Meeting Minutes September 19, 2003

11 a.m. in L215

 

Present: Absent:
John Anagnostopoulos RuthAnn Althaus
Judy Christie Pat Philbin
John Eber
Robert Hansen
Nelson Hathcock
Dave Kohut
Anita Morgan
Graham Peck
Mark Vargas – Chair

 

A G E N D A

  • Update On Front Entrance and Haddad Room
  • Update on Catalog
  • Update on Off-Site Storage
  • Draft Goals and Objectives
  • Other

 

Mark welcomed everyone back and noted that Nelson Hathcock is back from his sabbatical and John Anagnostopoulos has replaced Bea Julian, who resigned several months earlier.

Update On Front Entrance and Haddad Room

Mark told everyone the library renovation and the construction of the Haddad Room is finished. The new Circulation Desk is in place along with the new security gates. The new reference shelving has been assembled and is in place. He asked if anyone had any comments, to drop him a line.

Hopefully, sometime in the future, the Nursing collection will be integrated into the regular collection and then the Reference collection can be pushed further down into the Reading Room. Another future goal is to have a 40-seat teaching lab in the library.

Bob Hansen mentioned that he liked the openness of the library as it is now. Mark replied that he thinks the noise in the library would be cut down with a teaching lab located at one end.

Update On Catalog

Anita informed everyone that to date 400 books for Orland have been cataloged, and they will be going to the new site at the end of the month.

Mark said that even though Orland will not open till January 2004 Paul Matthews wants to go ahead with the move.  There will be a part-time (.6) librarian at Orland. The interviewing process will start shortly. Graham asked if this position was non-tenure since he understood that tenure-track was indicated for full-time positions. Mark answered, “Yes.”

The books intended for Orland Park are temporarily stored in boxes. Graham wanted to know how the books would be transferred between campuses and also what the procedure would be to request one of these books. Mark replied that the actual transfer of books would be handled internally. Any requests for books to move between Orland Park and the Chicago campus should be requested through ILLINET.

Update On Off-Site Storage

Mark told the Committee that we received the green light to go ahead with off-site storage, and that he would be signing the contract later that day.

Journals will be the first to go to storage. John Eber asked what criteria were being used for off-site storage. Mark replied that those journals not received in hard copy for the last ten years will be selected for storage, which means about 9,900 volumes will be sent to the off-site location. With the exception of titles on JSTOR, only recent journals are stored electronically.

Mark went on to say that the library was designed to hold 100,000 books. Currently we house 170,000. Politically he cannot do a major weeding.  Once the journals have been sent, books will be considered.

Mark said canceling future microfiche copies of journals pays for off-site storage. We should be able to save money. He will have the actual numbers for the next meeting. We are not going to get rid of the fiche we currently have, and they will stay on the Chicago campus.

The selection of books is a more complex problem because some are misshelved, missing, etc., and this will take us well into the next year. Books that are 15 years old and older and have never been checked out will be the first consideration. This involves about 9,000 volumes. Details of delivery/retrieving still have to be worked out with Circulation. Our vendor for off-site storage does not deliver individual books. They will deliver the box that a particular book is stored in. The vendor makes his money in delivery. Graham made the comment that he looks at books that are older than 15 years. He likes to have the book in his hand so that he can see what it contains. He feels that off-site storage may be a problem for him.

We intend to publicize the off-site information on our library web page and have handout sheets for the Deans’ Council and faculty.

Graham wanted to know if the library had any intention of notifying the various departments of what is going to off-site storage. Mark thought the books could easily be done by call number. Graham thinks it would be a good idea to send the list to the Department Chair so anyone can look at it. Mark replied that we could also put the list on the Web, if desired.

Draft Goals and Objectives

Mark told the Committee that this summer he worked on a draft of the Goals & Objectives, and this fall semester he wants the Committee to dissect the document. He took the basic document from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. He then used this as a starting point and reconfigured it to our needs.

Bob Hansen said he went over the guiding documents. He made a few comments regarding grammar corrections. He thought the Long-Term Goals were great but should academia be included? In point #2, Human Resources, he feels the words “the best possible service to users and” can be eliminated.

Mark said to look at the pages following Long-Term Goals. He took the four goals and broke each down to reflect Assumptions, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats, and Objectives. At the next meeting, Mark wants to start taking each Goal apart. His intention is to do one Goal at each meeting.

Regarding Goal #1, Action 1.1.4 under Objectives, Graham wanted to know if anyone from the library is going to be on the Core Committee. Mark said Dave was nominated.

John Eber thought the Vision Statement could have some minor changes – just in adding or deleting a word. Graham pointed out that with a new President coming in, the library would probably have to shift some of its views/points. Regarding the last point on the Vision Statement (Develops a regionally recognized Special Collections) Graham asked what the library anticipates in getting for Special Collections. John A. said we might not need special collections unless it’s archival.

Mark said Special Collections are great for fund raising. When he goes after a collection, he also goes after money. Special Collections are not cheap. He negotiates money to fund the Special Collection and also money for the library. It will take time to decide what type of Special Collection we want for our University. Special Collections can attract external resources.

Other

John Eber thought that references to peer institutions should be supplemented with model institutions.

Bob Hansen agreed with John. We should take a look at different models – not necessarily peer institutions. Look at three or four different models. What have other universities done recently? What has Marist done?

 

Meeting adjourned at 12:05 p.m.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday, October 14, 2003, at 2 p.m. in the Haddad Room.

 

Minutes submitted by: Virginia Preuss

Library Coordinator