University
Libraries Committee
Minutes for 17
March 2010
Present: Larry
Boyer, Cheryl McFadden, Hunt McKinnon, Margit Schmidt, Marilyn Sheerer
(provost), Dorothy Spencer, Chris Riley-Tillman, Patrick Valentine, James
Wirth, David Wilson-Okamura
The committee
met at 4:00 to accommodate a request from the provost.
A subcommittee,
chaired by McKinnon, met during spring break to set the agenda for next week’s
faculty forum (Mar. 17 at noon). Boyer and Spencer will begin with a
fifteen-minute presentation on four upcoming issues or challenges: mission,
budget, technology, and space. Power Point slides will be distributed to the
committee ahead of time for comments and suggestions.
Provost Sheerer
came at Valentine’s invitation to advocate for moving Project STEPP into
Joyner. The university has a space crisis. The administration is trying to move
activities that don’t directly involve faculty and students off-campus. Joyner would
receive money for the new system if it used some of the space to house Project STEPP, which provides additional
assistance to ECU students with learning disabilities. Since Joyner already
houses the University Writing Center and the Pirate Tutoring Center, this would
be a good environment for the Project STEPP students.
Valentine asked
about an automatic retrieval system that Boyer has spoken about in the
past. Boyer wants one near the present
library for quick retrieval of lesser used books. By moving some of the stacks off-site, it
would free up even more space for students. How should this
be paid for, and how should the resulting space be used? Sheerer pointed out
that it would be very expensive and not a likely item in the upcoming budget.
Wilson-Okamura:
what would be replaced, and how would it be accessed? Boyer: journal backfiles
that are available online could replace the paper copies now taking space in
the library; these backfiles would be purchased, not rented. Wirth: what’s the
longevity of electronic storage? Boyer: the paper originals are archived in
“dark storage” in case of emergency. Wilson-Okamura: what role does ECU’s
library have in preserving redundant copies? Boyer: we do archive unique
materials, mainly materials from eastern NC but we are not a library of record,
like UNC and NC State.
Boyer gave an update
on the library first floor re-configuration project scheduled for this summer.
--Submitted by
David Wilson-Okamura