University Librarian's Cabinet: Minutes of the July 19, 2005 Meeting

Present:

Agnew, Boyle, Fetzer, Fultz, Gaunt, Mullins, Sewell, Zapcic

Absent:

Golden, Puniello

Guest:

Ron Becker

University Librarian's Report - Gaunt

• Annual Reports are due to Gaunt on September 6. Gaunt will resend the list of headings and style sheet. Academic departments always include a list of faculty publications; as the University's faculty survey is in the process of revamping, we will need to ask for those directly. Once the University's survey is in place, we should be able to take from there. We will use the format that the University uses for promotion packets. Gaunt will distribute it and Cabinet members should include it in their reports. Publications, awards, and committees can be included for both faculty and staff.

• Budget: President McCormick sent out a message on the budget; looks like a better year for the University than originally expected. We should be hearing about our budget in a few weeks after the University reviews the state allocation and tuition increase impact. Libraries received a special allocation for $.5M that stemmed from the Brendan Byrne papers project and will be for NJ gubernatorial papers. While the NJ State Archives keep the official papers of all governors, there are significant other papers and memorabilia that provide important research value for anyone studying NJ history and politics.

• The SCC was the site of President McCormick's press briefing on the Report of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, Rutgers–New Brunswick/Piscataway that Gaunt and other RUL folks attended. Briefing was for the press primarily. Information competencies were included in the section of the report on the revised curriculum. Two copies of the report will be cataloged and put on reserve in the major libraries.

• Institutional Research has informed us that the University is considering discontinuing our subscription to the Community of Science (COS) since there are many ways to get the same kind of information and COS was not heavily used.

• Gaunt received a memo from Karen Stubaus, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, advising that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has made significant changes to its Alien Labor Certification program that will increase the burden of responsibility on petitioning employers and have a substantial impact on University departments' recruitment and hiring processes. Upcoming briefing sessions on these important changes will be provided by Center for International Faculty and Student Services staff. It is important to note that the teaching faculty and librarians are not considered in the same way. The federal regulations include exceptions for "college and University teachers" that do not extend to librarians. There is no umbrella term "faculty." Boyle and Troy will attend the briefings and new guidelines will be shared with everyone.

Update on the Strategic Plan – Becker

• Ron Becker joined Cabinet to share the draft vision statement and strategic goals of the strategic plan and to invite comments before the full library discussion. Cabinet thanked Becker for the excellent work of the committee in reviewing all the background documents and data that had been amassed in anticipation of the plan and their good work in synthesizing the important, strategic areas for development. Becker noted that the committee tried to retain language from many of the contributed documents so that individuals and groups might recognize where the ideas originated. But even where the language is not the same, the thoughts are captured. He also said that the draft is not in the format that it will likely be in the final report. While the many documents may be listed in the appendix, and the points made therein may become annual goals stemming from the plan itself, they do not hold any official place for action once the strategic plan is agreed upon. The plan, itself, will become the main map of action. Becker also noted that anyone who has been reading the committee's minutes or the many documents on the Web will not be surprised by the plan's directions. He asked for Cabinet's comments on major areas that might be missing and for an endorsement of the draft vision statement and strategic goals. Many textual comments were made, but most specifically that any points made for action should have a basis in the introductory context/environment statement. Becker planned to have the textual revisions made in order to release the document by Monday so that those attending the open session next week would be able to read it in advance.

Discussion of ALA's "Principles for the Networked World" – Boyle

• This agenda item is tabled until a future meeting.

2004/05 Goals Review – All

• Gaunt will compile a list of system wide accomplishments from the 2004/05 goals and send to the AULs for comment and to determine if we want to put them on the agenda for next year's goals discussion. Will share information in the Cabinet email list. Further discussion will be postponed until after the Annual Reports have been completed.

Announcements

Boyle:

• The University has joined the New Jersey Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (NJHERC) to establish a central location to post our ongoing faculty searches. We will be posting our librarian position announcements and search committee membership on the website at http://www.njherc.org. Positions can be searched by keyword or found by selecting narrowing categories in drop down boxes. Participation will also help us meet some of the requirements for alien certification.

Gaunt:

• Will use the August 9 Cabinet meeting to begin an initial discussion of line needs; plan to stay through lunch. Be prepared to look at your own vacancies as well as system wide.
• The Strategic Plan Open Meeting will be held on Thursday, July 28 in the Lecture Hall in the SCC. Videoconferencing will be available. Newark and Camden should let Becker know of videoconferencing needs.