Present: Tony Bliss, Michaelyn Burnette, Elizabeth Byrne, Jan Carter, John
Ceballos, Myrtis Cochran, Manuel Erviti, Paul Hamburg, Sue Koskinen, Steve
Mendoza, AnnMarie Mitchell (recorder), Scott Peterson, Margaret Phillips
(Guest), John Roberts, Maryly Snow (Guest), David Sullivan, Laura Tatum,
Allan Urbanic, Kathryn Wayne (Chair).
1. Announcements.
There will be a joint meeting with the Social Sciences Council
on Thursday 20 November at 9:30 in Rm 303. David Leonard, Dean of
of International and Area Studies has been invited to speak. Topics
include recent changes, current direction, and new faculty hires.
2. CDL Database Review (Margaret Phillips, Guest)
Margaret explained the proposed cancellation of Current Contents, the
National Newspaper database, and the Computer Articles database.
Although there is some duplication and overlap, some people felt that
because the National Newspaper Database has indexing and is superior
in some ways to Lexis-Nexis. Many people are very accustomed to using
Current Contents and have been using its alert service. Margaret pointed
out that people may simply be accustomed to it, because it has been
around so long. One solution is to step up information and publicity
on other services. At present, there are about 90 alerts.
The Computer Articles database was a title we particularly wanted. It
was just a part of the package we accepted.
Ultimately, if the campuses do not agree to cancel these three, then other
titles will have to be selected for cancellation to replace them.
Current Contents would not be cancelled until 2005, when the contract
package is up.
3. Melvyl Training for Faculty and Instructors (Manuel Erviti)
Tim Dilworth of Instructional Services/Teaching Library has asked staff
for comments about the possible further need for Melvyl training both
for a.) Faculty & GSIs and for b.) Staff.
a. Some continuation of faculty/instructor training on New Melvyl for
Spring Semester would be useful. Combining faculty/instructor classes on
New Melvyl with regular drop-in classes offered to students throughout the
school year is, however, unlikely to attract faculty, so a small number of
sessions designed for faculty/instructors might be considered.
b. Those present acknowledged the importance of the role of IS/TL in New
Melvyl staff training. Though some members expressed interest in
continuing introductory classes, which they found useful in the past, the
Council expressed a common interest in occasional, advanced classes for
library staff, perhaps as major updates in functionality appear in the
system. Those less interested in formal classes for staff thought online
guides, whether through CDL or IS/TL, are helpful and useful.
4. CDL Digital Visual Resources Report (Kathryn Wayne)
This comprehensive report covers library-owned collections for the 10 UC
campuses. Over 11.4 million items were identified, falling into four
broad subject areas: Arts (fine arts, architecture, theater arts);
Humanities (travel, history, news coverage); Science (medicine, astronomy,
biology); and Maps (geography aerial, satellite photography). The Task
Force was chaired by Laine Farley and included librarians from five UC
campuses. Per the charge, the survey does not include non-UC owned
library collections.
Issues about access were brought up.
For displaying and manipulating the images, software is needed.
This is crucial. Searchlight II could be used. The "federated model"
allows for uneven treatment.
The museum part of the Online Library of California is difficult
to use for images. There are also concerns about the commercial
model relied upon to use the resources. First we pay to put our
resources in, and then we pay for access to those resources.
5. Function Council Reports: Collections Council (John Roberts)
The committee is still working on the budget. Requests for one-time
start-up funds for faculty are being reviewed. There will soon be
a call for one-time funding proposals with a deadline of 5 December.
For the cuts, the Council is considering various alternative approaches.
Negotiations with Elsevier continue through CDL, and their outcome
could have an impact on the allocation of cuts.