Executive Committee Minutes 12/8/2011

LAUC-B Executive Committee

December 8, 2011
10 am - 12 pm
Room 119 Moses Hall (IGS Harris Room)

Members present: Lillian Castillo-Speed, Susan Edwards, Dana Jemison, Jeffery Loo (recorder), Jennifer Nelson, Nick Robinson (chair), Kai Stoeckenius, Susan Xue

I. Announcements

  • Nick: The LAUC-B Fall Assembly on November 29, 2011 was very successful and had good attendance. Thanks to all LAUC-B Committee Chairs for delivering their reports. Thanks to Shannon Supple for serving as recorder.
  • The Distinguished Librarian Awards will be awarded in 2012. Susan Koskinen will chair the award committee and will begin to form the team in the new year.

II. Reports

A. Treasurer's Report (S. Xue)

  • The LAUC-B account balance of December 8, 2011, is $33,007.43.

B. Meeting with the University Librarian on November 22, 2011 (N. Robinson, S. Edwards)

  • Tom shared the agenda for the April 2012 Orphan Works & Mass Digitization: Obstacles and Opportunities Symposium to be held at the Claremont Hotel, Berkeley. It is sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, and the agenda is available at http://www.law.berkeley.edu/orphanworks.htm.
  • Tom reported on the Council of University Librarians teleconference. The Library Planning Task Force Report has been minimally refined to its latest version. CDL will undergo a self-review of their budget, with a tight deadline, devising scenarios of a 25% cut to their budget, a 25% increase and level funding.
  • Tom reported on a meeting with the director of the Institute of Transportation Studies regarding options for absorbing the ITS Library into the University Library. The Institute has decided to maintain ITSL as a standalone Affiliated Library.
  • Tom will attend the LAUC-B Executive Committee meeting on January 12, 2012, 11am 12pm, in 303 Doe for a discussion of issues relevant to LAUC-B members. The LAUC-B membership are welcome to attend.

C. Committee on Library and Information Technology, Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate (S. Edwards)

  • The Association of American Universities has formed an open access group comprised of faculty and university librarians. Tom will serve on the group.
  • UCLA Young Library has completed their $15 million remodel. It provides good digital spaces on two floors, http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/researchlibrary/13603.cfm.
  • A suggestion was made that the Library might be able to use the new software being developed for online instruction to assist with teaching library research techniques.
  • Open Access
    • Molly Van Houweling of the Law School reviewed the history of Open Access at Berkeley to the Academic Senate. In 2007, UCB tried to have a mandate passed, but there were concerns that the opt-out options were too onerous. A simplified version of UCBs 2007 policy was later adopted at Harvard, Duke and MIT.
    • Molly supports a UCB policy, as opposed to waiting for a systemwide UC implementation, and that we follow the now standard policy which is that faculty retain their copyright but that distribution rights transfer to the institution ("non-exclusive license to disseminate scholarly work").
    • The Committee moved to have Molly draft a proposal, and this was unanimously supported.

D. LAUC Statewide Conference Call (N. Robinson)

  • The conference call was held on December 1, 2011.
  • LAUC Statewide President Mitchell Brown reports that at a recent University Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication (UCOLASC) meeting there was discussion of a system-wide Open Access policy, which UCOLASC sees as a priority.
  • Planning for the LAUC Statewide Spring Assembly is in progress. The topics are being worked out and will likely include discussion of Next-Generation Technical Services, Open Access, and the NextGen LAUC Member.
  • The LAUC Committee on Professional Governance will provide direction to the campuses for holding discussions on the report on the NextGen LAUC Member.
  • There was discussion of the UCSD Library reorganization, http://libraries.ucsd.edu/budgetcutsFAQ/index.html

III. Continuing Business

A. Statement on peer review standards in times of increased workload (N. Robinson)

  • Nick received comments from the membership on the draft statement. The comments were generally favorable.
  • The statement will be revised once more to note the impact of reductions in both librarian and non-librarian personnel on librarian workload.
  • Nick and Susan Edwards will discuss the statement with Tom at their next meeting on January 4, 2012.

B. Recruitment and Retention survey (N. Robinson)

  • In 2007, the LAUC-B Executive Committee charged a task force to conduct a survey of the membership about the aspects of working at UC Berkeley that support librarian retention and recruitment as well as needed improvements in these areas.  The final report is available at /docs/pdf/LAUC-B%20Diversity%20Task%20Force%20FINAL%20REPORT%20to%20ExComm.pdf
  • The LAUC-B Executive Committee would like to conduct this survey again for a contemporary perspective.
  • Nick will charge a task force to revise and conduct the survey. Susan Edwards will chair the task force, and Harrison Dekker has volunteered to serve as a member. There will be a call for additional members. The task force will be formally charged in January 2012 and will conclude in March 2012.

IV. New Business

A. Proposal: statement of support for Academic Senate resolutions criticizing response to student protest (N. Robinson)

  • On November 28, 2011, the Academic Senate approved four resolutions condemning the administration and police response to the Nov. 9 campus Occupy Cal protest:
  • Prior to the ExComm meeting, Nick sent a draft copy of a statement of support for the Academic Senate resolutions criticizing the response to the student protest to the LAUC-B membership for review, and the comments were generally favorable.
  • During the LAUC-B Executive Committee meeting, there was discussion of the motivations for expressing support for the Academic Senate's four resolutions. These motivations include the following:
    • According to our bylaws, LAUC-B is to advise the Chancellor on governance matters of concern to all librarians.
    • As librarians we have a professional responsibility to uphold free speech and the American Library Associations Library Bill of Rights articulates this in the Universal Right to Free Expression, http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/universalright.cfm
    • It is important for LAUC-B to engage with campus issues and to voice librarians' viewpoints in discussions related to the future of university.
  • After the LAUC-B Executive Committee meeting on December 9, 2011, Nick sent a letter, to express LAUC-B's support of the four resolutions. This letter was copied to the Academic Senate Chair, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer, and the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.

B. Planning for Jan. 12 ExComm agenda item: identify topics for discussion with T. Leonard (all)

  • Tom will be attending the January 12, 2012 LAUC-B Executive Committee meeting.
  • Possible topics for this discussion include library strategic planning, librarian participation in strategic planning, library fund raising, and the Library's collection development capacity in light of retiring subject specialists.

C. 2013 LAUC-B conference planning (all)

  • The Executive Committee reviewed I-Wei Wang and Margaret Phillips summary of evaluations for the 2011 conference. There were many suggestions for sessions and topics of interest for the upcoming 2013 conference.
  • ExComm discussed possible topics for the 2013 conference, which included library assessment (including user feedback and benchmarking), online education, the role and impact of librarians and libraries at UC campuses, and building relationships with faculty and students.