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Virginia Tech
Governance Minutes ArchiveMarch 6, 1989
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY COMMITTEE MINUTES March 6, 1989 PRESENT: John Bowen, Vet Medicine Loke Kok, Agr. & Life Science Norman Dodl, Education Nicolaus Tideman, Business Jack Duke, Faculty Senate Francis Ventre, Architecture Paul Gherman, Library David West, Arts & Sciences Nancy Harris, SGA Janice Woodard, Human Resources (for J. Wentworth) GUESTS: Bela Foltin, Library Frances Painter, Library (for LFA) ABSENT: Eugene Carson, Provost's Office Milan Patel, GSA Michael Vorster, Engineering MEETING SUMMARY: Norman Dodl, Chair, called the meeting to order. The minutes of the last meeting were approved as submitted. The Committee voted to send Dennis Hinkle the report on staff development and training prepared by F. Painter, as the Committee's response to resolution 10.7 of the self study document. MEETING DETAIL: OLD BUSINESS I. REPORT ON STAFF DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING (F. Painter): Frances Painter, Personnel Officer of the University Libraries presented a report to the Committee on staff development and training in the library. The report covered training and development programs at national or regionally sponsored training events, University classes and programs, and training and development activities within the Libraries. The full report is attached to the minutes. To set the stage for reactions and discussion, N. Dodl pointed out that the that the self-study document Dennis Hinkle sent to the library in December indicated in Resolution 10.7 that the library should institute an ongoing program of staff education and training by increasing its support for external training opportunities and by dramatically enhancing its programs of in-house staff training. N. Dodl sent the following comment to Dr. Hinkle in response: The University Library Committee receives regular reports from the library staff on its programs of education and training. The ULC will examine a report on training efforts at its February meeting (postponed to March) as to its responsiveness to this recommendation. Some of the questions raised in discussion were: (F. Ventre) How do people qualify themselves for participation in the training programs? Answer: Staff development for classified staff requires the recommendation of their supervisor; for training events brought to the library each department is allotted a proportion of the available training slots; the funding for travel by library faculty is handled in part by an elected committee of their peers. If the travel is job required it is funded by the library administration. (J. Duke) Is funding adequate? Answer: Library faculty are more active in national associations than in the past, and participation in University sponsored programs is at a good level. Money goes further by bringing training programs here. Travel funding increased by 10% during the past year. For travel to national professional meetings, junior faculty pay 40%, and senior faculty 50%, of their own expenses and there is a yearly funding cap on travel for individual faculty members. These guidelines for travel were developed by the Library faculty. N. Tideman moved that the Library be commended for their efforts, that the committee hopes the library will be able to have more funding for staff development and that the committee accepts this report as an adequate response to resolution 10.7. David West seconded. The motion carried and the report will be sent to Dr. Hinkle. II. FOLLOW-UP DISCUSSION ON BRANCH LIBRARIES P. Gherman distributed a collection of documents from the Library Archives on branch libraries. There was extensive debate in 1971 on branch versus departmental libraries. The issue was readdressed in 1982 with the consequent addition of the statement that creation of a new branch library must be approved by the Board of Visitors. N. Dodl suggested the committee read the papers and determine whether they answer the Committee's questions. This issue will remain before the committee because of the changing character of distance education at Virginia Tech which is creating new requests for University resources at sites other than Blacksburg. J. Duke suggested that, faced with possible requests which would place a drain on library resources, the Committee should define what policies need to exist concerning branch libraries. P. Gherman said the papers clearly define a branch library and probably do not need to be redefined. N. Dodl recommended that P. Gherman be prepared at the next meeting to indicate what constitutes a reasonably comprehensive statement of what constitutes a branch library or other kind of organization, to become a part of this academic year's minutes of the University Library Committee. III. STATUS UPDATE ON ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC DATABASES IN THE LIBRARY N. Dodl requested this agenda item in order to know what currently was available on CD-ROM and other sources through the library. P. Gherman distributed a listing. The list includes online cost recovery databases (Dialog, Knowledge Index, STN International/CAS, MEDLARS, NASA/RECON), and other end user, online databases, access to which has become feasible due to the pricing structure of certain vendors (Dow Jones, Westlaw). Cost recovery databases are not generally available to students because they generally do not have the funds to pay for the searches. The reason for making available end user and CD-ROM databases (ERIC, CIRR, InfoTrac, Sweet's Catalog) is to begin to make database search capability available to students. The Library also gets temporary access to some databases on a trial basis. The Library is trying to make as much of this material as possible available to campus offices. Easy-Net for instance will be available campus wide with charges appearing on the telephone bill. The Library has applied for a grant to partially fund BRS Onsite, which would make 8 or 9 databases available on LocalNet. We will hear about the grant by May or June. Currently CD-ROM databases can only be accessed from the Library. There are between 25,000 and 30,000 searches on InfoTrac per year, 2,500 on Westlaw and 3,000 on Dow Jones, and about 1,500 mediated searches (full cost to the faculty member who requests the search to be conducted by a librarian). ERIC on CD-ROM is new, but almost constantly in use. The Committee will be kept up-to-date on the rapidly increasing database search capabilities; this information will be on LIBINFO and will be continuously updated. NEW BUSINESS I. LIBRARY ANNOUNCEMENTS (PMG): 1. P. Gherman and N. Dodl will work together to appoint a committee to study the library's long term commitment to VTLS. The committee will probably be composed of 8 to 10 people drawn from Library staff, faculty and students; participation on the committee will likely require a significant commitment of time. This committee will draw up a report to answer self-study resolution 10-5. The report will evaluate the adequacy of VTLS and compare it with other vendors of library online systems. Recommendations for committee membership are welcomed. 2. P. Gherman has invited Don Simpson, Executive Director of the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago, to visit the library on May 1, and make a presentation at lunch, and also a presentation to the Committee during its regular meeting. Virginia Tech is one of the few ARL libraries who are not members. Mr. Simpson will explain what is available to members. CRL has extensive collections which are available to member libraries for research. B. Foltin will send a memo to the library liaisons announcing Mr. Simpson's visit. II. PREPARATION OF STATEMENT OF NEED FOR THE UNIVERSITY COUNCIL This agenda item was postponed until the next regular meeting on April 3. The meeting was adjourned.
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