University Library Committee 2005-2006

Minutes for May 8, 2006

PRESENT: Mark Blaine, Val Burris, Deb Carver, Grant Castner, Chris Jones, Andrew Marcus, John Miller, Gina Psaki, Lee Roth, Michal Young, Ray Weldon.

GUESTS: JQ Johnson, Director, Center for Educational Technologies, Mark Watson, Associate University Librarian for Collections & Access

COPYRIGHT DISCUSSION OF NON-PRINT MATERIAL
Circulation of Videos through Summit
At the last meeting, the committee discussed the possibility of the library lending its videos through Summit, the union catalog of the Orbis Cascade Alliance. Washington State University has begun to do this, and there are 5-7 additional Summit libraries that are considering this change as well. The general consensus among the libraries is that the more material that we allow to circulate, the more benefit to everyone. There was some concern that circulating the videos throughout the consortia might become damaged or lost. Mark Watson stated that the library has been lending out-of-print material through Summit and has a good track record of getting material back. However, it is understood that videos are used more for teaching rather than for information/research. Several suggestions were given:

Get feedback from WSU on their experience with lending videos
Library staff to make initially identify videos that would be not allowed to circulate
Get faculty input on titles to not circulate
Implement winter term
Determine if replacements are available from vendors
The online booking feature currently allows faculty to keep a video from circulating

A motion was made to circulate DVD's on a trial basis fall term, and then consider a broader circulation beginning winter term with the endorsement of the ULC. The Library should send a notice to faculty now about this policy change and articulate the options available for faculty to exclude a particular DVD from circulating. All voted in favor of the motion.

Copyright

Deb asked the committee on whether they feel their colleagues know where to get copyright information, or do they feel it is too hard to find or understand. Some feel faculty are familiar with the basic copyright laws, but that workshops would be beneficial to furthering their understanding. Deb stated that the library is in the process of developing an informational copyright website. The American Library Association has a webpage with Blackboard issues and it was suggested to have that link available from our Blackboard site. JQ added that faculty can place items on Blackboard for teaching material the same as what they would do face-to-face in class.

LIBRARY COMMONS INITIATIVE
JQ gave a report on the Library Commons initiative, which started over a year ago. The task force working on this initiative consists of library staff, as well as computing and Academic Learning Services staff. The general goal for the task force is to develop an area in the library that would involve a collaborative student learning experience using technology. A proposal for funding the project has been submitted to the campus Educational Technology Committee. [That proposal has been approved; the amount of funding to be finalized.]

The project will involve the restructuring of the reference area in Knight Library, consisting of the following components:

Expand and relocate from Media Services the laptop checkout program - approximately 50 laptops.
Two presentation/practice rooms - for students to prepare and rehearse presentations.
Six collaborative workstations each to accommodate several people.
Collaboration with other units on campus, e.g. student services and ALS providing space for small group tutoring. The plan is to use the current Interlibrary Loan Office for such activities. ILL is in the process of merging with Access Services.
Reference Department is in the process of selecting titles to remove from the Reference Collection and put into the circulating collection-the library has seen a steady decline in the use of print reference materials.
Reference Services will remain in its current location.

A question was raised about the possibility of using the Learning Commons for cross teaching a course with OSU. JQ responded that type of service is currently available in Media Services.

There was some concern with transferring part of the reference collection to the stacks areas in which the material would be allowed to circulate. Mark responded that he believes the items being considered are mostly from the A's and Z's. He will look into that further and report back to the committee - which he did in the message below:

As a follow-up to Monday's discussion about reducing the size of Knight Reference in order to gain space for the Learning Commons as well as to sharpen the focus of the collection on the most critically important reference works, I confirmed that nearly all of the titles being transferred to the stacks are classed in the As and Zs (Collections/Series and Collected Works; Bibliography). As these volumes change locations, they will start to circulate. If there are titles in these or other classification areas that you are particularly concerned about keeping in Reference with a non-circulating status, please direct your requests to Paul Frantz, Assistant Head, Research & Reference Services.

JQ added that the Learning Commons will be evolving over the next several months. Some plans we may not follow through with, other new ideas may be implemented. The Science Library will be exploring opportunities to work with the Klamath Lab, and the new White Stag facility in Portland will also have a library presence, which may be modeled, after Knight's Learning Commons.

DOCUMENT DELIVERY
Mark provided a brief update on the library's document delivery initiative. The charge for this initiative is to assess the benefits and costs of various document delivery options and to propose/implement a document delivery plan. Document delivery is delivering to hard copies to UO patrons either directly or to a pickup point, or sending in a digital format. The goal is to make it easy for the user to get material. The initiative group is exploring ways to get materials across campus. We currently do branch-to-branch deliveries, but would like to be able to make deliveries to campus departments and possibly to individuals' home addresses. It is necessary to review existing circulation policies when discussing the various options. It is important that we begin striving for equitable circulation, not circulate to only a select group. Electronic delivery to user's desktops of our own material (that is not already in full text) is a high priority. This could be a time consuming process. It was suggested to store scanned material to eliminate the process each time it is requested, but due to license restrictions, that may not be able to happen. Mark will continue to update the committee on the progress of this working group.

LEGISLATION - THE FEDERAL RESEARCH PUBLIC ACCESS ACT OF 2006
Deb brought the committee's attention to a recent piece of legislation introduced by Senators Cornyn (R-TX) and Lieberman (D-CT). The Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 would require eleven federal agencies to make electronic manuscripts of peer-reviewed journal articles stemming from their research publicly available via the Internet. If passed, this bill would have wide-reaching implications for investigators in a broad range of disciplines. Libraries are generally very supportive on this legislation. Because of the six-month delay, library subscriptions are not significantly threatened. At the same time, important federally funded research would be widely and freely accessible to the general public. Publishers are opposed to the legislation.

NEXT MEETING
Rather than a full ULC meeting June 9, the subcommittee charged with drafting a senate resolution will meet during that time slot. The next full ULC meeting will be in fall.

Submitted by Sheila Gray

Maintained by: Sheila Gray, skgray@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 02/07/2008