1997 Fall Assembly

Minutes
LAUC-B Fall Assembly
12 November 1997
Goldberg Room, Boalt Hall
 

I. Deborah Sommer called the meeting to order at 8:40 am.

II. Chair's Report - Deborah Sommer

D. Sommer announced that there are two new affiliated librarians on the campus: Frances McEvilly at Boalt Express and Elaine McCracken working on the California Newspaper Project. There is also a new part-time librarian at the Business Library - Susan Poineer. D. Sommer then reviewed those on the LAUC- B Executive Committee. She mentioned that Ralph Moon is an ex- officio member of LAUC-B since he now has a 0% appointment and Terry Huwe, new CAPA chair, is also an ex-officio member of the Executive Committee.

D. Sommer changed the agenda, which was seconded and approved.

D. Sommer discussed some Statewide issues which may have an impact on LAUC-B.

  1. The Digital Library Project will be directed by Richard Lucier.
  2. The Administrative stipends issue was reviewed last summer (1997) and it would give additional monies to library managers not in the bargaining unit. The stipends would work on a campus-wide basis, and there are questions as to amounts awarded, who is eligible and which budget would be tapped. No additional funds would be added to the library or campus budgets to cover this. To date, UCLA is the only campus to implement the stipend.

    ACTION) D. Sommer will find out which UCB budget (library or campus) would be impacted if adopted.
  3. Library Council has decided to take no action on the question of adding steps to the Librarian Series this year. The Salary Survey under discussion also has not received any action.
  4. D. Sommer announced that inter-campus collaborative projects are encouraged.
  5. Maryly Snow is the next Townsend Fellow. Bill Roberts received the Distinguished Librarian Award. The award ceremony will be held on November 20.
  6. LAUC-B Ex Comm had submitted several names of librarians to serve on the Campus Computing Committee.
  7. Marlene Harmon was elected as the new Affiliated Library Representative.
  8. The third LAUC-B conference will be on Scholarly Publishing/Communication.
  9. A committee has been appointed to address our local bylaws revision.
  10. Andrea Sevetson has revised the LAUC-B website, please review and send comments to her.
  11. The Blue Ribbon Committee (BRC) Chair, Tony Newcomb, met with the Executive Committee in open session on August 12. Ex Comm sent a memo addressing specific issues to the BRC on October 23. A. Sevetson is the liaison to the BRC. The areas addressed in the Executive Committee letter were a)Resources and Budget, b) Leadership and Professional Governance, c)Service, d)Technology/Research & Development. The Executive Committee will meet with the BRC again in the near future.
  12. A. Sevetson and D. Sommer meet with Sue Rosenblatt monthly. There is ongoing discussion about the changing roles of libraries and librarians. There may be a series of early birds exploring these issues in the Spring.

III. MINUTES - Linda Vida.

The Minutes from the Spring, 1997 assembly were approved with minor corrections.

IV. CAPA - Ginny Irving.

G. Irving gave the CAPA report. Members of CAPA for 1996-97 were: G. Irving, Chair, Kathryn Wayne, Tom Alexander, Armanda Barone, T. Huwe, Ann Jensen and Judy Tsou. Members of CAPA for 1997-98 will be T. Huwe, Chair, A. Barone, A. Jensen, J. Tsou, Debbie Kearney, Ann Swartzell and Alan Urbanic. Copies of CAPA's Annual Report, written in October, were available at the Assembly. G. Irving summarized issues and provided an update on developments since the Annual Report was written.

Final decisions have been reached in all but 4 of the cases which have been submitted (2 in The Library and 2 Affiliated). CAPA had a high rate of agreement with the final decision maker, but disagreed with the review initiator in 7 cases and with administrative reviewers in 7 cases.

Timeliness has been a major issue this year, especially in The Library. At the beginning of August there were still 11 outstanding cases (1/4 of the total). As of the date of the Fall Assembly, 5 cases are still outstanding for this cycle. There are many sources of problems with timeliness-candidates, review initiators, and administrative reviewers all play a part. CAPA is particularly concerned about candidates who submit their documentation on time, but find their dossiers delayed by Review Initiators or subsequent administrative reviewers. CAPA would like to discuss concerns about timeliness and requested that Peter Lyman, University Librarian (UL), remind all parties in the review process to adhere to the Timetable Guidelines set out in the Berkeley Procedures, particularly in regard to requesting extensions. P. Lyman also suggested that he meet with Janice Dost, and T, Huwe, next year's CAPA chair, to discuss this issue.

Another issue this year has been requesting additional information once a candidate's dossier has been submitted. G. Irving stated that the APM provides that CAPA and the final decision maker can ask for additional information if the review record is found to be incomplete or inadequate. There have been some instances when the final decision maker asked for additional information that CAPA did not see. CAPA is aware of this situation and has discussed it with P. Lyman. The candidate must be notified of any information added to the dossier and it may be seen by the candidate, on request, in redacted form. Candidates can also opt to provide CAPA with copies of information added by the final decision maker.

P. Lyman has been making recommendations to The Vice Chancellor in affiliated cases for many years. CAPA never saw these recommendations until the 1995-96 cycle, but in 1996-97 the practice of forwarding UL recommendations in affiliated cases to CAPA has apparently been discontinued. CAPA has expressed a strong interest in continuing to receive copies of the UL letters to The Vice Chancellor and also making the UL's advice available to affiliated candidates who request redacted copies. P. Lyman has not been receiving copies of the final letters in affiliated cases and would like to see them. He has told CAPA he will discuss these issues with The Vice Chancellor.

Questions have been raised this year about whether participation in LAUC is valued in the peer review process. CAPA has discussed this issue and sees no evidence that LAUC is not valued; participation in LAUC does not go unnoticed, either by CAPA or the final decision maker.

A second Peer Review Workshop will be held on November 20 at which P. Lyman and S. Rosenblatt will speak. Kathryn Wayne, Patti Owen and Bill Whitson spoke at the first Peer Review Workshop.

V. LAUC-B Liaison Report on the Senate Library Committee - Andrea Sevetson

A. Sevetson announced that the Academic Senate Library Committee (ASLC) website lists Committee members. Presentations to the ASLC have included Mike Rancer on how the budget for collections was spent and Richard Lucier on the Digital Library Project.

The Senate Library Committee has been meeting in executive session to discuss BRC issues. The BRC will host an Early Bird with the entire library staff on December 4th.

The BRC has asked for information on how librarians are evaluated. Faculty are partially evaluated on user satisfaction, could The Library conduct a survey like this? They have also received salary information comparing UCB, UCLA, WI, ILL, NC. One of the goals is to create a structure for faculty to communicate with The Library. The BRC will also hold "focus group" sessions and have asked the ASUC to hold student focus groups. Questions arose about whether the focus group transcripts will be made public and if the report of the outgoing Senate Library Committee will be made public.

ACTION) A. Sevetson will find out if the transcripts and ASLC Report will be made public.

VI. Travel Forms - Beth Weil

B. Weil announced that travel forms will be sent out soon and that travel awards will be handled the same as last year.

VII. Marianne Constable

M. Constable, Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Chair of the ASLC identified some of the issues before the ASLC. She mentioned a commitment to the collections and that ASLC is concerned about the following: the Digital Library and whether it will be revenue generating (it's supposed to be); what will beshared purchases; how to safeguard the print collections; archivingissues; are humanistic needs being represented.

M. Constable also mentioned the Blue Ribbon Committee; seismic safety issues for libraries; Moffitt Library and the changes that have occurred for undergraduates; NRLF and branch library space issues. The Library budget will be presented in March at the same time as the BRC report.

E. Meltzer said that there have been many plans for the Moffitt Library but none received funding. B. Whitson said that having seven librarians selecting the "best books" was very costly. He also mentioned trying to get endowments to subsidize a specific amount of research assistance each week or semester.

The ASLC has talked with Chancellor Berdahl to try to get matching funds for the Library this year to increase the budget. It was mentioned that the collections should correspond with planning for new Ph. D. programs and there needs to be centralized decision making.

VIII. The meeting was adjourned at 10:20 am.