Management Council Minutes - December 19, 2007
Present: Jim Aagaard, Stu Baker, John Blosser, Frank Cervone, Beth Clausen, Russ Clement, Charlotte Cubbage, Ann Duncan-Gibbs (for Scott Devine), David Easterbrook, Jeffery Garrett, Catherine Grove, D.J. Hoek, Scott Krafft, Harriet Lightman, Lucy Lyons, Katie Melody, Bob Michaelson, Laurel Minott, Sarah Pritchard, Patrick Quinn, Clare Roccaforte, Roberto Sarmiento, Caitlin Savage (for Suzette Radford), Roxanne Sellberg, Denise Shorey, Andrea Stamm, Claire Stewart, Robert Trautvetter.
Facilitators: D.J. Hoek, Katie Melody
Recorders: Jim Aagaard, Bob Trautvetter
1. Announcements and Introductions
Roxanne Sellberg introduced Ann Duncan-Gibbs, attending for Scott Devine, and Caitlin Savage, attending for Suzette Radford.
Frank Cervone made the following announcement:
Frank thanked Jim McMasters and the staff at the Law library for their donation of a number of 15” flat panel monitors they were no longer using. While these monitors were not appropriate for staff use, they have been put to very good use at our NUcat and self-check machines. Thanks also go to our desktop and lab support staff who have installed these new monitors.
Frank also provided some clarification for a recent NUIT announcement regarding the end of support for Eudora. This is not really a problem because the end-of-life for Eudora has been known for quite some time and NUIT has actually provided support for over a year now. We are waiting for further clarification from NUIT on the new mail server/collaboration software before a final announcement can be made on the replacement for Eudora. In the meantime, there will be no interruption of e-mail support (even past the March 1 “deadline”) since all e-mail client support is provided by library IT staff and not NUIT.
Katie Melody made the following announcement:
Library Public Copiers and Copy Cost: The cost per copy has changed. The change is temporary and is effective from November 2007 through August 2008. If cash is used to make a copy, the cost is 5 cents per copy. If a copy card or a Wildcard is used to make a copy, the cost is 4 cents a copy. These rates affect the public copiers in Main, SEL, Math and Geology Libraries. An exception to the change is the color copier in Art Library; the cost has not changed; at this time the cost is 75 cents per copy.
Jeff Garrett made the following announcement:
NUL is hosting a Jstor forum today from 1-4:30. Invitations went out along with presentation times. NUL will be represented by Russ Clement as a presenter. A wine and cheese reception will follow. General staff not invited but space is limited.
David Easterbrook made the following announcement:
The Africana Map exhibit has been an extremely successful. Thank you to all involved with it. I (David) keep getting very positive feedback concerning the exhibit, assuming that staff from the Africana Collection had done the work.
2. Approval of minutes
The minutes from the November 5th meeting, distributed on December 18th, were approved with two minor corrections from Sarah Pritchard.
3. Administrative committee report
The minutes from the December 3rd and 17th Administrative Committee meetings had been distributed by Laurel Minott. There were no questions or discussion.
4. Departmental reports
Denise Shorey presented a report from the Reference Department.
The PSDivision is engaged in a number of exciting initiatives, and this report is to give you an idea of some of the ways in which the Ref department is contributing to divisional goals as well as to institutional and strategic plan goals.
Existing programs
Research consultation program continues to grow. (One-on-one work with users, particularly but not exclusively undergrads.) We theorize that it’s because they have so little time to spare that they prefer to schedule an appointment; also, many faculty are requiring that their students schedule an appointment. We also get many seniors working on honors theses.
Instruction and outreach. We reached over 3000 students, faculty and staff last year between our regular instruction program, tours, and workshops, both in the library and outside of it. Workshops are most successful when they target a particular resource; our EN workshops are highly successful.
Other services to users
Synchronous communication with users. a.k.a. chat reference. We’ve been using Answers Online for over 5 years now (commercial software) and this year felt that common interfaces to the popular programs (AIM, Google Chat, Yahoo! Chat etc.) were sufficiently robust for us to be able to offer consistent service. We use Meebo. IM chat is taking off, even taking over from AO; we provide it from our desks, signing up for hour-long shifts; that’s working well so far. We plan to market it fully (this quarter was a test) in the winter quarter. ALSO: we know that several librarians are interested in opportunities to interact with our users and will offer them the chance to do so thru IM chat. (With training , of course!)
Use statistics
LibQual revealed that users want places to study and collaborate. We began collecting headcount statistics in all three units in Main last academic year (had begun in IC and PNRR earlier); the stats reveal amazing information, particularly late night (and this year, early morning) usage. [Handout]
Collaboration
The nature of our work affords us the opportunity to collaborate formally and informally with many other units/departments.
With AT… the InfoCommons
With Core/Reserve (when Natalie was acting head) and Career Center… Career Lab
With other PS and PR staff… successful study breaks for students
With Circulation… staffing Exit Control during NSW
With other PS staff… leading PS student training sessions
With LITSS… strong user support
With AT… Library Projection System so that faculty can provide visuals in the
seminar rooms.
5. Indexing keywords from Table of Contents (TOC) images
This was a follow-up discussion to Roxanne Sellberg’s presentation at the December 5th meeting. She indicated that she has received only a few comments.
Several members remarked that the samples looked good enough for public display.
Sarah asked whether the URL link to the scanned picture of the table of contents page also would be in the record; Roxanne indicated that it would.
There was some discussion about what would happen if a record already had a Table of Contents from Blackwell; the consensus was that it should take precedence over the scanned version.
There was discussion but no agreement about whether relevance ranking should be employed. Frank indicated that it would be possible to test it in the test system soon; Sarah suggested that we defer a decision pending work of the Web Services Group.
Finally there was a question about how special characters and diacritics would be processed; Roxanne indicated that she would investigate that question.
6. University Librarian’s report
Sarah expressed her thanks to everyone involved in organizing the staff holiday party.
She discussed the 75th Deering anniversary celebration, which will start in January. An anniversary book will appear in the spring. Alex and Sarah met with President Bienen to secure approval for the use of outside funding for Deering renovation. He gave his approval so we can proceed with planning and fund raising. She indicated that the Library was receiving good end-of-year support from donors.
Budget proposals for the next fiscal year are being finalized; they might include some additional staff positions.
Sarah commented on the recent University announcement about the sale of a portion of NU’s royalty rights to the Lyrica drug. Although there is no indication that there will be any specific allotments to University organizations such as the Library, she felt that this event will improve the entire funding climate at the University.
Sarah reported that two new administrative planning initiatives are underway at the University, related to business continuity planning and electronic records retention. Both will need Library input and our own internal coordination for these issues..
7. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 11:26 a.m.
