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.