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VCU Arts Library Committee

4th Floor Conference Room, Cabell Library

February 16, 2011

Minutes

Attendance
Josh Chenard, Susie Ganch, Sonali Gulati, Roy McKelvey (chair), Ying-Fang Shen (replacing Sterling Hundley), Pamela Taylor, Barbara Tisserat, Roberto Ventura, Stephen Vitiello

Staff: Yuki Hibben, Kristina Keogh, John Ulmschneider, Pam Fraga (recording secretary)

Guests: Ibronke Lawal, Dan Ream

Business

Review and approval of agenda
Dr. Gulati asked that the Committee discuss the loan period for reserve items in MRS.  It was agreed to add this to the agenda following the discussion of the VCU Arts Library Committee charge.  With no other additions, the agenda was approved.

Review and approval of minutes from November 2010
The minutes were approved as presented.

VCU Arts Library Committee charge - handout
Mr. McKelvey said that the Committee has been in operation for years, but there has never been a formal charge or organization document for the Committee.  The composition of the Committee has been determined by the Dean of the School of the Arts, normally by his contacting the various departments and requesting representation, and has then asked Mr. McKelvey to serve as chair.  Mr. McKelvey referred to the draft charge provided as a handout, drafted by himself and Mr. Ulmschneider, which was created by using the charge for the VCU Libraries Advisory Committee (VLAC) as a guide.  He asked the Committee for reactions and suggestions, noting that there was one significant change from the current operational functioning of the Committee: the addition of a representative from the Dean’s office.

In discussion, Mr. Ulmschneider explained that in fact several other committees on which he serves have a non-voting representative from the “bureaucracy” and has found that is actually facilitates communication between the committee and the authorizing body.  Even if this representative doesn’t attend, and many do not, they receive all the minutes and agendae and are therefore kept “in the loop.” 

Mr. McKelvey and Mr. Ulmschneider both discussed the issue of what person or body should issue the charge to the Committee.  They noted that normally the body served by the Committee issues the charge, in this case the School of the Arts.  It was decided that after approval by the Committee, the charge would be sent to the Dean of the School of the Arts for his approval and official issuance.  The Committee agreed by unanimous consent to sponsor the charge as currently drafted and Mr. McKelvey said he would take this to the Dean.  It is hoped that there will be a response and official issuance of the charge by the next meeting, which is slated to be April 13, 2011.

Loan terms for reserved items
Dr. Gulati explained that it is difficult for students to work with materials using the current loan periods for reserves.  Right now, instructors may reserve materials for either 2 hours or 24 hours.  2 hours is too short a time to effectively work with materials; 24 hours is too long a time because it may not allow all of the students in the class to review items before the deadline.  She suggested adding a 4 hour time period.  Mr. Ulmschneider thanked her for bringing this to his attention, and said he didn’t know the reasoning behind the current time periods for reserve.  He will look into the matter and report back to the Committee by April.

Elevator lobby redesign for Cabell Library
Mr. Ulmschneider reminded the Committee of the discussion at the last meeting regarding the collection of quotations to be considered for inclusion in the design of the elevator lobby wall areas.  He asked that anyone who wanted to submit quotes for consideration do so quickly as the deadline for submission is tomorrow.  The plan is for these quotes to be compiled and presented to VALC for their review and selection.

Reports and Discussion

MRS Task Force initial recommendations - handout
Mr. Ulmschneider reported that the Media Resource Services (MRS) department has been undergoing a thorough operational review by a task force, chaired by Dan Ream, and the first report from that task force is the handout being offered today.  It identifies the first round of easily changed/revised items in the operations of this department.  He then highlighted the following:

  • Some computers will be reconfigured to allow use only for MRS purposes or to access microforms, and will not have access to the Internet
  • The collection of 16 mm films currently stored in MRS will be reviewed and where appropriate discarded.  Most of these films are from other schools in the area; those schools removed the items permanently from their collections, but VCU agreed to store them on condition that VCU could discard them when that became necessary. VCU Libraries staff have concluded that very few of these films have intrinsic or historic value.  A full list of film titles (they are not cataloged) will be made available to the Committee, to RALC, and to anyone who may wish to claim some of them before the films are removed from the collection.  Should anyone want any of these films, they can be transferred to University departments per state regulations; the departments then assume responsibility for the films, and may use them however they wish.  Some departments may wish to cut up the films and use the film strips for art projects.
  • A large collection of curriculum and curriculum materials from the 1960s and 70s will be reviewed one last time, and will be discarded.  Most of the materials were transferred from the School of Education in the 1970.  Any item with intrinsic or historic value will be retained.
  • A collection of multimedia and multimedia software that is obsolete or for which some components are missing will be discarded.

Mr. Ulmschneider asked the Committee to share all this information with their colleagues and students and reiterated that any of this material can be transferred to another department.  However, State regulations prohibit transfer of ownership to an individual student or faculty member.

VCU Libraries in recalibrated VCU2020 Strategic Plan
Mr. Ulmschneider briefly updated the Committee on the status of the VCU2020 Strategic Plan.  He reminded them that there are four themes in the plan, and that the VCU Libraries had representatives on three of the four task forces assigned in fall 2010 to develop those themes.  He explained that there will be several more opportunities this spring for input from the University population and encouraged the Committee members to add their thoughts to the dialog.  He noted that ARL status for the VCU Libraries was identified in the plan as an overall University assessment metric, which will help create a much stronger library system for VCU.   The final report will be presented to the Board of Visitors at their May meeting.

LibQUAL+ survey, spring 2011 - visual demonstration
Dr. Ibronke Lawal, Collection Librarian for Engineering and Science and chair of the team conducting the survey, gave a short presentation on the history of the LibQUAL+ initiative.  She also described the LibQUAL+ survey tool, and she noted that this year, a smaller and more easily completed survey, LibQUAL+ Lite, will be used alongside the full LibQUAL+ survey. She explained the sampling technique for the survey: the pool will include students, graduate students, and all faculty, totaling 11,757 people.  To encourage participation, there will be incentives:

  • For every person who responds, $1 will be donated to the Virginia Food Bank (courtesy of the Friends of the Library; no State funds will be used.)
  • $25 Barnes and Noble gift certificates
  • Apple iPad, along with a $25 gift certificate for iTunes

The survey will be open for 3 weeks beginning on March 22nd.  The targeted response rate is least a 15% response. 

The Committee was encouraged to respond to the survey and to encourage their colleagues to do so as well.  This survey, done every 2 years, is one of the primary ways that VCU Libraries can gauge its effectiveness and efficiency and the results are critical to the ongoing direction and operations of VCU Libraries.

VCU Libraries programs: (handouts)

  • Forgotten Roots: Muslims In Early America, January 24-28 – Mr. Ulmschneider reported that the program was very well received, with much stronger attendance than anticipated.  It brought onto campus many people from the area who had never visited VCU before.
  • Melissa Harris-Perry, February 10 – A powerful and engaging presentation for VCU Libraries’ Black History Month.  The event was very well received and attended, with over 260 people attending.
  • Brown-Lyons Lecture, March 24 – This is the much anticipated yearly lecture by Dr. Jack Spiro.  This year, the topic this year is “How Jewish Was Jesus” and promises to be as thought-provoking as his other lectures have been.  Mr. Ulmschneider encouraged people to come early as this event usually draws over 400 people to the Singleton Center.

Report: Faculty Senate initiative on Open Access Publishing at VCU - online demonstration
Mr. Ream began his demonstration by saying that he would actually be giving a very abbreviated version of a presentation he provides faculty on the value of Open Access Publishing.  He opened by challenging the Committee with the question: “What is the most expensive journal available at VCU Libraries?”  It turns out the answer is $25,000 for Comparative Neurology, with the second most expensive is only slightly less at $24,000 (Journal of Applied Polymer Science).  He explained that this little quiz was intended to demonstrate the high costs of journals that are so very critical to the work of faculty and students at VCU.  He explained how Open Access works and the advantages to both the author (less expense for the author, wide appeal to readers) and the readers (availability of material that might otherwise be impossible to access).  Open Access means publishing in a manner that makes the work available to everyone.  NIH has instituted a requirement that any publication resulting from research funded by NIH must be made available in an Open Access repository within 6 months of its publication.  This kind of support for Open Access is becoming increasingly common.

Mr. Ream then showed how one can access Open Access-published materials.  He noted that right now, VCU alumni cannot search the VCU collection, but they can search and read Open Access resources.  He said that Open Access publishing tends to increase the value of research publications in the eyes of the public and the industry, and believes that for this reason Open Access publishing will become an increasingly attractive option.  To ensure serious consideration of Open Access publishing venues by faculty, the tenure and promotion process must change to value this type of publishing as much as traditional publishing.  The education of authors regarding their copyright rights is critical for Open Access, and retention of such rights provides dividends to faculty in traditional publishing venues.  The Faculty Senate recently endorsed the use of Open Access publishing. 

The meeting adjourned at 6:20 pm.