University Library Committee 2001-2002

Minutes for May 14, 2002

PRESENT: Deb Carver, Andre Djiffack, Peter O'Day, Dan Pope, Michael Raymer, Melissa Baird.

GUEST: Andrew Bonamici, Associate University Librarian for Administrative & Media Services.

Dan Pope, chair, convened the meeting at 1:35 p.m.

Survey: Circulation of Bound Periodicals

Deb reported that one of the library's initiatives for this year is to investigate whether to implement a policy that would allow bound journals to circulate. The task force assigned to this charge distributed a survey winter term to departmental representatives and to the ULC. The task force would like to get comments from the ULC before making any recommendation. A handout was distributed listing the survey results:

Total of 23 responses were received: 4 from AAA, 5 from the Sciences, 5 from the Humanities, 4 from Social Sciences, 3 from Education, 1 from Journalism, 1 from Music.

The library primarily used: Knight Library - 16; Science Library - 3; Math Library - 1; AAA Library - 1; multiple branches - 2.

Should journals circulate?

8 Not at all

5 Yes, one day

6 Yes, three days

3 Yes, seven days

Who should have borrowing privileges?

8 No one

9 UO grad students & faculty

1 GTFs and faculty

2 Faculty only

1 All UO borrowers

1 All borrowers

Deb also distributed a handout listing Greater Western Library Alliance Consortium member's policies on circulating bound journals. Of the 29 universities listed, 18 libraries allow bound journals to circulate with varying loan periods, 8 do not list such a policy on their web site, and 3 allow journals to circulate on an exception-only basis. After reviewing these handouts, Mike Raymer made a motion that the library implement a one-year trial period, providing 2-day circulation of bound journals to faculty and graduate students. Because this would be a brand new service for the library, the ULC members agreed to start with a smaller group of potential borrowers. If the library decides to continue the program after the one-year trial service, extending the privilege to undergraduates would be considered.

Some reasons that support this proposed policy are:

The borrower would have more time to review and photocopy articles
Restricting access tends to encourage misuse/abuse of material
Would support the OSU "shared collection" proposal being discussed

There were several questions/concerns raised by the ULC:

What happens if the item is not returned? Deb responded that not finding the item on the shelf already is a possibility with patrons using them onsite. When the journal is not available, it could be requested using document delivery services.

Would all bound journals circulate, including unique and valuable titles? Dan added that James Harper, who is not in attendance today, is concerned with circulating a journal when it is the only copy. Deb replied that a certain title could be coded to not circulate. If there is concern over losing a title, we could initially see how common the journal title is within other libraries and use that information in making the decision on whether to allow it to circulate. We would also ask faculty to provide us with titles that they strongly feel should not leave the library.

What are the differences between traditional interlibrary loan and letting bound journals circulate to OSU? There are some added costs associated with copying individual articles. There are also copyright-related limits on the number of articles a library can borrow from a single journal. If those limits are exceeded, the borrowing library must pay an additional fee to the Copyright Clearance Center. No such fees apply to lending/borrowing bound volumes.

Deb added that OSU has been circulating bound journals to faculty and graduate students for over a year and have not had any problems. They recently extended this privilege to undergraduates. We would like to start out with a smaller group of borrowers, and consider including undergraduates at a later time. The undergraduates are a large group, which could possibly create accessibility concerns for high use journals.

Dan suggested that we charge strict fines to all groups and make sure everyone is aware of those fines. It was suggested to have strips of paper outlining the fines placed in each journal when it is checked out.

Deb asked the ULC if they feel another survey should be submitted to a broader group of campus borrowers before making any decision. The group feels it is not necessary to send another survey. The committee is agreeable to Michael's motion of a one-year trial period allowing faculty and graduate students to check out bound journals with a two-day loan period. Feedback from the campus community will help in evaluation and determination of whether to continue circulating bound journals. The committee is less agreeable to extending this privilege beyond the UO campus community.

The ULC also suggested that a letter be sent to faculty outlining the advantages but also addressing concerns of this policy, and to ask them to identify possible titles to exclude from the process.

Deb will forward this information onto the committee in charge of the initiative. Deb stated that she will also have a conversation with James and AAA about their concerns.

Regional Library Service Center (Orbis)

Andrew Bonamici reported that Orbis libraries are all experiencing space problems and because of that, the consortium is exploring of possibility of creating an offsite storage facility to house less frequently requested material and titles that require special environmental controls. It is estimated that the cost of building the facility, covering operating expenses, and purchasing preservation equipment would be $8-$10 million and that it would house approximately 2.5 million volumes. He added that no site has been selected, but that several locations have been discussed.

The two main advantages of an offsite storage facility are that it is very cost effective and preservation friendly. The retrieval of material housed off site would be the same process as requesting items through Orbis borrowing, which reaches the requestor within two days. The offsite facility would simply be another site within the Orbis consortium.

Deb thinks the UO's collections would comprise 70-75% of the available space. We must carefully weigh the benefits of a shared facility vs. a facility built exclusively for the UO.

Andrew showed the video "The Harvard Depository" which shows the creation and operation of Harvard's offsite storage facility.

Shared Collection with OSU

Deb gave an update on the shared collection discussions with OSU. Both libraries are identifying expensive journal titles and working on developing a single archive if an electronic version is available. Both libraries feel this is a more rational method than having to go through another serials cancellation project. Deb will continue to update the ULC on these deliberations.

Changing ULC Bylaws

The committee agreed to have the ULC's bylaws changed to reflect that its membership include a graduate student representative. In the fall, the committee will submit a notice of motion for the Senate to address. Melissa indicated that she would like to continue serving on the ULC next year; Dan will pass that information on to Dave Hubin.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:40 p.m.

Submitted by Sheila Gray

Maintained by: Sheila Gray, skgray@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 01/10/2008