10:00 a.m. to noon, 303 Doe Library
Present: I. Abalos, P. Bischof, M. Burnette, E. Byrne, J. Carter, M.
Cochran, P. Hamburg, P. Iannuzzi, M. Irviti, P. Maughan (Recorder), S.
McDaniel, S. Mendoza, A. Mitchell, S. Peterson, J. Roberts, D. Sullivan, L.
Tatum, A. Urbanic, K. Wayne (Chair), B. Williams
Guests: T. Leonard, M. Phillips, L. Weber
I. TOM LEONARD, UNIVERSITY LIBRARIAN
A proposed Staff and Academic Reduction in Time (START) Program has been
circulated to all staff and is up for comment (see allusers e-mail from
Mike Rancer dated 4/2/1003). The program is voluntary on the part of staff
and discretionary on the part of managers.
A report from the campus Academic Programs and Libraries Working Group is
due out 4 April 2003. Tom and Professor Elaine Tennant (LIBR Chair)
contributed. The report acknowledges and supports the Library's statement
that any reductions to its budget in excess of 5 percent will have "dire"
impacts on Library operations. Whereas the campus budget is still unknown,
Tom is hopeful that the Library may be less affected than other campus units.
The Chancellor will be signing off on the Academic Strategic Plan sometime
in the next 10 days. He noted at a recent Council of Deans meeting a
concern that only one of the New Programs categories endorsed in the plan
focuses on the humanities. The fact that humanists are not accustomed to
collaborating in the same ways that scientists and social scientists work
may disadvantage the humanities in some campus processes.
The Library has presented a need to the campus for an additional $700,000
in new monies for the next calendar year in order to sustain (but not
increase) the Library's materials purchasing power. The proposal has the
support of the Senate Library Committee (LIBR), though its success cannot
be predicted given the current and future budget environment.
Tom circulated a draft document showing percentages of the Library's budget
spent on collections versus operations and how the Berkeley ratio maps to
spending a comparable research libraries nationwide.
The amount of development money that has been raised recently has increased
dramatically. However, Tom urged the staff to remember the necessary
commitment the Library must maintain to capital projects such as the new
Music Library, Doe Annex, and the East Asian Library. He also noted the
Library cannot easily switch state funded positions over to endowed positions.
With respect to the prospect of staff layoffs, Tom responded that the
Library can in all likelihood absorb a 5% budget reduction without staff
layoffs and he is hopeful that with the new SMART program, the Library will
be able to sustain further budget reductions without laying off
staff. That said, he noted the Library could not face a future cut of 10%
without a strong look at layoffs as a means of meeting that degree of
budget reduction. There is no word on a possible VERIP (voluntary early
retirement) type option for staff.
II. ELECTRONIC RESOURCES DATABASE
M. Phillips e-mailed three documents to reference staff and selectors
relating to the Library's Electronic Resource Database (ERD), including
proposed subject terms to be used in the database. She solicited feedback
by Friday, 4 April 2003. The Library currently subscribes to over 400
electronic resources and the ERD Planning Group is hoping to create a way
for our users to get at these resources more easily, either by browsing or
by searching an ERD.
Subject terms are based on the campus' Academic Departments. The creation
of such a database will also provide enhanced opportunities for integrating
electronic resources into digital courseware, something that is not
possible to do from the existing static .html subject selector and subject
specialty library web pages.
An additional benefit to the ERD is that dynamic and more timely
information about electronic resources could be imported into the subject
and subject specialty library pages.
UCSD Libraries have done a tremendous amount of development work for a
similar product called SAGE, and other campuses have also been working on
ERDs. The suggestion was made that Berkeley try to benefit from this
development work done at comparable research libraries to avoid duplicating
work for out own campus selectors and ERD development staff. A sub-group
of the ERD Working Group is working on the issue of electronic journals.
In creating the ERD, it is possible to "weight" particular resources so
that they will rise to the top of any resource list which is generated.
P. Hamburg mentioned that a growing number of sites which are important to
Jewish Studies are including search engines with Hebrew script
capabilities. Currently, the computers in Doe and Moffitt reference areas
are not capable of using these sites. He expressed the hope that, in the
future, the sites could be made accessible to students and faculty through
the Library's computers.
M. Phillips and L. Weber encouraged those attending to provide additional
feedback about the plan, additional subject terms to be used, and anything
additional relating to ERD planning that Council members judge to be
significant.
III. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA TEACHING, LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY
CENTER Can the Subject Councils Contribute?
K. Wayne distributed information on UC TLTC grants. P. Iannuzzi mentioned
that these grants range from $5,000-$75,000 per year, and a description of
winning grants indicated that there may be a role for the library. Since
grants must be approved by the Faculty Senate, it was agreed that a
strategy might be for Tom Leonard to write to either the Chair of the
Senate, Chair of the Senate Library Committee, or the Assistant
Vice-Chancellor for Student Life-Educational Development to express the
Library's willingness to participate. In the meantime, it was suggested
that selectors contact their respective faculties to determine who was
preparing a grant submission, and to query whether there might be a role
for the library.
IV. ANNOUNCEMENTS
John Roberts announced that the structural steel frame has been erected for
the new Hargrove Music Library.
Imani Abalos announced the new Doe/Moffitt web site which is located on the
Library homepage under Library Collections and Services.
Sarah McDaniel encouraged members to submit items for the next issue of the
eGrad Newsletter.
V. FUNCTION COUNCIL REPORTS
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES (I. Abalos)
The Xerox contract will expire in 2004. A subgroup will be formed to
decide whether to renegotiate another contract with Xerox or put a bid out
for other firms.
COLLECTIONS (J. Carter)
The serials cancellations will be divided into two lists: Sciences and
Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences. A question was asked about "last copy"
titles. P. Iannuzzi expects that CDC will examine this issue in the
future. Collections Council members agreed that if additional serial
cancellation projects are necessary, more lead time is needed as well as
specifics on what information is needed from selectors, and clarification
on amounts of credits per title and per package.
PUBLIC SERVICES (M. Erviti).
No meeting.
TECHNICAL SERVICES (S. Peterson).
No meeting.
Next meeting: May 1, 2003
Recorder: Sue Koskinen