March 20, 2017 Meeting of Administrative Council

Bill Mischo, Tom Teper, Shuyong Jiang, Chris Quinn, Susan Avery, Sarah Williams, Mary Schlembach, Lisa Romero, Joanne Kaczmarek, Mary Laskowski, Kyle McCafferty, Tom Habing, Greg Knott, Jeff Schrader, Cherie’ Weible

1. Discussion of budget re: library materials (Teper)

2. Update on Library Directory Application (Habing)

3. Update on the Privacy Policy Implementation (Namachchivaya)

Atoma Batoma, Beth Namachchivaya, Bill Mischo, Tom Teper, Chris Quinn, Susan Avery, Mary Schlembach, Lisa Romero, Mary Laskowski, Tom Habing, Greg Knott

1.   Collections and Budget reductions (Tom Teper): The campus has asked the library to identify a 3% permanent budget reduction for FY18. All campus units are being asked to identify reductions, some at higher levels than the Library’s 3% cut. Collections funds are protected, but a flat collections budget translates into cuts due to collection inflation. The library is preparing a request to the campus to support a three-year infusion of funds that can support inflation. Tom has proposed that the Library also identify un-used or under-utilized subscriptions for potential cancellation, so that the Library can reallocate existing funds to the pool of funds. Caroline Szylowicz asked what the annual collection inflation rate is. The average annual inflation is 4.3%. Inflation rates vary by discipline. Bill Mischo commented that it is important for the Library to pursue a combination of approaches to stave off continual erosion of collection buying power. The timeline is short for preparing this request, which will be included in the annual budget report—mid-April. Tom is reviewing general and other collection funds to identify opportunities for reallocation and cancellation, and he and others are discussing within divisions as well as with individual selectors.

2.  Library directory update (Tom Habing): Tom Habing provided an update on work to revise the Library’s online directory, more specifically, the work to present Library professionals by subject are or area of specialization. A primary driver for revision of the database is to create a searchable, up-to-date database of Library professional and unit expertise (subject and functional) that is a data source for many other Library webpages. Including the Library departmental directory. The Web Team will draw from this database to populate unit webpages, the referral scheduler, etc. and other pages in the new CMS.  Directory information can be edited by units and individuals.  Still under development but very flexible.

3.  Privacy policies (Beth Namachchivaya): Beth Namachchivaya provided an update on the Privacy Policy implementation, which she assumed responsibility for after the Privacy Policy Implementation Team completed its report and recommendations in 2016.  The Library Privacy Policy, as well as a set of staff resources related to the privacy policy, are now available on the Library Web site (http://www.library.illinois.edu/administration/services/sub_policies/p_privacy.html). The staff resources will be part of the staff information on the Library’s Intranet. In addition to the Privacy Policy web site, a sub-community for Library policies has been set up in the IDEALS repository.  Namachchivaya explained that there are 25 Library policies, guidelines or terms of use that contain information about privacy.  These policies need to be revised and re-formatted using a new policy template. In the next two weeks, Namachchivaya will be contacting policy group owners to revise existing policies using the new template.