University Librarian's Cabinet: Minutes of the July 17, 2007 Meeting

Present:

Agnew, Au, Boyle, Denda, Fultz, Gaunt, Golden(videoconferenced), Joseph, Puniello, Sewell, Tehrani, Zapcic

University Librarian's Report – Gaunt

• Gaunt extended a welcome to the two new members of Cabinet: Kayo Denda as Deputy Faculty Coordinator, and Ka-Neng Au as Acting Director, Dana Library. We are delighted to have them both. This is Farideh's last Cabinet meeting; Valeda Dent will join us in August.
• Gaunt sent out an announcement to rul_everyone confirming that the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative (NJKI) lost $1M. A small group will meet with Jane Oates, Executive Director of the Commission on Higher Education on July 30 as a follow-up to discuss strategies for the interim. As of now, we plan to use the $2M to continue all databases as far as the funds will last and not cancel any databases.
• Gaunt will attend the ARL board meeting in Washington, DC this week; shared the statement on interlibrary loan that addresses the issues related to libraries using fair use and paying for copies that do not fall under fair use. This document should be useful to the committee studying section 108 of the copyright code that addresses library exemptions for copying.
• Congress will vote tomorrow on the open access policy of NIH for authors to deposit their articles in PubMedCentral. We are hopeful that the mandatory piece of this legislation will pass.
• Gaunt is a member of the large advisory committee to provide advice on the issues related to the A/P/S unionization.
• Gaunt distributed an article about the use of podcasting for educational purposes posted on the Educause web site. The article provides a mini-tutorial on how podcasting works but also addresses what kind of applications seem to be good, and what kind are not beneficial.
• Annual reports are due to Gaunt by August 1; use the same format as in the past; will have a different format next year.
• Many staff and librarians signed up to attend the ALA debriefings; Gaunt encouraged Cabinet to attend today's debriefing; there is a mix of people reporting as well as people who want to hear; next year will try to schedule the debriefings earlier following ALA.
• Golden informed Cabinet that a search committee for the provost of the Camden Campus has been formed; will probably take 12-18 months before someone is appointed.
• People who are involved with student services and facilities have been invited to participate on a committee on the Newark Campus to plan for a pandemic flu; Au has been asked to participate.

Debriefing on the Mid-Atlantic Futures Conference – Boyle/Gaunt

• Boyle and Gaunt attended the Mid-Atlantic Futures Conference in Atlantic City that was sponsored by Palinet and state libraries in the region; also attending from the libraries were Marilyn Wilt, Eileen Stec, Jeris Cassel, and Judy Gardner; the biggest attendance was from New Jersey. A handout that listed the program and speakers was distributed.
• Salvador Avila's presentation, "You Are Becoming Me and I am Becoming You! – Setting the Record Straight on Latinos Being the Majority Population in the U.S." discussed the blending of cultures; how to address the community better by being aware of cultural characteristics; many people from other cultures see the library as a free place where you can ask questions. Some people may ask more personal questions, such as marriage counseling; don't be surprised; provide as much help as you can; it relates building community. Listen and give attention and time; discussed buzzwords that are used in job ads for librarians; may need to change language to attract diverse populations.
• In the keynote address by Ray Kurzweil, "Early in the Twenty-First Century, Knowledge will Underlie Everything of Value," a large amount of time was spent showing how the pace of progress is not linear; said that in 2010, computers will disappear; images will be full virtual reality; woven into our clothing; you will see pop-ups when you look at a person; in 2029 there will be nanobots; a reverse engineering of the human brain will be completed. Artificial Intelligence will be used every day in everything we do.
• Bob Treadway's presentation, "20/20 Foresight: How to Look Into the Future," was an interesting construct for developing flexible foresight; discussed the driving forces for social technology; showed the gorilla exercise as an exercise in observation; the focus is always on awareness. Discussed different kinds of certainty – relative, predictive; said that 82% of our consumers are confident – probably because of parents telling children they are special; there is pervasive instant gratification; customers want to be pulled outward. Told us to look 15-20 years away for visionary leadership; have to use freedom scenarios; proposes that we think small – a wiki library.
• Jeffrey Scherer's presentation, "Library Space: Is it the Last Frontier in the Digital Age?" was quite interesting because he talked about specific things; for the older generation there will be a loss of hearing and there will be a need for two types of acoustic spaces; should use day light; use views; a variety of seating with options for extrovert and introvert; gossip corners that don't interfere with others; group sitting; privacy; security; convenience; drive up book return for pickup and drop off; need a big information help desk; silence is golden; computer free zone; little things to save the earth; for new rules develop partnerships with other institutions; building will become freestyle; become an e-weigh station. For long stays 24/7, we will be the navigators; not much boundary between home and library; best libraries will be considered hip; ageless; designs are more neutral; fireplaces will be used.
• Mary Catherine Bateson's presentation, "Libraries and Active Wisdom," focused on the idea that being old is a lot younger than it used to be; we need to think about engaging older people in our libraries. She is Margaret Meads' daughter and has anthropological background; talked about the past when wisdom was shared down from the elders and how they were revered. Not the same as it is now; they are different; they are extended families. In her many meetings with different groups of people they are very engaged; wisdom is shared upward; children teach the parents how to be parents; one student said they taught a parent how not to interrupt them; kids want respect; one taught parents not to clap between musical movements; one taught them not to say disparaging things about gays and minorities because they were their friends. There was a focus on older adults wanting to stay engaged; at 70 they are still very young and are able to contribute and want to stay involved; a real opportunity for the libraries. People want to meet and discuss issues; they don't want it necessarily to be in a religious or political space or with such groups; libraries represent neutrality; talking primarily about public libraries; reading rooms to engage older adults. There was a lot of focus on how librarians and staff view the library, and how the users view the library, and there is a disconnect; reality check on information ubiquity, population diversity, preference for personalization; environment for users; think about library becoming a destination; want people to use physical libraries; think about hospitality, cleanliness, stay awhile seating; a source of pride and other things within reason.

Collections' Update - Sewell

• Sewell distributed a handout on collections and reviewed last year's process. Each year there is a fair amount of certainty and uncertainty; need to be aware of the long-range trends in the collections' budget; in general, we try to allocate early in the year for the relative certainty, but there is a large amount of the budget in which we need some flexibility. This year so far we have our base budget that was increased; central administration gave us 5% for inflation and $310K was added to the base. We were able to pay most of the Harrassowitz invoice at the end of May and gain the early payment discount of $90,000. We allocated $50K to the New Brunswick approval plan for invoices on hand; that amount will get us through August and then we will have more information about the final budget; for monographs in general, we have set up transfer funds which can be applied to any monograph order; this year we were able to allocate state funds for all the collection support areas. Last year we used non-state funds.