News: University Library Committee Minutes: March 4, 2008

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December 10 , 2008

University Library Committee
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
2:30-3:30 pm
Room 362 Memorial Library

ULC Members Present: Kemnitz (Chair), Bhasin, Corfis, Jasper, McDaniel, Schneider, Van Gemert.
Other Library staff: Barkin, Guthrie, Konrad, Kruse

1. Welcome and introductions

2. November minutes approved with minor revisions.

3. Director’s Report (Van Gemert): Google presentation went well in November. Discussed letter to Chancellor Martin thanking her for following through on John Wiley’s commitment to use Big Ten money to protect journals, promote resource sharing and collaboration among faculty in arts, humanities, social sciences. Julie Underwood was recently appointed Interim Provost, responsible for libraries within the GLS. The libraries had a good relationship with previous Provost Farrell and are looking forward to working with Underwood to implement the Chancellor’s vision. UW system libraries have a request in to the Governor for money for a shared electronic collection ($6 million across UW system) and for a preservation facility ($10 million to share operations with Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Veterans Museum). The libraries will also put in a request to Darrell Bazzell for additional collections dollars.

4. Updates from Directors of Campus Libraries.

Lewis: CIMC will now be called MERIT (Media, Information Resources, Information Technologies) Library. This represents a change in role as well as a change in name, reflecting the mission to provide more consistent and efficient IT support to faculty in the School of Education. The library will wait until the new fiscal year to roll out the new name.   The School’s new Dean, Adam Gamoran, was in previously in charge of WCER.
Konrad: Memorial is interviewing for Western European History and Social Sciences Librarian; an interim has been in place for one year. Memorial is involved in planning, hosting events, and developing a web portal for the Year of the Arts and Humanities. Also, working with Mike Whitmore to develop a center for digital inquiry into culture.
Kruse: College is crowded for finals. Staff are working with Jon McKenzie, physically hosting his StudioLab course, a test case and pilot for rethinking space, providing classroom space for courses as well as current training programs (LILI, technology).   College is also working on issues related to students’ interest in campus safety, particularly key in a 24-hour library. College will be talking to Safe Walk/Safe Ride and ASM to see if there’s more they could do to meet students’ needs. College is also partnering with the Dean of Students to provide a space where students can discuss safety issues.
Law: Law has three support staff vacancies, with a fourth on the way. Law has 25 total positions, half support staff, so these vacancies represent a great deal of the work.
Schneider: Ebling completed a strategic planning process in mid-summer, responding to changes in clinical practice and the EPIC rollout integration.   There is a renewed focus on Scholarly Communication and Publishing.
Kemnitz: Primate Center. The National Center for Research Resources and Turner Consulting Group received a grant and issued a subcontract to create an inventory of laboratory animal models of human disease. Kemnitz is working on primate piece with Ray Hamel, with salary support for three years. Related to that, will be submitting a grant application related to resources for primate research; would develop content and subcontract to Bioinformatics Research Coordinating Center for technology piece.

5. Budget (Van Gemert). Shared presentation from 12/15 GLS Staff Meeting. While we do not know what our budget reduction will be, we are discussing principles. We will retain our commitment to excellence, with staff being our most valuable asset and we will continue with strategic hires as long as we have the ability. Over 50% of our staff are eligible to retire, and we expect to see some turnover from attrition. We have float of six positions. We will do our best to maintain our support of student staff budgets. We are, however, preparing to become somewhat smaller in staff size, programs, and perhaps facilities. We will evaluate travel, which is mostly paid for through gift funds. No programs, services, or collections will be absolutely protected from reductions in funding or positions. We may need to realign and repurpose some staff and learn more about measuring library success by measuring our contributions to faculty/student success. We will continue to enhance “our brand” with efficiency, innovation (technological), and by attracting and retaining talented people.

6. Library and Information Services Access Midwest Program (LAMP), Gabe Gossett (held for next time)

2/10/09 Sarah McDaniels
Approved by the ULC 2/13/09