New Brunswick Collection Group
December 10, 1999
Minutes

  A. Tallau, recorder
 
Present: Ilona Caparros, Joe Consoli, Howard Dess, Emily Fabiano, Mary Fetzer,
Maya Gerwitz, Helen Hoffman, Jim Nettleman, Halina Rusak, Addie Tallau, Farideh
Tehrani, Lourdes Vazquez, Ryan Womack.

A. The Agenda for this meeting and the Minutes for the preceding meeting
were approved.
 
B. Howard Dess reported that he and the chairs of the subgroups are working
on the distribution of the state funds.  The state funds are almost done
and Dec 21st is the deadline for the completion of the all fund
distribution.  Mary Fetzer reported that the Social Sciences Subgroup
met to discuss priorities and had a demonstration of Dow Jones by Ryan
Womack.
 
C. Jim Nettleman presented the background that necessitates the reduction
of the size of the Robeson Library collection.  State Bond Funds are being
used to renovate the old section of the library.  All stacks are non-ADA
compliant. State law requires that all renovations include ADA compliance.
It will take an 18% loss of stack space to make them compliant. The Annex
is not an option.
 
Current plans are to remove back runs of journals covered by electronic
plans such as JSTOR.  Both United States and New Jersey documents will be
integrated into the circulating collection.  Approximately 50,000
monographs will need to be withdrawn.  It is disposition of these
monographs, especially those for which Robeson has the only copy, which
needs to be arranged.  Jim proposed that Robeson would process the
estimated 10,000 to 15,000 books (change Iris records, remark and re-label
the volumes) and send them to the appropriate New Brunswick library.
This procedure has been arranged with Dana for Business and Nursing.
They would also process and send the Robeson copy to the another
library when the item was missing or long overdue.  Textbooks, early
editions of non-fiction would not be included.  Books requiring
preservation would not be automatically included and will require
a separate procedure.
 
Extensive discussion ensued.  Problems of space, New Brunswick collection
Problems and a desire to look at the titles were, discussed and various
solutions were proposed. It was finally decided that a committee composed
of: Mary Fetzer, Mary Page, Kevin Mulcahy, Jim Nettleman, ex officio,
Addie Tallau and Farideh Terhani, would work out a plan.  Robeson would
change the records and the book to the appropriate N.B.Library and ship
 the items to one or more locations.  The record would then read "In Transit."
The committee will work out the mechanics of having the material reviewed
and deselected or relocated, if necessary, due to space considerations.
 
D. The discussion of the Missing Books policy was tabled until the next
meeting.
 
E. The approval plan has not been working as expected.  The appropriate
changes seem not to have been made in all the profiles.  The Art Library in
 particular seems to have been underrepresented and about half the books
sent on the profile have not been suitable for the Art Library.  Halina
expressed an interest in re-instating a World Wide approval plan that had
been cancelled.  Mary explained that we could not switch in the middle of
the year but that we should make plans to make changes with the next
fiscal year.  Others noted that material of dubious value was appearing and
some expected titles were not appearing.  The possibility of changing to
the Library of Congress Subject Headings was discussed, but Blackwells
uses call numbers, not subject headings.
 
The Approval Committee had set up some instructions concerning returns
and referrals that some selectors had not been following. A slip was to be
placed in a designated box with the reason for the return noted on the slip.
If a book was being referred, a slip should also be placed in the same box
with an indication of the person to whom the referral was being made.
Referrals were to be made only if the receiver was unsure about the
retention, or if another library was involved.  Joe agreed to reissue the
instructions and post them prominently in the approval area at TSB.
 
F. The group agreed that too little money was available to cover all the
areas mentioned in the Diversity Committee Report.  The budget committee
does not have reasonable hope of increasing the funds.  We should not be
siphoning off titles from regular areas to spend diversity funds.  We have
no collection development policy for Diversity and it was agreed that one
should be written by the Committee.
 
We need to divorce the concept in the first section from how to spend the
money.  We should focus first on items with no fund code.  Disabilities,
gay or lesbian studies were suggested.  In the next year a subject focus
should be specified even before the money is received.  Proposed orders
are to be sent to Lourdes and the team will prioritize. Requests must be
received by March 1st.
 
G. Technology Information Team Liaison, Ryan Womack, reported that
Technology Team has reviewed the allocation of new computers and the
trading of newer for older machines.  There is a new round of upcoming
grants and computer initiatives for undergraduate programs and  librarians
are encouraged to apply. .  The team is interested in collaborating with
librarians and faculty on such projects.
 
H. The meeting was adjourned at 11:39.
 
Respectfully submitted
 
Adeline Tallau
Secretary of the Day

--
Howard  M. Dess
Chemistry and Physics Librarian
Library of Science and Medicine
Rutgers University
Piscataway, NJ  08854-8009
 
dess@rci.rutgers.edu
tel.: 732-445-3526    fax: 732-445-5703