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Yearly Archives: 2016

Notes from the Director, 3/17/16

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Hello everyone,

Congratulations to Pat Jones, PT Martin and all the ESFAC members on the success of their proposal to the Student Fee Capital Improvements Committee for expanded seating and other improvement to the BookMark Café!   The café will receive $50,000 in improvements due to their efforts!  Students will really benefit.

The other budget news is still not good, with a 5% cut overall. We still hope the state legislators will reconsider their cuts to MU by the end of their session in early May.  Please try to come to one of the open forums on the Libraries’ budget; details went out this week.  There are two sessions, so we accommodate most schedules, I hope.

The other bad news is the Chancellor’s announcement of a hiring freeze.  I’ve reported on that to Library Assembly and MULAC.  Watch NewsNotes for a summary, and bring questions to the open forums.  You will see an ad out soon for the supervisor of the offsite depositories. This position has been vacant since Brian Cain left, and we need to fill it for health and safety reasons. It has been re-classed to a non-library title, to better suit the warehouse aspect of the work.

LMT will be working on goals for the Libraries later this spring, and we will be sharing them will all staff.

Campus Facilities will be working in Room 202 over Spring Break to take down the temporary offices (that have been in the south end of the room for years) and painting in 202 in planned for this summer.  Room 114 is scheduled to get some new blinds.  These are needed improvements, and I know we all welcome them.

I’m off to talk to the Illinois ACRL meeting tomorrow, but will be here next week.  See you soon,

Ann

You Are Invited to the Library Society Dinner, April 15

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Please join us on Friday, April 15, 2016, as Library Society members and guests gather for our annual celebration of the enduring values of books and libraries. Our featured after-dinner speaker will be David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States.

6:00 p.m.      Reception
7:00 p.m.      Dinner
Location       Ellis Library Grand Reading Room
Dress            Business Attire

Contact Sheila Voss at vosss@missouri.edu or 882-9168 to purchase tickets

Information and Action Items from Library Management Team 3/1/16

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INFORMATION ITEM: LMT further discussed the IT Transition Plan and how it may affect the Libraries. Several concerns were expressed about the effort to more centralize IT support.  The Libraries will seek out more information and further address concerns.

INFORMATION ITEM: The Library and Library Committee have been trying to communicate as much as possible to the Faculty about the upcoming journal cuts and the Wiley/Elsevier review project.  Several selectors have been invited to department meetings to further the discussion with faculty. A Journal cuts website is in the final stages of being created. The purpose of the site is to solicit faculty input about specific titles. The Libraries are also looking at the bundled packages offered by Wiley and Elsevier.  The contracts of these expensive vendors (which represent over 1/3 of our materials budget) are up for renewal this summer.  When the Libraries go into negotiations to renew at a lower price, we will need to know what titles can be cut and which titles must we keep or get through another vendor.

Information and Action Items from Library Management Team 2/25/16

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INFORMATION ITEM: LMT would like to investigate two potential projects that involve collaboration with Wikipedia.   

  • One, recently discussed at GWLA, involves having designated “wikipedians” on campuses dedicated to updating and keeping accurate and up-to-date entries on local topics (University, city, areas, etc.). This project often works with Graduate students of Library Schools.  On our campus, there may be an opportunity for the Libraries to coordination.
  • Another project involved WikiEdu, a nonprofit organization trying to creating partnerships between Libraries and Wikipedia.  This project involves letting Wikipedia editors use Library databases in order to research and make entries better.  How this might exactly work and if it is possible and/or desirable is still being explored.   

The Provost and University Relations will be consulted and informed as the Libraries consider both of these exciting endeavors.

INFORMATION ITEM: the Award for Academic Distinction Ceremony will be held  Sunday, April 24th, 4:00-5:00 p.m. in 201 Ellis Library.  This organization sought us out two years ago and wanted to specifically have their event take place in the Ellis Library Grand Reading Room. 

INFORMATION ITEM: LMT will make sure a representative from the Libraries will be present at the University of Missouri Undergraduate Honors Convocation that occurs Saturday, May 14th, 8 a.m.  The invitation requested a Director or Associate Director attend in full regalia to help lead the procession. 

INFORMATION ITEM:  LMT resolved to take part in the Library Diversity Alliance that is being created between Academic Libraries.  The goal of the effort is to offer fellowships to newly graduated Librarians of underrepresented groups.  Libraries are urged to ask for supplemental funding from their home campuses and local organizations. The Library will take part in the Alliance will plan to request funding from various MU diversity initiatives.  

INFORMATION ITEM:  Library Committee and Faculty Journal Communication.  The Chair of the Library Committee, Rabia Gregory, sent a letter to faculty about the journal review process. The Libraries’ Collections Steering Committee (CSC), is working on a follow-up message from the Library to help clarify. The Libraries will need to review our current subscriptions and have faculty input by time we go into renewal negotiations this summer.  The uncertain budget situation and the vendors’ practice of “bundling” our subscriptions complicate the process.  We do not know how many titles we have to cut nor do we know how decisions about each title will affect our cost until we get into negotiations.