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Governance Minutes ArchiveMarch 6, 1991
These minutes were approved as submitted at the April 3, 1991 ULC meeting. UNIVERSITY LIBRARY COMMITTEE MINUTES March 6, 1991 PRESENT: John Bowen, Vet Med Paul Gherman, Library Carol Burch-Brown, Provost's OfficeKara Goldberg, SGA Walter Butke, (for Architecture) J. D. Stahl Norman Dodl, Education Michael Vorster, Engineering Holly Ferguson, CSAC Karen Watson, GSA Edward Fox, Arts & Sciences Rod Young, Ag. & Life Sciences GUESTS: Paul Metz, Library John Straw, Library Frances Painter, Library Wayland Winstead, Univ. Planning ABSENT: Arthur Keown, Business J. Scott Poole, Architecture Ken McCleary, Human Resources MEETING SUMMARY: The meeting was called to order at 4:00 p.m. The minutes of the February meeting were approved as submitted. The committee heard a report on the library facilities planning process from W. Winstead. The tabled motion to create a new task force to study library computer capability and access was returned to the floor. The committee asked that a statement outlining what a new task force would attempt to accomplish be prepared for next meeting. A vote on the motion will be on next month's agenda. In response to a question the chair explained that the minutes of previous ULC meetings are available on Profs, under GOVERN on UNIVERSITY INFO. They are not posted electronically until approved; therefore, minutes are posted after the succeeding meeting. REPORTS LIBRARY ANNOUNCEMENTS (P. Gherman): The library's Annual Report 89/90 and a multi-year compilation of ARL standings were distributed. The ARL information is based on the latest ARL statistics and demonstrates that the library's ranking in almost all categories has declined in the last decade as compared with other member libraries in the Association of Research Libraries. Staff are working on a compilation of statistics to compare our library with other libraries in our peer group. P. Gherman was asked whether an academic department can use funds saved by periodicals cancellations and apply them to book purchases. P. Metz responded that money for subscriptions is never allocated by department. The funds recovered from cancellations will remain in the library's budget and may be used by the library to buy books, but not on a departmental basis. For example, a subscription canceled from an architecture fund code will not necessarily buy a like dollar amount of books for the architecture collection. However, all departments gain by making funds available for use where needed. It was emphasized that not all titles on any of these lists will be cut. In response to a question about our microform holdings that was prompted by the ARL statistics, P. Gherman answered that we are near the top in the ARL rankings because, in the past, the library often used year-end money to buy large microform sets. Our microform holdings are particularly strong in science. OLD BUSINESS 1. DISCUSSION OF THE OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY PLANNING DOCUMENT The chair introduced Wayland Winstead, Director of Planning, who was invited to the meeting to explain the process used by the Office of University Planning in arriving at the recommendations in the document "Providing Adequate Library Facilities at Virginia Tech." W. Winstead explained that the recommendations of the subcommittee on Capital Outlay began to be implemented last May. At that time each vice president and dean was asked to submit an ordered list of capital outlay priorities for his/her college or division, and planning was developed on the basis of this consultation. In the University's list of projects a High Density Library Storage Facility (HDLSF) was placed second on the list of new projects, just after the Major Williams conversion. The request is for a HDLSF because the state has decreed a virtual moratorium on the construction of traditional open-stack library space. To demonstrate the reason for the state's position, W. Winstead explained that with traditional library construction it would require new construction equal in space to two Burruss Halls to make up the library space deficit. The HDLSF also might be used by the University's Records Management Office, or as a regional library storage facility shared with Radford University. Plans for use of the present bookstore building are tentative and are dependent upon yet to be finalized commitments to construct a new University Bookstore. Richmond requested that the capital outlay plans be presented on February 1, rather than March 1. There was no opportunity for further discussion. The university will receive the state's decision on capital outlay projects on March 15. Project requests will either be turned down or the university will receive authority to proceed with pre-planning. Actual funding decisions will be made at the long session of the legislature in January 1992; the pre-planning process would lead to a detailed budget submission by August 1992. A request to the state for funds for conversion of the bookstore building would not be submitted until the 94-96 biennium. A committee member asked whether the HDLSF would solve the library's storage needs for the foreseeable future. P. Gherman responded that the combination of a HDLSF and the bookstore building would give the library adequate (not ideal) space for about 10 years. The committee asked that the document be amended in the last line to read "address the library's MINIMUM need for the next 10 years" (instead of "for the foreseeable future"). If the requests are approved in Richmond the university will constitute a pre-planning Building Committee. The ULC should assume an active role in advising this committee. One question is how the 10-year storage needs of the library are affected if the HDLSF is also used by Records Management or by Radford. The building would be a warehouse, and UVa already has building plans based on the Harvard model, which the state has said might serve as a plan for all such state facilities. The committee's advise will be most valuable in considering questions concerning what is stored in the building, or which type of shelving would be most appropriate and space-efficient for our needs. Planning for the bookstore conversion would only begin in 94-96, and is therefore not an urgent priority at this time. 2. RECONSIDERATION OF TABLED MOTION TO CREATE A NEW TASK FORCE Addenda to the VTLS Evaluation Task Force's interim report were distributed to the committee. It was moved that the tabled motion to create a new task force be returned to the floor. The ensuing discussion centered on whether the ULC wishes to stay with the existing task force's focus on VTLS vs other systems, or wishes to create a new task force whose charge might include a look at the adequacy of VTLS but would focus more directly on computer capability and more broadly on access problems. A more productive direction might be to ask what VTLS is not doing that we think we would like to be able to do. Where are there unsatisfied needs and are there other routes through which to meet these needs? A new task force might look at what peer institutions are doing beyond their OPACs (Online Public Access Catalog). Some are using commercial databases running on mainframe computers; tables of contents access; full-text storage and retrieval of electronic journals; full-text reserve book reading. Should we consider a duplicate of VTLS on the mainframe, but with a different search algorithm; access to other OPACs on internet; network CD ROMs? The task force might consider alternatives that parallel VTLS and increase our capabilities. The committee agreed that P. Gherman, E. Fox, and N. Dodl should draft a clear statement of what a new task force would attempt to accomplish for consideration at the next meeting. This statement will be used as the basis for a vote on the question of whether to create a new task force, and will be on the agenda for the next meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 pm. The next meeting will be on April 3, 1991.
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