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Virginia Tech
Governance Minutes ArchiveOctober 9, 1991
These minutes were approved as submitted at the ULC meeting on November 13, 1991. UNIVERSITY LIBRARY COMMITTEE MINUTES October 9, 1991 PRESENT: Carol Burch-Brown, Provost's Off. Ken McCleary, Human Resources Norm Dodl, Education J. Scott Poole, Architecture Edward Fox, Arts & Sciences Martha Rose, CSAC Paul Gherman, Library Cortney Vargo, GSA Megan Hilt, SGA James Yardley, Business Gerald Luttrell, Engineering Rod Young, Ag. & Life Sciences GUESTS: Earving Blythe, Acting Vice Pres. Paul Metz, Library for Information Systems Bruce Obenhaus, Library Joanne Eustis, Library Lon Savage, Scholarly Communication ABSENT: Darrell Clowes, Faculty Senate Mark Smith, Veterinary Medicine MEETING SUMMARY: The meeting was called to order at 4:00 p.m. The September minutes were approved as submitted. A proposed policy on archiving University publications was introduced in draft form. Draft guidelines on library treatment of erotic/controversial material were introduced. Both documents were deferred for discussion at the November meeting of ULC. INTRODUCTION OF EARVING BLYTHE Earving Blythe, Acting Vice President for Information Systems, was introduced and addressed the meeting. Dr. Carlisle has announced a national search for a new Vice President for Information Systems. The search process will begin after completion of other searches already in progress, and there will be consultation with the University Library Committee. The interim period will last for at least this academic year. Mr. Blythe discussed the structure of Information Systems, and said he plans to provide Dr. Carlisle with his assessment of what should be included in Information Systems. He invited comments on structure from ULC members. REPORTS LIBRARY ANNOUNCEMENTS (P. Gherman): Scholarly Communications Project (L. Savage): The Scholarly Communications Project has operated under auspices of the University Libraries since July 1, 1991. The project was created to explore and pioneer in the area of scholarly communications using new ideas of electronic communications and publication. The project currently owns and holds the copyright for the International Journal of Analytical and Experimental Modal Analysis, a technical engineering journal. This paper journal is scheduled to be published in electronic format. Project staff and the Department of Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management have launched a new electronic Journal of the International Academy of Hospitality Research, a subscription journal which will give Scholarly Communications Project personnel experience in the marketing of electronic journals. The project has recently arranged to publish the education journal Catalyst online, in additional to its paper format. The committee raised questions, and discussion of the potential and future of electronic publication followed. Budget Support (P. Gherman): The Provost has provided a supplemental allocation to the library of $200,000 for the book budget this year, which will enable purchase of monographs at about 90% of last year's level. Library Advances: Word Search has recently been brought online, making VTLS more useful to the university community. It enables the user to do a search on any word that exits in the database. Serials Check-in has also been brought online. In about 18 months, when the database is complete, users will be able to find all serials check-in information online. NEW BUSINESS REVIEW OF PROPOSED POLICY CONCERNING UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS (P. Metz): A draft of a proposed policy on archiving certain university publications was distributed to ULC members in advance of the meeting. P. Metz explained that the library regularly receives requests for publications attributed to various Virginia Tech units, but which have not been submitted to the library for archiving. A policy is needed to clarify the obligation of subunits of the university with regard to submission of published documents. It was proposed that colleges, departments, and centers should send two copies of their publications to the Acquisitions Department of the library. Types of publications would include technical reports, working papers, conference proceedings, and other types of research publications. The proposed policy is to be redrafted in resolution form and placed on the ULC agenda for November. SELECTION AND TREATMENT OF EROTIC OR OTHER CONTROVERSIAL MATERIALS IN THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES (P. Metz): Due to time constraints the chair asked that this subject be introduced and discussion delayed until the next meeting. The document distributed in advance of the meeting explains that guidelines are needed to deal with problems which the library faces in selecting and maintaining collections which could be considered erotic or controversial. For example, certain courses in sociology or family and child development require materials which may be sexually explicit. These materials are often stolen or defaced and for that reason have been kept in Special Collections. However, Special Collections is not open all the hours the library is open, and some patrons are embarrassed by having to ask for them. Present plans call for housing these materials in the stacks in the appropriate call number position, provided they physically survive in that location. If they do not, specific publications which are consistently stolen or defaced will be protected by being placed on reserve. However, placing the material in the stacks means that they are accessible to minors. Since the library requires a parent's signature when a minor receives a library card, the agreement will need to be reworded to include an explanation so that parents are aware of the policy before they sign for minor children to have a card. The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m. The next meeting will be on November 13, 1991.
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