University Librarian's Cabinet: Minutes of the February 27, 2007 Meeting

Present:

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

University Librarian's Report – Gaunt

• Reminder that mid-year reports are due by April. These need only be brief and can be a bulleted list.
• While we did not get our two academic excellence proposals funded this year, we should consider the possibility of pursuing one or both as grants with potential collaborators within the university and/or with external partners. One local institution has expressed interest.
• The New Jersey Digital Video Portal grant proposal to IMLS in collaboration with NJEdge and William Paterson University will be sent to the agency for the March 1 deadline. The project has great support in the state. Several of the deliverables in the grant are for developments that we need at Rutgers. The project would include streaming lectures on demand, commercial videos and locally owned videos to libraries, schools, and museums. The videos would be accessible through a Shibboleth implementation that would allow institutions to control access as they wish.
• The New Jersey Knowledge Initiative is in the governor's budget for next year at the same level of funding as the current year. The advocacy team will continue to work to ensure that it remains in the budget or is increased.
• The recent CLIR Report includes an excellent summary of their Census of Institutional Repositories in the United States. The 13 bulleted findings will be helpful for us to review as we continue to develop the repository. The full report and the CLIR summary are on the web at http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub140abst.html

Discussion of Draft Guidelines for Filling Faculty Positions - Gaunt

• Sloan and Gaunt led a discussion on the draft "Guidelines for Advice to the University Librarian on Priorities for Faculty Personnel Line Assignments and Recruitment" that were recently prepared to assist the faculty and administration to plan for and use faculty positions as wisely as possible for the overall support of the Libraries. While individual unit needs must be taken into consideration, we need a process that allows vetting of recommendations across the Libraries. The guidelines do not cover the conversion of faculty lines to staff lines and vice versa.
• Several suggestions were made for changes in the document. We should think about the process in broad terms and not just when a vacancy occurs. The time period for when a review should begin is, therefore, not needed. A broad review could happen if we consider all potential vacancies and needs in early spring semester so we can plan for the academic year ahead and build in a budget request. In addition, we should start early to review potential vacancies once we know about them and not after the vacancy exists. A recommendation not to fill the position permanently for a specified time could, however, be a valid recommendation concerning a vacancy and is recognized in the document.
• In the section regarding recruiting for a senior or junior faculty the language should be changed to better reflect what we mean. Junior and senior could mean age, number of years in the profession, or tenured or non-tenured. In looking at the characteristics of individuals we wish to recruit we should consider the balance among the need to bring in specific expertise, breadth of expertise, or new and diverse perspectives.
• It was also recommended that we include some self-examination as part of the process, especially when we want to bring in new expertise to lead us in new directions. We must be prepared to provide the support for that individual to implement change and to openly participate and support change. We cannot expect a single individual to be successful on his or her own.
• We also discussed how strategic system-wide needs are built into the process. If the recommendations proceed from the unit/director/AUL to the Planning and Coordinating Committee to Cabinet, we need to ensure that a broad view of both local and system-wide needs are discussed. At the point where unit recommendations come to Planning and Coordinating Committee, discussion with the directors or AULs should take place if clarification on a position recommendation is needed.
• Sloan will attempt to make the necessary changes in the document, and it will be discussed at the faculty meeting before it is finalized.

CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in Scholarly Information Resources for Humanists - Boyle

• Boyle discussed the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in Scholarly Information Resources for Humanists of the Council on Library Resources that places individuals with recent PhDs in the humanities in academic libraries for a one or two year post-doc program. This program gives participating scholars an intensive introduction to libraries and information issues, and gives librarians and libraries the opportunity to work intimately with interested and dedicated scholars.
• The PhD individuals and the sponsoring libraries apply for the program by identifying areas of interest and the general outline of program work. CLIR then matches individuals to appropriate libraries. The libraries are responsible for paying the individuals a salary stipend and, if possible, benefits. CLIR provides an intensive library orientation program, and several meetings of the cohort group for additional training and discussion. Some participants decide thereafter to enroll in an MLS program, but that is not a requirement. Applications are conducted on an annual basis, and approximately 10-15 placements are made each year.
• Both Golden and Mullins attended a CLIR program where these individuals spoke of their experiences. Both were impressed with the caliber of work and the initiative and involvement these individuals displayed at their libraries.
• Cabinet discussed whether we would be interested in applying in the next cycle, and how we might consider a process for developing the application and managing a post-doc. We could dedicate an existing line for this purpose or use other funds. We would have to identify a program of work that would not build expectations afterwards on which we could not deliver. The disciplinary expertise was of special interest, especially as we consider scholarly communication plans and new services for research support. The individuals could also prepare white papers or reports on topics to which we cannot currently devote resource time. They might also function as the Public Service Council had envisioned PROP - to get a program off the ground or complete important work. We determined that there was sufficient interest to follow-up with a process proposal on how this might be incorporated into our planning.

Announcements

Zapcic

• A first look at the major logos will be presented at the next Cabinet meeting for review and discussion of process; University Relations will give us an official rendering of our logo this week.
• Zapcic, Gaunt, Sewell, Tehrani, and Puniello met with Ziva Galili and Joanna Regulska on February 16 to discuss the establishment of an Iranian Institute at the university and fundraising initiatives; this is seen as a great opportunity to invigorate and establish a larger program for Middle Eastern studies with the scholarly resources this institute would bring the university.
• The Class of 1958 has asked for a proposal to renovate the Special Collections exhibit area.
• May 7 has been set as the date for a Harrison Williams event to update people who have made contributions; will highlight accomplishments and push for the third year of fundraising. The guest speaker will be James Wooten.

Boyle

• A discussion of the report of the Internal Communications Task Force will be on the next Cabinet agenda; Judy Gardner, TF Chair, has been invited to be present for the discussion. Boyle will send Cabinet the link for the report.
• Boyle will bring to the next Cabinet meeting another rendition of the peer and aspirant schools.
• Boyle's Middle States working group has included the libraries in their report. Our assessment piece has been added, and at yesterday's meeting, the group agreed to add the recommendation from our overall report that the university develops an assessment plan for information literacy. Boyle will forward language developed by Lynn Mullins, who originated the concept.
• Boyle compiled a separate libraries report for Middle States with help from Sewell, Puniello, Mullins, and Jeris Cassel; waiting for feedback from the steering committee.
• Planning and Coordinating Committee is moving forward and meeting with councils and other groups; working toward our mid-March deadline of having the first layer of the strategic plan objectives claimed.
• Article by Leslie Murtha, Eileen Stec, and Marilyn Wilt, "Using Assessment as a Tool to Improve Learning: an IFLA Workshop," appears in the December 2006 IFLA Journal, 32:294-309.

Mullins

• "Items from the James P. Johnson Collection" is currently on display in the Dana Library.
• "Troy West: The Newark Years, Selected Works of Art and Architecture" is on exhibit in the Dana Gallery and Dana Room, February 5-April 6; opening reception in the Dana Room on March 1 from 5-8 p.m.; Troy West is one of the founders of the NJIT School of Architecture and a longtime Newark resident.
• "Born at the Beth", the third in a series of traveling exhibitions sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of MetroWest, pays visual tribute to the founding of Beth Israel Hospital in 1901 by members of Newark's Jewish community and will be on display in April.
• 150 years of rare materials in St. Benedict's Preparatory School will be on display next September.
• Mullins has nominated Dan Morgenstern and the staff of the IJS for a Human Dignity Award for their contributions to furthering respect for diversity.
• Morgenstern was featured in the Newark Observer and in a new Rutgers welcoming brochure.
• Mullins met with Zapcic last week to plan the next meeting of the IJS Advisory Board on March 22; the idea is to refocus the board as a fundraising mechanism moving into the capital campaign; the initiative we are focusing on is a named directorship of the IJS. Mullins has been invited to give the annual Phi Beta Kappa talk at the initiation of the new members.

Joseph

• Lois Morrison's "Endangered Species" was chosen for the poster at a major retrospective exhibition at The National Museum of Women in the Arts entitled "Twenty Years of Artists Books." Morrison was program chair of the 2005 New Jersey Book Arts Symposium, "Detrital Books and Detritavores," and has had several exhibitions and workshops at the Dana Library. Rutgers owns a copy of "Endangered Species" (http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rulib/spcol/bookarts/mig.jpg
• The Norman Rockwell Museum has requested four wood blocks from Special Collections' Lynd Ward's "Vertigo" collection for their exhibition in November; Joseph was asked to attend and speak about Lynd Ward.
• At the end of the month, Joseph will attend the Seventh Biennial Conference on Modern Critical Approaches to Children's Literature conference in Nashville, Tennessee; Middle Tennessee State University Department of English is hosting the conference. Joseph is moderating a double panel called "The End of Children's Literature," and has been invited to participate in a roundtable at the end of the conference. The keynote speaker for this year's conference is U.C. Knoepflmacher, retired English professor from Princeton University.
• Chadwick Healey has invited Joseph to give his opinion of whether the American Antiquarian Society Children's Literature project would be appropriate for digitization; it is a great early American collection.

Sewell

• Sewell gave an update on Tim Corlis' recuperation.
• Middle States collections report was submitted to Boyle.
• Scholarly Communications Forum is being held in the SCC Lecture Hall tomorrow at 10 a.m.
• Sewell and Niessen will be on the libraries faculty meeting agenda on Friday.

Sloan

• Libraries Faculty Meeting is scheduled for Friday, March 1; there will be an open session at 11:20 a.m. for all library faculty and staff on RUCore, led by Grace Agnew, AUL for Automated and Digital Library Systems.

Golden

• Vib Bowman appeared on WHYY-FM's (Philadelphia public radio station) program called Radio Times this morning. This is an interview and call in show; Vib was on the air for approximately 45 minutes during the second hour. There were call in questions from Louisville, California, and Pennsylvania; will try and find a way to use this for our own faculty.

Puniello

• Passed around for Cabinet the program highlighting Ferris Olin's award for lifetime contributions for women in the arts.
• There was discussion at the Academic Coordinating Council about community college transfers; Rutgers is trying to show parents why it is good to come to Rutgers as a freshman.
• Puniello received an email invitation from Tom Grzelak for the libraries to participate in the "Instructional and Research Technology Symposium for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences" on March 21; will forward the invitation to Cabinet to determine if there is interest.
• Working with Ann Montanaro on the technical requirements for switching from ILL Manager to Iliad.
• Interviewed two candidates this week for the humanities librarian position.

Tehrani

• Working on the preservation specialist position description.
• Sharon Fordham Multimedia Resource Lab at the Douglass Library is moving along; construction will start soon. The plan is to have the opening for fall semester.
• Have been invited to participate in a university-wide committee to plan and organize a program for a Nobel Peace Prize winner who has been invited to receive an honorary degree from Rutgers.
• Working on a plan to build four group study rooms for Kilmer Library and possibly one for Math Library.

Gaunt

• The Rutgers University Libraries' Advisory Committee is meeting on March 6; agenda items will include budget impacts and changes; scholarly communication issues - getting their input and discussing how we might engage our teaching faculty; and an update on Middle States. One of our concerns is that we need to get information literacy built into the curriculum; their advice and input is critical.