DEAN'S OFFICE

Library Advisory Board
Minutes

Spring Dean's Meeting
April 11, 2002

Laura Wright, chair of the LAB, opened the meeting with the announcement of a forthcoming meeting with human resources staff to address questions raised pertaining to personnel issues. Laura will send out the date and location of the meeting when the details have been finalized. Please send any additional questions to Laura Wright and/or the LAB.

Janet Swan Hill gave an update on the inventory project being conducted by BCR. BCR has been working to assure that all of the cataloged items belonging to the library have an online record, are fully cataloged, areproperly identified, and have item records. This work must be done before items move to PASCAL. Work is progressing in areas of the collection that
will be moving to PASCAL next. Bibliographers review materials, and flag them according to which are to stay here, and which are to go to PASCAL. After materials are flagged, Circulation staff put them on trucks to go to the BCR workers. BCR does the inventory work on the monographs and passes problem titles on to Cataloging. The Serials Cataloging Unit does inventory for serials. Materials that have been brought down for inventory are not charged out. If a patron needs material in the inventory process they are able to put a search on the item and Circulation should be able to find it. Meri Willett will continue to post periodic project updates to the Norlin List. Those with questions about the project can contact Meri Willett of Catalog Management, Brice Austin of Circulation, or Candy Gobrecht of Serials Cataloging. The Louisville storage facility has been emptied and many items identified by bibliographers will be moving directly to PASCAL in the coming months. As space continues to be a problem in the Libraries, however, the inventory project and the movement of materials to PASCAL will be a high priority for several years. Janet warns that it may take five toten years to finish the inventory.

Dean Jim Williams then spoke on the future of the space formerly occupied by the map room. That space is to become a computer cluster roughly modeled on the one in the Science Library. It will not be staffed and at least some of the space will be reserved for those wishing to take advantage of the wireless access being installed in parts of the library. Installation of
the wireless capabilities should be complete by June 1.

The budget situation was the next topic addressed by the Dean. He hopes the Libraries will get through the current year without further budgetary difficulties. The budget for the next fiscal year is being developed and it looks like the Libraries may get a slight increase. The increase will not keep up with inflation, however, and the materials budget will again suffer. Serials will not be cut so shortcomings will be felt in the monographic funds. The university intends to defend faculty salaries.

The Blue Ribbon Panel and the External Review were discussed in response to a question about tenure. The Dean noted that the review had encouraged regular meetings of the Libraries' Cabinet and that the Cabinet would make every effort to do so. The Dean also spoke of a possible adjustment of library faculty campus citizenship expectations. A change to 40% librarianship, 30% research, 30% service is under consideration.

The Libraries strategic plan is now in the implementation phase. Scott Carter, our development officer, is engaged in a capital campaign. Nine new faculty members are being recruited. The library is working on digitization projects and expanding access to E-resources while continuing to provide traditional library services. The Dean noted that the Web Access Committee and the Project on Writing and Rhetoric were both making positive changes.

The Dean then spoke to the condition of Norlin. Although there is some water seeping in behind the facade the building is not in any danger of being condemned. The amount requested for a Norlin retrofit was considered to be too great to for the university to accommodate at one time so the project is being broken down into several pieces. The first one must capture the imagination of the campus or the other parts will not follow. The Dean expects that up to a million volumes will have to be moved off site to make the retrofit possible.

Sharon Gause will retire this fall. Nancy Carter is taking a phased retirement and is now working half time. Peggy Jobe has accepted a temporary assignment as acting head of Math Physics. The Libraries Awards Ceremony is to be held 2:00-4:00 on May 16 in the Earth Sciences Library.

The Dean then took questions from the audience. The first asked how funding would be found for student employees for the rest of this year and the next when one of the sources of the funding, open faculty positions, will dry up as open faculty positions are filled. The Dean replied that Scott Seaman was finding funding for the rest of this fiscal year. A business plan is being put to the provost for next year. Perhaps some of the tuition increase will fund student assistant salaries.

The Dean was then asked how and when fund raising efforts will pay off for the Libraries. The Dean noted that the Libraries are already the beneficiaries of a number of endowments. The income from a $25,000 endowment, for instance, could provide steady funds for material purchases in a particular field of study. The Dean intends to work closely with the
Foundation to expand existing endowments and to prepare for the fund raising necessary to do the Norlin retrofit.

LAB welcomes your comments and suggestions. Please feel free to contact any of its members individually, to leave a note in the suggestion box, or to reach us via liblab@colorado.edu.

• Susan Anthes, Public Services
• Debbie Hollis, Special Collections
• Lorna Kent, Engineering
• Suzanne Larsen, Earth Sciences
• Helene McHendry, Cataloging
• Paul Moeller, Cataloging
• Maureen Van Camp, Media
• Jim Williams, Dean
• Laura Wright, Cataloging