Attended by: Michaelyn Burnette, Carlos Delgado, Lucia Diamond, Gail Ford
(recorder), Rebecca Green, Bob Liu, Barclay Ogden, Mike Rancer, Alan Ritch
(chair), Camille Wanat, Beth Weil
Agenda:
Approval of minutes, March 7 meeting
Announcements/ Action Items
Future of BILRB and x funds
Mid-year fund balances and spending rates
Developing a job description for the "Acquisitions Librarian"
Backlogs in Preservation (x-fund workflow; repairs to circulating items)
Digital fund selection process
Planning a report on how we used the Chancellor's Initiative Funds
(deferred until April 18)
Summary of Action items:
Bob Liu will arrange to have Wendy Hanson's handout vis-a-vis
gifts/endowments loaded to two locations on the web: the Business Services
page, and the Collection Development Policy and Procedures site. Bob will
notify Collections Council when these are available, and he will then ask
Lisa Weber to insert a link into the Collection Council minutes of March 7.
Beth Weil and Alan volunteered to call together a group with
representatives from selectors, circulation, and systems to map out the
missing materials replacement process and to identify any problems that
might exist.
Collections Council agreed to plan at their next meeting, an Early Bird for
selectors to be scheduled in early May. Two possible topics: gift/endowment
funds and an overview of the processes in force to replace items that are
missing (and billed) or missing (and not billed.)
Alan and Barclay will work together to prepare requests to cover unmet
workload demands in Preservation, which Alan will then take to Mike/Cabinet.
Gail will provide Alan the amount of "one-time" digital money available for
allocation.
Minutes from March 7:
The minutes from March 7 were approved with minor amendment. It was agreed
that the handouts regarding gifts and endowments would be put up to the
web. (see summary of action items, above.)
Announcements:
Bob Liu announced that all the supplemental collection budget allocations
had been input to Innopac.
Alan reported that Systems has asked all units to report what plug-ins they
need on public access terminals. Units should submit this material to Jean
McKenzie.
Beth Weil announced that the Proxy Server is up and running. She mentioned
that whenever selectors arrange for license agreements for web-based
products, they should be sure to determine if the publisher or vendor
allows access from off campus. If access via the proxy server does not
violate the license agreement, selectors should fill out the form at
http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu/newsites.cgi. This information will be used
both to update the proxy server and also to notify Esther Fulsaas of
cataloging information.
Alan reported on the work of the Joint Steering Committee for Shared
Collections (JSC). JSC is a group of six AULs and librarians each
responsible for coordinating UC-wide advice in broad subject areas on the
selection, licensing and shared funding of digital resources. The group has
representatives from and is advisory to SOPAG, CDC, and the CDL. JSC's
April 17 meeting will be a repeat of the successful session on
collaborative licensing held in November at UCI. Since the meeting will be
at Berkeley, JSC has invited several UCB selectors to attend. Space is
limited, and so those invited should respond to Mary Engle at the CDL ASAP.
BILRB and x-funds:
Mike reported that there are two pots of money that result from patrons
paying for lost books: replacement dollars and processing fees. These two
income streams are directed now to purchasing replacement copies and to
operations, respectively. In the last few years there hasn't been much new
replacement money -- the amount of dollars being cancelled is almost
exactly equal to the amount of money for replacement being billed. Mike
speculates that, since the advent of CARS, more patrons are returning books
instead of paying for them. Processing fee income remains about the same as
in the past (between $50k and 100k per year.)
This means that the existing pot in BILRB (approximately 350K) is the money
we should consider for book replacement purposes. Of this amount, Mike has
put a temporary hold on $250,000 which is under discussion with the campus.
If all goes per Mike and Jerry's discussions with campus, this money will
become available to the Library sometime in the (near?) future.
BILRB money, since it comes from income recouped from patrons who have lost
items, can be used to replace those billed items. (Note: x-funds, on the
other hand, can be used to replace any items that have been identified as
missing, whether a patron has been billed or not.)
Ensuing discussion surfaced some confusion and difficulties in the
"missing" and "replacement" processes now in force. Beth Weil and Alan
volunteered to call together a group with representatives from selectors,
circulation, and systems to map out this process and to identify any
problems that might exist.
Mid-year fund balances and spending rates:
Mike reported that both monograph and serial spending rates look within
range. Monograph spending shows no indication of overruns -- and any
under-spending looks like it won't be of a magnitude to raise eyebrows with
campus administration.
S-funds are being paid out faster this year than last (92% so far this year
compared to 88% at a comparable time last), but Mike doesn't consider this
problematical. Camille suggested that some of this may in fact be due to a
real and unexpected increase in out-of-pocket cost due to our ceasing
RoweCom services -- last year we paid $5/item in vendor charges, while this
year we are paying a percent of cover price. Mike will continue to monitor
this.
Developing a job description for the "Acquisitions Librarian":
Alan has begun developing a list of tasks which may become part of the job
description for a new Acquisitions Librarian. He has developed this so far
with input from the Sciences and Humanities Councils, and will be
discussing it with Social Sciences Council (hopefully at their next
meeting.) He distributed a preliminary inventory of these tasks, segregated
into "Short term: acting electronic resources coordination" and "Long term:
role or proposed Acquisitions Librarian." We are trying to sort out which
tasks properly remain with selectors and which should be coordinated or
delegated to this new position. Collections Council made several
suggestions which Alan will include in his next draft for further
discussion throughout the library.
Backlogs in Preservation (x-fund workflow; repairs to circulating items):
Barclay reported that there are two areas of collection maintenance done in
Preservation that are in need of additional financial support:
replacements of lost and mutilated volumes where we need to request
photocopies from
other libraries because the volumes/pages are not available commercially.
repair of volumes in the collection which now circulate.
In both cases, there are existing backlogs. Barclay also reports that for
replacement photocopying there is a clear need for continuing increases in
staffing to keep up with demand; and that this also seems to be true for
repairs.
Collections Council believes that these are very important operations to
keep staffed to meet current use-driven demand. CC is willing to allocate
some BILRB money to cover the replacement backlog (estimated at $29,400),
if Mike can release this much from the "hold" that is now on BILRB. CC also
approved in principle the idea that future increases in staffing needed for
replacements (estimated at $7,700) might be taken from x-funds on a per
request basis.
Collections Council also supports Alan's proposal to seek additional funds
(approximately $30k) from Cabinet for repair of the circulating collection.
Alan and Barclay will work together to prepare these requests for
Mike/Cabinet.
Digital fund selection process
Members outlined for Alan our past practices for allocating digital library
funds in the past several years.
Alan encouraged the following:
that UCB fold the CDL tool kit for evaluating digital information into our
selection
process
that UCB give careful consideration and priority to titles that CDL has in
the
pipeline (Alan will be able to report on particulars due to his CDL
ontacts/committees.)
There is $55,000 continuing money which can be allocated for 1999/2000
digital library purposes, and a pot of one-time money that has carried
forward from prior years (Gail will get the amount of one-time money to
Alan.) Alan will send out a call to selectors asking them to nominate
candidates for these funds. As in the past, these nominations will likely
go to subject councils who will make recommendations to Collections Council.
Next Meeting:
Collections Council will meet next on April 18, 10-12.
Next Agenda:
Planning a report on how we used the Chancellor's Initiative Funds
(deferred from 3/21)
Plan