University Librarian's Cabinet: Minutes of the February 17, 2004 Meeting

Present:

Fultz, Gaunt, Golden, Mullins, Sewell, Tehrani, Zapcic

Absent:

Agnew, Puniello

Guest:

Nancy Hendrickson

University Librarian's Report - Gaunt

• Gaunt extended a welcome to Julia Zapcic, Libraries Development Officer. Zapcic will be attending future Cabinet meetings to better relate the Libraries strategic directions and activities to development and fundraising.
• Gaunt attended the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Board Meeting in Washington, D.C. February 12-13, 2004. One topic of discussion was Stanford's decision to withdraw from ARL. As a result of those discussions, the Board will be proposing a new strategic plan and a task force on governance that will address ARL's future direction. These will be discussed at the May membership meeting.
• At Administrative Council meeting on February 3, 2004, the four-year plan to widen Route 18 in New Brunswick was discussed. Paul Leath is chairing a university committee looking at the impact on the New Brunswick/Piscataway campuses. Tehrani will lead a committee for the Libraries to examine what the impact would be and to make recommendations for the Libraries and to Paul's committee.
• The New Brunswick Advisory Committee for Instructional Computing (ACIC) is inviting applications for computing and instructional technology projects funded by the student computer fee for academic year 2004-05. Proposals relating to New Brunswick under the guidelines are due to Gaunt by February 20. Golden and Mullins should touch base with their provosts for planning on those campuses to let them know we will be asking for funding for databases, and for New Brunswick specific projects.
• Announcement went out on the VALE listserv that NJEDge is looking at developing a video collection consortially. Their plan is that NJEdge might provide the technical support and VALE would assist in identifying the collections desired. Sherri Prupis of NJEDge will discuss this in her talk at the Council of New Jersey College and University Library Deans, University Librarians, and Directors meeting on February 27, 2004 in the Scholarly Communication Center of Alexander Library.
• VALE Annual Report will be distributed at the Council meeting on February 27. Gaunt will be sending it to President McCormick and Vice President Furmanski to inform them of our participation in the consortium.
• Gaunt sent to Cabinet an announcement of the PALINET ARL Director's Meeting on March 2 in Philadelphia. On the agenda for discussion is Digitization of mid-Atlantic Resources, Regional Electronic Depository of Institutional Dissertations, Local/Colonial History Projects, Coordinated Digital Collection Management/Preservation of Special Collections, and "Last Copy" Retention Policy Development related to Remote Storage, and how PALINET might facilitate any of these initiatives. Cabinet should let Gaunt know if they have any ideas related to any of those topics.

Travel Policy Update - Hendrickson

• Hendrickson distributed the updated "Travel, Travel Incidentals, and Meal Expense Policy" (Regulation 6.1.10 in the University Regulations & Procedures). The update follows a university internal audit on travel that indicated more oversight on travel expenditures/reimbursements is needed. Hendrickson discussed the impact of the university's change in the travel policy on RUL. The University Librarian and approvers will be responsible for making sure the new policy is strictly enforced. Cabinet needs to remind its faculty and staff to read these new procedures. Hendrickson will work with the individuals who fill out "Travel and Business Expense Reports (TABER)" to make sure they are knowledgeable about format and policy, and will request that travel expenses be filed once a month. Gaunt will review the Libraries' travel policy, which was last updated in 1987, make necessary technical changes, and will put on an agenda for future Cabinet discussion. Hendrickson also distributed a draft revision of the "Application for Travel Funds." Cabinet should review and make comments to Hendrickson.

Salary Savings - Hendrickson

• Hendrickson discussed the university memo distributed on Salary Savings. She explained that salary savings is the difference between the amount budgeted on a line and the amount actually spent on that line for the year. Salary savings typically occur when a line is vacant or filled at a lower salary level. Although salary savings remain in the Libraries' account, we have to return 10% of our total gross savings to a university pool to which all units can make requests. The requests will be filled on a priority basis. Savings are credited to a special object code 5280, but the funds can be expended from any object code. Hendrickson will meet with each Cabinet member and business managers to explain the salary savings procedure and to review the monthly reports. It is important to project savings accurately. This is critical for several reasons: we want to make sure we know exactly what 10% is going to be, and that we spend all our funds appropriately. When the savings total is calculated, we will determine priorities. Hendrickson will prepare spreadsheets with an added column for salary savings; she will schedule meetings to discuss unit needs and priorities for the remainder of the year.

Communication Audit Details - Boyle

• Boyle distributed to Cabinet the "RFP Development and Evaluation for the RUL Communications Audit." The goal of the communication audit is to improve the effectiveness of the Libraries' communications program, messages, and mediums in creating general awareness of the Libraries and usage of the Libraries' resources, services, and activities throughout the Rutgers community. The report listed objectives and core constituency groups the audit would reach, areas the audit must address, and a preliminary audit time-line. Nineteen firms were identified who could bid on the RFP. Out of 15 RFP's that were mailed, we received three credible responses and interviewed two. The firm selected to do the communications audit is Library Communications Strategies Inc. They have proposed for us an ambitious program, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, an e-mail survey, and a survey of our library staff. The final program will be worked out over the semester. This can be built into our strategic plan. Meetings on the campuses will take place to roll out the audit and seek advice from librarians and staff in a few weeks.

DLI-II Planning - Gaunt

• Cabinet reviewed a Strategic Plan Model that Boyle developed based on discussion at February 3, 2004 Cabinet meeting, which resulted from thinking about the strategic plan from a framework perspective. It was agreed that this might be too difficult to do at this stage in the process and more discussion would be needed before we are ready to solidify a framework. By the end of April we will have all the input from the liaisons and focus group discussions with our users. Once the data is compiled it can be shared with librarians and staff. In order to reflect on this information and focus our attention on strategic issues rather than ground level activities, it might be useful to have a facilitated discussion of the research library of the future. This could be based on environmental scans that have been done about higher education in the future. This would allow librarians and staff to project at a high level. Follow-up discussion could take place within existing groups and committees and/or with ad hoc groups on focused topics.