Library Office Notes

Present:  Paula Kaufman, chair, Dick Griscom, Janis Johnston, Bill Maher, Beth Sandore, Sue Searing, Leslie Troutman, Beth Woodard, Greg Youngen

        1.  The October 8, 2001, minutes were approved as revised.  The October 22, 2001,                minutes were approved as distributed on October 26.

        2.   Question Time

Paula will be meeting Friday, November 16, with Larry Mann and Dana Brenner (DIA) to discuss the Chicago Bears' 2002 home schedule in Memorial Stadium and how it will impact staff parking and campus security.

Janis is compiling a list of issues to be addressed with Library Human Resources.  EC members should send their suggestions to her.

EC will proceed with the scheduled review of the revised composition of the Cataloging Policy Committee once we receive an updated report from the committee.

EC clarified that vacancies in previously approved grant-project positions can be filled without further action on the part of EC.

          ILCSO is still working on contract negotiations with Endeavor.

The library is still awaiting the feasibility study report on the university-wide library development campaign.  A meeting has been set up with Sid Micek, Dick Wilson, Charlie Hahn, Lyn, and Paula to make plans for the campaign.   Paula has been meeting with some of the deans to move this along.

3.  The committee recommended the filling of two faculty vacancies in Commerce and suggested membership for the search committee.

4.  The committee recommended the filling of a faculty vacancy in Education and Social Science and suggested membership for the search committee.

5.  The committee reviewed a request that the South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Librarian position be split into two full-time positions.   Paula will ask Karen Wei to provide more information, and it will be reconsidered at the next meeting.

7.  The committee selected a visiting committee for Linda Ackerson.  Substitutes were recommended to cover the visiting committee assignments of Bill Maher and Tim Cole, who will be on sabbatical in the spring.  A substitute was also recommended for the visiting committee assignment of Richard Burbank, who is currently on disability leave.

8.  The committee discussed a memo from Chancellor Cantor and Provost Herman on positioning the campus for the future.  This memo should be discussed by the faculty at the November meeting in anticipation of the chancellor's and provost's attendance at the December faculty meeting.  Paula will send information out to the faculty in advance of the November meeting.

9.  EC will ask the Administrative Council to make a recommendation about the setting of individual faculty members' goals in the area of librarianship, which is necessary to bring the library into compliance with Communication #21.

Present:  A. Conrad, L. Engels, R. Jahr, P. Lindell, S. McFarland, E. Schroeder, J. Somera,
G. Witte

I.  Minutes of the October 31, 2001, meeting were revised and approved.

II.  Reports

A. Admin. Council -- Notes of Nov. 5

-- The Service Value Statement that Bob drafted was passed.

-- There was a question of whether it was all right to have library instruction groups use Room 428.  It was decided that 428 is needed for Library meetings, and it should be used for instruction only as a last resort.

-- If any unit gets requests from any government agency to remove material from circulation, that request must go to Paula's office.  Units need to instruct staff and students who work on weekends and evenings that they are not to make any decisions about any such requests.  All are to go to the Librarian's office.

-- Everyone in the Library must know all the proper emergency procedures.  Every unit is to instruct its staff and students, so that everyone knows what to do.

-- A new head of security has just started work.

-- There will be new safety classes started, and every unit is to be sure that at least one person from the unit attends.

-- Bart will draft a formal procedure on bomb threat emergency procedures.

-- Upgrades and re-classes -- Cindy has received 39 requests so far, her office has reviewed 18.  Cindy expects that audits can begin by mid-December.

-- The provost has provided funds to have the Library keep Grainger open until 3:00 a.m.

B. Faculty meeting -- No meeting schedule.

C. Divisional items:

a. Social Sciences staff met with Technical Services staff to discuss issues regarding material errors.  Physical Sciences and Engineering division will meet with Tech Services in January.

b. Special Collections division had their first all-cse meeting and had a productive discussion.

III.  Updates/Discussions

A. CSE retreat -- Potential dates and topics have been suggested.  A note will be prepared to send to all cse staff for input.

B. Election Oversight Group - Eileen Schroeder will be the LSSC rep, Bernice Harrington of HR Office will be the Admin rep, and Rebecca Wright is the CSE At-Large rep.  Next step is finding scrutineers.

EIRC Meeting Minutes
November 15, 2001

1. Finalize FY02 Guidelines Document

The committee agreed to revisions based on e-mail comments of members since the last meeting.

2. Confirmation of Decision on OCLC-ECO

The committee agreed unanimously that participation in the OCLC-ECO Print Subscriber Program at this time would not be the best use of available funds.

3. Begin review of division priorities for electronic resources.

Watson noted that Law has been entirely left out of the process since, by choice, it has not had a representative on the Committee.  She will contact Janis Johnston for Law’s priorities and to see if Law would like to be represented now that they are more fully staffed.

Representatives presented each division’s priority list.  Some highlights of the discussion:

Arts & Humanities

Priorities based on level of interdisciplinary value.

CPS

CPS submitted a list with 20 items in rank order with ChicagoTribune at the top.   There was also a second unranked section.

Social Sciences

Each member submitted one top priority item, and then each ranked items submitted to produce the overall division ranking.  Members of the division decided they would list only those resources they want most.  There was a tie for fourth place.   Political Risk Yearbook received a score of 2.9. Political Risk Yearbook also ranked close to the top of the CPS list.

Business & Industry and Tablebase is an interdisciplinary resource that, according to Becky Smith, applies to ACES, Engineering, as well as Social Science.  Becky also mentioned that the statistical tables are comprehensive dating back to 1994 and that the search engine is superior to others providing breakdowns by different marketing concept terms.

Life Sciences

Life Sciences submitted a list of items in prioritized groups, including some on the unfunded list.  Highest priority was given to electronic journals of major publishers, and to Nature and Science, which are on the unfunded list.

Physical Sciences

PSED also submitted a grouped list of priorities arrived at by consensus.  Journal package ranking differed slightly from LSD’s, but both listed Academic Press and Kluwer as top priority.

Lura was asked to provide more information on the Journal of Geophysical Research, a title she had an e-mailed about just prior to the meeting.

Area Studies Division

Marek Sroka (substituting for Janice Pilch) noted that Magazine Plus (Japanese) can be obtained only as an electronic resource because print has been discontinued.  This source includes citations from 1996 to the present

There was also some discussion of the Digibis Latin American CD ROM databases.

The price of the Chinese Academic Journal Database has been reduced, now that it is being handled by Eastview, a vendor with a clearer understanding of the marketplace.

Paula Watson made some final comments on the need to revisit our initial assumptions about how we might be able to spend the funds available this year in light of the new budget realities.  We’ll also need to continue review of the unfunded list and get a clearer idea of current deadlines for various proposals.

OUTCOME:  Preliminary review of priorities and different methods divisions used to develop them.  No strategy yet for decision-making.

Old Business

Aart reported that the recommendation form is being scripted.

Aart also suggested that he report at the next meeting on the possibilities for networking CD-ROMs.

New Business

Watson asked if EIRC members thought it might be useful to sponsor a forum on electronic resources soon.  The general view was that we should only have a forum if it has a tightly controlled agenda and a specified purpose.

OUTCOME:  Forum idea on hold for now

Electronic Information Resources Committee
Guidelines for Decision Making – FY02

I. Review and Recommendations

     1.  Establish trial access if possible to all products under consideration

2. When appropriate, establish a subcommittee of two to three volunteers to review the resource under consideration.  The subcommittee should normally include a member from the division of the unit making the recommendation, who can evaluate the resource from an informed perspective, and a member from a different area who would evaluate the resource from the perspective of a user with little knowledge of the subject area.  The subcommittee will consult with the selector(s) making the purchase recommendation.
3. Ideally, the subcommittee members should work together to evaluate the database.   They should provide a short written report to the Committee prior to the meeting at which the resource will be discussed, summarizing:

• the purpose and scope of the resource
• key issues
• the subcommittee’s recommendation

This report will be posted on the EIRC web page and be accessible to Library staff.

II. Use of Funds

1.  The Committee will strive to balance the needs of different disciplines and types of users and to fill the major gaps that still exist in our e-resource collection.

2.  A portion of available funds will be set aside to assure that the needs of smaller units with more specialized needs are addressed.

III. Timetable