chat is offline

University Library Committee 2002-2003


Minutes for December 6, 2002


PRESENT: Val Burris, Deb Carver, Andre Djiffack, Gina Psaki, Peter O'Day, Dan Pope, Leland Roth, Mark Vanscheeuwijck.

GUESTS: Andrew Bonamici, Associate University Librarian for Instructional Services

Dan Pope, chair, convened the meeting at 10:10 a.m.

Shared Storage

Andrew Bonamici, Associate University Librarian for Instructional Services and member of the Orbis Regional Library Services Center Task Force, distributed a progress report on the committee's deliberations. A grant has been obtained primarily for consulting services to focus on building design, business and legal issues, and policy development. This planning process will begin winter term and run through the end of June. The task force is developing a list of criteria for determining the facility's location. Several sites are being investigated at OHSU, Linfield College, Marylhurst, and OSU. The facility would function as another Orbis drop/pick up site. The collections policy is most critical. Each campus will determine what collections they put into it. A committee will be formed to review the collection policies, which Deb will be a member of. It has not yet been determined how long items would circulate. Deb added that it is important that the business model works to our advantage, since the UO is the major stakeholder. If it does not, there is still the possibility of the UO Library having its own off-site facility. Dan asked how many volumes the UO would put into the facility. Deb estimated that UO collections would occupy approximately 65%, or 400,000 volumes of the space. The ULC appreciates that we will not proceed with this venture if it is not in the best interest of this library and campus.

Circulating Bound Journals

Deb reported that, at the beginning of winter term, the library will begin an experiment that allows faculty and graduate students to check out bound journals for a 2-day period. At this time, music journals will be excluded. Leland stated that AAA faculty are comfortable with the AAA Library participating, but some faculty are concerned with allowing the more rare AAA journals in Knight to circulate. Deb stated that it would be difficult to exclude some journals and not others within a discipline. She added that Science Library has been circulating bound journals for 15 years, with no losses in that time. Deb will keep the committee updated on the process.

Bylaws

Dan will send a motion to the Senate to amend the ULC bylaws to state that the student membership on the committee should consist of one undergraduate student and one graduate student.

MLA Report-Next Steps

Gina suggested submitting copies of the MLA (Modern Language Association) report on "The Future of Scholarly Publishing" to the deans. The issues of scholarly publishing/promotion need to be addressed at the institution level. Gina will send a copy of the report to Deb and will also draft a cover memo to submit with the reports. She will bring the draft to the next ULC meeting for review. Copies of the report will also be distributed to the ULC.

Serials Review

Deb distributed and reviewed a memo to the committee outlining the library's serials review plan. [Memo below.] The library anticipates that funding in the next fisca l year will not be adequate to cover ongoing serial subscription costs. Plans are being made for a possible reduction of serials expenditures of $600,000 over three years (excluding law as they do their own internally). Review of possible titles to eliminate will take place during winter and spring terms. The list of titles will be accessible via the web for review and comment. Libra ry subject specialists will work closely with departmental representatives. She added that many subscriptions that we eliminate will be accessible via document delivery. The question was asked if the library can accept journals from an individual's subscription. Deb responded that if a title is cancelled, we could accept an individual's subscription, but that it is difficult to buil d and sustain individual subscriptions.

It was suggested that the memo be sent to departmental reps, deans, and department heads. Deb added that this information can be discussed with colleagues and that additional information will be available early January.

December 5, 2002

MEMORANDUM

TO: University Library Committee

FROM: Deb Carver, University Librarian

SUBJECT: Serials Review

The UO campus has made significant progress providing cost-effective access to scholarly information. These steps include improved resource sharing, cooperative purchases of databases, and electronic subscription packages. Despite these cost containment methods, the library anticipates that funding in the next fiscal year will be inadequate to cover ongoing costs of serial subscriptions.

Several familiar factors dictate the need to reduce the number of serial subscriptions. We expect journal prices to inflate between 8 and 10 percent in 2003-2004, the average rate of inflation since the last serials cancellation project in 1999-2000. It is unlikely that any augment to the library's budget will cover these increases. We must initiate a plan for a serials cancellation process to avoid any serious deficits in the library's budget. We are asking our librarians to plan for a possible reduction of the serials expenditures (excluding law) of $600,000. This amount represents approximately 16-18 percent of the 2002-2003 serials allocation. We do not plan to decrease the book budget at this time but increases in book prices mean the library will buy fewer titles.

The first step is to eliminate duplication among formats (electronic, print, or microform) and retain the broadest possible access to unique intellectual content. To begin the review, library staff will create a database of titles for faculty to scrutinize. Working in collaboration with faculty, the library subject specialists will identify and prioritize titles. We will link to this database from the library website and provide additional information that may be useful during the project.

The cancellation targets will be phased in over three levels; each target will be set at $200,000 for a possible total of $600,000. The library will only cancel enough titles to meet the necessary target. If our budget situation changes, we will adjust the targets accordingly. The timing of our journal renewal process requires identifying titles to cut before the end of the summer 2003. The review of titles will commence in winter term 2003 and extend through the end of spring term 2003.


2003 LibQual Survey

Deb stated that the library has been invited to participate in this year's LibQual survey. The survey instrument has been streamlined since we participated two years ago. Library Council discussed the invitation and is recommending that we do not participate, but consider doing so the following year. The ULC all agreed.

Summary of Meeting/Action Items

  • ULC will stay involved in the shared storage deliberations
  • General acceptance of the trial run on circulating bound journals
  • Dan will submit motion to Senate re. student membership
  • MLA-Gina draft cover memo to send with copy of report to deans. Sheila to send copies of report to ULC.
  • General agreement with new model of serials review - more systematic approach; con tinue to be involved
  • All agreed to not participate in LibQual this year
  • Deb/Sheila send ULC the library's campaign priorities before next meeting
  • Sheila to get winter term schedules; set next meeting date(s)

 

Submitted by Sheila Gray

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