Arts and Humanities Council
September 6, 2001
10:00-12:00
303 Doe Library
Present: P. Bischof, A. Bliss, E. Byrne, J. Carter, J. Ceballos, M.
Cochran, G. Handman, P. Iannuzzi, S. Koskinen, S. Mendoza, M. Miller, C.
Smith, D. Sullivan (Recorder), A. Urbanic, K. Wayne (Chair)
Guests: Ilan Eyman, Corliss Lee
1. New member introductions
Kathryn introduced Claudette Smith to the group.
2. Announcements
The Humanities Librarian Search and Screen Committee is conducting phone
interviews with a view to recommending a pool of candidates for the
position of humanities librarian for campus visits in October; the
committee screening for the social sciences and government documents
librarian is at a similar stage of progress. (M. Cochran)
A calendar for construction of the new music library building had been
agreed to. (J. Roberts)
The Bancroft Library has hired three new positions: Richard Candida Smith,
Head of ROHO, a joint appointment with the History Department; David De
Lorenzo, Head of Technical Services; and Todd Hickey, Berkeley's first-ever
full-time papyrologist. A search has started for a new principal cataloger,
succeeding Patrick Russell. The schedule for seismic retrofitting of the
Doe Annex has been moved up by three years from prior plans. (T. Bliss)
The Environmental Design Library's move back to Wurster Hall remains on
schedule for Summer, 2002. (E. Byrne)
The Institute for Governmental Studies has launched the Berkeley Public
Policy Press, a multimedia publishing outlet for social sciences. This was
suggested as a possible future agenda item for the Council. (M. Miller)
3. Minutes
John Ceballos made two corrections to the 6/21/01 minutes, number 4.
(Burnette item) The library expected an additional permanent budget
increase of $1 million each year for the next three years. However, the
downturn in the economy has forced the campus to withhold the state share
of that increase, some $600,000, in the first year. (Miller item)
Jonathan Thomas clarified that as of July 23, 2001, library materials will
no longer be charged out to reference cardholders and desensitized.
Materials charged to reference cardholders are strictly for library use only.
Responsibility for taking minutes will be assigned alphabetically according
to the council's roster. If that person cannot attend, s/he is responsible
for working down the roster alphabetically until finding a substitute, and
informing the Chair of the change. Kathryn noted that this is the procedure
followed in the Social Sciences and Science Councils, and that it would
more fairly spread the burden of taking minutes. John Roberts pointed out
that the roster was originally constructed by asking people if they wished
to be on the distribution list; some self-winnowing of the roster is to be
expected.
4. Role of Function Council Representatives & Arts & Humanities Council Chair
Kathryn reminded the group of our liaisons to the function councils: Jan
and Allan serve on Collections Council; Carlos and Mari on Public Services;
and Claudette and John on Technical Services. The liaison role is two-fold:
first to represent the group's interests in issues arising before the
Councils that affect us; second to bring back to the group items from their
respective Councils that may need discussion. Underscoring the importance
of the former, Alan Ritch has set aside a time at each meeting of
Collections Council for contributions or comments from the liaisons. Patty
stressed that the liaisons to other Councils need to be mindful that they
represent their "home" groups, not themselves. Conversely, Kathryn
described the role of the Council chairs on Cabinet as that of bringing an
experienced front-line perspective rather than as representing the
particular interests of the councils they chair.
5. Functional Council Reports
The Council reports were distributed prior to the meeting by email.
6. Table-Talk
Kathryn proposed replacing round robin reports with a new venue,
"Table-Talk." Members could introduce such topics as a research project,
relevant developments in their units, a case study, or the like. The group
agreed this idea was worth pursuing. Kathryn encouraged members to forward
ideas to her.
7. E-journals project
Ilan Eyman, Bioscience and Natural Resources Library, reported on the
ejournals project undertaken by the Sciences Council. Its final product
will be a database (browsable alphabetically and by key word in title) of
ejournals compiled by science branches and showing the locations of their
print equivalent. Also involved will be a cleanup of the underlying Gladis
records to eliminate unusable or undesirable URLs now in the records. The
task force has already provided the specs for the interface to Systems and
a mockup has been built. A link on the branches' home pages will lead to
access to the database.
Some of the follow-up discussion centered on the perceived problem of
creating another standalone database on top of Berkeley's several catalogs.
Tony characterized this as an undesirable Balkanization of access to our
collections. Some suggested that improving Pathfinder functionality (which
would be generalizable across disciplines) might have been a better
approach. Ilan stated that the new database will use and be updated by
GLADIS records, and changes to GLADIS will be reflected in the new
database. This structure will effectively maintain electronic journals in
GLADIS for everyone, including Pathfinder and MELVYL searchers. Creating a
new module of Pathfinder is beyond the scope of this project. However,
this project meets an immediate need for the sciences and is extensible in
the following ways. Parallel projects may be run in Arts and Humanities
and Social Sciences, adding hierarchy to the browsable (subject specialty
libraries) lists, and known item searches in major categories of Sciences,
Arts and Humanities, and Social Sciences. Furthermore, the interface may
be adapted to a variety of web pages, including the Pathfinder interface,
at a later time. In response to comments about why this wasn't done in
Pathfinder, Patty remarked that she thought Melvyl was the catalog of
choice in the science branches, and she concurred that the future of
Pathfinder was uncertain. Others pointed out that, despite claims to the
contrary, CDL records do not always record URLs accurately or completely.
Kathryn asked about the planning process, in case the Council might wish to
pursue a similar course for ejournals in the arts and humanities. Ilan said
that Sciences Council had formed a task force which was joined by Margaret
Phillips to draw up the interface requirements for Systems and consider
issues of Gladis cleanup and ongoing maintenance of the database. The
estimated number of titles on the current list is around 5,000. The group
agreed that we need to investigate whether this approach should be extended
to ejournals in our disciplines, preferably working together with Social
Sciences Council. Kathryn will invite Barbara Glendenning, Chair of the
Social Sciences Council, to join us at the next meeting.
8. Doe/Moffitt Reference Collection Working Group Update
Myrtis Cochran and Corliss Lee provided an update on the Group's progress.
Last April, they were charged with these tasks: development of a
collections policy; estimation of space needs; developing a budget request;
and working out plans for the layout and location of the two new reference
spaces. So far, they have met with selectors in Area
Studies and the Humanities and with the Social Sciences and Science
Councils for their advice on the contents and arrangements of the reference
collections. Some selectors have completed reviews of the collections now
housed in the Information Center and the North Reading Room. The space in
the new reference center in the space formerly occupied by the subject
catalog will accommodate a collection of around 3,500 volumes, in addition
to the collections in the Reading Room. The collections policy was
developed on the model of that used at UCLA; it has been reviewed by
Doe/Moffitt unit heads. The next step will be to propose several models for
the arrangement of the new collections for review and to propose a
processing plan for performing the move and updating records.
Corliss reported on the work of the subcommittee addressing the
reconfiguration of the reference point in Moffitt (the current Information
Gateway). In the new configuration, scheduled to be completed in January
2002, the existing computer terminals will be retained, joined to a print
reference collection of around 2,000-2,400 volumes. The subcommittee has
drafted a collection development policy, which will be sent to the subject
councils for review, and they have drafted a budget proposal. They have
also approached subject specialists elsewhere in the library system for
recommendations about core print materials-the "Top Ten" in each field. The
next step will be title-by-title selection of books for the new collection;
for this, they request selector advice by mid-October. The person(s) in
charge of ongoing collection development has not been determined yet.
John Roberts asked for a quick summary of the time frame, physical changes
and number and location of service points that will result. Patty reported
that construction in Doe is expected to be completed over the holiday
break. The desks in both GSSI and the Information Center will cease to
exist; a single service point (for now, known as the Reference Center) will
be created in the former subject catalog area with a staff desk
accommodating three, 34 computer work stations and the collections deployed
around the perimeter of the room. Staff scheduling for both this service
point and the one in Moffitt will be done centrally, though some staff may
spend more time in one or the other location.
9. Patty Iannuzzi "The Big Picture and the Arts and Humanities Council"
Patty sketched four broad topics for the Council's consideration:
TEACHING. Patty suggested that we begin thinking about the teaching,
learning and research patterns of the next generation of researchers, say,
an incoming graduate student or a thirty-something assistant professor. It
is natural to focus too much on the needs and patterns of use of an older
generation of researchers. The distinction is not the familiar one between
reliance on print vs. electronic resources. How can staff more effectively
support the kinds of assignments these people are getting and giving? How
can we make sure that knowledge and use of our collections (in whatever
format) is integrated into their work? A good example is the digitization
of materials held in various library collections. In the past, these have
often been driven from internal needs of those departments (and funded by
outside agencies). Patty would like to see more selectors involved in
digitization projects that involve their various collections, for example
the exhibition organized by the S/SEA Library, which brought together
material Suzanne McMahon had acquired for Bancroft's collections, but also
resulted in a published catalog and lecture, a digital version of the
exhibition, and development of K-12 curricular materials. Cabinet has
discussed creating a recurring funding base for ongoing digitization
projects that will integrate use of library collections into regular
instruction and research assignments.
LEARNING. New skills will be needed both by current staff and by the next
generation of librarians in order to support faculty and graduate student
instructors in this new environment. Patty suggested a new skill set was
emerging, and pointed to the potential for collaborating with campus units
outside the library to build them in this new teaching and learning
environment. As an example, she mentioned Educational Technology Services,
a new unit under Vice-Provost Christina Maslach. Patty expects them to work
with the Teaching Library and others to partner with instructional
development and to build in library based components, linking their
workshops and class assignments with the collections and our services.
Another example is the workshop that Patty and selected staff from Teaching
Library and Educational Technology Service are developing for the ten new
teaching faculty. One idea is to develop a model Web-based course syllabi
that will incorporate an emphasis on supporting library resources. She
noted the need for library staff to develop the skills that will make them
effective consultants to such efforts.
COLLECTION USE. While Berkeley and a few other campuses may be the last to
face the question, we must start thinking about the day when fundamental
questions will be raised about the utility of acquiring and storing
enormous on campus print collections. For instance, a survey of the Doe
collections showed that some 90% of the volumes had not circulated in the
past seven years. The same problem extended to electronic collections. As
an example, Patty pointed to Bush-Mellon grants that have been used to
acquire access to JSTOR titles. In one instance, that of a consortium of
smaller colleges in the Midwest, it was found that one year after
acquisition, use remained lower than expected and there were no instances
of faculty changing their pattern of teaching to incorporate the use of
JSTOR or other e-journals as preferred over other web resources. Funding
was extended for a third year to support workshops that would teach faculty
about the resource and for minigrants to develop classroom materials based
on the collection. We need to continue to monitor use of electronic
collections, but more, to engage in outreach to faculty to encourage use by
making them aware of new resources as they are acquired.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES. Finally, it will be important to
step back from day-to-day affairs and bring in outside perspectives to help
us address some of these new issues. The subject councils should take the
lead in inviting outside experts for advice and to organize workshops
devoted to ongoing professional development around these issues. Kathryn
noted that we have a small budget to do so, and Patty added that more funds
were probably available if needed and could be requested on a case-by-case
basis. Conversely, Patty asked the group to bring its expertise to similar
programs in collaboration with the Teaching Library.
The ensuing discussion brought a couple of ideas to the fore. John Roberts
made the point that, although surely the changes Patty described in
learning, teaching and research are real, the acculturation of faculty
members remains somewhat more constant: the ideal is that of autonomy; for
many faculty, even younger ones, "the ideal librarian is the invisible
librarian." Allan noted that many faculty are reluctant to appear dependent
or uninformed about the library. Patty responded that the partnering she
was mostly talking about was not directly with faculty, but with other
campus entities who are helping faculty adopt new information technologies
into their teaching. What she had more in mind was letting faculty know
how we can help them do their primary jobs, research and teaching, more
effectively: "We just got this new resource in your field; this is how it
can help you speed your research"; "Here are some ways I can help your
students write better papers." "Here's a consolidated place where you can
find the electronic resources in your field." etc.
9. Council Goals and Objectives for the Upcoming Year
Deferred to the next meeting.
Next Meeting: Thursday, October 4, 2001.
Recorder: Imani Abalos.