Library Committee

Members present: Richmond Barbour, Chris Beaudry, Dylan Keon, Emily Shroyer, Justin St. Germain
Ex-officio present: Faye Chadwell
Guests present: Don Frier, Kerri Goergen-Doll, Cheryl Middleton, Brooke Robertshaw

Welcome, Introductions and Housekeeping   

• Last year’s committee was concerned about looming cuts; the situation is not as dire this year. Regarding the degree of faculty participation related to collections, can the Library Committee contribute or be more active this year? Possibly by trying to understand more about how budgetary decisions are made. Can the Library Committee mitigate the not-so-bright budgetary forecast?
• Minutes
  • Richmond indicated that the expectation is that the responsibility will rotate among the members in taking minutes.
• Issues/Concerns
  • Open Door Session Recaps – Faye was not yet prepared to discuss this topic; the final report is not y et complete.
  • Budgetary concerns – What would cuts would mean for those accessing journals and calibrating how that would look? Faye worked with Sherm Bloomer on the budget and received funding to avoid making large cuts (including an infusion from research overhead and additional funds from Education and General [E&G] funds). The Library could be looking at collection cancellations next year, but not this year.
• Review 2015-2016 Annual Report
  • Want to continue pursuing Open Educational Resources.
  • Do a better job of advertising the Undergraduate Research Awards and appoint a Library Committee member to serve on the selection committee.
  • Unclear what role the Library Committee can play in advocating for enhanced funding for collections. Is there anything the Committee can do to improve the situation and advocate with the Faculty Senate?
• Membership:

Richmond Barbour, Chair ’18 – School of Writing, Literature & Film
Chris Beaudry ’17 – Chemistry
Dylan Keon ’17 – Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences
Robin Pappas ’17 – College of Liberal Arts
Emily Shroyer ’18 – College of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences
Enrique Thomann ’18 – Mathematics
Dianna Fisher ’19 – Extended Campus
Justin St. Germain ’19 – School of Writing, Literature & Film
Melissa Santala ’19 – Mechanical, Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering

Student Members:
- TBA (grad)
- TBA (undergrad)
- TBA

Ex-Officio Member: Faye Chadwell
Executive Committee Liaison – Bill Bogley

Review Standing Rules – All committees are requested to review their Standing Rules for potential revisions.

Standing Rules:  The Library Committee advises the University Librarian in (1) meeting the learning, instruction, and resource needs of students, faculty and staff; (2) formulating library policies in relation to circulation, budgets, services, and development of resources for instruction and research; (3) interpreting the needs policies of the library to the University; and 4) identifying and addressing issues regarding scholarly communication (e.g. print and electronic journals and books). The Committee consists of nine Faculty members, ideally providing a broad representation of academic disciplines, and three Student members, including at least one undergraduate and one graduate student, and the University Librarian, or designee, as an ex-officio, non-voting member. One faculty member may be retired.

• Number (3) appeared to be ambiguous; the Committee will discuss during an upcoming meeting.

Action: Richmond moved to reduce the number of students from three to two (one undergraduate and one graduate); motion seconded and passed unanimously.

Report from the University Librarian – Faye Chadwell

• Budget Update – The initial Library E&G budget for this is $13.84M; last year it was $13.2M. Two-thirds of the budget is allocated to addressing the collections shortfall; there were no significant cancellations. A short fall was filled by carry-over funds, in addition to the $400K increase. The carry-over was due, in part, to about eight open faculty positions (approximately one-fifth of the library faculty) and 5-6 open staff positions. When positions become open, a needs assessment is conducted which assists Library staff in determining whether to fill positions and how to use the funds from the open positions.
  • Administration has been advised that these open positions are a concern. Faye is addressing these issues with Sr. Vice Provost Susan Capalbo, Interim Provost Ron Adams and Vice President for Research Cynthia Sagers.
• Ongoing Space Discussions – There is a big space project collaboration with Susana Rivera-Mills and Information Services (IS) regarding a ‘one-stop shop’ on the second floor area where students could receive assistance from a librarian, IS or the writing center.
  • Additional space issues relate to housing the print collection that is not in The Valley Library. In storage are older print runs and duplications, some books and archive collections; the current storage space will be unavailable in 10 years or less. Options for shared storage include the former Nypro building on Research Way or open space on campus.
• Unsure whether Committee members are needed for assigning research rooms.
• Since the Library is at the end of its five-year strategic plan, Faye would like to use one meeting as a focus group for strategic planning.
• Themes Related to Recent Library Focus Groups – Brooke and Kerri
  • Peer review is important when thinking about publishing. Promotion & tenure (P&T) committees and granting organizations give more credibility to science than other areas.
  • Discussed Open Access (OA) as a solution to publishing, but recognized that it’s not always valued by P&T Committee & granting organizations. Alternatives to OA – researchgate?
  • What does collaborative action look like outside of the Library – participate in alliances, working with other libraries? How to get disciplinary faculty involved?
  • The Library plans to sponsor targeted focus groups, i.e. PhD students, post docs, tenured faculty, administrators, etc.
  • Because not everyone understands how systems work, the systems need to be more clear.
• Faye noted that, by Spring, there would be a better idea of expenses; she receives decent budget decisions from Sherm in April. If needed, discussions related to cuts would occur at the beginning of the calendar year. It is not appealing to Faye to send title lists of anticipated cuts to faculty. Cancellations are restricted by the type of deals the Library can make.
• Faye – very important to have faculty input for overall general strategies made and what percentages are cut and phasing out occurs.
• If journals are cut, some journals can still be accessed via interlibrary loan, but it takes time and there are staff costs (about $12 for an article via ILL). All institutions are facing cuts; alliances and groupings are also cutting. If all are cutting the same items, publishers will become savvy and either increase costs or prohibit sharing among alliances. Consortiums and alliances don’t always communicate anticipated cuts. The Valley Library works with PSU, UO and Elsevier on deals. The Greater Western Alliance assists in facilitating some communications.
• In the face of cuts, what does Faye want from the Library Committee? Faye wants assistance in determining how to change the landscape.
• Faye felt that there are ways to reduce costs in the publishing landscape. Reductions would most affect those needing immediate access (i.e., those in the tenure process). Richmond would like to revisit this topic. One felt that the Interlibrary Loan is not as bad as some think it is.

Report from the Chair – Richmond Barbour

• Discuss a return of the library research travel grant, which disappeared a few years ago.
• Discuss Library Committee participation in review of the collection by the Collection Council.
• The next meeting will be a tour of The Valley Library.

Minutes recorded by Vickie Nunnemaker, Faculty Senate staff