REVISED

University Libraries Committee

Minutes for 21 October 2009

Present: Larry Boyer, Jacquelyn Erdman, John Heilmann, Lori Lee, Hunt McKinnon, Dorothy Spencer, Anoush Terjanian, Tami Tomasello, Patrick Valentine, David Wilson-Okamura, James Wirth

The meeting came to order at 3:00 pm.

Terjanian moved that the minutes of the previous meeting be accepted as submitted. Passed.

Jacquelyn Erdman, web services librarian, described three features of the new Joyner website:

1. A discovery tool, to aggregate searching across multiple sources
2. A help menu for off-site users
3. An information center to aggregate information that is currently spread across multiple departments

Discussion turned to the new library catalogue. Is the new catalogue so bad that we should seek another product? Boyer: we are short of money and another product might not be better. Moreover, the existing database is sound; it’s the interface that is poor. Spencer: Joyner is currently exploring open source options for a better interface that would work with the database we have already moved to. Terjanian: we can live with aesthetic shortcomings in the interface, but functional shortcomings need to be addressed. Boyer: it will take about six months, but it will get better.

Spencer reported on the 2009/10 budget for Laupus Library. Net cuts of 8% totaled $41,4305, including equipment, materials, five unfilled positions, and staff for the Country Doctor Museum. An additional, statewide reversion of 5% is anticipated, based on current tax revenues, which are already 1% behind; it is not clear whether this further 5% cut will affect Laupus directly. These cuts have forced us to become more efficient at buying electronic journals, cutting redundancy and matching access to use level.

Boyer reported on the 2009/10 budget for Joyner Library. Vice-Chancellor Kevin Seitz and Provost Marilyn Sheerer directed Joyner to cut its budget by 18%. Actual spending, which was frozen for part of the last year, was reduced even more. For example, acquisitions spending fell by 32% from the previous year, operational spending by 45%.

Boyer and Spencer: Why did the university’s libraries absorb a higher percentage of total cuts than other academic units? First, the libraries have larger operating expenses budgets, which can be trimmed without cutting personnel. Second, libraries were not considered part of the university’s academic core.

Terjanian: the faculty considers the libraries part of the academic core and is dismayed, in particular, at the steep decline in acquisitions spending. But the library needs to serve the needs of faculty members and graduate students, as well as undergraduates. Boyer: there are twenty-seven thousand students at ECU and seventeen-hundred faculty members. There is still ample space for faculty research, but the library’s primary mission is to serve students.

Before adjourning, the committee considered whether, as recommended by the Faculty Senate, to record discussions as well as decisions in its minutes. McKinnon moved that it should and Terjanian seconded. Passed.

Meeting adjourned at 4:08.

—David Wilson-Okamura, secretary