TBR Deans & Directors Meeting

TBR Board Room, November 1-2, 2007

 

November 1, 1:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. CST

November 2, 8:30 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. CST

 

 

 

 

MINUTES

 

 

The meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m by Mary Evelyn Lynn, Chair, Library Director, Cleveland State Community College.  Introductions were made for the benefit of Joe Weber, Director of Library and Media Services at Austin Peay State University, a new member to the group.

 

Minutes from the Fall 2006 and Spring 2007 meetings were reviewed.  Faye Jones made the motion to approve the Spring Minutes, Yildiz Binkley seconded, all approved.  Faye Jones moved to approve the Fall minutes, Sylverna Ford seconded, and all approved.

 

 

Ongoing Reports

 

Angela Gregory was unable to attend the meeting to discuss state-wide contracts and purchasing but sent updates for the group.  Peter Nerzak was called upon to address some of these issues.  It was noted that contracts with Autographics and Oxford University Press were being worked on; Alexander Street Press (Classical Music Directory) has increased the number of simultaneous users to ten (10) as of November 1st.  The Alexander Street Press Theatre in Video collection is a possible addition.  The one-time cost would be $90,000.  It was noted that there would be more interest if the collection includes the BBC videos.  Peter said that he would contact Tim Cherubini to find out if there would be an additional cost.

Mary Evelyn Lynn mentioned that NetLibrary Collection VII would be available in the near future.  Some discussion ensued concerning how many of the TBR libraries have the first six  (6) collections and encouraging institutions to continue in developing state-wide continuity for access to the Netlibrary sets across the state.

 

Suresh Ponnappa summarized the choices for databases under the new TEL II funding.  They are, in descending order, Tennessee Newspapers, Opposing Viewpoints, Testing and Education Reference Center, and “Legal” databases.  Mary Evelyn Lynn mentioned that the State Library now has access to 19th Century Newspapers and the Civil War Database – as do we – and that these ought to be added to our libraries’ websites.

 

Suresh, as President of the Tenn-Share Board of Directors, mentioned that our thanks go to the state legislature for funding for TEL II.  He also discussed the recent  conference and outlined Tenn-Share’s draft strategy for the organization’s future.  That strategy will consist of three goals:  to collaborate with other organizations with common information interests; to raise funds in order to sustain existing programs; and to market Tenn-Share activities and resources.  There was some discussion concerning financing for some databases, such as the Literature Resource Center.

 

Peter Nerzak provided an update on RODP (ROCC) activities and explained how students are able to access the various libraries resources through the RODP website.  The potential impact of Luminis and D2L were discussed.  Peter said that he would send us the URLs for both Luminis and D2L so that they may be added to EZ Proxy on our campuses.  The focus then shifted more towards D2L and the options available for the librarian’s role – specifically training to become “embedded librarians” for D2L.  The possibility for providing training for up to 36 library staff on how to become “embedded” was discussed.  This could be a two day training program in January.  Peter said that he would contact us with details in the near future.  Before moving on to the next topic of business it was pointed out to all that RODP has provided over $400,000 thus far this year for database support for all of our libraries.

 

Vicky Leather reminded those present of the upcoming TBR Media Consortium meeting on Friday, November 16th, 2007.  She asked that agenda items be sent to her attention.

 

Joe Weber then gave a brief update on the TBR Database Spreadsheet maintained at Austin Peay by Denise Hemingway.  All members agreed that this is a most useful list to have access to.  It was suggested that the list be updated more often and cleaned up a bit (various vendors need to be de-duped).  More information will be forthcoming.

 

The meeting was then recessed for the afternoon.  Old Business would be the first topic of discussion when the group reconvened on Friday morning, November 2nd, at 8:30 a.m.     

 

 

Old Business

 

Mary Evelyn Lynn gave a brief background/history of the recent state legislation regarding placement of free copies of textbooks in libraries.  It was mentioned that TBR will be following up on this charge which has been given to the schools and libraries.  Discussion ensued concerning what various libraries were/weren’t doing at this point.  A question was raised regarding the willingness of publishers to allow copies of textbooks which they provide as preview copies to faculty to be placed in libraries for students to use in lieu of purchasing the text.  The phrase “for that purpose” could prove to be a sticking point.

 

Monitoring of contracts on a quarterly basis was then brought up by Mary Evelyn.  The question was asked whether it was a problem for libraries on the various campuses.  At this point the general consensus was that it was not.

 

An update of Banner and Luminis implementation on the various campuses was discussed by the group.  With regard to the former there were questions involving the monitoring of leave and salaries.  It is much more difficult – impossible for some at this point – to have access to this information with the new system as compared to the old.   A number of libraries/schools have yet to implement the Luminis portal.

 

All of the libraries/campuses have implemented D2L this fall with the exception of Austin Peay.  The opportunities for embedded librarians were discussed – particularly the cases of Nashville State and Pellissippi who both have a librarian presence in a few courses.  The discussion evolved into Library Commons with Motlow, ETSU, and Tennessee Tech providing their libraries experiences.  The Chair allowed this diversion to continue for a while before moving the meeting along to the next item of business.

 

The Autographics Agent update was turned over to Peter Nerzak so that he could demonstrate the new interface.  It was suggested that all libraries may want to consider adding all of their databases to Autographics and that to do so is not particularly cost-prohibitive.  Pellissippi uses it for all of their journals, not their books.  The Chair felt that this is something we need to discuss more at the next retreat.

 

The next item of Old Business, “TBR RODP Librarians Conference/Training” had previously been discussed at the Thursday afternoon meeting, November 1st.

 

Before moving on to the next items Scott Cohen mentioned that The New York Times archives were now available online for free.  Suresh Ponnappa informed the group that the Wolters Kluwer health information was no longer a part of the Gale offerings.

 

 

Items Remaining from Spring 2007 Meeting Agenda

 

Sue Szostak queried the group regarding interest in providing support staff training.

Her suggestion was that an extra day might be tacked on to the CULS annual conference for this purpose.  She said that she would contact someone involved with CULS to explore this possibility.

 

The Chair gave a brief history of the personnel classification issue.  Rita Scher then discussed the story behind the skill levels being bumped up from Level 5s to Level 6s for Library Assistant IIIs at ETSU several years ago.  The group was asked if this was an issue which we ought to pursue.  And, if so, whether we want to do it individually on our campuses or do something as a collaborative effort.  Rita said that she would forward the background information regarding how it came to pass.  It was decided to discuss this at a future meeting.

 

TBR library documents are to continue to be sent to Ed Frank at the University of Memphis for archival purposes.

 

A reminder was made by Peter Nerzak for all libraries to send him the names of the contact people in our libraries responsible for ILL and TALC cards.  Most libraries have complied – a few remain who have not.

 

The final item of Old Business was a very brief discussion of reserve copyright issues brought up by Don Craig.  The concerns at MTSU are not in evidence at other libraries – thus, the discussion was brief before moving on to New Business.

 

 

New Business

 

With the migration of many of the TBR libraries integrated library systems to Innovative Interfaces Scott Cohen broached the subject of looking into a common shared system for us all.  Missouri’s Mobius system, shared by 50+ academic libraries, was given as an example of such a state-wide system.  Sylverna Ford and others think that it would be prudent of us to be proactive and at least begin discussing and examining this type of arrangement before we are asked or mandated to do so.  With this is mind it was suggested that we look into setting up a user’s group to address the various issues.  Yildiz Binkley said that she would look into the possibility of having someone from Innovative Interfaces provide a demonstration of INN-Reach (for consortial borrowing) at our Spring Meeting.  Suresh Ponnappa encouraged the group to look beyond the traditional ILS and begin to think in terms of Open World Cat, Google, or some of the new open source options, acknowledging that circulation functions would probably still benefit from a more traditional system.

 

The CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act) impact upon student logins to PCs in our libraries was discussed by Peter Nerzak and the group.  For many of the libraries it is a non-issue as they have always required students and community users to log into the PCs at each session.  A comment was made that students are so accustomed to having to log into various accounts that this is not seen as much of an invasion of their privacy these days.

 

The establishment of a Wiki for the group was discussed by Scott Cohen.  The benefits of ease of sharing of information among group members was of interest to all.  Peter Nerzak said that he had discussed the possibility of having a Wiki made for us by John Sinclair and that he thought it might be available to us in January.  Other uses for the Wiki were discussed by members.  W will be contacted about this at a future date.

 

It was partly with a Wiki in mind – and to add some formal structure – that Mary Evelyn Lynn developed some templates for our group’s minutes, agendas, and attendance.  Discussion of the various formats ensued and there was some fine-tuning which Mary Evelyn said she would adopt.  Once the changes are made she will send the information to Scott Cohen for posting and distribution.

 

The next item of business was the election of the Vice Chair/Chair Elect for 2008.  Yildiz Binkley was openly nominated – knowingly accepted – and was unanimously and gratefully elected.

 

Tentative meeting dates for 2008 are as follows:  Spring Meeting – either April 17 and 18 or 24 and 25, depending upon UT’s availability; Summer Retreat – most likely June 12 and 13 at Motlow State Community College’s new library; and the Fall meeting will be decided upon at a later date but will most likely be in early November.

 

The remaining New Business items were: to consider changing the TBR Library Deans and Directors by-laws to read that the Fall meeting should be held in the Fall, not in a particular month; and Peter Nerzak will inquire as to whether we want to continue to subscribe to the Safari database.  It has been compared to Books 24/7 and some of us have been asked to evaluate and compare Safari to Books 24/7.

 

The meeting concluded with our “Round Robin” update from each library present.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 p.m.

 

 

Members present:  Duncan Parsons, NSTCC; Don Craig, MTSU; Peter Nerzak, PSTCC; Rita Scher, ETSU; Suresh Ponnappa, ETSU – Medical; Yildiz Binkley, TSU; Scott Cohen, JSCC; Sue Szostak, MSCC; Vicky Leather, CSTCC; Sylverna Ford, U of Memphis; Louise Kelly, VSCC; Faye Jones, NSCC; Joe Weber, APSU; Doug Cross, WSCC; Robert Benson, RSCC; and Mary Evelyn Lynn, CSCC.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Duncan A. Parsons

Vice Chair/Chair Elect