LAB | Minutes: 3-23-2000

1. Sharon addressed the problems with the journals for the staff lounge. We had originally expected to use gift funds to pay for the subscriptions, but we cannot use such funds for ongoing purchases. In light of the serials cancellation project, the LAB will put on hold indefinitely this journal project.

2. Susan Anthes discussed the state of public services:

In answer to the question about the Libraries Human Rights Collection in Archives, neither Bruce Montgomery nor she knows anything at this time about what will happen to the collection.

In answer to the question about removing shelving in Norbas; this is not scheduled.

In answer to the question about staffing at the Fitzsimons Pascal storage facility; the job description is being written now, and since Fitzsimons is a part of the HSC, a staff line is their responsibility. The participating libraries will contribute money to running the facility, and from this general money, this staff person will be paid. Scott Seaman will present the plans for Fitzsimons under the auspices of the Faculty/Staff Development Committee on April 13. All staff were encouraged to attend. Susan will head a committee that will develop Pascal's collection management policies. CUB will have the most materials at Pascal of any of the four participants.

In answer to the question about the serials cancellation project; bibliographers have started to work with liaisons, and a web site will be made that lists the cancelled serials. The general response from the campus is not that the Libraries have mismanaged the budget, but rather that the budget is inadequate. Cancellations are to be recommended by September, and the faculty will be consulted a final time before cancellations are finalized.

3. Janet commented on Technical Services topics:

BCR Contract

The contract is now signed and work is expected to begin before the end of April. Bill Garrison and Meri Willet will be meeting with BCR representatives to begin discussing details such as exactly where and when BCR staff will work, but it is expected that MUCH of the work will take place after hours and on Cataloging work stations. Meri is our project manager and Judy Nevi, formerly of the Libraries, is BCR's project manager.

Background on need for project: There are severe problems with the Chinook database that are the result of unfortunate decisions made in the past, in part due to lack of money and from problems with the CARL database. For example some 200,000 titles lack fixed fields. These database problems result in problems for retrieval, inventory and circulation. These problems reached crisis proportions with the off-site project because all items going off-site must have good cataloging.

Currently TS staff have joined together to correct these problems for Louisville, but the pace of this work must increase significantly for Fitzsimmons and if TS did not receive help on this project they would not be able to do their regular and necessary work. Difference between what BCR will do and what we have been doing for off-site inventory: BCR will not only inventory items going off-site but will go in shelf-list order and account for items remaining on-site as well as those going off-site. They will assure that there is an on-line record; that it is correct; that it has fixed fields, and that it has a barcode and an item record.

They will not catalog items. And although they will do retrospective conversion for items without machine-readable record, this is much more than a retrospective conversion project. Still, because it will deal only with materials that already have some kind of record in the catalog, this is only the first step in "completing the catalog."

This is a long-term project. Exactly how long BCR will be working with us is dependent on many things including funding. The Libraries is contributing financially to the by holding open several faculty lines. So far the Campus contribution to the project is unknown but it is not expected to be all that we would want. How long and which faculty lines will be "kept hostage" to this project is still to be determined. We will be balancing what we need with what we can do without for a yet-to-be determined period of time.

2) TS Initiative at re-looking at organizational structure

As was announced in some detail in the last minutes of the TS Division meeting, which were posted on the Norlin list, TS Department heads are beginning a process of looking at the organizational structure and TS functions of the Libraries. We are processing very different materials for a different catalog than we were ten years ago. Also, since faculty lines are open and other vacancies are expected in the near future, this seems to be the right time to do this.

While there is no time-line for the completion of this look at possible re-organization, some possible recommendations should be made quite quickly as they relate to vacancies that may need to be filled.

Any recommendations for re-organization will need to be presented to the Cabinet for approval.

4. Dean Williams - "speaking his mind"

Search for new president; he is concerned that no one will be selected by June when Buechner leaves. The president is important for the university, and we need an effective president to handle our tenuous relationship with the legislature.

Accreditation; the North Central Ass'n will be here in the Fall to re-accredit CUB. Jim hopes for noise about the libraries. The faculty on campus are concerned about getting their research materials. The staff were asked to contribute if the accrediting team visits the Libraries.

Libraries Program Review; the recommendations from 1999 have not changed much since 1992. The concerns are the same: staffing and compensation.

Journal situation; patrons don't know that the libraries pay for e-subscriptions. The attitude prevails that the web is free. For the next Program Review we need to follow Janet's present project in TS to re-evaluate and streamline job functions in order to maintain our meaningfulness. Jobs should have responsibilities attached to empower staff. Streamlining job tasks makes us more efficient and we can better serve patrons. Closing libraries does not save money; we have to reinvent ourselves to maintain our legitimacy, and campus faculty support us. How will our role change, and how will the scholarly record change if we don't archive the paper copy and use e-sources instead?

Money: we will be reallocating about 10% of the materials budget in order to pay our annual subscription bills in the fall. This means that we will be cancelling approximately $500,000 in current subscriptions between now and next winter.

Endowment; the target 6M has been exceeded; and we need 4.5M over four years.

Science Library; the Fine Art Building has been condemned, and $42 M must be raised for a new building. The total cost for a new Science Library has been set as $30M. $21M will be requested from the state, and we must raise $9M in private gift funds before the Regents will approve the project as a campus priority for consideration by the Capital Development Committee of the legislature. It will thus make it difficult to convince donors to support a project that has not received the Regents' approval. The Norlin Building project will be part of phase II of the current capital campaign.

Offices in Norbas on 8000 sq ft of on-grade space. We would prefer to use this space for that facility. We would prefer to use this space for expansion of the East Asian Library, and when a new Law School is constructed, the old Law Library is being sought as a possible future home for the Special Collections Department or some other library function.

HSC/Denison Library will manage the PASCAL building at Fitzsimons, as well as the budget for that facility. We will contribute a proportional share of that budget based on the extent of our holdings in the building. The Central Colorado Library System (CCLS) courier will provide access to materials located at PASCAL.

Questions from the floor:

1. Will FacMan help pay for the planters on the west porch? No.

2. Trash on the porch; we have to handle this like we do the planters. Be proactive.

3. OCI; one of the findings of the 1992 Program Review of the Libraries was that we needed to improve internal morale. The Vice Chancellor's recommendation to the Dean was that we should seek a solution to this problem. The OCI Steering Committee was formed to assess the factors contributing to bad morale, e.g., poor communications. This assessment was accomplished through an Occupational Culture Improvement (OCI) survey instrument that was recommended to us by the Employee Development Department. Our next OCI survey is scheduled for April, 2000. The data from the second survey will be shared with us in open forum, and the Cabinet will then decide which of our various library organizations, e.g., LAB, Faculty/Staff Development, LSA, etc., should be assigned to address any continuing issues. The OCI survey is not mandatory, but all staff were strongly encouraged to participate in order to produce a sufficiently large sample of input from which to draw conclusions.

4. Has Jim been asked to serve as the University's President? No, but he was flattered by the question.

5. How do we hire for Fall semester? How do we plan raises for students, etc.? Jim is planning to discuss budget issues with the Library Council later this summer. We expect a standard 2% increase in the materials budget lines for 2000/01, except for a 2% increase in the materials budget.

6. What happened to the kiosk that the campus planned for the Libraries? The campus info point has been held up by budget constraints.

7. How will E. Asian space be reassigned if the library is located in Norbas? The Chancellor has promised a portion of Norbas to the Science Discovery Program on a temporary basis. This program is not a central campus function, and the Dean is working with the Vice Chancellor to negotiate the use of this space by Science Discovery on a very tight temporary timeline. In the meantime the School of Journalism and Mass Communication is scheduled to vacate nine offices in Norlin during August.

8. Is Janet's reorganization project exclusive to Technical Services? Peripheral contacts will be assessed. TS may be able to make recommendations regarding functions in other areas with which TS has primary contact.

9. What is the cost of BCR project? We've requested $300000. A rough estimate for the total project is $1M.

10. How will lack of budget increases be handled? As well as we can, but we already know that re-allocation and re-investment will be necessary.

11. The Dean discussed the fact that he has Appointing Authority and limited authority in many other matters. He has a great deal of responsibility in his portfolio, but much of that responsibility comes with limited authority.

This page last modified 03 July 2000. Send comments to: liblab@colorado.edu.

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