University Librarian's Cabinet: Minutes of the June 22, 2004 Meeting

Present:: Agnew, Boyle, Fultz, Gaunt, Golden, Mullins, Puniello, Zapcic
Absent:: Sewell, Tehrani
Guest:: Susan Beck

Excellence Indicators Update – Beck

Susan Beck, chair of the Assessment Committee discussed the recently revised Academic Excellence Quality Indicators and their new definitions, which Beck distributed to Cabinet. The revised version, developed after consultation with Gaunt and the Coordinating Committee, contains what was determined to be the most useful things for looking at the quality indicators for the library system. All perspectives are from that of the user group. Following Cabinet discussion, Beck agreed to make minor changes. Additional comments may be sent to Beck. The next step will be for the committee to design a program for sharing the Indicators with Library faculty and staff and other identified stakeholders as part of a validation process to take place in early fall. Gaunt and Cabinet thanked Beck and the Assessment Committee members for their excellent work in revising the Indicators.

University Librarian's Report - Gaunt

Dr. Gregory Blimling has been appointed as the new Vice President for Student Affairs, effective July 12. He comes to Rutgers from Appalachian State University in North Carolina, where he has served as Vice Chancellor for Student Development since 1990.
Received e-mail from Barry Qualls who is chairing the President's Task Force on Undergraduate Education in New Brunswick to review every aspect of undergraduate education – the curriculum, student life, admissions, alumni support, buildings and facilities – and asking for participation from the Libraries on the Curriculum sub-committee. Gaunt will be getting a recommendation to Qualls.
Announcement will be made that RUCS is reorganizing. RUCS will be restructured into four units. Chuck Hedrick will continue his role as Chief Technology Officer and take on a new role that provides IT academic and research support to the university. Bernice Ginder will assume responsibility as Deputy CIO with a focus on planning and operations. Joseph Sanders will become University Director for Campus Computing Services. Mike Mundrane has been promoted to University Director for Enterprise Systems and Services.
Related to the discussion on music/film/video across the university, Gaunt noted that she has begun contacting other universities where music is being licensed for the university to investigate the library's role. In some cases it has been to provide assistance on licensing, to help the software developers provide appropriate searching keys, or to connect to courseware packages. In most cases, the music is being provided as a recreational service rather than an educational/academic service.
Gaunt had a follow up discussion with Sheila Creth. Talked in general about what we were trying to do, how far we had gotten, looked at strengths and challenges of current organization structure and how we need to fill permanently positions critical to us; Creth agreed to draft a framework for a process. Creth will spend two days on campus as an initial visit on August 2 and 3; will meet with Cabinet in the morning of the first day and the afternoon of the second day. Other meetings will be determined following Gaunt's further discussions with Creth.

Music/Film/Video Across the University – Golden

As a discussion tool, Golden distributed handout on Ctrax, a music service powered by MusicNet, and a legal service to help universities combat piracy and peer-to-peer downloading; their catalog includes over 700,00 audio tracks, files that are encoded in Windows Media Audio and Real format, 30 second preview samples, audio files that may be burned to CD, audio files that may be transferred to other computers and portable devices, songs that are encrypted using Digital Rights Management. Cabinet agreed that this discussion should be placed in the context of our strategic directions. What role do the Libraries wish to play related to music/video/film across the university? Cabinet discussed the difference in music for educational use and recreational use. The music available through these programs will probably be for recreational use. We need to consider the bandwidth that would be required to support it, potential demand and location of potential use, purchasing access or digitizing ourselves or some combination, copyrights and licensing, and collection development. Cabinet thanked Gary for bringing the issue to the fore, and Gaunt will discuss with Sewell setting up a group to investigate the Libraries' role and strategies for distributing media across the university.

DLI-II Update - Gaunt

Gaunt distributed the PowerPoint from the June 11, 2004 Libraries' Faculty meeting and the preliminary report on the "Responses of Faculty to the Digital Initiative II Survey," prepared by Tricia Libutti for the Coordinating Committee. Documents related to our strategic planning will be put on our website. Gaunt updated those unable to attend the meeting and noted any new work since then. Gaunt met with Dan O'Connor and Marie Radford and they will have a draft report by mid July. It will contain an introduction to set the context, include demographics related to the participants; note those items upon which there was agreement; include topics that were mentioned but not fully investigated at each meeting, but would be worth pursuing; and make recommendations for our strategic plan. Work continues on the symposium with Clara Lovett.

Announcements

Gaunt:

As of July 1 the Coordinating Committee and Planning Committee are merged into the Planning and Coordinating Committee.

Zapcic:

Joe Stampe, Assistant Vice President for Development at the Foundation, has accepted a position with UMDNJ.
The Foundation is planning a retreat for Directors of Development; the major focus is dealing with change.

Mullins:

Cabinet is invited to stay following the meeting for an update on new initiatives in the IJS.

Boyle:

The Libraries' website will have a new look in July; will send the URL to Cabinet for preview. The group is very proud of it.

Golden:

We are still having problems with the telephone service. Gaunt will make an official call to John Whyte on behalf of RUL to advise him of difficulties within RUL when attempting to make telephone calls to Camden.

Fultz:

The Retirees Luncheon will be held July 21 at the Douglass Library.