New Brunswick Collections Group Meeting Minutes
November 3, 2006 (revised)

Present: Jeris Cassel, Kayo Denda, Howard Dess, Sharon Favaro (guest), Constance Finlay, Rebecca Gardner, Sara Harrington, Karen Hartman, Helen Hoffman, Mei Ling Lo, Jackie Mardikian, Kevin Mulcahy (chair), Laura Mullen, Jim Niessen, Pat Piermatti (recorder), Jane Sloan, Ryan Womack, Connie Wu

1. The agenda was approved.

2. The minutes for September 8th were approved.

3. Report of the Chair

A. a  FY2007 fund report (dated 11/1/06) was distributed.  A few statistics:

Kevin reported that phonothan funding is expected to be nearly the same as last year. Non-state allocations are expected any day now.

B.  Approval Plan
Kevin distributed two handouts - "Changes to the New Brunswick Book Approval Plan” and “Approval Plan-First Quarter [FY2007].”0

Kevin reported that we will discuss this information in January.  We were wise to make the changes we did and we will probably need to prepare for another round of cancellations in 2007.

Some discussion ensued regarding the “Changes … “ handout.  Our Approval Plan is now set to paper preferred except for Art and Photography. Some felt that some firm order titles need to be hardbound for anticipated years of use. Gracemary made the proposal that selectors request rebinding at point of order.  Gracemary also commented that Access Services staff note when a circulating book returns in a damaged condition and perhaps should be rebound (selector decision after consultation).  A cloth rebind is $8.50; Mylar binding is cheaper.  More discussion.  Comments included:

Some discussion about Director’s Station ensued
In summing up, Kevin presented the group with two proposals.  Proposal #1 - Gracemary investigates the ramifications (workflow, etc) of having subject selectors request rebinding at point of order of a paperbound book.   Proposal #2 – Gracemary investigates the ramifications (workflow, etc) of allowing a paperbound volume to sit on the shelf for a year, our tracking of these paperbound titles, and our having them rebound after they circulate.  Gracemary will keep us informed via email.

A short discussion of funding of rebinding followed.  Gracemary said that funding should be off the top of the collections budget.  Gracemary will investigate and report back to the group.

C. Index Lists
Kevin asked the group to respond as soon as possible to his email regarding the subject listings of our networked indexes and databases.  He suggested that selectors recommend 2 or 3 priority databases, delete any irrelevant or less relevant indexes/databases, and add any new ones.  New subject subdivisions may also be suggested.  Our work will be most useful in our implementation of federated, cross searching.  Some discussion followed.  Points made included:

4. Demonstration of Director’s Station
A short demonstration of Director’s Station was presented by Bob Warwick.  Every night, Director’s Station extracts data from Unicorn and then presents this data in a better way.  Sirsi bought this product from another company.  Director’s Station training has begun and will continue through fall 2006 and winter 2007.  Only ten simultaneous users are permitted.  Director’s Station is currently optimized for the Internet Explorer browser.

5.  Report of NBCG Team Leaders
Only one report made.  Via email, Ryan will setup a meeting of the Social Sciences Team.

6. Update on cancellations
Gracemary reported on recent round of cancellations.  A savings of $175, 433 was gained.  The process was very dynamic.  Our savings gained mainly by switching print to electronic, although a couple of selectors cancelled unique titles in their subjects.  The switch to electronic access means greater access.  Some discussion.  A few points:

7. Gift Processing Issues
Gracemary reported that we have an operative workflow for donations of large collections.  This workflow also takes into account preservation issues.  We now have an operative workflow for small donations, i.e. one or two books at a time.  Presently, arts and humanities gift book titles considered as current imprints (up to three years back) sit on gift shelves in the Distributed Technical Services department at the Alexander Library.  Ian Bogus reviews these books for mold and other preservation issues.  Each title is searched, receives a priority slip and when appropriate sent for cataloging.   Gracemary reported that a similar gift shelf will be setup at LSM for science gift books.

Some discussion.  Points made:

8. Selector’s Toolkit
Laura distributed a handout entitled “The Selector’s Toolkit Initial Contents List.” Please notify Laura of any omissions.  The committee hopes to have this project completed by the end of the year.

9. Textbook Donation Proposal
Sara spoke about the textbook donation proposal from NB Faculty Council (http://nbfc.rutgers.edu/ ).  Sara would like to bring an agreed upon statement on textbooks from NBCG to other RUL bodies and eventually, a uniform statement from RUL on textbooks to the NBFC.

There is an NBFC discussion forum on this topic.  To quote from the NBFC web page:

“This forum has been moved to Sakai. Members of the University community may connect to the system, which provides support for both courses and projects, using a username on rci or eden. Once on Sakai, look for Cost of Textbooks in the list of Joinable sites.”

The textbook discussion touched upon the following points:

Announcements:

  1. Gracemary reported briefly on Better World Books.  BWB a non-profit organization has been taking our discards.  If any selector has books for BWB, the books must be boxed in BWB boxes.  Please inform Gracemary.  Gracemary will email BWB criteria for their acceptance of books.
  2. Kevin reported that the group will not meet on December 8, 2006.  Business will be conducted via email.

Adjournment  at 11:48 am.

Respectively submitted,

Pat Piermatti