UNIVERSITY LIBRARY COMMITTEE 2006-2007

Minutes

March 16, 2007

PRESENT: Mark Blaine, Deb Carver, Priscilla Elder, Julie Hessler, Alexander Mathas, Eric Mentzel, Lee Roth, Tze-Lan Sang, Ray Weldon

GUESTS: Faye Chadwell, Head, Collection Development & Acquisitions; Mark Watson, Associate University Librarian for Collections and Access

Mark Blaine, chair, called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m.

AUTHOR RIGHTS/SCHOLARS BANK

The committee discussed comments that the members received from their colleagues regarding author rights and use of Scholars Bank. Lee reported that the faculty he talked to in AAA did not express any concerns or problems with their publishers. It appears that most AAA faculty do not deposit any material in the UO's open-access archive Scholars Bank. Ray stated that it is not uncommon for Geology faculty to send their publications as PDF files when requested, or to post their PDF file on personal websites, rather than posting in an open-access digital archive. They have not had any conversations with publishers that this could be in violation of copyright laws. Alex reported that the few colleagues he talked to do not have any experience with publishers and are not familiar with these kinds of issues. Eric added that the conversations he had revealed no problems with publishers and that some faculty members are not familiar with Scholars Bank.

Deb suggested that faculty may not have the necessary knowledge about open-access archives, such as Scholars Bank, to respond to queries on author rights, etc. Possibly, the first step we should be taking is to educate the campus community on Scholars Bank before proceeding further. The committee was in agreement that faculty do not have a clear understanding of Scholars Bank. Some may feel it is too difficult, or time-consuming to post to S.B. Others may feel their work would not be protected. Julie suggested putting statistical data sets on S.B. Ray also suggested investigating the possibility of archiving data sets. Listed below are several links to Scholars Bank topics, which should answer some questions faculty may have:

Reasons why faculty should consider submitting to S.B. See Faculty Reasons
Copyright discussions - SB Copyright and SB License
Summary of permissions that are normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement – Sherpo Romeo

The committee agreed that the questions used to get feedback from colleagues should be redefined to address Scholars Bank. It was suggested that library staff assist the ULC members in posting something they have authored on Scholars Bank. Ray asked what the process would be to have a department participate in Scholars Bank. Mark W. responded that a "community" would be set up and that each member of that community could post their information, assigning their own parameters.

Julie asked if anyone has tried to submit a book to S.B. Mark W. responded it would be difficult to do and that no one has tried this in Scholar Bank. He suggested that the library research other repositories, which may have experience posting monographs.

Summary of discussion:

1) Library to put together a proposal for Scholars Bank education

2) Work with Geology as a test case for getting an entire department to use Scholars Bank. Mark W. will work with Ray.

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AWARDS PROGRAM

Julie reported on the library's Undergraduate Research Awards program. She served as this year's ULC's representative on the awards committee. This year's top award of $1,000 was awarded to a student majoring in music, and three $500 honorable mentions were also awarded.

One of the applications submitted was a senior thesis, which is much different than a research paper for a specific class. After a lengthy discussion, the committee made the decision to not consider the thesis. She suggested that the library make a decision on whether the program should include a thesis category, or state in its guidelines theses cannot be considered. She also feels the program should be publicized more. Another area that needs addressing is making it clear that different departments have different expectations of what constitutes "research." We shouldn't exclude the sciences because they use data sets as research. If the library can raise additional monies for the awards program, we may want to consider having categories, such as hard data; in-depth research, e.g. history; and thesis submittals.

CLIFFORD LYNCH VISIT

Deb invited everyone to attend the lecture by Clifford Lynch, on April 9^th, 8:30 a.m. in Lillis 182. Mr. Lynch is the executive director of the Coalition for Networked Information. He will be addressing the campus community on the intersections of information technology, academic research, and libraries. The Library and Information Services are sponsoring this event.

SPRING TERM MEETINGS

S. Gray will send requests for spring term schedules.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 p.m.

Submitted by

Sheila Gray