New Brunswick Libraries Faculty Meeting: Minutes of the April 24, 2009 Meeting

Present:

S. Bartz, J. Consoli, K. Denda, M. Fetzer, J. Gardner, R. Gardner, T. Glynn, K. Hartman, Q. Hu, T. Izbicki, T. Kuchi, J. Mardikian K. Mulcahy, L. Mullen, M. Lo, J. Niessen, M. Gasparotto, D. Shulman, J. Sloan (Chair), E. Stec, M. Wilson (Recorder), R. Womack, C. Wu, T. Yang

The chair called the meeting to order at 9:30 am

1. The agenda was adopted with a note that there was no email report [it came through evening before] from the AUL for RIS.

2. Report of the Chair-J. Sloan

• The approved NBLF minutes from previous meetings are now posted on the RUL website under Library Faculty. Minutes are now approved via email between meetings. S. Bartz coordinates the posting on the RUL site.
• The Chair regrets that the rescheduling of this meeting due to a conflict with Good Friday did not allow for the AUL's attendance. She also noted that at least 1/3 of the NB librarians could not attend on the originally scheduled date.
• The position of Vice-chair for NBLF will be available for nomination for next year. In anticipation of several vacant positions, it was agreed that a single nomination call will be sent out for vacant chair positions for NBLF, NBCG and NB ISSG, as well as for the Science and Social Science Subgroup chair positions on NBCG.

3. Bookroom Policy - F. Puniello

Francoise clarified the policy regarding the proper use of Bookroom, and pointed out a number of past abuses. Meetings that are not library meetings (i.e., outside agencies /groups outside the library) must go through the office of the AUL for Facilities Planning. She reminded everyone that there are cleanup charges for such events. The Pane Room is also being used for fee based rental services on an experimental basis.

4. Rutgers Fact Book --C. Wu

Connie brought the Group's attention to the Rutgers Fact Book online (available at http://oirap.rutgers.edu/instchar/factbook.html). She distributed print copies of some examples of the data available from the Fact Book. She encouraged everyone to review the content of the Fact Book and reference this hard data for the purposes of collection development, budget requests, new hires and other public service purposes. While data driven decisions are laudatory, it was pointed out that there are challenges to qualitative/quantitative approaches in determining budget allocations. It was also noted that RUL/NBCG collection budget allocation is based on historical practices and suggested that we revisit the NBCG budget allocation process. However, discussions on this topic in the past did not yield much help to formulate new allocation models. While a number of factors have to be considered in order to establish a new NBCG budget allocation method, we anticipate no additional funding, which only means that further budget reductions are anticipated in some areas. It was agreed that any new method should represent the University's changing priorities and a number of other issues need to be articulated in order to develop a coherent budget allocation method.

5. NBISG Report T. Glynn

• The virtual reference pilot is progressing. T. Izbicki will use VSee to provide reference service to the Music Library from mid-April until the fall semester.
• The reporting structure of the Unit Computing Specialists (UCS) is still on the table-NBISSG will meet with the two AULs (for DLS and RIS) as a group to discuss the issue. No decisions will be made until the Director of Information Technology position is filled.

6. Technology Support for Digital Information Services

A print discussion document was distributed under the headings of information services in the academic environment and information technology in the library context. Jane thanked those librarians who responded to her call (via email) for input on this topic. A lengthy discussion ensued. Librarians were engaged in the discussion of changing library environment, diminishing resources and the locus of technical expertise (central or local) in order to best advance digital information services. Issues are complex, however, the group agreed:

• To invite Nancy Kranich to address the issues regarding the future of public/information services at a future NBLF meeting
• ISSG to continue to review and work on revising the role and responsibilities of UCSs in NBL; J. Niessen and E. Stec to join them.
• To review the NBLF faculty governance structure that is now dated. M. Wilson and J. Consoli will initially work with the incoming NBL Faculty Chair T. Kuchi on this review.

It was also noted that at RUL there are conflicting visions of what constitutes a "research library" in a digital environment especially in times of severe budgetary constraints. It was also noted that faculty and students are generally satisfied with our services but librarians agreed that collectively more can be achieved as observed at recent conferences.

7. NBCG Report K. Mulcahy

• NBCG met last week. May meeting is canceled. Next meeting is in June.
• Nominations are sought for a number of positions for next year.
• At NBCG meetings, it was observed that there exist different visions of "research library" at librarians and administration levels. Administrators see future directions of libraries largely in archival mode and we need to articulate and develop strategies to emphasize the academic needs of ongoing collection of books, specialized materials, e-books and databases.

8. NB Access Services Report -J. Gardner

• Completed performance appraisal which is a huge task.
• Corrine Maxwell is new staff in ILL. The Evening Branch Associate position is in the 3-week freeze, branch libraries' evening hours may need to be reduced if it is not filled.
• With the support of the Office of Summer and Winter session, summer hours will be extend at Alexander and LSM, Sunday 6-8p and Monday-Thursday, 9-11p.
• The trusted sender feature in ILLiad will be implemented May 4^th,which will automatically post articles to the server and send messages to requestors, making the response time for articles even faster
• OpenURL with WorldCat and Serials Solutions will be implemented in ILLiad May 11th. Citation information will automatically populate ILL forms. It will be tested for one week before it's announced to the public.
• Libraries are participating in an OIT working group that's looking at the university's ID card architecture and a new Identity Registry that will allow us to enter library guest users and define attributes.
• RUL will attempt to stop using SSN and instead move to NetID at the end of June ahead of the university. There will be many improvements including no barcode registration needed.
• PALCI will be migrating to new software next year-recent problems may have to do with this work.
• Circulation statistics includes EZ borrow ; anything that is checked out is included

9. NB Multimedia Services Report. J. Sloan

• The move of the Media Center from Kilmer to Douglass is planned for this summer and has obtained a staff line for evening hours.
• The Fordham Lab will be closed during summer and will be available by appointment only.

10. Announcements

Glynn

• Installation of new carpeting is planned in Alex and Kilmer. Timing is not set but service disruptions are expected.

Kuchi

• On May 5^th from 2-5pm bring favorite potato dishes to the Pane room and participate. J. Mandelbaum (SCILS/COM) and J. Reinhart (RUL) are featured speakers.

Consoli

• Art Library will exhibit Festival of Lights of Lyon, France on Rutgers Day.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:35 a.m.