Recorder:  R. Womack, recorder
 
Present: Benjamin Beede, Ilona Caparros, Joe Consoli, Howard Dess, Mary
Fetzer, Rebecca Gardner, Ellen Gilbert, Brian Hancock, Helen Hoffman,
Kevin Mulcahy, Ferris Olin, Mary Page, Susan Peters, Pat Piermatti, Jane
Sloan, Addie Tallau, Ryan Womack, Connie Wu.

A. The Minutes for the preceding meeting were approved.  The update on NB
approval plan operations and the Technology Team liaison report were
deleted from the agenda, since there was nothing new to report.
 
B. Howard Dess reported that the distribution of state funds is complete.
Numbers are appearing in Workflows as Nancy Hendrickson enters them..
Nonstate funds are nearly complete.  Concern was expressed by NBCG members
over the long delays in finalizing budgets.  Entering estimates of the next year's
allocations in July would help in controlling overexpenditures, and also avoid the
very undesirable necessity to compress all purchases into the final two or three
months of the annual order cycle as is now the case.  This “purchase compression”
also exacerbates the problem of short press runs going out of print early in the year
and becoming unavailable for purchase.  Some specific recommendations by NBCG
re the budget allocation process for next year:

1.  Enter 90% of this year’s allocation for each fund, as of July 1, 2000 (or as early in
the next fiscal year as is compatible with current accounting procedures).   This action
will enable selectors to begin placing orders in a more systematic manner, starting early
in the fiscal year, and avoid the purchase compression problem noted above.

2.  Do whatever is possible to persuade the University administration to transmit our
library budget earlier in future fiscal years.  For the past several years, delays in obtaining
our budget from the University administration has been an ongoing major factor in delaying
our own completion of budget allocations.

3.  Maintain order limits of 110% over allocation for most fund accounts.  In some cases where very long order fulfillment cycles are involved, as in the case of foreign language materials or Latin American books, a higher limit, say 130%, was recommended.
 
C. Ferris Olin distributed a position statement on the need for support of
undergraduate collections at Douglass and elsewhere.  Extensive discussion
ensued.  Among the concerns raised was an ongoing lack of support for core
undergraduate collections at all libraries, and the impact of this on our
concept of service.  Duplication of print collections was viewed as
desirable but unsupportable under the current budget.  Kevin Mulcahy
 proposed that e-books may be a solution to the problem and moved to take
this proposal to the New Brunswick Library Faculty meeting for further
input. The group approved the motion.

D. Ferris Olin distributed a comprehensive list of Douglass serials
annotated with other libraries' holdings.  The list revealed that Douglass
has many back runs of periodicals that are no longer appropriate to
Douglass' current collection focus.  This topic dovetails with a related
agenda item presented by Ben Beede, below.

E.  Ben Beede presented a proposal for the study of the periodicals
collections in New Brunswick, with the intention of consolidating serials
runs and weeding duplicate holdings.  It was agreed that this would be an
important step in rationalizing New Brunswick collections.  The group
approved  the study, and recommended that Ben begin with the Douglass
holdings list and report back to the NBCG with plan of action for these
periodicals.  H. Dess reminded the group about the existence of the Mark
Witteman duplicate serials compilation/database that could be of real value
as related to the proposed study.  This file is available at the following URL:
http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rulib/abtlib/libtas/sys/iris/dup-ser/
 
F.  Mary Page reported that there was no new information on the Robeson
"last copy" proposal.

G.  Addie Tallau announced that the Assessment Committee would like input
from selectors on what would be useful measures for assessing collections.
Brian Hancock suggested detailed circulation data by call number. Jane
Sloan wanted to know how many times books that are checked out are
requested.
 
H. The meeting was adjourned at 11:30.