Library Office Notes

As part of its staff development program, the Library is again sponsoring one Library staff member to attend the ALA Annual Conference.  This year, the Conference is being held in Chicago, IL, July 8-11, 2000.  The recipient of the annual staff award will receive a cash award of $400 to attend the conference.

The Library Staff Steering Committee has been given the responsibility of soliciting applicants for this award.  As such, the Committee will accept letters of interest to be judged by a panel selected by the LSSC.  All Library staff are eligible (except those on the panel).  Consideration will be shown to staff members who have not previously been awarded the scholarship.

To be considered for the scholarship, please address the following questions:

What do you expect to get out of your experiences at ALA?

How do you believe your attendance/participation and experiences at ALA will enhance the UIUC Library, your job performance, and/or you personally?

The letters should be returned to Diana Walter by either e-mail or campus mail by no later than February 28, 2000.

Diana Walter
Geology Library
223 Natural History Building
MC-102

e-mail dlwalter@uiuc.edu

The recipient will be announced on March 3, 2000.  This will allow the recipient to take advantage of early registration and travel arrangements.  For those who are interested in attending, but who do not know much about ALA, you can check out the ALA Conference web page at:  http//www.ala.org/events/ac2000

The recipient of the Staff ALA Award will be asked to give a report to the LSSC and to present/share their experiences with other UIUC staff at a noon-hour brown bag.

(LSSC)

Present:  Paula Kaufman, Margaret Chaplan, Tina Chrzastowski, Tim Cole,
Mary Stuart, Leslie Troutman, Mitzi Williams

Absent:  Marty Friedman, Bill Maher

The meeting of Monday, January 21, 2000, was a special meeting called to discuss the FY01 library budget.  Bart Clark made available the budget document, before the meeting and was present to lead the discussion.

The goals on page 4 of the document were discussed first with Bart explaining how they fit together.  In the final document, Goal 6 will not be necessary, and Goals 3 and 4 will be combined.

A question was asked about digitization; digitization is very important to the Library because of recognition and visibility.  Also, it was suggested that wording should be added to develop the Library research component.

Bart explained that the ICR component of the budget is not a steady source of income since it is a percent of the total ICR income, is not consistent over the years, and does not have an inflation increase built in.  The Library ICR component is a general component and not used specifically for the department that generated it; grants may increase demands on the Library as a whole.

The push from the Campus Foundation to fund endowed chairs places a burden on the Library; Paula has asked that a percent of each chair’s money goes toward the Library.

Funding for electronic resources has been split this year to increase chances of approval.  If the cost of electronic resources increases without increased funding, journals and access to them will have to be cut.  Electronic resources dollars will come off the top and must be accounted for.

Comparing spending to ARL or CIC libraries was discussed.  Bart uses statistics from both groups for budget comparisons.

A preliminary staffing inventory has been completed by Bart Clark and Bob Burger. One area that needs attention is student help in the bookstacks and interlibrary loans. When students were gone for five or six weeks, nothing went out and shelving backed up.   To help remedy the situation, it was suggested that some help in bookstacks become permanent help instead of all student help.

Because of the new DRA system and the required level of sophistication needed to use it, students must have training so they can work at a higher level; pay should increase accordingly to attract student workers.

More has to be done to get cataloging up to speed.  This is an ongoing problem of catching up and having more people in place to do the work.  New equipment and new people to use the equipment are needed.  With the newly approved task force to study the cataloging problem, we will be prepared to be more specific next year about the actual needs.  In the meantime, we need to plan carefully on how to use what we get this year.

Staffing in the Library has been declining gradually.  We are hoping to correct the situation in the next few years by obtaining permanent dollars instead of one-time dollars.

The building plant budget includes the cost of remodeling; non-recurring dollars is sometimes acceptable in this area of the budget.

Electronic operations, such as digitization of reserves, needs to be mentioned; technology needs to be expanded.  Also funds for support of the virtual library are needed.

New and improved programs will be proposed to the Faculty and the Executive Committee before they are published.

CLPC and SLC are very supportive of the budget document.  The document has to be condensed to 15 pages.  Bart would like to get it down to about nine pages with supporting documents on the web for reference.

The new version of the budget will be up on the web for suggestions and comments. The old budget is also there for reference.

Present:  Paula Kaufman, Margaret Chaplan, Tina Chrzastowski, Bill Maher,
Mary Stuart, Leslie Troutman, Mitzi Williams

Absent:  Tim Cole, Marty Friedman

Approval of the Past Meeting Minutes:

The minutes of the January 10, 2000, meeting were approved as revised.

New Business:

Director of Services Position (PTK):  Funding for the Director of Services position is coming from Campus and not from monies that were used previously for a senior level position.  Hiring of the user education position is being postponed until details of the services position are resolved and the proper structure is in place.   The services position is broader than user education; it focuses on all kinds of services, combining public services and technical services into one position.  While the Director of Services won't have a large budget, he/she will have influence on how budgets are spent and will act as facilitator. 

It was decided that the new services position will be Associate University Librarian for Services, equivalent in rank to Bart Clark, who is Associate University Librarian for Planning and Budgeting, and Karen Schmidt, whose title the EC recommended will become Associate University Librarian for Collections.  The AUL for Services position will report to the University Librarian.

Paula is seeking feedback on the AUL for Services and the restructuring report, and requested that the divisions discuss them in their meetings.  Following the division meetings, there will be a special meeting of AC on these issues only.  Members of a Search Committee were recommended; Paula will contact them.

Non-faculty positions to EC as informational item(s) (i.e., Research Programmer in Systems) (PTK):  There was a question about how involved EC needs to be in filling an academic professional position from monies already budgeted.  It was decided that this is an informational item only for EC.

Request to fill Mathematics Librarian position (TEC):  Bill Maher moved that EC endorse the refilling of the Mathematics Position.  The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.  A Search Committee was suggested, and Paula will contact them.

Old Business:

Multicultural Librarian:  The position of Multicultural Librarian was discussed in an attempt to identify and define what "multicultural" encompasses.  There were many considerations.  In order to move forward and report back to the Provost, in a timely manner, EC decided to directly include only the ethnic groups presently outlined by Campus:  Asian Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans.

There will be further discussion about this possible position.

Update on Spousal Hire:  The potential of a spousal hire was negated when the spouse decided not to come to UIUC.

Nomination for Colloquium Committee:  The person nominated for the Colloquium Committee at the last meeting declined.  Another name was brought forward.   Paula will contact the person nominated and report back to EC at the next meeting.

Emeritus letter for Jean Geil:  EC unanimously agreed to forward a letter to Campus recommending Jean Geil for Emeritus status.

Comments on Preservation Librarian Draft:  Karen Schmidt consulted with people at NEH, and many comments in the draft are a result of those conversations.  The position, as described in the draft, is not necessarily faculty rank.  There was concern, among the committee, about attracting candidates with a scholarly approach to the preservation materials, rather than attracting candidates to the process.  EC unanimously agreed to convey this concern to the Search Committee.  If the committee cannot find someone with faculty rank, they will bring the issue back to EC. It was recommended that the search committee seriously consider advertising the salary for the position as "commensurate with experience," rather than publish a dollar figure.

Important issues to clarify for future Library searches are questions of when to search for a tenured assistant or associate professor and when to initiate a dual track search.

February 14 EC Meeting:  EC will act on the Interim Geology Librarian and Interim Math Librarian positions at the February 14 meeting.  The February 14 meeting will begin earlier (1:15 p.m.); Paula will present at the UIUC Senate meeting which begins at 3:10 p.m.