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Minutes: April 11, 2007
Spring All Libraries Meeting
Welcome by Tim Byrne, Chair of LAB
Scott Seaman
Learning Commons update
Funding is all pretty secure, and everything is currently in the State Legislature Long Bill (a.k.a., the general appropriation bill)
--We should hear about a final decision soon
May & June 2007 will be architect selection, with planning lasting through July
--this process will include the Reference Dept. as well as other impacted Depts.
By April 2008, will need BCPC (Boulder Campus Planning Commission) approval of final plans
By May 2008—all spaces affected by construction will need to be emptied, including the current Reference area and the Mac lab
--computers from the Mac lab will be repurposed to the Learning Commons
--lab will become student study space, hopefully specifically for graduate students
unclear on construction time frame—4-6 months (estimated, will depend on contractors’ plans)
the entire process will be extremely disruptive
Update on the Business Library (at the request of Carol Krismann)
renovation on schedule, expected to open between August 1st-7th, 2007
Business school library actually will be the first Learning Commons (24-7 space)
PASCAL
our first bay in PASCAL is virtually at capacity
thanks to Jim and negotiations with the Health Sciences Center, we have permission to build a second bay
--1.6 million volume capacity (exactly like 1st bay)
--construction (9-10 months), fairly simple process
--financing just needs to be worked out
--may be the same time period as the Learning Commons (for construction)
Extended Hours
open until 2am (after a request from the UCSU Tri-Execs)
according to Hilary, attendance is fairly low (25-30 students)
issues: Buff Bus & NightRide don’t run as late as 2am, so students lack transportation
this is an EXPERIMENT for potential future continuation, but it will not be continued during the summer
Scott will revisit issues with the students in hopes of reducing these concerns and providing higher quality service
Media Library
currently in process of changing out media carrels in bay window area, to be replaced by old-style library tables
hoping for an expanded study area in that space
ADA access to 4th ½ floor
Scott knows few specific details thus far
Campus was funded several hundred thousand dollars to install miniature lifts from the 4th to 4th ½ floor
two (2) lifts to be installed—one in each side of the building (North and South)
--the cost is ~$850,000 for both lifts
likely to have a huge impact on Admin Services due to potential consumption of space
--Rhonda’s and Tyler’s offices will probably be absorbed by these lifts
plan to do this over the summer, though unknown how involved the process will be
may require some in Admin to move to other places in the building
again, will be very disruptive
Janet’s report (Janet in Chicago for ALA board meeting)
TS working toward R2 report to address goal #1
base programs and policies on the needs of our clients, esp. objectives 1 and 2
1. build and sustain collection
2. provide print and digital resources to clients in a timely manner
Acquisitions is working with Fastcat and PromptCat on limited basis
working out bugs
with bibliographers, instituting VAP (Virtual Approval Plan)
C&MS working with Acquisitions with development of FastCat procedures
--FastCat must take into light the changes in LC’s policies
--backlog of CU dissertations has been eliminated
--contract is in place with OCLC for foreign language cataloging
--backlog of regular materials reduced to ‘workflow’
Preservation’s Collection Assessment project
--will be of enormous value to assess needed repairs to our collection
--Libraries have approved more funding for Pat to finish this project
--In preparation for Promptcat, Preservation has implemented changes for better physical workflow
--Preservation backlog has been significantly reduced
--PASCAL program of scanning or inputting TOCs of pieces going to PASCAL is moving along
--Publishers’ Bindings project—scanning images of the ornate bindings for researchers who study these bindings (with another 500 titles to be identified in next week or so)
--Scanning projects will eventually provide links to individual essays/works within anthologies for access from the desktop of clients’ computers rather than transferring books from PASCAL to Norlin
Space re-evaluations are in place for Preservation, C&MS (monographic and serials) via Juniper Valley evaluations
--Departments are seeking ways to better organize in order to facilitate workflow as well as workplace comfort
--after an evaluation is completed by Juniper Valley—including potential costs—further discussion will be made about potential reorganization
Dean Williams
General Campus info
President has moved office to Denver campus, and the Chancellor now occupies former President’s office
Regent Hall is now more of a one-stop place for student/academic affairs
President wants the campus to grow enrollment to ~30,000 students per year
--current enrollment is approximately 29,000 students
--much campus pushback—campus goal of closer to ~20,000 students
--Quality for Colorado initiative of a few years ago planned to create a better teacher/student ratio, smaller classes, higher expectations for performance of students
--a move to 30,000 could complicate things for campus community
--however, the President will allow campus input—if not control—over enrollment
Point of interest regarding the Colorado Legislature and CSU—Like CU had done in the past, CSU assessed tuition based on a scale that charged students enrolled in 9-12 credit hours a set amount of tuition, effectively ‘giving away’ up to three credits by charging students with a 12 credit load at the 9 credit cost
--CU requested the option of ‘regaining’ the funds from these lost credits (i.e., charging students per credit hour) from the Colorado Legislature, and that request was granted
--CSU has requested the same ability to ‘regain’ these lost funds, but the Colorado Legislature has denied their request, on the grounds that their application was too late
Two major Academic areas that we’ll hear a lot about in the future
Immediate—renewable and sustainable energy
--if we (CU) engage in research with the Dept. of Energy and NREL (with research funded by the Dept. of Energy), the State will match funds up to $1 million
--which will hopefully get the message across: green is good!
Long term (~5 years)—biotechnology
--campus goal to build $100,000 building on East Campus that will house faculty doing interdisciplinary research in biotechnology
--building will be first major building on East Campus
--plan for residential area on East Campus (dorms, classrooms) will help secure state funding for construction, as the state will fund classroom buildings but not research facilities, so talk has been made of potentially having some teaching spaces in the new building
--the City of Boulder will not agree to any building on South Campus, leaving any potential expansion to East Campus
**We need to know when and where we are ready to support these two initiatives within the Libraries**
EDUCAUSE Report (Boulder-based higher-ed consortium focusing on use of technology)
--report identified high-impact technologies on higher education campuses
à 1) user-created content (YouTube, Wikipedia, etc.), 2) social networking (MySpace, Facebook), 3) mobile phones, 4) virtual worlds (Second-Life; some universities have put their application process in these virtual worlds), 5) digital scholarship, 6) massive multi-layered educational gaming
--Jim’s note to self—“sometimes makes me feel like we are a group of dinosaurs predicting the advent of the mammals”
Learning Commons (addition)
--hope to be able to designate space in the Mac lab for graduate students, instead of 5th floor space
--Libraries will take back 5th floor (in phase-X…unknown what and when)
Facilities
We now have approval from campus to initiate a feasibility study on the Fleming Law library
--plan for Fleming to become our 7th library
--collaboration between College of Music and Libraries
--before, we considered moving Special Collections and Archives, but due to a major gift consisting of music, musical instruments, artwork, etc., from a private collector in New York City (as well as the yet-to-come collections from the Aspen Institute)—we have agreed to bring our collections from Macky to Fleming, then we will combine all of our Special Collections holdings in Fleming (Archives will remain in Norlin)
--we will designate a space in Fleming for the American Music Research Center (AMRC), the Glen Miller Collection, a special collection of liturgical music, the Aspen Institute collections, and the forthcoming private collector’s gift
--hook is that College of Music must help fundraise
In all, it will be a $10 million project—College of Music will be tasked with raising $4 million, while the Libraries will need to raise $6 to create state-of-the-art environmental space for Special Collections in Fleming
--timeline on this is 2011—will take campus that long to surge its way through Fleming (different groups who have claims to the space for time, including Fine Arts, Hellems, then Libraries)
--potentially could get a donor who wants his/her name on it
--existing Special Collections space in Norlin will be discussed in terms of allocation
Drop-In seminars
—attendance has been lower this semester compared to last semester, but the initiative is of great value
Update on reorganization/integration of Systems and Media
Holly—Michael Riberdy will join Systems, bringing many of his existing job responsibilities with him; Chris Johnson will join Circulation
--still in discussions about exactly how the departments will work together
--we must still maintain a strong Media services base
--ITS is removing media duplication services; these are being taken over by Media
--some of these are revenue generating services
--according to Michael, it will triple our current capacities for duplication/reproduction services
For the time being, Media will function much the same way s in the past
Q: If Media Library repurposed, where will video viewing and audio listening spaces go?
John Culshaw—will still be listening spaces remaining, as well as new spaces created
--circulation policies may change regarding some Media materials
Closure of CTRC (Colorado Technical Reference Center)
--was a longstanding (20+ years) revenue generating service, but was not producing enough revenue recently
--received many letters of thanks for years of service
--successfully moved staff to other divisions within the Libraries
Desktop delivery from PASCAL
--still have a staff-member who travels for retrieval every day
--goal is to scan requested materials and be able to send directly to the client’s desktop
Cooperative collection development program (a.k.a., the share purchase plan) with the Alliance
--a trial program, based on usage and demand
--seeking to reduce costs while still maintaining access to materials via Alliance libraries
Digital Repository with the Alliance (11 other institutions, including DPL)
--our CU Boulder repository will be a source of non-CU Libraries-owned items such as theses & dissertations, faculty publications, data sets, and many other types
--the software will support all different formats of materials, so our options are open
A thank-you to Cheryl for hosting Lib-Qual survey
--biennial survey about our users’ expectations for our services
--specific responses: our space is terrible (want group study rooms, faculty student interaction area, quiet spaces), users want more electronic collections at the desktop, want better seamless and simple access (~Amazoogle approach) (Mac lab downstairs is 2nd most active lab on campus, average stay is an hour, lots of digital resource usage, lots of visits to Google), absolutely love Interlibrary Loan, we need better research collections in some disciplines, users want us to do a better job at anticipating their needs (need for more focus groups), users want more personal and disciplinary based services (increase access to and use of bibliographers), help with copyright & publishing
R2 Decisions
We owe a lot of thanks to Charlene, Jina, Pat, Yem, and all folks in TS for the massive changes instituted since the R2 visit
will form an Implementation Team
--will have much work associated with sub-tasking other groups
--Implementation Team will probably consist mainly of affected Department heads
No to increase of Cabinet (current at four members)
Emphatic ‘no’ to moving away from a faculty model
Jim plans to share his memo with Rick and Ruth from R2
--as they had stated that they rarely hear decisions after their reports regarding implementation
For more specific information regarding the Dean’s decisions, please refer to Dean Williams’ email and attached memo dated April 9th, 2007
GovPubs grant for OCLC training module
From Tim Byrne: “The Government Publications Library has received a $264,000 grant from the Institute of Museums and Library Services to develop a training program in which federal depository librarians are trained to train non-depository librarians to access and use electronic government information. The grant will involve librarians from a five state area, including Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The learning modules to be used in this training will be located at OCLC's Web Junction, an online community for library staff. The Train-the-Trainers Conference will be here at CU in June with over fifty attendees. The second year of the grant will see depository librarians reaching out to train non-depository library staff, especially in public libraries. The training modules developed for this grant will be extremely helpful in the cross-training of reference staff required when Norlin moves to the One Reference Desk.”
Questions
Paul: R2 suggested redefining or revamping how we manage our Electronic Resources—where are we with this?
--this will be pursued by the Implementation Team that will make recommendations regarding management, potentially creating a separate department that will function to manage Electronic Resources
--any decisions will be made by Library Council, through the Library Cabinet, after recommendations from Implementation TeamThere was mention that the existing DPAG (Digital Projects Advisory Group) currently works to guide and implement new digital projects
--Jim expects that DPAG will address/suggest how we would set up a Procurement & Licensing department for digital resources, for example
--as previously in-house duties are managed by vendors, then we can direct our energies and efforts to addressing procurement/licensing and any potential redeployment of staff previously assigned to these duties
--authority of Implementation Team is solely for recommendationsPaul: But what is the time frame for the changes suggested by R2?
--MIT, who had R2 visit at a similar time, has set a 3 year timeline
--Jim doesn’t see it taking this long for these recommendations to be implemented, especially since large portions of the recommendations are already in the works
--Jim wants the advice of the principals in the library before any changes are madeDiscussion of R2’s recommendation that we no longer check-in journals
--Health Science’s Center hasn’t checked in journals in two years
--but we have multiple locations in-house as well as the branches
--having a central mailroom may complicate changes in delivery, as materials would still be sent to the main mailroom, then rerouted to the proper department/location
--possibility still open for discussionCurt: As these new initiatives get instituted, has there been any indication from the Chancellor about increasing support staff? Much talk has been made about hiring more faculty, but what about our student budget and our staff numbers?
--Jim hasn’t heard one word about this concern
--Will probably have to wait for the Chancellor’s Strategic Plan in August before we hear any word on any potential staffing increases.
--Jim: what we want are advocates telling the Chancellor that we have been making improvements in what we do. Staff Council is important, and the Libraries are well-represented. Bert, Dave, and Helene are all on the Staff Council this year.What about building access that is limited due to lack of support staff (i.e., security)?
--Jim’s response: We have other projects (some funded and some not) that have priority, and while staffing may be a concern, this is potentially a concern that could be brought up by the new digital projects implementation team.
--If the Chancellor grows the campus to 30,000, the first place where new people will be hired will be faculty—out of necessity. We (as the Libraries) will be on the other end of consideration.
--The Libraries have the largest concentration of Classified Staff, rather than the Departments. The Departments lost many of their Classified Staff in ’03 while we maintained our staff. This unfortunately puts us on the lower part of the totem pole when it comes to increasing staff numbers.
