New Brunswick Collections Group Meeting Minutes
Library of Science and Medicine
Friday, February 14, 2003 - 9:35 am
Present: Kayo Denda, Howard Dess, Mary Fetzer, Rebecca Gardner, Tom Glynn,
Brian Hancock, Helen Hoffman, Mei Ling Lo (recorder), Kevin Mulcahy, Laura Bowering
Mullen, Jim Niessen, Hector R. Perez-Gilbe, Pat Piermatti, Jane Sloan, Gracemary
Smulewitz, Farideh Tehrani (guest), Karen Wenk
- Approval of agenda: Approved
- Approval of prior meeting minutes:
- In section 6 "Gift book procedures", Jim Niessen wanted "review
books" clarified: "Books that had been sent by a publisher as
a review copy for a book review or as desk copy in consideration of adoption
for a course."
- The minutes were so adopted.
- Conclusion of discussion about Annex and weeding procedures: (Farideh
Tehrani)
a. Annex
- Selectors are encouraged to use the SIRSI shelflist to identify and
make decisions for weeding and transfer to Annex. Using the list will
allow us to follow the "Last copy policy". The procedure has
worked very well for Douglass rationalization.
- LSM and Alexander Library will be the first two libraries to send materials
to Annex. Gracemary will generate reports in the areas of HQ, HM and N
for selectors at Alexander to review. The science librarians will discuss
the details at the Science Librarians meeting.
- Gracemary will produce a list of contact persons and a flow chart about
the detailed procedure of transferring materials to Annex.
b. Missing Books
- Farideh pointed out a lack of consistency among Camden, Newark, and
New Brunswick about waiving patrons' fines. NBL has usually adhered very
closely to policy guidelines. Farideh will raise the issue of inconsistency
at the next CDC meeting.
- Access Services personnel at Alex are searching over 400 pages of missing
or lost books titles. They are urged to finish the process as soon as
possible so that the selectors and the Acquisitions Dept have enough time
to place orders using the RPMX fund (Central Replacement Fund code).
- A discussion ensued about clarifying RPMX usage: this fund code was
established to provide selectors with a convenient way to replace missing
books with the same or newer editions. It is not intended to be used for
unrestricted purchases of unrelated titles. However, it is recognized
that, subject to selector discretion, special circumstances may warrant
use of RPMX funds to purchase a book that is closely related in subject
content to a missing item, even if not identical to the missing item.
In such cases selectors are asked to staple the order for the new title
to the missing book record to show the relationship.
- The group has agreed that RPMX fund should not be used to replace damaged
or withdrawn titles.
- Each subgroup chair will help to compile a list of selectors responsible
in certain subject areas. The list will be based on the LC classification
system so that we will know whom to contact when questions arise.
-
Budget update: (Howard Dess)
- Howard reported that as of 2/5/03, there was a negative balance of
$58,600 for PerCur (Current Periodicals) fund. The central ELPX fund was
overspent YTD by $93,000. For certain other funds, the spending rate appears
to be lagging, according to SIRSI records. Gracemary explained that some
orders are not in SIRSI yet. Mary also reported that $10,000 was just
donated by the Dean for purchases in the social work area. These factors
undoubtedly contribute to the high positive free balances noted in these
few cases.
- Gracemary pointed out that the negative free balance showing in SIRSI
for the per-cur funds reflects the fact that they were overencumbered.
A study of this matter is underway in the Collection Services Dept. and
indicates a number of reasons for the problem. Some examples that have
already come to light: titles may be falsely encumbered, or ceased publication,
or subscriptions may not have been entered properly either at this end
or by the vendor or the publisher, etc., (there are additional reasons
as well). These examples represent recurring problems that will never
be wholly eliminated because of the dynamic and irregular nature of the
publishing business. One suggested solution calls for the establishment
of a contingency fund equal to some fixed percentage of the total collection
budget (say 1%). This fund would be used solely to cover payment of subscription
invoices received against per-cur per fund codes that had been spent out.
This proposal is recommended for approval by R. G. Sewell starting with
our 2004 budget year.
-
Planning for future budget cuts: (Howard Dess)
- Howard gave us a picture of possible budget cuts. Assume for now that
the collection will be protected to some extent by the university administration,
so that the library's share of the budget reduction is "only"
8% rather than the higher percentages currently quoted for the Rutgers
as a whole. This 8% cut equates to a reduction in collections budget of
$618,000 for RULS and $250,000 for NBL based on our 2003 budget. Helen
also pointed out that if we factor in 8% inflation, that would be equivalent
to a total cut of 16%.
- Howard raised some questions such as "Where do we have control
to manage the cut?" and "Can we come up with a level that we
consider we can't go beneath?"
- Some suggestions included getting faculty involved to be on our library
side, negotiating with Elsevier to get our own profile so that we can
subscribe title by title basis. Howard will talk to Mary Page and get
details on the contract with Elsevier.
- Howard concluded that this is going to be tough year and at this point
all we can do is wait for further direction from our Library administration.
-
Douglass rationalization: (Kayo Denda)
- Douglass rationalization has come almost to the end. As of 2/6/03,
over 12,211 volumes have been transferred to Alex, LSM, Annex, Camden,
Dana and various sciences branch libraries. Over 8,088 volumes were withdrawn.
- D21 will begin on March 17. The shelves will be dismantled. The group
has agreed that the sublocations NJCANA and SENSIA will discontinue. The
materials will be merged into the stacks. Records can be globally changed,
if they are in IRIS.
- Materials in the other sublocations including JACOBI, JACOBX, SPADER,
STANTN will be boxed and they will not be accessible to patrons after
D21 begins.
-
Alex new book display: (Jim Niessen)
The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 am
Submitted by Mei Ling Lo