Minutes of Wednesday, March 27, 2002 Meeting

Present:

M. Fetzer, M. Gaunt, T. Glynn, S. Harrington (recorder), T. Haynes, L. Langschied, J. Mardikian, M. Page, H. Perez-Gilbe, R. Tipton (for K.N. Au), A. Tallau, L. Vazquez, M. Wilson

Excused:

R. Gardner, M. Li

The meeting was called to order at 9:37 a.m.

Decisions

• The document Procedures for Filling Open or Newly Created Library Faculty Positions will be presented by the Personnel Policy and Affirmative Action Committee (PPAAC) at the June 7, 2002 RUL Faculty meeting.
• The document A New Framework for RUL Based on the DLI will return to the Coordinating Committee for review at the April 2002 meeting.

Agenda

1. The agenda was adopted as submitted.

2. The minutes were adopted as amended.

3. Old Business

a. Procedures for Filling Open or Newly Created Library Faculty Positions
Personnel Policy and Affirmative Action Committee chair M. Li will retire from the Rutgers University Libraries on 3/31/02. PPAAC will conduct an electronic election to choose a chair to fill the vacated position for the remainder of the academic year.

In a final review of the document, the Coordinating Committee made the following suggestions:

Page 1, first paragraph: Repeat the phrase emphasizing the confidentiality of the search process in the first paragraph of the "Procedures" document. The first paragraph would then read, "These guidelines apply to permanent (tenure track) faculty positions which are for a term of 9 months or longer. Every effort should be made at each stage of the search to expedite and streamline the hiring process, and to ensure confidentiality in the search process."

Page 9, Section III, External Announcements: It was suggested that the organizations SALALM (Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials) and the Africana Librarians Council be added to the list.

The full "Procedures" document will be presented to the faculty at the June 7, 2002 RUL faculty meeting.

b. A New Framework for RUL based on the DLI
The Planning Committee chair A. Tallau noted that the Committee continues its work on the "New Framework" document. Committee members met with Grace Agnew, AUL for Digital Library Systems, in order to receive her input. Additionally, many recommendations in the document were made before the dire budgetary situation was known. This may affect the prioritization of recommendations and/or personnel lines. The Committee will institute the revisions suggested by G. Agnew, and will prepare a cover letter for the document. The "New Framework" document will return to the Coordinating Committee for final review at the April 2002 meeting before going to the full faculty.

c. Guidelines for Reading Committee including definition of refereed journals
The guidelines are intended to help forge a common understanding of what constitutes a refereed journal within the field of librarianship. The guidelines will expand on questions surrounding referee status, instructions to authors, and the significance of the existence of an editorial board. PPAAC will continue to work on the guidelines, a task that will likely extend into the next academic year. The definition of what constitutes a refereed journal will be most valuable to unit directors and reappointment/promotion candidates, but will also be useful to the library faculty as a whole.

4. New Business

Reading Committee Guidelines (M. Gaunt)
M. Gaunt emphasized that Reading Committee reports should be evaluative rather than descriptive, and should address how the candidate's scholarship acts as a contribution to the literature. The guidelines for the Reading Committee should provide representative questions to ask and respond to in evaluating a candidate's body of work.

It was also noted that there are few guidelines for how we assess librarianship (the first criteria by which candidates are judged), including the teaching, reference and public services components of librarianship. PPAAC may later examine the development of guidelines for the evaluation of librarianship.

It was also suggested that a general discussion of the guidelines for assessment might be a suitable agenda item at an upcoming RUL faculty meeting.

5. Report of the University Librarian

Legal Issues
The recent "Privacy in Cyberspace" symposium organized by AUL for Public Services J. Boyle was a success. New Jersey has recently passed the NJ Right to Know Law, which will be effective July 1, 2002. This law states that citizens have the right to access documents produced as part of the business of government. Institutions must name an individual to coordinate access. L. Fehrenbach will be the University's compliance coordinator. T. Frusciano and S. Dalina of University Archives will consult with L. Fehrenbach about the processing of requests. Copies of the law and University policy will be made public, and the Libraries will conduct a training session on the subject.

The Patriots Act, which grants the FBI broad, confidential powers of subpoena, will be reviewed in December 2005.

Budget
The Governor's recent budget message made no mention of salary increases being funded by the state; hence the University will likely fund salary increases. It is possible that a 3.5% rather than a 5% budget cut will be instituted. 1,000 state positions will be eliminated through layoffs, retirement, and attrition. All open faculty lines have been reduced to the lowest dollar amount possible to keep the line in the Libraries. The overall base budget reduction for the Libraries is likely to be approximately $145,000-147,000.

The two impact statements examining the effect of the budget reduction on the Libraries prepared for Dr. Seneca will be sent to the faculty. The first impact statement was approved, and the Libraries are waiting for the review of the second impact statement. For the next fiscal year, Dr. Seneca allocated $100,000 for databases, and $200,000 in one-time monies.

6. Other

M. Wilson stated that the pamphlet prepared by the Scholarly Communications Steering Committee, entitled, "Stop Reacting-Take Action!" is ready for distribution. The Scholarly Communications symposium is scheduled for 5/9/02. Attendance is by invitation from Dr. Seneca.

M. Wilson also noted that Committee chairs serving on the Coordinating Committee are welcome to contact M. Wilson with items that they wish to have placed on the Coordinating Committee agenda.

M. Wilson also stated that the New Brunswick Information Services Steering Group is exploring new ways of delivering information services, including library outpost services in student centers. A pilot project is planned at the Busch Campus Center during April and May.

L. Langschied announced that the OCLC Institute's "Steering by Standards" series of three satellite videoconferences programs will be taped, and rebroadcasts will be announced.

L. Langshied also noted that the New Jersey Environmental Digital Library has received a $95,000 grant for another year of work on the project.

• Research Leave Review Committee (J. Mardikian): The Committee reviewed one SRA application.

• Technical Services Council (H. Perez-Gilbe): The Council has identified three funding priorities: Special Collections missing records, serial solutions for managing electronic resources, and GPO-Marcive tape loads. A pilot project to combine the bibliographic records of items in multiple formats is underway.

• Collections Development Council (T. Glynn): Budget news is being distributed through CDC meeting notes and minutes. A current focus for savings is the cancellation of duplicate serial subscriptions.

• Planning Committee (A. Tallau): See the "New Framework" discussion above.

• Rules of Procedure Committee, Camden campus (T. Haynes): The Committee would like to thank Mary Gerber for her excellent work on the faculty election, which is currently underway. Robeson Library has received new computers in public workstations.

• Newark campus (R. Tipton): Dana Library has received new computers in public workstations.

• Scholarly and Professional Activities Committee (L. Vazquez): This year's brown bag lunch series has been highly successful.

• Advisory Committee on Appointments and Promotions (M. Page): The Committee has completed three reappointment actions.

• Committee of Review, New Brunswick campus (M. Fetzer): The Committee has no report. The Libraries would like to congratulate Thelma Tate on her receipt of the Human Dignity Award. (The Diversity Committee would like to thank Sandy Troy for her help in preparing T. Tate's application packet.)

Mary Fetzer was congratulated by the Coordinating Committee on the receipt of the 2002 Marta Lange/CQ award from the Association of College and Research Libraries.

In conclusion, M. Gaunt wished to highlight some upcoming conferences of potential interest to faculty. M Page noted the potential utility of the NASIG conference examining scholarly communications. The Society for Scholarly Publishing also holds a relevant annual meeting.

Finally, an article by M. Gaunt on the RUL Digital Library Initiative, entitled "A Bridge to the Future: Observations on Building a Digital Library," recently appeared in Syllabus, and is available at: http://www.Syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?ID=6132

The meeting was adjourned at 11:34 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Sara Harrington
RUL Faculty Secretary