University Librarian's Cabinet: Minutes of the October 18, 2005 Meeting

Present:

Agnew, Fultz, Fetzer, Gaunt, Golden, Mullins, Puniello, Sewell, Zapcic

Absent:

Boyle

University Librarian's Report – Gaunt

• Nancy Elkington from RLG has been facilitating exchange visits for librarians from other countries. Anne Murray, Deputy Librarian, Cambridge University Library will be visiting Rutgers on November 3. We should consider after the visit whether we want to suggest reciprocal exchange "study" visits.

• Planning and Coordinating Committee: At tomorrow's meeting, we will discuss mentoring program; at our last meeting we reviewed a draft charge; charge will be sent from Gaunt and Weber; Planning and Coordinating Committee will be coordinating the program development. Program will be structured for tenure track librarians initially and may extend further following an assessment. Puniello and Fetzer are on the task force and comments may be sent to them.

• As a future agenda item for Cabinet and the Planning and Coordinating Committee, Gaunt will discuss the search process for recruiting positions within the libraries. Will review the recommendations of the Task Force on Diversity to ensure that we are following the recommendations. Search committees may need to be more proactive to attract a larger, diverse, and higher level pool of candidates.

• Reclasses: The pool of money is not adequate for all the reclasses requested. We will need to prioritize the implementation over the remainder of the academic year as funds become available. This same pool is used for all hiring as well as reclasses. Gaunt will inform the units on the status of their requests.

Report on LibQUAL+ Findings – Beck

• Beck gave a PowerPoint presentation to Cabinet on the results of the LibQUAL+ survey. Last spring, Rutgers University Libraries were one of 234 libraries internationally that participated in the ARL Libraries sponsored LibQUAL+ survey. This survey helps libraries assess and improve library services, change organizational culture, and market the library services. The survey was coordinated by Beck and Golden. The survey consists of 22 questions used to measure Service Affect (customer service), Information Control (information provided and accessibility), and Library as Place, and a box that provided for open-ended comments from users regarding their concerns and questions. Our participation as a VALE member allowed us to add five additional questions on the survey. The Office of Institutional Research drew a sample of 7624 individuals across all three campuses; all library faculty and staff were removed from the sample, so no library personnel are included in the results. Participants were invited by email to take part in the survey; a follow-up email was sent each week after the survey began to encourage participation. We received 796 usable surveys out of 880 surveys and collected 372 comments from users. From the survey, we learned that faculty wants resources; graduate students want library as a place –a place to go and get work done. People value control of their information the most and they want more. They want access from home. The survey gives us good ammunition from several perspectives. From the resource area to be able to demonstrate to the University that our community has spoken about resources we don't have. Gives us ideas about presenting our information, making it findable, making it easier. As library as place, graduate students are interested and want quiet space. Now that the results are in, we need to send a message to our users that we appreciate their input. We should do a small summary with recommendations, which would go to rul_everyone. We should also send a message to faculty, thanking them for their input, telling them what we found and what we might do. Might contact the editors from the three campus newspapers to do a follow-up. Survey might be something we do on a three-year cycle; want to give our users an opportunity to see changes and react to them. Should be discussed at Councils and Gaunt will take it to the Libraries Advisory Committee; Gaunt will want feedback from the Councils as to next steps. Will make the actual LibQUAL+ report and Beck's version available on our web site so people can browse and print off pages. Beck and Fultz will coordinate getting the files to McDonald. Beck will present the results at State of the Libraries on November 2. Gaunt thanked Beck for the wonderful job she did with the report.

Process for Prioritizing Recruitment on Open Lines – Agnew/Puniello

• This agenda item was tabled until the next Cabinet meeting.

Goals Setting – Gaunt

Reviewed the list of Rutgers University Libraries' goals for 2004-2005. We have accomplished many; several have taken longer to implement and we continue to work on them. Some will carry over into this year. We will use similar headings that the university is using for its strategic goals to help us focus on the university's priorities and how we can support them. The draft goals will be finalized at the next Cabinet meeting. They include:

Academic Excellence

• Implement the repository
• Begin implementation of the media services plan
• Investigate needs and create specific targets for collections
• Strengthen liaison roles in collection development and communication

Constituency Relations and Service

• Complete agreement for services among UMD/NJIT/RUL
• Design and implement first program to address support for university staff

Leadership

• Fill permanently the vacant leadership positions
• Develop plans for using staffing as a strategic resource
• Improve recruitment and retention of library faculty

Student Life and Learning

• Web site – review and reorganize as appropriate
• Support new e-tools e.g., RefWorks or EndNote
• Implement federated searching
• Begin incorporating library resources into course management systems
• Explore mechanisms for incorporating information competencies in the curriculum

Resources

• Propose at least one major grant
• Develop new leadership board for campaign linked to university goals and development

Facilities

• Develop quiet spaces in each major library
• Plan for addition of one group space in each major library
• Move annex addition to university priority
• Move Dana renovation plans forward
• Move planning for consolidated science library in New Brunswick forward

Announcements:

Agnew

• NJN is joining the NJDH steering committee and contributing materials; they have always covered the local political scene and their resources will be interesting.
• Sent the repository web site to University Relations for review of the logo. Mentioned that they are interested in discussing archiving the University's web site. Frusciano and Jantz will set up a meeting to start looking at archiving the university's web sites.
• Agnew will discuss her work with the MetaSearch Initiative of the National Information Standards Institute (NISO) at a lunchtime seminar on Friday in the Pane Room.

Puniello

• The 2005 Estelle Lebowitz Artist-in-Residence Lecture by Molly Snyder-Fink exhibition opening reception will be held Friday at the Douglass Library.

Golden

• Received a letter from a former Camden student whose business is looking for partners interested in storing their films on their servers. This would not be a benefit to the Libraries if they were only looking for a storage site

Mullins

• Dana Library has four art pieces by Stella Waitzkin on display; Mullins has been documenting her work. Waitzkin is also featured at the Robert Steele Gallery in New York.

Fultz

• November 8 Cabinet meeting will be held in Newark. Please mark your calendars.