UT/TBR Spring meeting

April 25, 2007

Middle Tennessee State University

Attending:

• Vicky Leather – Chattanooga State Technical Community College
• Barbara Dewey – University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• Yildiz Binkley --  Tennessee State University
• Emily Moore – University of Tennessee Space Institute
• Jill Keally – University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• Rita Schur – East Tennessee State University
• Suresh Ponnappa – East Tennessee State University Medical Library
• Steve Rogers – University of Tennessee, Martin
• Tom Singarella – University of Tennessee Health Science Library
• Don Craig – Middle Tennessee State University
• Theresa Liedtka – University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
• Sylverna Ford – University of Memphis
• Sandy Oelschlegel – University of Tennessee Medical Library
• Rosa Burnett – Southwest Tennessee Community College
• Peter Nerzak – Pellissippi State Technical Community College
• Sue Szostak – Motlow State Community College
• Robert Benson -- Roane State Community College
• Faye Jones – Nashville State Technical Community College

Meeting was called to order at 12:40 CT with Barbara Dewey and Vicky Leather presiding. Vicky was filling in for Mary Evelyn Lynn, who was unable to attend due to staffing conflicts in her library.

Introductions were made. Steve Rogers, Rosa Burnett and Robert Lhota are all retiring this year. Steve Rogers is leaving after 33 years to pursue family interests. Rosa Burnett is retiring on April 29 after 31 years to pursue fulltime ministry.

Following introductions, librarians shared information about recent developments in their respective libraries.

• Chattanooga State reported a highly successful Anne Frank exhibit.
• Nashville State reported the hiring of a new library assistant and participation as an embedded librarian in online course offerings.
• Roane State reported conclusion of carpeting and painting project at its main campus library. Repurposing of space has led to improvement in provision of library services.
• Motlow State reported having completed the SACS report writing process. Their report is currently under review by SACS evaluators. Motlow anticipates a new building project in McMinnville and expects their current construction efforts on a new library to be completed in 7-8 months.
• Pellissippi has a new academic vice-president. PSTCC has now been using the Innovative Interfaces ILS for one year. Work continues in preparation for the migration to Desire2Learn, Luminus and Banner. PSTCC also reports a successful common book activity on campus. The book was Sharp Shooter by Madden.
• Southwest has been “live” with Innovative Interfaces for one month. Groundbreaking for the new library is set for May 1 with expected completion date of 2008 or 2009. Southwest hosted a successful “Art Fusion Day” during National Library Week. The college is currently seeking a new Vice President of Academic Affairs.
• Preston Medical Library has undergone administrative reorganization and now reports directly to the Dean. All ejournals have been entered into TDNet with a new OpenURL resolver, which includes Google Scholar. The College of Pharmacy will start its first class in August 2007. Fundraising has begun in preparation to build an additional floor to handle increased traffic anticipated due to the new College of Pharmacy as well as new program offerings at South College and Lincoln Memorial University. A Digital Archives project is also underway using GreenStone.
• University of Memphis was one of 50 US libraries awarded a grant to participate in ALA’s Jazz in America series. The series included 7 programs (film, performance, discussion) about the history of jazz. Sylverna announced that Innovative Interfaces will be their next ILS with an expected live date of Spring 2008. The University of Memphis has consolidated its reference and information services desks and is cross-training reference and user services staff so more of the staff knows the entire collection. University of Memphis has created a Learning Commons area and anticipates a new café to open this summer. The library was honored by a special role in faculty convocation with library faculty leading the campus processional.
• University of Tennessee, Chattanooga has a new provost. Roof repairs were recently completed, and they are waiting to see if a new library building will be funded. UTC recently hosted the TLA pre-conference sessions. An instant message reference service is proving popular with about 6 questions per day, which exceeds the number of questions received either by phone or email. UTC has a new ILS and has also started a podcasting initiative providing basic information literacy tutorials. Audio-visual materials are now shelved in the open stacks which has resulted in increased circulation. UTC hosted a successful bookreading by a local author during National Library Week.
• MTSU recently received SACS reaccreditation. The printing press project continues successfully. The READ poster campaign went state-wide with one set being sent to every metro high school in Tennessee.
• UT Health Science Library is currently conducting a national search for several faculty librarian positions. The library recently received new carpeting and has established an information commons. Participation in the TN Health Information Consortium (THIC) has created greater purchasing leverage for electronic resources held in common by local hospitals. THIC is looking for ways to expand their initiative statewide. Suresh announced that Tom was voted Librarian of the Year by the Medical Library directors for his efforts. UT Health Science Library recently developed comprehensive disaster and emergency plans, which Tom has offered to share with any interested library.
• UT, Martin reports a 10% budget increase. Costs of the Innovative ILS were defrayed by TAF funding. The special collections mobile shelving project is in its 2^nd of 3 years. UT, Martin now uses Serials Solutions. A coffee kiosk is “poised and ready” for Fall 2007. The library has started filming all academic speakers on campus for placement on campus CCTV.
• ETSU Medical Library is serving its first classes of the new College of Pharmacy. Purchasing has adopted a new “piggy-back system” to compensate for perceived shortcomings of Banner. Problems with student email system led to outsourcing of student email to Google, which allows students to carry a permanent email address as alumni. The clinical librarianship program continues to be popular and has led to the creation of two additional librarian positions. The library is also currently training public librarians in the provision of consumer health information. Suresh concluded by thanking everyone for their thoughts and prayers during his recent illness.
• ETSU will bring up Innovative Interfaces as their ILS after classes conclude in May. ETSU is combining their serials and acquisitions departments due to the convergence of materials and formats. ETSU is currently seeking a new serial vendor. ETSU has established an information commons area in their reference room in partnership with the university’s information technology department.
• Jill Keally (Interim Associate Dean, UTK) spoke about UTK’s Diversity Librarian program, which allows minority School of Information Sciences graduates to work in various academic units within the UTK library. Construction of the new information commons area has been delayed but will resume on May 14 with completion anticipated in August 2007. Progress updates are available on the Commons webpage. UTK advertised the project using podcasts as well as Flicker. Plans are underway to install a high-impact video wall to market library services.
• UT Space Institute reports new administration and lots of faculty turnover. Emily is beginning to look at utilization of her facility to maximize shelving.
• Tennessee State University indicated that the scholarly commons digitization project is ongoing but slow due to copyright concerns. TSU is happy with Innovative after using it for 2 years. Innovative President Jerry Kline wants to meet with us in the Fall to discuss InnReach as well as formation of a TN Users Group.
• Barbara Dewey of UT, Knoxville indicated that UTK Library is in a “year of transition”. New academic leadership combined with faculty turnover and retirements is impacting the library and university. UTK Library is currently conducting a program review with external reviewers scheduled to visit in Fall 2007. Barbara continues to serve on OCLC members council, ARL Board of Directors and is also serving as a Solinet representative. Barbara invites questions or comments about Solinet.

TENN-SHARE Update

Suresh reported on the recent TENN-SHARE board meeting. Suresh is the incoming TENN-SHARE president for 2007-08.

The Volunteer Voices digitization project is going well with presentations being conducted across the state. Project coordinators welcome samples from interested libraries to test how well these sample materials will work with the current collection. If you are interested in sharing a local collection, contact Tiffani Conner.

Work is still progressing on the one-step access initiative. David Atkins is pursuing the integration of Agent Federated Search with Illiad to allow an enhanced interlibrary loan process. The project seeks to identify regional resource sharing groups already in existence and link these groups together. The project also encourages that more library catalogs become available in Agent.

The RFP for TEL is proceeding well. The bill requesting $1 million funding has enough sponsors to proceed. The Speaker of the House supports the bill.

TENN-SHARE is planning a mid-June strategic planning retreat.

Suresh indicated that the paperless TALC project has been sidelined by other initiatives.

State text-book cost initiative

There is a bill before the state legislature requiring libraries to place text books on reserve for student use. If passed, the bill may have little effect as an amendment indicates that textbooks must be placed on library reserve only when the publisher has made copies available to the college expressly for that purpose.

Quarterly contracts report

There was general discussion about the existence of revisions to the TBR Services Contract Review Purchasing Policy requiring that each institution report quarterly on the performance of every contract. Many expressed concern about the practicality and usefulness of such reporting by each library. Several indicated that they had received no instructions from their institution regarding procedural changes in reporting.

Online course platforms

Peter Nerzak briefly summarized the current migration of TBR online courses from WebCT to Desire2L (D2L) course management systems. D2L was selected as TBR’s new course management system partly because it was more “web-friendly”. Peter raised the possibility that D2L may offer increased potential for accessibility of library content and services by online students.

Web pages and pathfinders are easily created and can be added to the course by the course instructor.

D2L features the use of “widgets”, or channels, allowing customization of the course interface look and feel.

Most instructor content seems to be migrating from WebCT to D2L seamlessly, but problems have been reported with the migration of quizzes. Additionally, D2L currently presents obstacles to uploading papers into Turnitin. Peter noted that D2L seems eager to please its clientele and will likely address the problem soon.

Peter also indicated that D2L is currently working to improve the process of loading student information from Banner into D2L.

Other matters

Barbara mentioned recent publisher challenges to the practice of e-reserve collections.

Don Craig mentioned that the MTSU library administrative computers were recently hacked. Though there is no evidence suggesting that hackers were looking for sensitive information, he described the process MTSU library took in notifying individuals whose social security numbers were contained in documents on the compromised computers. Don stressed the importance of regular computer file maintenance and recommends that social security numbers never be stored in documents on a PC.

Sue Szostak attended a TSLA presentation on ArchiveIT and expressed concern that the project does not “crawl” community colleges. Vicky mentioned that college catalogs are often archived by College Source Online (http://www.collegesource.org).

Suresh indicated interest in combining purchase options of UT and TBR for upcoming Science Direct purchases. UT’s Science Direct purchase agreement comes up for renewal in 2010. The TBR purchase agreement is renewable in 2008. Barbara advised Suresh to talk to Linda Phillips.

Rita suggested that “the era of government documents is over” as more and more government information becomes available online yet current rules make it harder to keep an unused collection than get rid of it. ETSU is both a state depository and selective federal depository.