Humanities & Sciences Library Advisory Committee
Friday, January 25, 2008 3:00-4:30 pm
4th Floor Conference Room – Cabell Library
Minutes
Attendance
Present: Christopher Brooks (chair), Bonnie Davis, Rebecca Segal, Kristi Swenson, Fang-shen Wu
Staff: Pat Flanagan, John Ulmschneider, Sarah Amick (recording secretary)
Guests: Lynne Turman (Head, TML Collections)
Business
The meeting was convened at 3:08 pm by Chair Christopher Brooks.
Review and approval of agenda
Dr. Brooks asked for changes to the agenda, and Ms. Flanagan said that the Blackboard demo on the agenda will have to be rescheduled for a later meeting due to Blackboard being down for maintenance.
Review and approval of minutes from November 2007
The minutes were approved as presented.
Commemorating John M. Mahoney
Dr. Brooks began the meeting with a quick follow-up on a discussion from the November meeting about a scenario in which some of the chair’s responsibilities would be given out to other committee members. He and Mr. Ulmschneider met about it and determined that this change can be made through an email vote, and that Tracy Bryan would need to be contacted to make the change in the by-laws.
Dr. Brooks brought up the very sad news of the passing of former committee member, John M. Mahoney, since the last meeting. John Mahoney had been a member for many years, and was always a committed and fierce supporter of VCU Libraries.
Mr. Ulmschneider stated that Dr. Mahoney was here when he came in 1999, and has very fond memories of him. Dr. Mahoney really cared for students, and also made known to others the support that VCU Libraries needed. He was quite a bibliophile and collector of books, which his brother and wife want to be donated to the library. Mr. Ulmschneider showed committee members the handout with copies of bookplates which will be placed in books donated in honor of Dr. Mahoney. This is not a common honor, and is done in special memory of him. Mr. Ulmschneider also showed the committee a copy of a certificate plaque that has been made to commemorate Dr. Mahoney, and which will be given to his wife who works with the VCU Health System. A letter will be included with the certificate saying that the Humanities and Sciences Library Advisory Committee has chosen to honor Dr. Mahoney in this way. Dr. Wu expressed that he remembered Dr. Mahoney having very constructive things to say at meetings, and Ms. Turman said she knew him from the Faculty Senate, and that he was never afraid to speak out, and was always very well thought of among faculty. Dr. Segal expressed appreciation to Mr. Ulmschneider for sending the email to the committee about Dr. Mahoney’s passing over the Winter Break. Dr. Brooks said that he signed the funeral home condolence note for Dr. Mahoney on behalf of the committee.
Mr. Ulmschneider mentioned that Dr. Francis Foster also recently passed away, and that his oral histories are available on the VCU Libraries web site.
Service and collections impact of 2008-09 budget scenarios
Mr. Ulmschneider moved to the next agenda item dealing with budget cuts.
VCU Libraries had to reduce the personnel budget this year, but fortunately, the collections budget was not reduced, and we were able to add missing JSTOR collections. There is no guarantee that there will be enough money in the budget next year to keep it, but hopefully we will be able to continue, especially since it means so to this group. Reductions to be made for next year include $100,000 from collections budget, and $188,000 from the personnel budget. In the governor’s budget the new funds proposed amount to half of what was cut already. It is still too early to say if journal subscriptions will be cut. Mr. Ulmschneider wants the committee to know that there is possibility of them being cut, but hopefully we won’t have to reduce. If it does become necessary to do so, there is a set procedure in place for cutting journal subscriptions.
VCU Libraries signed off on new course proposals, and the new School of Public Health will be official in a couple weeks. Ms. Segal mentioned the newly proposed Math Ph.D program, and Mr. Ulmschneider said it is important for the Libraries to know about these new Ph.D programs so the collection can be assessed accordingly.
The university has given every unit the opportunity to revise budget proposals over the next 6 years, and VCU Libraries will submit a revision. Collections is our number one priority, and our number two is to modernize our operations by eliminating fines revenue lines and also increasing security coverage. We have improved services to patrons who can now better manage their loans to renew or return things on time, reducing our fine intakes, but the university requires us to collect almost twice the amount. We have to make up the difference from our personnel budget. We have a negative incentive to improve services because improving our services in this way results in the Libraries receiving less money. Mr. Ulmschneider will keep the committee posted as budgets develop.
Reports and Discussion
Public access to NIH-funded research
Lynne Turman, Head of Tompkins-McCaw Library Collections, reported on new legislation involving public access to NIH funded research. She provided committee members with a handout that includes a press release on the passing of the bill, a copy of the SPARC newsletter featuring the news, a letter that Susan Robb sent to research administrators about the mandate, and the first page of the NIH web site. Ms. Turman said that she is on the libraries’ Scholarly Communications team, and has been following this legislation closely. She explained that President Bush passed the omnibus spending bill right after Christmas, which included a mandate for open-access to NIH funded research. The mandate requires that all peer reviewed articles arising from NIH funded research be deposited in PubMed Central, and be made freely available to the public within 12 months of publication.
VCU Libraries has provided a link to this information, along with other resources, on its Copyright and Publishing web pages. The NIH public access policy is listed first in the Open Access section. Important dates to note are listed on the NIH public access page. April 7th is when all articles arising from NIH funds must be submitted to PubMed Central upon acceptance for publication. As of May 25th all applications and progress reports are required to include a PubMed central number. Ms. Turman explained that we are trying to get the word out about this, and pointed out two ways that authors can make sure they comply. They can publish their work in one of the journals that will take care of the PubMed submission for authors, or they can use the individual PubMed submission process. Tutorials are provided on the PubMed site.
The Libraries have already been receiving questions as a result of Susan Robb’s email to VCU, and we will do all that we can to help researchers with this process. Authors need to make sure that any new agreement with a journal publisher has the language that allows them to comply with the mandate. There is an example on the NIH website of this type of language. Authors sometimes assume they have rights that the publisher does not provide, but authors can negotiate with publishers. More information about rights is on VCU Libraries’ web site. Principal investigators need to read and become familiar with the new mandate. Questions can be directed to NIH, the Office of Research, or the library.
Mr. Ulmschneider recently attended a statewide meeting of library directors, and Peter Suber of SPARC open access news came to talk to them about this. He said that publishing companies hired consultants to work against this legislation, making unfounded claims about its impacts. However, the argument for open access was so strong that congressmen saw the need and passed the measure. Ms. Turman mentioned that publishers threatened to refuse to publish NIH funded articles in retaliation, but these new law will affect about 80,000 articles a year. A 12-month embargo still protects them, though ideally libraries believe access should not be delayed. There was further discussion that faculty members do the work for the journals, including writing the articles, reviewing, and editing them, but do not receive money for this work, while publishers charge steep fees for journals.
Ms. Swenson asked a question about the online books in the Libraries’ collection, and how we acquire them. Ms. Turman answered that the providers of online books and the models they use are varied. Reasonable terms and pricing are available by purchasing collections of books from NetLibrary, and others. Sometimes they come as one-time purchases, and others are similar to subscriptions that we have to continue paying for. In some cases we may have the electronic book and the print book in the collection.
Renovations and space plans
Ms. Flanagan began the update on renovations by saying that Tompkins-McCaw Library received new furniture in the basement and that the former VCU Card Office space there is now available for the Library to use. Ms. Turman said that this space will be given back to use by patrons, and will most likely be developed into a lounge to honor emeritus faculty.
Ms. Flanagan mentioned that the Cabell Library 4th floor renovation is now completed, and the grand opening for this space was in early December, and very successful. The John Mapp Graduate Study and Reading Room is now open, and is being actively used. Those who want to use this room can either check out a key card from the circulation desk or ask to have their own VCU ID card entered into the door system. There is no automatic way for all the cards to be loaded into the system, so the mechanism must be updated weekly with new patron ID numbers. The Special Collections Cabell room is also a very useable and beautiful space. Ms. Flanagan also discussed the proposed space in the new Residential College. There is a possibility that the libraries no longer have the space there, as some of the plans for the building are being rethought. The libraries were not given funds for staffing, furniture, or equipment for the new space. It can be very useful for libraries to have special “outposts” around the campus, where they can go to meet with students near their classes and departments, but it is inefficient in many ways to have a number of different libraries across campus.
Mr. Ulmschneider thanked Ms. Flanagan for her update, and said that unfortunately, the addition to Cabell was not included in the recent proposed bond issue. Instead the three building projects that will be funded are the new School of Medicine building, the new classroom building on the Monroe Park campus, and the Massey Cancer Center vivarium. Cabell Library was supposed to be third on the list, but the addition would cost $40 million and the bond only included enough money for the first two buildings, with a little bit left over. The Massey Cancer Center was added to the third spot instead, since it would require less money. Mr. Ulmschneider said that VCU Libraries is currently working on contingency plans to bridge us over the next four or five years.
24x5 report and use of library facilities: benefits and challenges
Ms. Flanagan referred to the handouts showing the use of the Libraries between 2am and 7am. 24x5 remains a very strong program. This was the first time that food was not provided for users in Cabell Library, but this change did not have much of effect on the number of people who came in during this time. Students have said they would really like for us to be open 24 hours all the time. However, we would need to have a permanent third shift of staff to do this for a prolonged period as we stretch existing staff to cover the three weeks. Also, VCU Police and the libraries are unable to provide the security needed. The noise level and stress on students and staff has been high as a result of increased activity in the building. Cabell Library has been compared to an airport terminal as level of people, noise, and activity rises. Over 11,000 people have entered the building on a number of occasions this academic year, heaviest on Monday to Wednesday. It is good to see that so many people want to be in the library, however.
Unfortunately, we how have less space than 30 years ago, but twice the number of students using the building. There is now 20% less space for students, although student numbers have grown. We are at 151% of planned capacity, and arrangements for more space would typically be made before a library reaches 100% capacity. VCU Libraries has had to take away student space for new books. Comparison data has been gathered on how other Virginia libraries have dealt with space issues, and the university is aware that this is a problem. The Center for Teaching Excellence on the 4th floor of Cabell is moving to the Grace E. Harris Building, and the 2nd floor administration offices will then move into the old CTE space. This will open up additional space for students. Ms. Flanagan mentioned that some kind of off-site storage would also help the space situation. Tompkins-McCaw Library stacks are also very crowded and compact shelving is needed there.
Mr. Ulmschneider shared information on upcoming VCU Libraries Lectures sponsored by the VCU Friends of the Library, and the VCU Libraries Black History Month programs.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:23 pm.