate for Your Operations and Local Service Goals" at the VALE Users' Conference on January 7, 2004.
• Barbara Garwood is now the supervisor in the reconfigured Imaging Services following Donna Cryan's retirement.
• Information Literacy Update: Puniello, Mullins, and Boyle met as a small subgroup to discuss information literacy. The Instructional Services Committee is planning an information literacy program in May; looking at potential speakers.
• The Continuous Education Coordinating Council program directors are required to write a business plan. Ray Caprio hired consultants to discuss information resources. The business librarians as a group will make a presentation to the committee in early February.

Golden

• Wintersession 2004 appears to be a success at Camden; an increase in questions is being reflected at the reference desk.

Puniello

• The Douglass Library renovated areas will not be ready to open in January due to construction delays; hopefully, it will hopefully reopen at the end of spring break.
• Brian Hancock received an Academic Excellence Award from the University for his "Grid Computing, a collaboration among the Libraries, and the Philosophy and Classics Departments."

Gaunt

• Mary Page was invited for a January 20 dinner discussion at the President's home on undergraduate education at Rutgers, including the implications and opportunities for faculty and students.
• Jim Niessen represented the Libraries at the 2003 RLG Membership Meeting in Boston and was included in a picture in the Fall 2003 RLG News.