University Librarian's Cabinet: Minutes of the March 7, 2006 Meeting

Present:

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

Guest:

Nancy Hendrickson

University Librarian's Report – Gaunt

• Please be reminded that mid-year reports are due to Gaunt by April 1. These can be brief and form the basis for the annual report. Reports can be submitted in bullet form.
• Updates from the February 6, 2006 Deans Council meeting: President McCormick will hold a press conference on the undergraduate report on March 3; Mike McKay and Steve Director, IT Strategic Planning Co-Chairs gave a briefing on their report; they are willing to come to units to discuss the report if deans wish them to do so; Jeff Apfel, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, gave an overview on the University's endowment and compared the $.5 billion endowment to our peers and to all doctoral institutions; we are in the mid-range of our peers in dollars but 50% lower in endowment per student; raising the endowment will be a goal in the next capital campaign; Jane Oates is the new executive director of the Commission on Higher Education and will be Governor Corzine's chief higher education aide; she was formerly aide on education to Senator Ted Kennedy and is very knowledgeable about the contributions that research institutions make to the state.
• The two provosts have encouraged the libraries to engage in discussions with the law school libraries about greater collaboration in the technical services areas and any other areas that would be mutually beneficial.
• The Libraries' Mentoring Task Force report was approved at the faculty meeting, and Gaunt will be following up on the process so we can begin this academic year.

Selecting a URL for RUCORE - Agnew

• Agnew presented a list of potential URLs for the repository. The top choice is http://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu. Cabinet agreed that it is a good idea to have the word "libraries" associated with the repository address. It was also agreed that at some future time it might be beneficial to have it viewed as an institutional repository, so we will also reserve the address http://rucore.rutgers.edu for a potential change in the future and to keep others from using a similar address.

Report on NJKI Advocacy with Legislators - Sewell

• Sewell reported on a meeting that was held with Assemblyman Chivakula and staff from the State Library concerning advocacy for library programs in the state. This was the first meeting with a legislator and it proved very informative and helpful. One of the major programs discussed was the Knowledge Initiative, and Sewell represented academic libraries and VALE. In the discussions it was apparent that many citizens might not know that academic libraries are open to the public and that the public can search their databases; Cabinet agreed that some publicity/marketing should be done in this area. We will include this in what we do at Rutgers, and Gaunt will bring the issue to the VALE Executive Committee for potential PR there. We are also encouraged to get testimonials from our faculty and students about the value of the NJKI databases to their work. We might ask some faculty who we know use these databases to give us a comment that we could pass on for promotional brochures and other advocacy.

Big-Ticket Items Discussion - Gaunt

• A list of items that were critical purchases for each unit and the system, but too expensive to be covered by the unit's budget were discussed. We determined that we could allocate about $300K towards these purchases, especially if they would have needed to be bought next year when we are unlikely to have as much funding. The top priorities from each units list were approved, and we will follow-up with better cost information on some equipment and whether other units in the university should be purchasing others. We will keep all other items on the list for future consideration later in the fiscal year if funds become available. Nancy Hendrickson will allocate the appropriate funds to each unit's account so purchase orders and payments can be made this fiscal year.
• At the next Cabinet meeting we will discuss prepaying items that will come due next fiscal year. Members should be sending their potential lists to Nancy by March 16 so we can consolidate the lists and get them out to Cabinet before the meeting.

Budget Strategies - Gaunt

• We will continue to discuss potential budget strategies for next year. We will use a 5% budget reduction as our high limit, which is approximately $1M. For discussion purposes we will try to model a scenario that will let us reduce our budget through salary savings by keeping vacant positions open for a specified amount of time. Hendrickson will try to determine how long that might be based on our current ebb and flow of position vacancies. We would want to recoup a certain amount for normal below-the-line expenses and yet accrue whatever goal amount would be needed in give back. This strategy would allow us to retain collection development funds and all positions.

Announcements

Sewell

• The VALE Cooperative Collection Management Committee held a focus group on March 6 to discuss collection analysis tools and consortial pricing. The Cooperative Collection Management Committee will make their recommendations to the VALE executive committee.
• The electronic resources being announced after the budget alert concerning a moratorium on new ongoing commitments are for those titles that are being purchased through other cancellations.

Zapcic

• Zapcic reported that the University is continuing to reap the benefits of its recently completed capital campaign – notably, major gifts to the University are up and the average size of both annual and major gifts is increasing. It is clear that the success of the campaign has galvanized many donors and created an interest in, and excitement about, the university that has translated into more robust philanthropic support.
• Zapcic will present a report about current fundraising activity at the Libraries during the next Cabinet meeting.