1:30 – 3 pm
Agenda: Announcements
Planning for the end of the Canon contract
New Directions
Present: Shayee Khanaka, Sue Koskinen, Mari Miller, Paul Payne, Mike Rancer (Chair), Nick Robinson, Jim Ronningen (recorder), Susan Wong, Elise Woods, Fred Yasaki.
Announcements:
Shayee announced she will personally look into usage of copiers and reader/printer/scanners in News/Micro, in support of long-range planning for the end of the Canon contract in 2010 (an agenda item for this meeting). The announcement triggered some early commentary on the subject, including Paul and Mike’s point that Cal 1 cards are not cards that can hold monetary value so in all likelihood a second card system will remain a necessity, and Sue Koskinen’s point that at least some machines will still need to have coinboxes to accommodate some members of the public.
Susan Wong announced the beginning of an employee comment period regarding the specifics of how a revived START (Staff and Academic Reduction in Time) program should be administered.
Paul said that people-counters had been put in place at the Moffitt and Doe ends of the Main Stacks to monitor traffic.
Fred Yasaki noted that his office is very busy with major projects, notably finishing work on the Doe Annex and preparing for Bancroft and Admin to move back into it, so any new requests for planning furniture, Steelcase etc. submitted before the fiscal year closing deadlines cannot be handled by his staff before next fiscal year.
Planning for the end of the Canon contract in 2010
Mike is starting now to gather ideas and requests from all library staff to prepare for what could be a major change in how library patrons copy or otherwise capture content from the physical library collection. He noted that photocopier statistics are steadily going down, and interest in scanning and related aspects of digitizationt is going up. He shared the document, “Copy Services after 2010,” which he planned to send to all users after hearing comments in this meeting.
Discussion started with bringing the public PC capabilities into the picture, with some comment about how students may expect a cluster of library computers to provide the same tools and functions that they use in the IS&T-administered microcomputer centers. Paul explained the issues regarding security and functionality for public users (the microcomputer centers are for students only) which will always require a different setup in the library. Sue Koskinen said that student laptop use will have to be considered, with one goal being that they could send print jobs from laptops to library printers via the wireless network. Mike reminded about some financial realities, such as copier functions not breaking even from the revenue they bring in, so there’s a question of how much subsidization should come out of the Library’s budget. Mari requested that training be added as a required element in whatever new system is put in place. Jim asked if large photocopiers are really needed in staff spaces, since multifunction machines (printing, copying, scanning, faxing) have become cheaper and are widely used in offices and homes.
Supplementary material provided by Mike to members was a report from UCLA on public scanning, and a product description of the Digital Library Systems Group’s Knowledge Imaging Center scanning station.
In conclusion, committee members were requested to urge staff to think creatively – not just regarding a new vendor to service photocopiers, but about larger issues of how content will be captured in the future.
New Directions
Members appreciated the information they got from the recent town hall meeting, and had no new issues to raise at this time.
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