University Librarian's Cabinet: Minutes of the January 16, 2007 Meeting

Present:

Agnew, Boyle, Fultz, Gaunt, Golden (videoconference), Joseph, Mullins, Puniello, Sewell, Zapcic

Absent:

Fultz, Sloan, Tehrani

University Librarian's Report – Gaunt

• Gaunt welcomed the Deputy Faculty Coordinator, Michael Joseph, to Cabinet as part of the reorganization. Jane Sloan, Faculty Coordinator, had to attend the New Brunswick Libraries promotion review meeting; she will be joining us at our next meeting.
• VALE Conference: The feedback from the VALE Users' Conference was good. It was over subscribed and many of the breakouts were on useful topics. It is important for Rutgers librarians to participate.
• Dana Library Director: The draft position profile for the Dana Library Director was circulated for comments. It will be shared with the Planning/Coordinating committee tomorrow and then posted. We hope to have a candidate in place for a smooth transition of leadership. The search committee will be co-chaired by Bob Sewell and Prof. Jan Lewis, FAS-Newark. Michael Joseph will be chairing the committee to plan the celebration in recognition of Lynn Mullins.
• Reclassifications: Cabinet members were asked to submit any new reclassification requests by the end of January. They will be reviewed in an early Cabinet meeting in February. At that time we should have a better indication of the amount of funding that will be available. Several of the previous reclassifications have not yet made it through the final process, and we do not yet have the exact figures on their costs.

Updates on Academic Excellence Grants - Gaunt

• Two academic excellence grant proposals were submitted: "Let's Talk About Science Information: Creating a Student Research Identity" by Eileen Stec and Marty Kesselman, and "Incorporating Primary Sources from the Rutgers University Libraries Special Collections and University Archives into the Curriculum of the School of Management and Labor Relations" by Robert Golon and Constance Finlay. Both proposals represent similar themes of enhancing the curriculum through the use of information resources and collaboration with librarians. The science proposal could be extended to other disciplines as can the special collections proposal. Each could be a model for how the work could be extended. VP Barry Qualls endorses the "Let's Talk" proposal as it relates to the undergraduate seminars. Dean David Finegold supports the special collections proposal as it focuses on the labor archives and SMLR faculty and students. A few suggestions for strengthening the proposals were discussed and Gaunt will share those with the PI's. After discussing whether the proposals should be prioritized, it was agreed that both are equally worthy and not very expensive to implement. The endorsement letter will convey the importance of both. Proposals are due on Friday, January 19.

Marketing Plan Update - Glazer/Puniello

• Harry Glazer joined Cabinet to present the next phase of the Marketing Plan as previously requested by Cabinet - to prioritize the goals and implementation and to provide assessment measures. The committee did a very good job in providing the information requested and a lively discussion ensued. It was determined that there are several ways to approach marketing that did not seem as obvious when Cabinet reviewed the plan previously. There is the marketing of services/collections that the Libraries already provide and the assessment that takes place is about the effectiveness of the marketing strategy to promote the product service. Cabinet questioned whether the assessment of some of the plan's objectives effectively captures the appropriate data. There are also elements of marketing research in the plan where you are assessing how people feel about a service or resource. There was less clarity on whether that is what we really want to do in the marketing plan, even though this is important work. And lastly, there was some thought that professional development, while very important, should not be in the plan or should be there but captured as a separate section.
• Cabinet noted that these discussions help clarify their thinking about marketing, and thanked Harry and the committee for their work and their understanding and enthusiasm for marketing. It was agreed that Gaunt, Puniello, and Boyle would work with Glazer to incorporate our comments into a revised version. Cabinet may wish to review this again.

Approach to Potential Merger Discussions - Gaunt

• Gaunt discussed approaches that the Libraries might wish to take on a position about the operation of the Libraries should a merger be proposed. This would provide some background for us in advance. She shared two documents that had been written during the Vagelos discussions. Cabinet agreed that they provide useful language and capture well our thinking about remaining a system. As Cliff Lynch remarked at a recent CNI meeting, libraries are becoming more interdependent, which is going further than being just collaborative. It is to the benefit of our users that they have a strong library system, which would be difficult if we become fractured and then re-joined in some other way. Knowing the arguments for being separate and only collaborative, we should be able to create a positive statement. We also need to be able to demonstrate in this rhetoric that a system-wide approach is the most valuable for users. We agreed that Mullins, Golden, and Gaunt would draft a first version for Cabinet review. It will then be shared beyond Cabinet for input.

RUL Planning Meeting - Gaunt

• Gaunt will be having a planning meeting in mid-March with Dr. Furmasnki. She asked for comments on what areas to emphasize. Among those discussed were the need to have a robust faculty and staff. Many lines are now frozen as part of the reductions and we cannot adequately provide library hours or move our strategic plan forward in ways that provide adequate support to faculty and students. We need to discuss collections and our inability to purchase our faculty's requests. Our book budget is practically non-existent from state funding. IT has an impact and we have a greater need for upgraded technology and programming support. The services we provide like PALCI and RAPID might be considered out-sourcing collections, but they have their associated costs. Drafts of the planning document will be circulated for comments well before the meeting.

Announcements

Mullins:

• The International Association for Jazz Education honored Dan Morgenstern with a 2007 Jazz Masters award, photo published in Star-Ledger.
• Private donor has pledged $100K for IJS.

Gaunt:

• Gaunt will be in Chicago next week with ARL and ALA meetings.
• MaryBeth Peters from US Copyright Office will speak on Section 108. The purpose of the Section 108 Study Group is to conduct a reexamination of the exceptions and limitations applicable to libraries and archives under the Copyright Act, specifically in light of the changes wrought by digital media; a formal statement will be prepared.
• Orphan works legislation did not pass the last session of Congress. Objections emerged from unexpected quarters at last minutes.

Boyle:

• Marilyn Wilt will present the new Training and Learning Committee workshop initiative at next Cabinet meeting.

Agnew:

• Agnew will be away attending a conference next week.