New Brunswick Libraries Faculty Meeting 
February 19, 1999 
 

Present:   B. Beede, I. Caparros, J. Cassel, N. Chou, J. Consoli, E. Fabiano (convener), 
                   M. Fetzer, R. Gardner, E. Gilbert, R. Jantz, M. Kesselman, L. Langschied, 
                   J. Mardikian, J. Mi, K. Mulcahy (recorder), F. Olin, N. Putnam, H. Rusak, 
                   J. Sloan, T. Tate, F. Tehrani, L. Vazquez, M. Wilson, C. Wu 

Agenda: 

1.  Motion to approve minutes of the December 18, 1998 meeting made by Nelson,  
     seconded by Ben. 

2.  Director's report – Toyama 

a.  Copies of New Brunswick librarians' annual reports were distributed.  Ryoko urged 
everyone to keep ongoing records of accomplishments during the year as a natural 
cumulation for these reports.  Group leaders were thanked for submitting mid-year reports 
of their activities. 

b.  Ryoko thanked Emily for developing a NB Faculty Handbook and the "New Faculty 
Orientation Program" both to be used when new faculty come on board.  Ryoko stressed 
the importance of being consistent as well as comprehensive in orienting new faculty. 

c.  Faculty are urged to keep accurate records of vacation time and not to accumulate large 
numbers of days to carry over.  Ryoko will request a survey to determine the status of accrued 
vacation time for librarians.  Emily will clarify the policy on carrying over vacation days 
year-to-year, i.e., the number and for how long. 

Ryoko remained for the entire meeting and will continue to do so in the future. Much of our 
business requires administrative information that is timely and available from Ryoko.

3.  Lines, lines, all about lines – Fabiano 

Note: The discussion was extensive and was suspended and returned to following the 
presentation by Marianne Gaunt, University Librarian, Item #4. 

There continues to be a two-fold concern with filling vacant faculty lines in New Brunswick: 
1) creating position profiles that truly reflect NB needs and are not building-bound and 
2) moving the process along in a reasonable time-frame. 
Emily outlined the current process.  The addition of an Advisory Board (fall 1998), to orchestrate 
the process, proved to be too cumbersome; the Board could play a more effective role as mediator 
when there is a lack of consensus in NB faculty with a particular position profile. 

Highlights of the discussion: 

We need to develop a proactive process of recruitment, not reactive, i.e., ongoing planning 
to ascertain line needs before vacancies occur 

There are no fixed number of faculty lines in individual NB libraries, just history, which leads to 
automatic replacement of positions as they exist.  Several comments were made, in various ways 
that this should not be. 

Who will determine what the developments are in NB so that we hire in that direction? Need 
to do some philosophical groundwork before working out the procedures. 

We were reminded that the NB faculty had already voted on a NB Planning Group that would 
be comprised of the subgroup of NB librarians on the RUL Planning Committee. 

Recommendations: 

The NB Planning Group, with information at-hand about current faculty vacancies in NB, and 
future developments in mind, will prepare a discussion document which will articulate NB 
libraries' needs in recruiting new faculty.  Marty offered to convene the Group; members also 
include Jeris, Ferris, Nancy, Howard and Farideh. Input will be solicited from the 4 NB groups. 
Open position descriptions will be brought to the NB faculty as a whole, early in the process, 
through special meetings as needed.

4.  Budget update/other issues – Marianne Gaunt 

a.  This budget year is a better year for RU overall with a 2-3% increase. The University is also 
getting $169 million in capital funding for deferred maintenance, hopefully with broad 
interpretation of what that means.  The libraries should receive some capital funds. 

Marianne referred to the Faculty/Administration advisory group on the libraries'budget which is 
already formed. We should assume "zero-based" budgeting, i.e. no increases; cuts and 
cancellations would be anticipated.  Small increases may be forthcoming but not of the 
magnitude we would hope/need. We may have to set priorities, choose disciplines to cut, 
avoid the devastation that some disciplines might face. 

b.  Marianne has met with CSPAD and the Dean's Council about the libraries' long-range plan 
and the "Digital Library Initiative".   CSPAD is interested in how faculty have input into collection 
development in the electronic age and would like to see the decision group be broader. CSPAD 
is accepting of the access paradigm for the libraries.  Both groups conveyed a sense of openness 
to new strategies and approaches. 

Faculty had the opportunity to ask questions following Marianne's presentation.

5.  Open Technology Librarian position – Kesselman 

The recent search for a Technology Librarian to replace Boyd Collins raised some concerns 
about recruiting for these types of positions.  Should we make the APPs more specialized? 
Can we get a single person to do everything?  Should we hire subject specialists with technical 
expertise and expand on that expertise to acquire technical skills we need? 

Consensus was to put the search for the "Digital Projects Librarian" in the sciences on hold. 
The NB Planning Group will provide a report and recommendation regarding this position at 
the next faculty meeting, March 19,  providing the opportunity for discussion and decision-making 
but will also post this information via the nbfaclist by March 12 providing enough lead time for review.