Humanities & Sciences Library Advisory Committee
Friday, February 22, 2008 3:00-4:30 pm
4th Floor Conference Room – Cabell Library
Minutes
Attendance
Sascha Auerbach, Christopher Brooks (chair), Winnie Chan, Bonnie Davis, Rebecca Segal, A. J. Shriar, Kristi Swenson, Fang-shen Wu
Staff: Pat Flanagan, John Ulmschneider, Pam Fraga (recording secretary)
The meeting was called to order at 3:05 p.m.
Dr. Brooks told the Committee that upon a review of the current roster, he and Mr. Ulmschneider had become aware that there are several departments at the University not represented on the current Humanities & Sciences Library Advisory Committee, as well two open seats caused by the retirement of Dr. Vallarino (Chemistry) and the sad passing of Dr. John M. Mahoney (Psychology). Therefore, Mr. Ulmschneider will be contacting these unrepresented departments and requesting that they assign a representative. Dr. Brooks will be kept apprised of the responses and this will be reported at the next H&SLAC meeting in March.
Review and approval of the agenda
The agenda was approved as presented.
Review and approval of minutes from January 2008
There was a misspelling in the minutes in the paragraph discussing the commemoration for Dr. Mahoney. The contact person’s name is Tracey Ryan, not Tracey Bryan. With this correction, the minutes were approved.
Mr. Ulmschneider asked to speak for moment about the plaques which had been created to honor Drs. Vallarino and Mahoney. He showed the Committee the plaques and said that he would be preparing a letter to accompany each plaque and that the plaques would then be forwarded to Dr. Vallarino and to Dr. Mahoney’s widow. He said that there would also be 3 bookplates in volumes relative to their fields of work for each professor placed on shelves as additional honoraria.
Revised Cabell Reference Desk hours – handout
Ms. Flanagan reported to the Committee that the hours of operation for the Reference Desk at Cabell Library had been reduced per the handout offered. This cutback affects only those hours of operation during which use is low, i.e. weekend evenings and weeknights after 10pm. She said that this was done primarily for two reasons. The first is that with the increased requests for instruction from University College and the fact that the staff is down by two people, the demands on the time of the remaining staff are stretched significantly. The second is that there is a growing trend nationally to focus on instructional support from librarians and not just reactive reference support. This reference hours reduction is an opportunity to experiment with the balance of time faculty and staff use for teaching and reference. Reference hours can be restored if problems occur. Library patrons, especially students, use the suggestion blog to submit comments, and the other service departments in Cabell will report if they note that students are needing help that they cannot provide at these hours.
The handout also shows the Reference Desk hours of 4 peer universities. The Cabell reference hours with the reductions noted in the handout are in keeping with reference hours at these institutions.
Reports and Discussion
Mandatory submission of ETD: status – handouts
Mr. Ulmschneider noted that the Committee has discussed this proposal in the past, and that the current draft in the handouts is essentially the same as that of February 14th with a few exceptions. The second handout summarizes the process thus far. Chief among these details is the fact that the Graduate School will have the final say on what is required and whether or not what has been submitted is accepted. Mr. Ulmschneider said this is entirely appropriate since this is well within the purview of the Graduate School’s mission and purpose. There still remain a few discussion points which are under consideration:
- Whether or not submission of theses will also be included in the mandatory submission to ProQuest/UMI. VCU Libraries feels that theses should be submitted, since this will place them in the universally-accepted index for dissertations and theses, and therefore make them more widely available for scholarly research. Both the graduate student and researchers benefit from this wider exposure, and theses do contain valuable scholarly contributions.
- Whether or not an embargo policy should be in effect. This would keep works from being published for three years on the request of the student, the Graduate advisor or the Graduate School. This would be particularly relevant concerning patent issues and creative works being published in their entirety.
- The final wording of the formal release for the submitted material.
Mr. Ulmschneider urged the Committee members to please speak with their colleagues about this proposal and to gather their feedback or have them contact either him or the Graduate School.
In discussion, the problem of plagiarism was raised. Mr. Ulmschneider told the Committee that while it is always a concern, it’s challenging to protect documents electronically without also making them unsearchable in databases or by search-engines.
Mr. Ulmschneider noted that the current document was originally drafted by John Duke and the Library Information Systems staff. Storage, archiving and production are handled by VCU Libraries, which gives the library system incentive to promote the process, but the final document will be the product of the Graduate School and the program directors, and will have to have their full support and approval.
Laptop Loan program – handout
Ms. Flanagan, referring to the handout, explained that Technology Services had come to VCU Libraries with the idea to offer laptop computers for student use. Technology Services had the funds but no space. A collaborative pilot program was developed. For the pilot there are 10 laptops, 8 for Cabell and 2 for TML. Because of the limited number available, a soft rollout with little publicity is planned. The handout is the agreement students will sign to borrow a laptop; it alerts them to the policies they are agreeing they are aware of and alerts them that they are responsible for the loss or intentional damage to the machine. In Cabell, the computers will operate on battery power, no cords or cables, due to the limited power outlets in the building. At TML power cords will be checked out with the machine. Loan period for laptops is four hours with one renewal and only one computer per day per student. One of the problems Cabell is investigating is whether the power available in the building will be adequate to charge a large number of computers or batteries for a larger scale laptop program.
A question was raised as to why students don’t use their own computers. Many have desktop models or prefer not to carry their own laptop all day. Laptops will be boldly identified with large lettering as belonging to VCU. Also, all the laptops will be virus protected and wiped clean upon rebooting. Still, the Committee expressed concern about theft of not only the laptop but its parts. Staff will inspect the machines on their return to insure that they are undamaged.
Ms. Flanagan and Mr. Ulmschneider told the Committee that students continue to raise the issue of computer access and study space to faculty and even to the Board of Visitors. The VCU Libraries is trying to help meet this need through the laptop loan program and in other ways. Mr. Ulmschneider said that the BOV is keenly aware of this problem, though an addition to Cabell Library, which would provide a significant expansion in computers and study space, is a minimum of 4 to 6 years away. He said that an interim plan, which includes things like this pilot laptop program, is being developed to help bridge the needs between now and when a new addition can be built.
Several creative ideas about how to harness passive energy were discussed, including green technology. There is a petition effort being circulated to urge the increased use of green technology throughout the campus.
Demo: Live Classroom – postponed until a future meeting.
Mr. Ulmschneider reminded the Committee that the Browns-Lyon Lecture will on March 20 and will feature Dr. Jack Shapiro speaking on the subject of Jewish humor. He gave them each a flyer on the lecture and encouraged all to attend.
The meeting adjourned at 4:10 p.m.