Council of University of Wisconsin Libraries

CUWL Minutes, July 24, 2007

Council of University of Wisconsin Libraries (CUWL) Meeting
July 24, 2007

Special Collections Conference Room
UW-Madison Memorial Library

Present: Jean Gilbertson (Chair), Ewa Barczyk, Marc Boucher, Marlys Brunsting, Chris Cox, Anita Evans, Steve Frye, Chris Goss, Peter Gottlieb, Leanne Hansen, Joyce Huang, John Krogman, Valerie Malzacher, Ed Meachen, Vanaja Menon, Paul Moriarty, Terri Muraski, Joshua Ranger, Richard Reeb, Paul Roberts, Kathy Schneider, Felix Unaeze, Ed Van Gemert, Patrick Wilkinson.

 
Jean Gilbertson called the meeting to order at 9:30 a.m.

A revised agenda was distributed in order to accommodate last minute changes.  

Welcome and introductions:

  • Valerie Malzacher reported that the WAAL program is being planned around an advocacy initiative to promote libraries on academic campuses.  ACRL has grants to bring this program to campuses and states and WAAL will be hosting the program.  Rebecca Martin, who is the UW System Senior VP for Academic Affairs, is one of the presenters. Looking at a late fall date for the program and ACRL intends for this program to be for librarians at all levels. We should try and send as many staff as possible.
  • Anita Evans stated that UW-LaCrosse has a new chancellor in February.  The campus is now searching for a VP of Finance, a Provost, and currently has three interim Deans.
  • Richard Reeb. Collections and Resource Sharing Initiatives Coordinating Committee Chair.
  • Felix Unaeze reported that the move of the UW-Superior Library to a temporary location has been postponed to May of 2008 due to structural problems in the building.
  • Chris Cox announced that the new Library Director of UW-Eau Claire, John Pollitz, will start in August.
  • Steve Frye is the User Services Initiatives Coordinating Committee Chair.   Sarah McDaniel is replacing Abbie Loomis as the Coordinator of Library Instruction at UW-Madison.
  • Terri Muraski from UW-Stevens Point announced that they are looking for a new Access Services person.
  • Marlys Brunsting is the Library Technology Initiatives Coordinating Committee Chair.
  • Leanne Hansen reported that UW-Green Bay has a cataloging position open.
  • Joyce Huang announced that UW-Whitewater has top administrative positions open.  They have an interim Chancellor, interim Provost and interim Dean of College of Arts & Communication.  The Director of Human Resources retired.  She also reported that for the last two years they have been trying to attract freshmen to the library.  Two years ago they tried a game show based on the Price is Right.  The format had some problems.  Last year they tried a movie night but it did not work very well. The plan for this year is a trivia question contest.  Joyce asked opinions from the group of switching from easy proxy to VPN for authentication since their IT department is proposing the change.  Discussion ensued on the topic.
  • Joshua Ranger is the Digital Initiatives Coordinating Committee Chair.
  • Pat Wilkinson from UW-Oshkosh asked for opinions about both the Camio and ArtStor databases.  The art faculty at UWO is requesting an art database.  Discussion on the topic.   
  • Ed Van Gemert reported that   Ron Kraemer has been named the new CIO at UW-Madison.  Ken Frazier, who has been interim CIO, will return to the General Library system around September 1st.  Ed also wished to recognize Nolan Pope’s contribution to the Library and to the profession at both the national and state levels. He has done extraordinary work and is retiring at the end of year.  Due to accumulated vacation he will be gone sometime in September/October.  Ed also thanked everyone for lobbying to help pass the house bill on public access and other legislative initiatives.
  • Kathy Schneider is the Director of WILS
  • Vanaja Menon from UW-Parkside will become the permanent Library Director as of August 1.  She reported that there are other interims in UW-Parkside administration.
  • Ewa Barczyk from UW-Milwaukee announced they will be posting a search soon for an Associate Director with an emphasis on Scholarly Communication and Assessment. UW-Milwaukee is in the beginning of remodeling.  Kubala and Washatko Architects have been hired and they are refocusing the plan to create more public space in a Learning Commons. Construction is slated to start in the fall of 2008.
  • John Krogman from UW-Platteville announced that their staff is stable. 
  • Paul Moriarty is from the UW System, Office of Learning and Information Technology
  • Ed Meachen is from the UW System, Office of Learning and Information Technology
  • Chris Gross is from the UW System, Office of Budget Planning
  • Marc Boucher is from the UW Colleges.
  • Peter Gottlieb reported that the Wisconsin Historical Society will be restoring the main library reading room at the historical society.  It is scheduled for completion in 2009.  A new preservation facility is now in the biennial budget.
  • Paul Roberts from UW-Stout announced that they have a search and screen underway for a cataloging position
  • Jean Gilbertson announced that the new version of Metalib will soon be released at Madison.  The new ejournal list will be generated from SFX.

Consent agenda

  • Minutes, April 23-24, 2007
  • Review of Executive Committee minutes, May 15, 2007
  • Review of Executive Committee minutes, June  29, 2007
  • Approval of Agenda

Ed Van Gemert moved to accept consent agenda and Anita Evans seconded.  The motion passed.

Update on CUWL membership for 2007/08 (Gilbertson)

Dr. Michael Pickart of UW-Stout has accepted a three year appointment as a faculty representative to CUWL. Dr. Gulig and Dr. Rybak are staying on as the other two faculty representatives to CUWL.  John Pollitz will begin as the Library Director August 6 at UW-Eau Claire.  A round of thanks was offered to Chris Cox for his work on behalf of CUWL.  Marlys Brunsting is the new Library Technology Initiatives Committee chair in place of Steve Elfstrand who has left.  
A new membership list was passed out by Paul Moriarty.

UW System report (Meachen)

Ed Meachen is working to replace Library Consultant Lorie Docken with two people; one on the IT side and one on the library side.  Joyce Huang and Ed Van Gemert are CUWL representatives on the search committee for a new Library Consultant.  The position will be advertised around August 1 and close around September 1. There was some discussion of best place to advertise. IT position search is also going on concurrently. Ed Meachen reported that they had picked up a half position and they will now have 2 1/2 positions where they had two FTE before.  Lorie is now the UW System Project Director and is working on major systems implementations such as the HR system’s discovery and scoping project.  This is a very large project and CIBER is consulting on the project to get an idea of how long it will take to implement and how much it will cost. The new IT position is to assist Lorie in her position of Project Director. There is also a financial project in procurement (supply management). Ed Meachen was asked about the budget. Chris Goss responded and a discussion ensued.  There are 30 million new monies in the budget but, with no cost to continue increase, there is a net loss to the budget.  Senate and assembly will need to hash it out and there is no date on finished budget. Ed Van Gemert urged partnering with undergraduate research to increase library funding. Anita Evans reported on the UW-LaCrosse Institute for Innovation in Undergraduate Research & Learning (IIURL) directed by Prof. Bob Hoar. The institute is creating learning objects that will help teachers pass the Praxis exam.   It will be located in the library temporarily for two years. There was general discussion on the budget and the importance of lobbying for system-wide library funding on your own campus. Jean Gilbertson thanked Paul Moriarty for agreeing to work full time until the vacant OLIT positions are filled.

Strategic planning update and continuing discussion on strategic themes (Wilkinson)

Pat distributed a document from the strategic planning committee (Pat Wilkinson Chair, Ed Van Gemert, Ewa Barczyk, Mark Boucher, Chris Cox, Leanne Hansen, Felix Unaeze, and Paul Moriarty).  This document is a list of strategic directions and emerging themes to consider. The committee is looking for comments on the themes and for more items/themes to add. To that end Pat asked each member present to comment on the document.

  • John Krogman stated he is happy with the first draft.
  • Paul Moriarty suggested that we look at financial aspects of planning.  He noted that Chancellors now have more influence.
  • Ed Meachen stated that the library is clearly part of the business of the university.  We should emphasize the common systems approach as part of the success story for libraries.  It is the number one way we work together.  A reasonably good strategy as part of the underlying planning process is to emphasize efficiency, service enhancement, adding value… etc. for the Board of Regents.  We should try to get a library director on the strategic planning group of the UW system.  He noted that the IT roadmap will go to group on Thursday, and still will be in draft but will be available for public discussion.  Ed Van Gemert suggested that bringing business processes into agreement could be a strategic theme (i.e. common book purchasing).  Paul Moriarty stressed showing how we are providing efficiencies.
  • Chris Goss suggested we promote how efficient the libraries are in spending money.  How do we deal with the growth agenda of adding students without resources?  We have done well with what we’ve had but we are behind.  Now that we are adding more students we need more resources.  Jean Gilbertson commented that it appears for all four year campuses are now encouraged to be involved in research.  Ed Meachen suggested that we work with faculty to lobby for more library resources to support research.  Faculty and students are effective advocates for libraries.  Ed Van Gemert noted that there are emerging new fields of research that we have not even begun covering, so there is a need for more resources. 
  • Marc Boucher addressed the main Strategic Question or Theme.  He asked is this the right guiding question?  Should we consider what services we need to cut to make the statement that we cannot serve expanding needs without additional money. This is playing hardball; do we want to do so?
  • Peter Gottlieb thought the strategic question was a good one to ask.  It helps define overall strategic direction.  The one system one library phrase has served us well. Our task may be to see what one system one library will look like over the next 3-5 years. How will it better promote better teaching, learning and research throughout the UW System?  The clearer we are about this the better.
  • Jean Gilbertson commented that information literacy should be emphasized under collaboration. Each campus does need to have ownership of an information literacy program. Ideally, information literacy should be identified as a core competency for students at the institutional lever, even if faculty may not feel responsible. 
  • Valerie Malzacher suggested using information literacy under the public relations heading (#2) as a marketing tool. We need to place more emphasis on information literacy.
  • Anita Evans was pleased that we are talking about budget on the strategic plan. We need to think about the next biennial budget.  It has been a ten year interval since we last got money and we now have an opportunity. The concept of partnering with other advocates is important to think about. We should be coordinating our requests and discussions with chancellors about the next DIN. 
  • Richard Reeb discussed shared electronic collections. Our budget has not seen an increase. With the push to expand access we will need to have a million more to have a meaningful impact.  If there is no more money we will need to consider our individual budgets to contribute more individually to the shared collections. We cannot look at larger packages at this time. He gave examples of new products and price increases on current products. He commented on the Services #2 heading (Investigate new ways to deliver the library catalog). We should consider a redesign of Voyager and this group should look at a different kind of catalog. We should look at the concept of a union catalog or a UW system catalog. 
  • Felix Unaeze emphasized that we must take into consideration the smaller institutions.  Research is different at smaller campuses.
  • Chris Cox suggested we consider information literacy assessment across the system.  This may give us greater bargaining power.
  • Steve Frye noted that sharing has really helped staff.  They work on projects collaboratively and share drafts.  It would be useful at system level to provide shared productivity tools. 
  • Terri Muraski commented on recruiting.  We need to find ways to recruit and attract staff.
  • Marlys Brunsting noted that the goals for her committee fit in well with the document.  It is important to train staff.  We need to keep our individuality while also promoting one library one system.
  • Leanne Hansen suggested that we promote services to distance learners.   
  • Joyce Huang commented on item #3 under collaboration.  It is important to have collaboration with library and IT departments.  There was general discussion on this issue.
  • Joshua Ranger brought up the UW Records Officers Council. Half of the members of the council are employees of libraries and are not records officers. This is sapping the time of staff to do other things. Our campuses need to recognize that bad records management is costing money and they need to contribute to bring records management to an appropriate level. 
  • Pat Wilkinson noted that we need to make some decisions on overall issues that will help us with specifics.  We need to have a digital strategy for the future.
  • Kathy Schneider stated that WILS had a focus group that met in June. A number of common themes came up with two major areas, one on service and the other on back room operations.  It may be possible to minimize the back room work and move it to the system level to contain costs. We also may be able to contain costs using a union catalog and shared cataloging.  The other main theme of service revolved around flexible staffing, shared staff, and partnerships.
  • Vanaja Menon echoed everything that had been said.  She was happy to see item #3 under staffing (Need to maintain or increase total library staffing…) this is very important at smaller schools with smaller staffing.  We also need to provide more opportunities for staff that have been around for a long time. Information Literacy is important.  It needs to be made clear under assessment that information literacy is important, and not just implied. 
  • Ewa Barczyk noted the importance of aligning strategic directions to our individual campuses and tying them into the economic development of the state.  The focus needs to be on the user, not on the library. 

Pat Wilkinson said that the plan is that the strategic directions committee will meet after the CUWL meeting today.  It will form a drafting committee.  The plan is to have the draft out by mid-August so the UW system could see what we are all about. 

Ed Van Gemert took the opportunity to sum up what he heard around the table on this issue.

  • It is important to think through the one system one library concept over the next 3-5 years.
  • We need to continue to bring business practices into alignment across the system.
  • We need to continue supporting research across the system and need non-library allies to work with us on this.
  • The notion of core competency of students with core assessment tools is important. We need to raise the level of awareness of information literacy.  It is the cornerstone for the story we tell
  • It has been ten years since we last got new money.  There is the possibility of an organized task force to prepare way for a budget increase.
  • In terms of shared collections, expanding access requires additional resources. 
  • We need to consider strategic direction in terms of a new OPAC.  We should think about a Union catalog or other discovery tools.
  • We need to increase system wide productivity tools.  These have increased on campuses and will continue to do so.
  • We should keep in mind what we may need to cut.
  • We need to continue to promote campus responsibility for records management.
  • What is our digital strategy for the next few years?  We will need content as well as access.
  • We need to consider flexible and shared staffing.
  • We should be aligning our directions to the state economic agendas.
  • It is important to have an umbrella focus on users.

John Krogman said we should consider pushing system to go to the legislature for a library technology fee. This should be a strategy item.  There was discussion on getting a greater part of the student technology fee.  Ed Meachen made a comment that any presentation to the Regents should be highly graphical, clear and concise and include no more than 3 items.   

Coordinating Committees – priorities, communication issues, and assessment (Gilbertson)

Jean Gilbertson noted there has been two years worth of effort on new organizational structure. 

  • With fewer committees, it will be easier for the system staff to support committees. When something new comes in we need to not start another committee but rather assign it to one of the coordinating committees. 
  • Committee members need to think of themselves as functional representatives not as campus representatives.
  • We need to be assessing to see how committees work from the beginning.  Flexibility will be important during the initial implementation to keep them operating properly.
  • There is a great need for communication with the groups. Online listservs have been set up but have not yet been posted on the websites. We need to make sure that our staffs know that if they want to follow activities they need to be on those lists. Committees should possibly place agendas on the website.  It is important to post minutes, even for virtual meetings.
    • Paul Moriarty distributed an up to date list of committee membership. 
      • There is now a mail list for each committee.  He encouraged directors to join each list.  He also encouraged staff members to join any list they are interested in.  The LAMS have abandoned their list and are on the new listserv.
      • He is looking forward to working with each of the committee chairs.  There are already two committees set for initial meetings in August. 
      • They will be shutting down former mail lists. 
  • Jean also noted the benefits of cross functional groups, as many initiatives cut across campuses and functions. 
  • There are a few business items that need to be resolved. 
    • There is a formal assessment piece in the committee structure. We are supposed to have an assessment two years after the committees start.  In 2008-09 we will need to appoint a working group to assess the coordinating committees to see if they are working or not working and whether or not to move forward with them. 
    • We need to look at committee terms, etc. She has asked chairs to determine who has two or three year terms, so that every member doesn’t rotate off at once. There are no hard and fast rules for the chairs on how to do this.  Down the road a committee member will not be a chair unless you have served for one year.
    • Marlys Brunsting asked about the question of time commitment for members.  General discussion followed on the work load and how it will play out. 
      • Jean Gilbertson suggested that each committee consider the laundry list of tasks from the strategic planning committee. 
      • Ed Van Gemert suggested each committee look at the strategic plan and review what goals need to be set. 
      • Joshua Ranger pointed out the time commitment is greater.
      • There was general discussion on the work load and ways to handle it.  One suggestion is that technological solutions may be the answer.  It will be important to assess the overall workload issue as part of our overall assessment of the new committee structure.

Proposed terms for CUWL representatives to Coordinating Committees (Gilbertson)

Since the terms of CUWL committee representatives was left undecided the executive committee came up with a proposal for those terms. They propose that the term for the initial CUWL committee representatives will be for three years.  The CUWL representative’s terms would be reassessed prior to new appointments being made in 2010.

It was moved by John Krogman to accept the proposal. Ed Van Gemert seconded the motion. There was some discussion on how it affects new member’s opportunity to serve on those committees.
The motion passed.

CUWL website (Moriarty/Gilbertson)

The new and improved CUWL website is located at http://uwlib.uwsa.edu (and is also printed on the membership list).   It follows the template and format for the rest of the UW system pages.  Instructions on how to submit things to the website will be on the site. 

Lunch (Dinner plans were arranged for the evening)

Updating CUWL operating procedures (Malzacher)

Jean Gilbertson noted that we need to update our operating procedures. This update is required by the adoption of the new coordinating committees. (Our procedures are thus out of date and need to be updated). Changes in CUWL operating procedures may be adopted at any CUWL meeting as long as a notice of the proposed changes is sent out four weeks in advance. Valerie Malzacher and Anita Evans have agreed to revise the procedures and will distribute them prior to fall meeting so that a vote may be taken at that time.

Blackwell implementation update (Reeb/Barczyk)

Ewa Barczyk has talked to Mike Arnold of Blackwell.  He has met with all the campuses.  Blackwell feels that there is positive acceptance of the Single Vendor plan.
Richard Reeb said that most of the effort at Madison has been in setting up approval plan profiles.  He gave details of the setup process and a discussion of budget uncertainty.  He hopes to turn on approval plans soon.  There was discussion of the process of setting up approval plans.  It is his hope that by end of this calendar year to have shelf ready approvals operational through Blackwell.  The selectors are not fighting the plan and the transition is going reasonably well. There was discussion of determination of the discount from Blackwell.
Joyce Huang stated that the turn around time for firm orders from Blackwell is not as fast as for previous vendors.
Ewa Barczyk noted there will be assessment of the program and the primary book vendor. 
Paul Moriarty said that an estimate was distributed based upon current expenditures.  The premise is that if a publisher is offered by Blackwell then that book order will be placed with Blackwell initially.  The goal is to reduce needless duplication and to maximize the discount.
Marc Boucher asked if anyone is using the shelf ready service. 
Richard Reeb has used a shelf ready service from Yankee and sees no reason for that service to cease with Blackwell.  He will not be able to report on this service until later this calendar year.  There was general discussion of this issue. 
Ewa Barczyk discussed a program for collection analysis; Blackwell has partnered with Library Dynamics who offers Spectra Dimension for collection assessment. Product/implementation costs are being reviewed.

Library Consultant search process (Huang)

Joyce Huang passed around a first draft of the position description for the Library Consultant.  This is not the final draft and another version is coming soon. The main points of the position description emphasize leadership and there has been a shifting of bullet points so that the more important ones got moved up on the PD. 
Anita Evans asked what will be Paul Moriarty’s new position after the new people are hired.  The current plan is that he will return to a half-time position and help “mentor” the new library consultant and work on some IT issues as well. He stressed that there will be a full time person solely dedicated to libraries. The advertisement for the Library Consultant position will be out by August 1 and by August 31 there will be the first screening. The advertisement will be phrased so that applications will be accepted until the position is filled. The committee hopes by October 8 to be doing interviews with a final decision by November.   

Update on Digital Initiatives (Ranger)

Joshua Ranger noted that the committee has not met yet.  He wanted to alert us to a situation.  A team from UW-Extension and UW Colleges was awarded a $24,000 grant to create an image repository for Wisconsin. The impetus seems primarily to come from the UW Extension.  There is a portal to help teachers with lesson plans and these images are to augment that database.  Educators will be hired to go across state to document (photograph) Wisconsin culture and history.  Some aspects of this project are likely to duplicate the current UWDC. Content of the new database is aimed at younger students and so will be the web interface. This could have been done with the UWDC but it is now moot since the planning is underway. A question for the future:  should UWDC share content with new group should they ask for it?  There was general discussion on how this came about and how, or if CUWL should respond. 

WiLS Report (Schneider)

Kathy Schneider gave the report on WiLS.

  • Net lender/borrowers came out about the same as last year.  Amounts to campuses about the same as last year.  She distributed handouts with the amounts listed.
  • BLDSC and CISTI electronic document delivery expenditures were about $3000 over budget. (Please refer to the handout.)  The overage may need to be divided out among participants.  She will first request compensation from the UW system.
  • She discussed OCLC e-resources pilot, which is similar to SFX.  It is an open URL resolver. There is an OCLC electronic resources pilot project with UW-Oshkosh and UW-Green Bay that should be up soon.  If anyone else is interested in participating, Please contact Kathy. WiLS will keep us informed of the project status.
  • WiLS commissioned a member user satisfaction survey.  There will be an overview on Thursday at WiLS World.  There were written comments about CUWL and Kathy read a few.  She noted that there is a lot of misinformation about WiLS out there.
  • Pat Wilkinson and Kathy Schneider spoke at a COLAND meeting (Council on Library and Network Development of the DPI) about Badger Cat and World Cat.  There was discussion of what was said. 
  • Anita Evans asked about the ILL report, will the UW system pick up the extra costs.  How do we raise this issue? Paul Moriarty pointed out the question had already been raised.  System will let us know.

Update on Madison shelving facility and Google Book Project (Van Gemert)

Ed Van Gemert read a statement that expresses the purpose of the Google Book Project.  He passed around E-mail from a member of the WILS staff.  The e-mail noted that the Google book project made a genealogy book available online.  He gave an overview of the project and things are going well.  This is a UW-system project and other campuses may participate, especially for materials that are unique and not duplicated.  Please see Ed Van Gemert if you are interested.

The Remote shelving facility was addressed next.  He has been invited back to give another presentation to the campus community about the facility.  This will be a joint presentation with the Wisconsin Historical Society.  The facility had been scheduled for the 08-09 biennial budgets but has not been funded.  Property for the facility has been purchased.  There are advantages to have the Library be affiliated with the Wisconsin Historical Society for the facility and it would have to make economic sense. The initial lobbying will be for the Wisconsin Historical Society with the Library as phase two. This project is open to UW-System participation. They are taking a fresh look at collaboration with the Wisconsin Historical Society. 

Wrap-up

---- Joint meeting w/ITMC – spring or fall

The general consensus was that a fall meeting in November, as requested by ITMC, would allow too much time to elapse between CUWL meetings.  The spring ITMC meeting is scheduled for April 22-23.  WAAL is the week before in Manitowoc, so it would not conflict.  A joint meeting in the spring with ITMC is preferred.

---- Fall meeting agenda items

Jean Gilbertson stated that agenda items will be set later via e-mail.

---- Future meetings

Jean Gilbertson will check with Kathy Davis to see if we may use Stevens Point for fall meeting.  She will set a date after talking to Kathy and she will submit dates that do not conflict with WLA.  Marc Boucher suggested a future meeting at UW-Baraboo.

Adjournment

Valerie Malzacher moved to adjourn. Vanaja Menon seconded the motion.  The motion to adjourn passed without discussion.  The meeting was adjourned at 2:55 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted:

Paul Roberts
Secretary, CUWL