TBR Deans & Directors meeting

TBR Deans & Directors meeting

TBR Board Room, November 30 – Dec 1, 2009

November 30, 1 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. CST

December 1, 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. CST

MINUTES

Approval of minutes

Motion passed to approve minutes from the Spring 2009 meeting. (1^st – Yildiz Binkley; 2^nd – Robert Benson)

Roundtable summary

· Faye Jones (Nashville State) – recent renovations include moving audio-visual services and the Learning Center; website migrated to new platform due to new college CMS

· Louise Kelly (Volunteer State) – logins now required for all campus computers; library has no lab technicians; Help Desk functions have been outsourced; new website; created new group learning area; moved many reference books into circulating collection; faced $6k budget cut but money reinstated with October budget revision

· Vicky Leather (Chattanooga State) – Bagels & Barbeque event successful (September); submitted SACS report

· Mary Evelyn Lynn (Cleveland State) – created new instruction lab with TAF money; RFP for campus-wide print management software – implement in Spring2010 to gather data to use in setting reasonable student/faculty print allocations – considering system with print release station and coin-op to accommodate community users – no vendor selected yet; library and IT heavily hit by voluntary buyout

· Kathy Breeden (Columbia State) – voluntary buyout reduced staff by 1 librarian and 2 part-time positions; now spreading 7 people across 5 locations; new website driven by new college CMS

· Don Craig (MTSU) – enrollment > 25k; filled several vacant positions; received budget increase to cover database renewals and increased students; contract for Innovative ILS submitted for board approval; developing plans for library as “learning space”; plans to create Learning Commons funded by stimulus money; MTSU awarded Confucius Institute award; print control software funded by TAF; good publicity from celebration of 10 years in current library building

· Yildiz Binkley (Tennessee State University) – new website = new webpage and blog; SACS determined that library needs additional space; embedded librarian program going well

· Jean Flanagan (ETSU) – buyouts (Rita Scher and one assistant retired); reopened documents and law department; experimenting with shared responsibility for ILL to prevent staff burnout; developing basis for Learning Commons; coffee shop; website redesign; looking to expand the role of “New Libraries Foundation”

· Suresh Ponnappa (ETSU, Quillen College of Medicine) – Peter Nerzak awarded Tenn-Share Tennessee Resource Sharing award for 2009; Tenn-Share is opening a usage study of “open access” catalogs in TN – blog created to communicate findings; 300+ attended Evidence-Based Medicine software/hardware workshop; TESLA grant for GoLocal TN database, which helps locate local doctors – database built by Vanderbilt, but maintenance turned over to ETSU; established consumer health reference collection in Johnson City “projects” – provides both information resources and workshops for community residents; librarians awarded both 1^st and 3^rd place research prize from Medical Library Association

· Deanna Nipp-Kientz (TTU) – new website for both university and library; applicant review period begins for permanent dean; received stimulus money for library redesign, which will be developed by newly hired dean; relocating indexes and microforms to make more room

· Stuart Gaetjens (MSCC) – buyouts affected 4 positions (director; circ coordinator; reference librarian; support staff); dropped eAudiobooks; added LibGuides; experimenting with Twitter

· Peter Nerzak (PSTCC) – using PaperCut for print control -- <$3k for entire campus; using both Facebook and Twitter; playing with KOHA (open source catalog); Text-a-librarian service made good start

· Scott Cohen (JSCC) – lost 2 positions in buyout (reference librarian and library assistant); LibGuides; weeding VHS collection; experiment with Twitter; participate in community Big Read; purchased American History in Video

· Sylverna Ford (U of Memphis) – new website on Luminus CMS provides common look for all U of M sites; library now appears more frequently on U of M website; all TAF-supported computers now require user authentication; enrollment and library traffic up; new student center will open in January – library commons room (open 24/7) has served this role during construction; 9% budget cut (real affects delayed by stimulus $); 30% cut to periodicals; gate traffic +11%; instruction +33% (every librarian teaching this year)

· Robert Benson (RSCC) – using LibGuides; purchased LexisNexis Academic and Gold Rush; hired Library Assistant; building chat reference service (Meebo)

· Joe Weber (APSU) -- >10k students for 1^st time; SGA celebrated enrollment milestone with purchase of 10 laptops for library use; conducting LibQual in Spring2009 with follow-up focus groups in Fall2009 – students want new building; incorporating textbook repository; using Millennium for serials and acquisitions with circ live in Spring2010; moved from Serials Solutions to GoldRush; received grant for veterans oral history project to digitize taped interview and house on server – consider incorporation into Volunteer Voices

THEC space allocation (Peter Nerzak)

Peter noted that the THEC space allocation formula has been adjusted. His results suggest that the new formula calculates lower space requirements for libraries than the previous formula.

Don Craig discussed the history of TBR/THEC space allocation research. It was suggested that the formula does not adequately account for ADA, computer, or microform requirements.

Action item: Each library should review the results of its space allocation calculations and determine if: a) results seem to roughly equate to the space actually available/needed and b) if the estimated space allocation is lower than last report. Submit findings to ad hoc committee.

Ad hoc committee was established to collate information from libraries and explore the nature of the changes to the THEC space allocation formula. Committee will try to ascertain the criteria used to derive new formula. Committee members are Don Craig, Yildiz Binkley and Louise Kelly. They will report findings at Spring meeting.

RODP issues (Peter Nerzak)

Raylean Henry is now serving as Associate Vice-President of RODP. Raylean is currently working through a report of an external RODP review. The nature and results of this external review are not known at this time.

The embedded librarian initiative is working well with many librarians participating from nearly every TBR institution.

A motion was made by Peter to accept the RODP Virtual Library Policy and Procedures statement as written. Mary Evelyn seconded. Motion was carried unanimously.

The RODP Virtual Library policy needs approval every three[NaTSD1] years. Additional policy improvements can be recommended at any time.

Randy Schulte, Assistant Vice-chancellor for Academic Affairs, asks for input of embedded librarians to help improve RODP course quality. At this time, he is particularly interested in comments from university librarians regarding the Bachelors of Professional Studies and Bachelors of Interdisciplinary Studies. Feedback should be sent directly to Randy as soon as possible for use in the current audit process.

Mary Evelyn was interested in learning more about the role librarians should play in the non-RODP academic audits and program reviews at our various institutions.

Ezproxy referrer setup (Peter Nerzak)

Seven institutions have not yet adopted the new ezproxy prefix, which allows for “single sign-in” authentication to library resources from within D2L. This is an important improvement for student access to library resources within RODP as well as our local online course offerings.

Implementation is not technically difficult, and there are many resources available to help local IT make the necessarily changes.

TSU adoption is complicated because they are using Innovative proxy rather than Ezproxy.

A few other schools are having difficulty obtaining the appropriate security certificates to enable the changes.

All schools will continue to work toward the goal of 100% implementation.

Peter recommends that libraries use only the new proxy prefix to avoid confusion. The new prefix performs outside D2L exactly like the old prefix.

Science Direct Freedom Collection and Wiley Interscience (Yildiz Binkley)

This item was withdrawn from discussion. TSU has elected to purchase Science Direct Freedom Collection.

Suresh noted his concern about eJournal package deals because he can’t ascertain costs for specific titles when making title cuts. Suresh also noted that the merger between Wiley and Blackwell has complicated current contract renewals.

Purchasing OCLC ILL and cataloging services (Joe Weber)

Joe asked if any other TBR schools were required to bid OCLC ILL and cataloging services. APSU has been required to bid since Lyrasis indicates can purchase services directly from OCLC, if desired.

No other schools reported a bid requirement for ILL/cataloging services.

Strategic planning (Scott Cohen)

Scott initiated general conversation about the library’s role in college-level strategic planning. Group reports a wide variety of practices.

Don suggested that the strategic planning process is an important opportunity to remind administration and faculty of the library’s role and contributions.

General discussion followed regarding the process used for TBR-level strategic planning. The group expressed interest in learning more about the TBR strategic planning process.

Action item: Request was made for libraries with strategic plan documents to send to the group.

Policies and procedures regarding children in the library (Scott Cohen)

Scott initiated general conversation about policies regarding children in the library. His interest driven by requirement to forbid all children from using library computers.

Group reported a wide variety of practices.

Nashville State does not allow children in the library.

MTSU has no policy forbidding children on campus.

Several libraries permit children accompanied by a responsible adult, but restrict computer access.

Academic Audit overview

Randy Schulte, Assistant Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs, visited to discuss academic audit and program review. Dr. Schulte provided a general overview of the academic audit philosophy. The purpose of academic audit is to provide for the continuous quality improvement of teaching and learning. While the word “audit” conjures negative connotations for many (ie. IRS audit), the etymology relates the word closely to the acts of “hearing” or “listening”.

Academic audits are internal conversations with program stakeholders (internal and external) to discuss the following:

· What are the program’s strengths?

· What are the program’s improvement areas?

· How are identified strengths permeated through the program?

· Is there a process in place to share best practices?

The program is not judged on success but on strengths of processes for continuous improvement.

Dr. Short introduced the culture of academic audit as part of TBR’s Defining Our Future initiative. Dr. Schulte acknowledged that the process is imperfect and that the culture of productive audits grows with increased understanding of the nature/intent of academic audit.

The general process is as follows:

· Program identifies itself as candidate for audit (usually 3 to 6 months before actual audit).

· Internal audit study and report conducted in fall.

· External audit team visits in spring to review report in person.

· External audit team makes commendations, affirmations and recommendations.

Audit input should include stakeholders such as students, other “down-stream” program faculty, potential employers, library, and learning center.

Program reviews are different from academic audit. Program reviews are more focused on resources, inputs and outputs. Program reviews are conducted by external discipline expert. Program review process does not compel specific improvements but is often tied to performance funding.

There is currently no requirement that academic audits include librarians and library resources. However, Dr. Schulte encourages librarians to participate in the process where appropriate. Librarians are encouraged to attend fall semester audit training and are welcome to serve on audit teams.

Suresh raised the idea of applying the academic audit concept to library services. Dr. Schulte suggested that Dr. Short would strongly support any such initiative undertaken by interested libraries.

Outsourcing physical processing of materials (Scott Cohen)

Cleveland State has been using OCLC cataloging partners program since March 2009. Participating vendors process the physical items and notify OCLC re: purchase. OCLC adds holdings information. MARC records are batch-imported from OCLC. Additional cost is $1.10 per item and cost efficiencies are significant.

Mary Evelyn highly recommends the service. U of Memphis uses the service as a way to free up catalogers for original cataloging projects.

WorldCat Local

PSTCC is using WorldCat Local. Set up is easy. Peter recommends that everyone explore potential uses.

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned on Tuesday, Dec. 1 at 11:30am.

ACTION ITEMS:

1. Each library should review the results of its space allocation calculations and indicate if a) they seem to roughly equate to the space actually available/needed and b) if the estimated space allocation is lower than last report. Send results to ad hoc committee.

2. An ad hoc committee was established to collate information from libraries and explore the nature of the changes to the THEC space allocation formula. Committee will try to ascertain the criteria used to derive new formula. Committee members are Don Craig, Yildiz Binkley and Louise Kelly. They will report findings at Spring 2010 meeting.

3. Review RODP Virtual Library policy for additional recommendations. Discuss at Spring 2010 meeting.

4. Libraries with strategic plan documents are asked to send to the group.

Attending: