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Library Assembly Committee Meeting Minutes

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December 9, 2014 Ellis Library 159 1-2pm

These minutes are also available at: http://library.missouri.edu/staff/committees/libraryassembly/

Present: Adrienne Arden, Wendy Batson, Jack Batterson, Rachel Brekhus, Jim Cogswell, Ruth Feldkamp, Tammy Green, Jeannette Pierce, Sandy Schiefer, Marcia Strong, Bette Stuart, Sheena Waggoner, Deb Ward

  1. Discuss:
  • Welcome all Library Assemblers

    • No guest speaker scheduled for this meeting
  1. Director Announcements:
  • Proposal for Student Library Fee: Update

    • There will be a referendum held in April 2015 on the requested library fee for students to approve. 
    • In the meantime, the MU Libraries will be meeting student groups on campus to present the Libraries reasons for the fee. This will provide us with an opportunity to hear students’ opinions and concerns regarding the Libraries. 

      • Matt Gaunt has spoken to a student working group and has not received any negative comments.
    • There is currently a library survey for students, that will gather some of this information, but it’s not subject specific to the library fee proposal. 
    • A finalized narrative is still a work in progress and will be forthcoming to library staff at the All-Staff Meeting on January 15th, 2015.

      • It is expected that a full discussion about the Student Library Fee will transpire at the All-Staff Meeting
      • More finalized cost data and plans are expected to be ready by that time.
  • Budget Allocation Advisory Committee (BAAC)

    • Budget Allocation Advisory Committee (BAAC) – Next Wednesday, Jim Cogswell and Ellen Blair have been invited to make a presentation to the BAAC to discuss the Libraries budget.  It is hoped that the Libraries will be considered a high enough priority to receive a portion of the reallocation fund. 
    • If interested in reading more on the BAAC, please check out the following web site:  http://mubudget.missouri.edu/budget%20committe.php.
  • Mold Update

    • There was a message sent to the Faculty Council last week providing a summary and update of the mold situation from our second storage facility (UMLD2).  However, it did not go to all MU faculty, Jim Cogswell will be sending an email to them, and to the library staff.
  1. Department announcements:

Jack Batterson, Cataloging & Metadata:

  • Catalog management is still working on replacement Y4 Government Documents that are to replace the ones damaged by mold at the cave. These replacements are from Washington University and Missouri State.
  • These books were shipped to UMLD1 in white boxes. Then a few boxes are sent to Ellis each week. When the books are processed, they will go into tubs and sent back out to UMLD1. We have a lot of empty boxes that are available to anyone who wants them. Our department will need a few white boxes for duplicate copies that we will send to Marie.
  • One may wonder why we are not sending the replacements to the new UMLD just off of I-70. Those books are still not retrievable because they just got back from Texas and are not yet on shelves in call number order. There is a separate room with dirty books that will be sent out for cleaning when the bidding is complete.  On November 18th, 2014, the 300,000th copy arrived for processing and shelving, and another 138,000 volumes are due to arrive in the coming months.
  • Suzy completed the list of disposed items that were sent to the faculty. This was the list that Jim shared with all the faculty.

Adrienne Arden, Digital Services Report:

  • Digital Services has a plenitude of positive news!
  • We had an intern from the English Department this semester.  Her project was to organize, upload, and catalog the digital version of the Leigh Hunt Collection.  The Leigh Hunt Collection, housed in Special Collections, includes letters to and from various correspondents and fragments of paper with portions of poems and other writings.  Leigh Hunt, 1784-1859, was a British essayist and poet.  Thanks to our intern, the online collection is now available in the MOspace Digital Library (http://merlin.mobius.umsystem.edu/record=b10675059).
  • A graduate student assistant from the library school will begin work in January 2015.  She will pick up some of the work previously done by our imaging technician (position now vacant).  Having this GLA on board will help us continue to digitize and add material to our digital library.
  • The 2014 spring and summer theses and dissertations that do not have an embargo are now in the MOspace Institutional Repository.  They are being cataloged and records added to WorldCat and MERLIN.  There are 125 dissertations and 139 theses. 
  • On December 8, Tammie and Felicity attended the OCLC webinar on contributing content to Wikipedia. Presenters gave useful information about adding links to Wikipedia for articles, etc.
  • Felicity was recently interviewed by two SISLT students for a class presentation they are making on metadata in digital repositories.  She also attended the Journalism School conference, “Dodging the Memory Hole: Saving Born-digital News Content”.
  • Lastly, our department has received many compliments on our festive holiday decorating efforts.  Drop by if you get a chance.

Wendy Batson, Branches:

  • The College of Engineering received funds for the renovation of Lafferre hall set to begin early next year.  Along with the renovation, the use of the Engineering Library space will be altered, but at this time, we don’t have complete details.  In the meantime, we are planning to move about 15,000 volumes out of the library as soon as possible to make room for the changes.

Rachel Brekhus, Ellis Reference:

  • October instruction: 75 instruction sessions, 1095 students taught
  • November instruction: 31 instruction sessions, 470 students taught
  • 2370 reference questions were answered in October.
  • 1816 reference questions were answered in November.
  • October saw several members of the Reference Department participating in events around the Lincoln the Civil War and the Constitution exhibit throughout the month. Full list of events: http://library.missouri.edu/about/events/lincoln/
  • Last Friday, the Reference Department met for a retreat on the topic of restructuring within the RAIS division.
  • Government Documents librarians attended the 3-day FDLP Conference online.

Deb Ward, Health Sciences Library:

  • HSL participated in the Health Sciences Research Day in November, hosting posters inside the library for the morning session and a research mentor match-up session in the afternoon.
  • The new dean of medicine, Patrice Delafontaine, is now here, as of December 1.  Deb has invited him for a tour of the Health Sciences Library.
  • The hoped-for School of Medicine building is still on hold due to the governor's funds with-holding. Planning is continuing, however. In a recent meeting, Deb and Rich talked with two planners from School of Medicine and one from Facilities Management to share drawings. We shared with them the conceptual drawings for the HSL revitalization. The SOM building planners ran into a problem with how the planned new SOM building will connect with the current SOM gallery area and the HSL building, which will force a minor change in the HSL drawings when they are refined. SOM has promised to fund the cost of the needed adaptation as part of their new construction expense. There is hope that good news about the planned SOM building will come in January, 2015.
  • Everyone at HSL is busy with helping the students and faculty bring the semester to a close.

Sheena Waggoner, Administration Office:

  • Three new student assistants were hired to work the reception desk, and perform other duties assigned.

Bette Stuart, Accounting, Acquisitions & Collection Development, and Consortial Resources

  • Sue Barnes, Library Specialist Sr. in Acquisitions & Collection Development, is retiring after twenty-five years of service.  A reception for Sue is to be held on December 10th from 2:30-4:00 p.m.