Present: Michaelyn Burnette, Lucia Diamond, Gail Ford, Rebecca Green, Mary
Ann Mahoney (recorder), Beth Sibley, Jim Gordon (guest), Alan Ritch
(chair), Andrea Sevetson, Allan Urbanic, Camille Wanat
Agenda
1. Approval of Minutes for February meeting
2. Announcements
3. Replacement fund adjustments
4. Other collection budget issues
5. Business from subject councils
6. CDC and JSC business
1. Minutes of February 20th meeting were approved electronically prior to
this meeting.
2. Announcements
· OCLC has activated the ECO ejournals we added this year. Beth Sibley is
working on acquiring backfiles for some titles where backfiles are
available from the publisher but our users are not allowed access. Beth is
also working with Esther Fulsaas on cataloging issues.
· Some UC Press titles are now available through Catchword. A new
Catchword liaison needs to be identified due to Bill Whitson's retirement
· The Coordinator for Data Services position is being announced, and the
position is posted at the LHRD website
(www.lib.berkeley.edu/LHRD/dataservices.html). Applications are due
May 15th.
· There is a newly formed campus task force, Task Force on Acquiring and
Providing Access to Electronic Data in the Social Sciences at UC Berkeley.
Andrea Sevetson is a member of the committee. The Task Force report is due
by the end of the summer.
· Jeanne Fong is resigning to take a new position starting April 2nd as
Executive Assistant to Paul Gray.
· The Electronic Resources Librarian recruitment is close to a successful
conclusion.
3. Replacement Fund Adjustments
Council approved the adjustment of replacement funds to meet current needs
and to create a reserve that will be distributed as needed over the next
several months. There was a general discussion as to why selectors were
spending their replacement funds at differing rates. It was noted that
some selectors whose funds will be decreased would have liked to use the
funds to repair brittle books, and some selectors felt that their fund
balances did not reflect submitted, but not yet processed o.p. book orders.
The long-term funding of book replacements will be addressed at a future
date. However, enough funds have been placed in reserve accounts to allow
future shifts. Council thanked Jim Gordon for his initiative in addressing
the issue and his work in determining an equitable adjustment of the funds.
[Jim has since distributed a spreadsheet to all selectors reflecting their
new fund balances.]
4. Other Collection Budget Issues
Concerns have been raised in the library administration about remaining
balances especially in some monograph accounts and in many endowment funds
and the effect substantial carryovers might have on the quest for increased
funding from the campus. Council discussed the amount of this year's
acquisitions budget that has already been spent. In general, Council felt
that the percent spent is acceptable for this time in the fiscal year. Our
spending patterns are not uniform throughout the year so it is difficult to
estimate where we will be at the end of the fiscal year. Most of the
serials money tends to be spent in the beginning of the year with the
majority of the monographic funds spent later in the fiscal year.
Council identified several impediments to rapid spending. The increase in
the collections budget has generated a large volume of orders and has
strained the capacity of the Order Division. The Order Division has also
assumed more work in addition to processing orders such as INNOPAC system
management, maintenance of collections' budget spreadsheet and monographic
payments. All this plus the additional workload generated by the
electronic access aspects of orders has resulted in the Order Division
being even more pressed to process all orders flowing into the division.
Some relief for the Division would have been generated by being able to use
Academic's online Bookbag E-link system for firm orders, but that
implementation has been delayed by the purchase of Academic by Blackwell.
Two newly requested positions in the Order Division should help once these
new people are hired and trained.
Selectors have also had to increase their workload with the increase in the
amount of the collections funds. One year selectors received a large
increase to their funds very late in the fiscal year which made it
impossible to spend entirely in that same year. The cancellation of many
standing orders a few years ago when money was very tight now means
additional work for selectors who must now order titles volume by volume.
Selectors are also spending more time than they used to placing the orders,
either online or working through outside vendors. Electronic resources
have complicated the acquisitions process for the Order Division, selectors
and cataloging. Some selectors may also feel reluctance as a holdover from
the leaner years to purchase expensive sets of material.
Council agreed that Alan Ritch should send an email message to selectors
whose gift, endowment or monographic funds are 65% or less spent to
encourage them to try to accelerate their spending of those funds this
fiscal year. Other solutions suggested and endorsed in principle included:
the restoration of standing orders; the restoration of important
subscriptions cancelled during the lean years; back-filling newspaper
microfilms which have gaps in the early nineties; using funds to substitute
microfilm, either by purchase or production, for newsprint currently stored
on Tier 9; and the creation of a standing list of expensive desiderata,
which could be purchased quickly without adding significantly to the order
workflow. More generally, assuming that new funds from the campus are
forthcoming, selectors should be encouraged to spend down their accounts
with more confidence.
5. Business from Subject Councils
The Sciences Council invited Alan Ritch, Bernie Hurley, Ralph Moon, and
Janet Garey to their March 15th meeting to discuss the possibility of the
Library creating a union list of electronic journals. Science Council
identified the desirable features in such a list as fast display,
comprehensiveness (all ejournals, CDL and locally licensed), currenency,
alphabetical sort (select A-Z), and accurate, preferred URL's. Bernie and
his staff are investigating the various ways such a list could be created.
Procurement cards were recently discussed at the Arts and Humanities
Council. Procurement cards allow selectors flexibility in dealing with
small publishers and online vendors; however, procurement cards require a
very significant amount of paperwork and accounting that the selector must
assume.
6. CDC and JSC Business
Alan Ritch gave a JSC update. The ebook report has been submitted to the
JSC and will soon be posted on the CDL website. It is an excellent report
on the cutting edge of national initiatives. There will be a remote
program broadcast March 28th from 2 PM - 5 PM in 117 Dwinelle on Luna, a
software program to put images on the web. The presentation is being held
at UCI. If you are interested in attending the session in Dwinelle, please
RSVP to Maryly Snow (slides@socrates.berkeley.edu). Encyclopedia
Britannica is experiencing business problems and may not survive.
7. Next Collections Council Meeting.
The next Collections Council meeting will be April 17th. In the event of
Alan Ritch's absence, it will be convened and chaired by Lucia Diamond.