Executive Committee Minutes 02/11/2015

LAUC-B Executive Committee

February 11, 2015 10 am 12 pm Room 303 Doe Library

Members present: Rita Evans (chair), Lynn Jones, Lisa Ngo, Liladhar Pendse, Jesse Silva, Elliott Smith (recorder), I-Wei Wang

Guest: Jennifer Nelson

I. Announcements

  • No announcements were made.

II. Reports

A. Treasurer's Report (L. Ngo)

  • Current balance: $81,081

B. Meeting with the University Librarian of January 21, 2015 (R. Evans, I. Wang)

Notes included in minutes of January 21, 2015. Updates:

  • The Provosts Office received a letter written by R. Evans regarding the LAUC-B budget after 2014-2015, and responded to Library Admin.
  • Tom Leonard confirmed that if the UL search is not completed by July 1, 2015, then there will be an interim UL.

C. Meeting with the University Librarian of February 18, 2015 (R. Evans, I. Wang, by e-mail)

  • Two items from tomorrows CoUL agenda: membership in LAUC (per ongoing LAUC Statewide discussion); Erik Mitchell and Colleen Carlton (SRLF) will form a committee discussing RLF issues including facilities and access.
  • Letters have been sent (electronically for the first time) to prospective ad hoc committee members.
  • Berkeley Procedures revision Susan Wong and Tom will review the document I-Wei prepared with all of the changes we discussed. They will discuss it at their monthly meeting the second week of March. A meeting with representatives of ExComm and CAPA will be held if necessary.
  • Clarification of number of points implied by phrase "greater than standard" Tom will discuss with Susan. We said this is a matter of some urgency given that dossiers are being assembled and submitted and Rita emailed Tom and Susan after todays meeting asking for a response as soon as possible. Last year we were directed not to request a specific number of points but no dossiers were rejected due to such a request.
  • Streamline recruiting/hiring and issue of notifying CAPA when Search Waiver obtained We again offered to look at the very lengthy process to determine if improvements can be made. Due to time constraints, we did not address the issue of being notified when Search Waivers are obtained.
  • During the meeting Tom mentioned that Laine Farley is retiring as CDL Director. He also said that UCB is introducing a voluntary separation program involving smaller incentives than previous ones. It will not apply to academics (such as librarians) and units can deny requests for separation.

D. Committee on the Library, Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate (I. Wang)

  • LIBR finalized and endorsed a letter to Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Claude Steele (cc'd to Executive Director, Budget, Laurent Heller) urging that campus resume support for LAUC-B. The letter was also endorsed by the Academic Senate Divisional Council (DIVCO) on February 9. The letter, with DIVCO's covering endorsement, is attached.
  • AUL Erik Mitchell gave an update on NRLF issues, noting that Todd Hickey and Geoffrey Koziol's op-ed in the Daily Cal received "a lot of buzz" at the recent ALA conference; ideas for further advocacy from LIBR - including a follow-up piece on de-duplication as an option to address storage issues - were discussed. The NRLF Subcommittee will also update past subcommittee chair Victoria Trotta's report on NRLF, in order to provide a framing document for responding to current inquiries from campus administration and other Academic Senate bodies such as DIVCO and Committee on Academic Planning and Resource Allocation (CAPRA).
  • J. Skoller, as part of the Subject Specialties Subcommittee, is drafting a proposal for a new library program specifically for storage, preservation and access to non-text objects. The project is in a conceptual phase, collecting information on what non-text collections exist on campus.
  • M. Lovell, as a member of the UL search committee, noted that candidates have been discussed in detail and the field has been narrowed. She also noted, on behalf of the Hiring and Budget Subcommittee, concerns about the re-posting of the German Librarian position as a German and Classics Librarian and questions about the nature of the Electronic Services Librarian and Undergraduate Librarian for Teaching & Digital Literacy positions. ACTION ITEM: R. Evans will send a message to the LAUC-B membership suggesting that members respond to the Daily Cal Op-Ed of January 30, 2015 by T. Hickey and G. Koziol, Off-campus library facility needs room to grow: http://www.dailycal.org/2015/01/30/off-campus-library-facility-needs-room-grow/

D. LAUC statewide conference call of Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015 (R. Evans)

  • Statewide Assembly: Possible topics for the Assembly were discussed.
  • Membership: LAUC is collecting comments on the issue of membership (see IV.a, Committee on Professional Governance: Defining LAUC membership, below).

III. Continuing Business

A. 2015-2016 Budget process and request (R. Evans)

  • LAUC-B ExComm was previously informed by the ULs office that details about the Librarys budget request would be available in early February but we have yet to hear anything. ACTION ITEM: R. Evans will contact Elise Woods regarding a meeting to discuss the LAUC-B budget.

B. LAUC-B funding after 2014-2015 (R. Evans)

  • A discussion was held about potential strategies to maintain important LAUC-B activities with possibly reduced funding in FY2015-16 and beyond.

C. Berkeley Procedures revision (I. Wang, R. Evans)

  • A discussion was held about potential issues raised by S. Wongs proposed revisions of the Interim Berkeley Procedures. The proposed changes were circulated to the members of CAPA by CAPA Chair Ramona Martinez. After careful consideration, CAPA found the changes acceptable. ExComm reached consensus that the changes were acceptable and that the document as revised should be forwarded by the University Librarian for final approval. ACTION ITEM: R. Evans will contact Ramona Martinez to suggest that CAPA include a discussion of issues relating to the revised procedures in the CAPA Manual. ACTION ITEM: R. Evans and I. Wang will clarify with Tom Leonard at the next UL meeting whether the phrase greater than standard increase is taking on any specific meaning in practice.

D. NRLF Early Bird with E. Mitchell (All)

  • Deferred to March

E. Spring Assembly planning date, topic, format (All)

  • Deferred to March

IV. New Business

A. Committee on Professional Governance: Defining LAUC membership (L. Jones)

  • L. Jones, the LAUC-B representative on LAUC Statewide CPG, noted that the current LAUC Bylaws state that membership in LAUC consists of appointees in the librarian series or those with particular job titles such as University Librarian, Deputy University Librarian, Associate University Librarian, etc. (see http://lauc.ucop.edu/about/bylaws/Bylaws-03-09.pdf#page=2). However, UCOP defines LAUC membership based on title codes which on some campuses include positions that are non-academic appointments. There is no immediate impact on membership at Berkeley, since we do not have anyone in a non-academic appointment. LAUC Statewide is soliciting feedback from its members regarding a proposal to change statewide bylaws defining LAUC membership. ACTION ITEM: L. Jones will send a message to LAUC-B membership outlining the membership issues and soliciting feedback by March 6. She will forward feedback to R. Evans, who will send it to LAUC Statewide. The final proposal will be voted on at the statewide Assembly.

B. 2015 LAUC-B Conference (L.Ngo)

  • The LAUC Conference Committee is ramping up their work. Samantha Teplitzky will replace Hilary Schiraldi on the Conference Committee during Hilarys maternity leave. Conference details follow: LAUC-B Conference 2015: Open Access: Reclaiming Scholarship for the Academy Date: Friday Oct. 16, 2015 Location: David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way Opening keynote speaker: Michael Eisen Closing keynote speaker: Randy Schekman Other activities:
    Panel discussion on Open Access
    Poster sessions
    Lightning Talks + breakout sessions

    A request for proposals went out to allusers from Hilary Schiraldi on January 20, with an invitation to forward the RFP to interested colleagues. The deadline for proposals is March 13.

C. Learning & Research Communities Librarian appointment (R. Evans)

  • A discussion was held about the recently announced temporary appointment of a Learning and Research Communities Librarian, which was done without the participation of CAPA or LAUC-B. In addition, the hiring announcement went out to the libstaff e-mail list, which did not include the current chair or vice-chair of LAUC-B or the heads of the Affiliated Libraries. Following the meeting, ExComm learned from LHRD that a Search Waiver was obtained from APO due to the library's urgent operational needs. CAPA has requested to be notified of such actions in the future. ACTION ITEM: R. Evans will send a message to Tom Leonard, S. Wong and Beth Dupuis requesting a meeting to discuss streamlining the recruitment and appointment process to allow for more timely actions with appropriate participation by CAPA and LAUC-B. ACTION ITEM: R. Evans will follow up with Terry Huwe, chair of The Affiliated Libraries Administrative Group (TALAG), regarding use of the libstaff mail list to insure that the Affiliated Libraries remain fully informed of relevant developments within the Library.

D. Proposal for Bylaws change re: timing of elections and Assemblies (R. Evans, E. Smith)

ACTION ITEM: E. Smith will send a message to R. Evans detailing where the language of the LAUC-B Bylaws may need to be revised in light of current practices.

E. Librarian Emeritus status (see /emeritus.html)

  • Will handle via email.

Next meeting: March 11, 2015