Arts and Humanities Council Minutes
April 6, 2000
Room 303 Doe
Present: Nensi Brailo; Michaelyn Burnette; Elizabeth Byrne; John Ceballos
(recorder); Myrtis Cochran; Carlos Delgado; Gary Handman; Steve Mendoza;
AnnMarie Mitchell; Laura Prichard; John Roberts (chair); Allan Urbanic.
1. Minutes of 3/16/00 approved
2. Recorder for next meeting (4/20/00): Myrtis Cochran
3. Announcements
* John Roberts announced that council chairs are now members of Cabinet,
which may have implications for the role of A & H Council in the library.
* Steven Mendoza recalled that review by library unit heads of Library
Statement of Purpose drafts is due to Cabinet by April 13. Unit heads are
to discuss with their staff the draft proposals, choosing a preferred
statement.
* Myrtis Cochran reported that concern has been expressed to the Library
Business Office regarding the tracking of library gift funds. As a result,
this topic will be discussed on next week's ASC agenda.
4. Plans for future meetings
Myrtis Cochran proposed that A & H Council invite Katherine Mitchell,
specializing in organizational effectiveness, to give a concise
presentation. Elizabeth Byrne highly recommended Mitchell's capability,
having attended a workshop. It was proposed that Katharine Mitchell be
invited to speak the first meeting in May.
Elizabeth Byrne suggested that, as a future agenda item, an
interdisciplinary fund be discussed for material covering several
disciplines. Michaelyn Burnette stated that an interdisciplinary fund does
exist, but work needs to be done to define interdisciplinary needs.
5. Plug-ins
Nensi Brailo reported that she received few responses regarding what
plug-ins are needed from units. This initial list would aid Ralph Moon in
determining a standard list of plug-ins for the library. Gary Handman
expressed concern regarding the current incompatibility between plug-ins
and the library's PC environment, including the inability to update
plug-ins. Additionally; Allan Urbanic mentioned a need for browsers to
support non-Roman characters. Michaelyn Burnette said some browser
documents can only be read with Microsoft Word (inquiries regarding
Powerpoint and Excel were also made), though Allan Urbanic believed that
Oliver Heyer had recently sent out a memo on how to access and read Word
documents through browsers.
6. Updates from council representatives
Elizabeth Byrne reported on the Excellence Committee, a sub-committee of
the Public Services Council, whose charge derives from the former Public
Services Priorities Task Force. Its primary goal is to promote excellence
in public service. Four major categories of public service have been
identified: 1) reference & instruction; 2) access services; 3) outreach; 4)
physical resources & support services. A plan of action is in preparation
to create public services goals, performance standards, training needs,
methods of service measurement and feedback, and if time permits, staffing
needed to attain these goals. During this process, the Excellence Committee
will be working with existing groups, e.g., Circulation Supervisors Group,
Reference Staff, etc. for input, and will be communicating broadly
throughout the process.
7. Selection of a new representative to Technical Services Council
John Roberts announced that, due to Kristine Comito's imminent departure
from the library, a new representative to Technical Services Council must
be appointed. John Ceballos has agreed to replace Kristine Comito.
8. Presentation on the Media Resources Center by Gary Handman
Gary Handman presented a history and overview of the Media Resources
Center. In existence since 1979, MRC contains the primary collection of
audio/visual resources at UCB, featuring approximately 15,000 video titles
in multiple formats. The collection includes approximately 12,000
documentary titles and 3,000 works of international cinema. The core
documentary holdings include one of the largest collections of documentary
works by independent filmmakers in the U.S. (particularly films by
filmmakers of color and women filmmakers). The non-feature film collection
also includes speeches, lectures, ephemeral films, and a large body of
literary and dramatic adaptations (including every filmed version of
Shakespeare currently available on video). In addition to videos, the MRC
collection also includes approximately 3,000 audio tapes of spoken word
materials, including dramatic and literary readings, speeches, and
interviews. Selection of materials supports specific UCB curricula, but
also strongly focuses on developing a broadly interdisciplinary collection
that generally supports research, study, and teaching. In addition to
collecting more "traditional" audio and visual formats, MRC has been
experimenting with creating collections of digital materials. Several
recent digital library projects have included a partnership with the
Berkeley Language Center's Speech Archives to digitize and mount on the web
a selection of notable UCB lectures and speeches; a partnership with The
Pacifica Foundation to mount Free Speech Movement recordings on the web;
and the acquisition and mounting of the Nixon Watergate tapes. MRC's
website (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/), which topically catalogs the
Center's holdings, also includes review citations, links to full-text
articles for selected films, 50-60 large film studies bibliographies, a
film distributor database, serves as a major resource for both the film
studies curriculum and the independent film community. Gary Handman ended
the presentation with a tour of MRC.
The meeting adjourned at 12:10 p.m.