Minutes of the Library Deans and Directors of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee Board of Regents

MINUTES OF THE TBR DEANS AND DIRECTORS COUNCIL MEETING October 20, 2000

Minutes of the TBR Library Deans and Directors of the State University and Community College System of the Tennessee Board of Regents 27 October 2000.

The meeting was held in the TBR Conference room in the Genesco Building in Nashville, 10am – 2:30pm.

Presiding: Don Joyce, Austin Peay State University, TBR liaison: Dr. Kay Clark, Elijah Hall.

Attendees: (17) Donald Joyce, Austin Pea State University; Yildiz Binkley, Tennessee State University; Kathy Breeden, Columbia State Community College; Rosa Burnett, XXX Community College; Scott Cohen, Jackson State Community College; Don Craig, Middle Tennessee State University; Doug Cross, Walters State Community College; Sylverna Ford, University of Memphis; Vicky Leather, Chattanooga State Community College; Bob Lhota, Dyersburg State Community College; Mary Lynn, Cleveland State Community College; Peter Nerzak, Pellissippi State Technical Community College; Duncan Parsons, North East State Community College; Suresh Ponnappa, East Tennessee State University Medical School; Mike Rothacker, Volunteer State Community College; Rita Scher, East Tennessee State University; Sue Crites Szostak, Motlow State Community College; Winston Walden, Tennessee Technological University.

Introductions

Don Joyce invited attendees to introduce themselves and asked each participant to share a little of their background. Dr. Joyce extended a hearty welcome to new members Kathy Breeden, Sylverna Ford, and Sue Szostak.

Review of previous Minutes

A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of the April 5, 2000 meeting.

Automation Report

Winston Walden presented a draft of an updated Automation Report. Recommendations were made to change wording to section 2: “Chattanooga State needs and wants an integrated system”, Section 5: “Most TBR libraries use Ariel software, and it is recommended that all TBR libraries adapt Ariel as the software of choice for electronic transfer for interlibrary loans by TBR libraries”. A new recommendation was added: “7: Electronic access – TBR libraries must have the hardware, software, bandwith, and support personnel to provide access to and use of electronic resources.” A motion was made to accept the Automation Report with changes as proposed and seconded. Winston Walden will finalize the report and forward it to Scott Cohen for posting to the TBR Library Deans & Directors website. The group thanked Winston Walden and Don Craig for their work in updating the Library Director’s TBR Automation Report, thereby noting the significant progress that was made at each TBR library with regard to library automation and online resources access.

TBR Regents Degree and Relationship to UT Online Degree

Kay Clark, TBR liaison, distributed a handout “TBR Proposed Framework for TBR Regents Web-based Degrees.” He noted that the focus would be on General Education courses; the web degree was designed so that more Tennessee citizens will have the opportunity to complete a college degree and catch up with other regions in obtaining advanced degrees. He noted that this program should be ready by fall 2001. The web degree will be offered by individual institutions, a student enrolled through a particular institution will be able to take web courses from various colleges. At the completition of the student’s studies, the student will receive a degree from the original institution of enrollment. The group recommended to Dr. Clark to include in the proposal a formal statement that would provide for the planning of library services (digital and walls) to participating web students. Dr. Clark acknowledged the group’s concern and noted that he will make others aware of this.

Campus Pipeline

Bob Lhota and Lige Hall presented a PowerPoint presentation on “Campus Pipeline”, and its integration into TBR College’s websites. The Pipeline website is organized into four parts: College News, Personal WebPages, Announcements/Chats, and Campus Life/Web Life. Pipeline enables customization for staff and students. Students could personalize their personal page to view their class schedule, add a curriculum for each class, and chat with classmates. Pipeline would also create class email lists for faculty. Connections to library resources and information could also be included in personalized pages. A model website is available for viewing at cpdemo.teamp.com/. Access the site with username: Bob, and password: Lhota.

Volunteer State and Memphis University have completed Campus Pipeline training activities. Tennessee State University, Middle Tennessee State University and Motlow State are currently undergoing training.

TBR Network Bandwidth Concerns

Various Libraries reported Internet access problems, especially with Galenet databases. Lige Hall reported that as of the previous day TBR IP addresses are no longer routed through BPN Planet where they caused a funnel problem (many in, few out). Now we are routed through Sprint, with added bandwidth. Additional bandwidth increases are planned for November 2000. Everyone thanked Mr. Hall for taking action immediately and not waiting until summer 2001 to make changes.

Solinet/netLibrary Contract and Update

Mary Lynn reported that the Solinet/netLibrary contract has been reviewed and approved by Cathy Crisp, TBR Legal Department. Don Joyce will write her a note thanking her for her timely efforts thereby enabling TBR institutions the opportunity to participate fully in the netLibrary eBook purchase.

Upgrading of Library Support Positions, Support Staff Online Degree Programs

Debbie Johnson from TBR Human Resources suggested that a review of library support positions could be considered through the TBR Human Resources Compensation Committee. We should coordinate this with local TBR college human resources offices and/or committees. Don Joyce suggested we consider creating career ladders for support staff. Rita Scherr suggested that 1. We need to better describe what library assistants do; 2. We need to assure that the skill levels assigned to library support staff match the skill level of other similar positions on campus.

Mary Lynn suggested creating a certification process for library support staff similar to secretarial certification. Debby Johnson noted that this may require legislative action, however, the board currently recognizes local college’s ability to reward individuals for the completion of certificates. Scott Cohen suggested to enable support staff to participate in online degrees for advancement. Rosa Burnett is interested in starting a two year degree program for library support staff. Don Joyce suggested that it is important to recognize talented support staff and encourage and support them in pursuit of an MLS online degree through UT’s School of information science.

Debby Johnson will provide us with TBR generic descriptions for Library Assistants; she also suggested that we could acquire them from our local human resources department.

Don Joyce will consult with Becky Brunton and ask her to continue pursuing this. Becky will ask other library directors for descriptions and comparisons at their campus as needed.

State-Wide Access to Science Direct

Noella Owen, representative from Science Direct explained how TBR libraries could take advantage of other Tennessee college and university full text online journal subscriptions to Elsevier, Excerpta, and Inspec/Biosis, by participating in Science Directs transaction allowance program. It was also proposed that community colleges could participate without subscribing to any journal or database directly for a $5,000 annual fee.

TBR Virtual Library

Don Joyce reviewed a proposal to be submitted to TBR for a virtual library in support of the Regents Online Degree programs. It outlines the need for a TBR Libraries initiative in support of these programs to provide a union catalog, interlibrary lending procedures for books, the use of Ariel for periodicals, and access to TEL and other full text online databases as well as online reference services. Support from TBR was asked for the creation of a union catalog using “Site Search” software from OCLC, and for the purchase of hardware to mount and run this software. The TBR libraries will cooperate in creating tutorials and information in support of the use of these services.

Academic Library Survey

The IPEDS Survey has been replaced with the online Academic Library Survey. Anelle Huggins is State Chair in Tennessee; Don Joyce will ask if she is interested in tabulating TBR libraries data as was done in the past with the manual IPEDS survey.

SACS Accreditation Proposal

Scott Cohen noted concerns with the new SACS Accreditations Proposal concerning libraries. Unlike the current SACS criteria the new proposal mentions libraries only briefly, it no longer includes “must” statements for libraries, and there are no degree requirements for individuals providing library services. Don Joyce noted that the reason for the change was to provide greater flexibility to institutions, to change from a quantitative to a qualitative assessment.

Rita Scher noted that ETSU will be assessed using the new SACS Accreditations model. She will keep us updated on their experience with the new criteria.

It was agreed that Library Deans and Directors would express their concerns in writing to their college presidents and vice presidents, so that they are aware of our concerns.

UCITA: Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act

Yildiz Binkley handed out information regarding the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act. UCITA is a lobbying effort by software companies to convince state legislators to pass such regulations that would enable software publishers to sell software “as is”, restrict fair use, restrict rights of owners to transferring software, and allows the software license to say that the software can’t be reviewed by a magazine or newspaper without the publisher’s permission. It was agreed that we would review this with our supervisors and remain vigilant should such action be introduced to the Tennessee legislature.

Library Fee

Don Craig inquired about an interest in the creation of library fees similar to student “Technology Access” fees. With the raising of such fees libraries could provide additional services such as extended hours, or for the purchase of additional materials to their collections. Comments made consisted of asking if this was done elsewhere, and if we should ask for a larger share of the “Technology Access Fee”. Otherwise there was not an interest in the creation of a library fee.

Other

Sue Szostak volunteered to collect database use information from all TBR libraries. She also asked that we include information on cost and how the cost of a database was configured, i.e., cost by campus, cost by site, cost by fte.

Peter Nerzak, recorder

This page is maintained by Scott Cohen.

Last updated on March 8, 2001