STAFF RESOURCES |
J. Gardner called the meeting to order at 9:35 am. The agenda was adopted with minor changes. The minutes of the February meeting had been approved over Sakai and distributed to RUL_Everyone prior to the meeting.
There was no news to report.
R. Tipton, J. Niessen, J. Boyle, and J. Gardner have compiled statistics on staffing levels from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The statistics show that Rutgers lost more positions between 2000 and 2009 than our aspirant institutions. Gaunt noted that other ARL institutions are increasing their number of professional staff without the M.L.S. degree due primarily to the addition of new specialized positions. The data also shows that when libraries got an increase in staffing it more frequently went into professional staff positions. But even when there was no major increase in positions, there is a trend to convert support staff positions to professional staff levels. Positions that are considered professional staff include librarians, business managers, human resources managers, preservation and conservation specialists, archivists, and systems employees.
At the February meeting, the Committee was asked to provide a response to the liaison vision statement drafted by Nancy Kranich and members of the Liaison Action Team. J. Otto had volunteered to draft suggestions for revisions to the document. The Committee reviewed these suggestions with the intent make a strengthened and unified statement about the collective vision for liaison roles in the Libraries. These suggestions will be forwarded to N. Kranich. New liaison roles will be an agenda item at the next meeting.
Discussion items
Discussion items recommended include liaison roles, led by N. Kranich and the Liaison Action Team; the status of ongoing union negotiations, led by T. Glynn; and an update of the strategic plan, led by J. Boyle.
M. Gaunt will give an overview of the draft Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) standards for higher education. An article in College and Research Libraries and a draft article by Cornell researchers describe institutional impact on student graduation rates and retention. The Cornell article found that the best measure of graduation rates and retention after instructional support is investment in student services. This had the greatest impact in schools where the students are from lower socio-economic backgrounds or had lower SAT scores. Higher investments academic support (including libraries) appeared to have an impact only at schools where students had a higher SAT score and were from a higher socioeconomic status, i.e. the "elite schools." The C&RL article measured only library impact and found that libraries with a higher number of professional staff had an impact on student persistence.
Open forum update
J. Niessen will moderate a forum entitled, "Prospects for E-books in the Humanities and Social Sciences: Scholarly Perspectives." While he has a few names in mind for panelists, he will be looking to New Brunswick Collections Group (NBCG) and the Library Resources Council (LRC) for additional suggestions. Discussion followed on possible topics for discussion.
This item was tabled for the next meeting.
The original proposal was to allow individual faculty members to set up their own blogs, as well has having two faculty shared blogs for the Libraries. One would be a private faculty blog and the other would be a blog to share with the general public. After discussion, it was decided that the public faculty blog would be expanded to include staff and faculty. J. Gardner has investigated whether a code of conduct is required, and has determined that conduct is already addressed in existing computer use and professional ethics policies. Responsibility for blog development has been passed to a team on the Web Board.
M. Gaunt reminded committee members of the faculty author celebration at 5:00 p.m. in the atrium of Alexander Library. Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences -NB, Doug Greenberg, will offer the University Administration remarks.
An executive order from the governor states that a five-member committee must be established and present a report by September 1, 2011 on life sciences/medical education in NJ. This report could confirm the recommendation on the merger of RWJ with Rutgers. This committee has not yet been established. One result of the merger could be a new integration of the sciences at Rutgers, one that would reflect how science is now conducted. The libraries would need to consider how we relate to any new changes in structure.
The April 20th meeting was canceled due to close proximity to the Faculty meeting. The next meeting of the Planning & Coordinating Committee is scheduled for May 25, 2011.
The meeting adjourned at 11:30.
Respectfully submitted,
Melissa De Fino
Faculty Secretary, 2009-2011