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Virginia Tech
Governance Minutes ArchiveOctober 13, 1988
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY COMMITTEE MINUTES 13 October 1988 PRESENT: John Bowen, Vet Medicine Nancy Harris, SGA Walter Butke, Architecture Lok Kok, Agr. & Life Science (for Francis Ventre) Nicolaus Tideman, Business Norman Dodl, Education Michael Vorster, Engineering Paul Gherman, Library Jane Wentworth, Human Resources Jack Duke, Faculty Senate David West, Arts & Sciences GUESTS: Bela Foltin, Library Charles Litchfield, Library Shirley Glazener, Library Frances Painter, Library Phyllis Johnson, Library ABSENT: Eugene Carson, Provost's Off. Milan Patel, GSA The minutes were approved as submitted. I. OLD BUSINESS 1. CANCELLATION PROJECT (B. Foltin): The cancellation project was begun a year ago as a contingency plan in the event that additional funding for library materials would not materialize for FY 88/89. The project has become a general review of serials holdings and not a budget crisis cancellation project. Librarians and teaching faculty reviewed the library subscriptions list for possible cancellation of subscriptions no longer needed. Money recovered from cancellations will be used to purchase new subscriptions in the same subject area from which the cancellation occurred. The composite list of suggested cancellations has been reviewed by all departments and returned to the library. From this final agreed-upon list, cancellations will be made. The final review process deleted 80 of the 420 titles on the composite list; the remaining 340 will be cancelled. The amount of savings (based on past subscription cost) will be approximately $35,000. A review of serials subscriptions will be undertaken every three to five years. 2. FILM LIBRARY (B. FOLTIN): The Film Library moved from LRC to Newman Library on June 28, 1988. It is in full operation. No complaints have been received. The name of the Listening Room was changed to Media Center to reflect the broader scope of the facility. Several benefits are apparent. There is more flexible staffing now, the unit is open about 100 hours a week, no seating in the media center was displaced, and services were not significantly interrupted. LRC is now delivering videos for the library along with the film deliveries. The Media Center has experienced an increase in use, with patrons of the Film Library aware of other Media Center services and materials and vice versa. The staff is developing automated procedures for booking films which will give enhanced access to the collection. 3. USER SURVEY OF BRANCH LIBRARIES (B. FOLTIN): The three on-campus branch libraries were surveyed during the first two weeks in May. User response was limited, therefore it is not possible to assess whether a true cross-section of users was reached. B. Foltin distributed three handouts to the committee. A statistical chart showing the number of surveys returned, with faculty/student breakdown, a summary of highlights from all the surveys, and a more complete report on the Art and Architecture Library survey. Some results and comments were: Vet Med generally had the most favorable ratings, but their collection was rated lower than the other two branches; online searching and bibliographic instruction needs to be promoted in the Geology and Art and Architecture Libraries; photocopiers are a problem in all three; (this is being addressed, and all three copiers are being changed very soon); comments from Geology indicated too much material was at CHEDS (this is because of the very limited space in the Geology branch); Architecture responders commented that too many items were missing and there was too much old material. A more detailed report will be made to the individual Library Committees concerned with these branches. The staff in all the branches had very favorable ratings, as was the case in the Newman survey. J. Duke raised the question of the quality of the photocopiers, since this is a persistent concern. Discussion followed, and the committee was reminded that the library is in the final year of a three year contract, and that, with a new contract, improvement in service can be expected. The comparatively remote physical location of the university has a bearing on the problem, since some companies with excellent products (for instance OCE) have no offices in this area and are unwilling to open an office for one account. P. Gherman informed the committee about the new photocopier policy. To encourage use of debit cards, a copy now costs ten cents in coin, but is still five cents when a card is used. Cards may be purchased in amounts as low as one dollar. The first card an individual purchases includes a 50 cent card fee. The card is renewable, and the 50 cents is refunded when the card is turned in. The University's auditors have requested that money in the machines be balanced and deposited once a day. The amount of work involved to implement this request made it necessary to find a way to encourage use of fewer coins. Since introducing the new system, card sales have quadrupled and total photocopy income is up. 4. DATABASE OF DATABASES (P. Johnson): The project is on hold at this time. There were 96 positive responses to G. Hooper's survey, indicating collections responders were willing to share, yet only 15 of them subsequently responded to the request for further information. There are some departmental collections which could be entered into the database. The current upgrade of the computer will make space available for this information. However, the major recon project now underway in Technical Services means it will be sometime in the future before staff is available to catalog these collections. II. NEW BUSINESS 1. COMPUTER CONVERSION (S. Glazener): The HP 950 upgrade is being installed. The hardware has been installed and is running with a small test database, accessed by the systems staff. The system will be unavailable from Saturday, October 15 at 6 PM until 11 AM Sunday, to convert to a new version of VTLS software, before migrating the full database to the new machine. Installation and testing have gone extremely well, and it is hoped the library will be on the new machine by the end of November. 2. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (P. Gherman): In 1985 Milka Bliznakov, College of Architecture, suggested formation of the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA) as a joint endeavor of the Library and the College of Architecture. The Archive now contains the collected papers of 65 women architects from around the world. In early October there was an international convention of women architects in Washington. The IAWA Board of Advisors met in Alexandria, VA, and hosted a reception for participants attending the convention. Sixteen of these women took time to visit Virginia Tech after the meeting, to learn more about the IAWA and the University. These women were from Nigeria, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Rumania, and around the United States. The library is encouraged that this project is gaining momentum, and will become a very important part of Special Collections at the library. The Archive of American Aerospace Exploration is also progressing, and John Parsons was recently on campus to help organize his papers for the collection. Special Collections has the papers of the Norfolk and Southern Railway, and recently began an Archive on Appalachia. Collections of archives and original manuscripts in a research library are an important measure of the stature and reputation of the library, and help draw scholars to the campus. The library may approach organizations with an interest in these archives to request supporting grant money. One grant is pending now, to support work in the Aerospace Archive. The committee discussed other fund-raising efforts of the library. P. Gherman informed the committee about conversations held with Mr. Perry. Requests for donations to the library will be a part of the University's general fund-raising drive next spring. In addition, the library has a list of 3,000 library users, who are not affiliated with the university, and will write to this constituency soliciting their support. The committee asked the Chair to consider inviting Mr. Forbes to a future meeting to discuss library fund-raising. The meeting was adjourned.
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