Council of University of Wisconsin Libraries

UW-System ITMC Conference
CUWL Meeting Minutes
Heidel House Resort – November 10 and 11, 2008

Monday, November 10

In the morning CUWL attended a plenary session with other UW System groups meeting at the Heidel House.

Jack Gunther, California State University, gave a presentation on the Digital Marketplace.
http://www.calstate.edu/ats/digital_marketplace/

The essence of the Digtital Marketplace is a digital network, or exchange, for faculty & students to access digital resources that ensure: Affordability; accessibility, choice. The Marketplace is based on the principles of open, standards-based internet services; not dependent on the vendor interface; faculty-centered & student-centered model.

Why now?  There is a fundamental shift in learning that is well underway:  textbooks are too expensive; there are ADA requirements, budget constraints, changing faculty, changing student & public expectations. In addition there are business trends: e-publishing, e-learning, itunes, google, etc. Universities could lead the change and leverage our ability to deliver “Access to excellence”.

Ed Meachen (UW System) reported on the State of the System. Campus IT plans due mid-January and due to the Board of Regents in February. 

Campus solutions implementation has begun. The Human Resource project has hired consultants to review the project plan.  The Common Systems review group will look at a whole portfolio of projects. Recommendations will come from the Common Systems review group in January for the February Board of Regents meeting. 

There was some discussion on the next steps for doing a pilot project with the Digital Marketplace.

CUWL Meeting

Present:  Michael Pickart (UW-Stout), Ed Van Gemert (UW-Madison), Patrick Wilkinson (UW-Oshkosh), Kathy Schneider (WILS), Lisa Jewell (UW System), Marlys Brunsting (UW-Green Bay), Joshua Ranger (UW-Oshkosh), Kirsten Houtman (WILS), Jon Musselman (UW-Platteville), Peter Gottlieb (Wisconsin Historical Society), Jean Gilbertson (UW-Madison), Paula Huff (UW-Extension), Myrna McCallister (UW-Whitewater), Tony Gulig (UW-Whitewater), Paul Roberts (UW-Stout), Steve Frye (UW-Madison), Richard Reeb (UW-Madison), Ken Frazier (UW-Madison), Anita Evans (UW-LaCrosse), Mark Rozmarynowski (UW-Barron County), Valerie Malzacher (UW-River Falls), John Pollitz (UW-Eau Claire), Ewa Barczyk (UW-Milwaukee), Vanaja Menon (UW-Parkside), Kathy Davis (UW-Stevens Point), Deb Nordgren (UW-Superior)

Barczyk called the meeting to order at 1 pm.  Van Gemert/Gulig moved/seconded to approve the consent agenda which included the minutes of the CUWL meeting on July 23, 2008 and the minutes of the Exec Comm meetings on August 26 and October 8.  The consent agenda was approved.

Announcements and introductions

New members were introduced:  Myrna McCallister (UW-Whitewater) and Paula Huff (UW-Extension Faculty representative). As is our practice for new directors, Myrna will have a mentor from CUWL. Valerie Malzacher will be Myrna’s mentor.    

Jon Musselman announced that John Krogman (UW-Platteville) has accepted a new position at UW-Madison as chief operating officer (COO) of the Division of Information Technology and associate chief information officer (CIO).

Barczyk welcomed Paula Huff as a new faculty representative.

Barczyk reviewed the action items from the previous meeting.  The presentation on copyright will not be held at this meeting.  It has been postponed until the spring meeting. After further discussion with Kathy Schneider it was agreed that there was no need to send a letter to OCLC. The rest of the items have been accomplished.

Leanne Hansen announced her upcoming retirement.

UW System report - Lisa Jewell

The Hub contract will remain the same for the coming year. There is a deficit of $41K in the Shared Electronic Collections (SEC) fund.  The fund for service from the British Library is over budget by $10K. Strategic directions from CUWL will inform funding priorities, etc. for System funds. Jewell noted that $100K from the automation fund was reallocated last year for other System projects. It was agreed that the CUWL Executive Committee would prepare a letter to Rebecca Martin requesting that the funds be returned and used for the SEC deficit.

Reports from Coordinating Committees

  • Collections and Resource Sharing (Reeb)
    Reeb noted the WILS change.  Kirsten Houtman will be working directly with UW libraries. The Library Dynamics project is moving forward. There will be a reload of data soon. The periodical vendor bid work is nearly complete. Reeb reviewed the Document Delivery group’s procurement card program.  A handout was distributed on use for July-Sept. 08. There was further discussion on the SEC budget. Alternatives for staying within the budget include cancellation of databases such as the Emerald package or increasing the budget through campus contributions.  If databases are cut at the System level its likely campuses can not fund them individually. There was a discussion about the savings realized with a System purchase that would not be possible at the campus level. The recommendation to approve the January renewals, including the cancellation of Criminal Justice Abstract, did not pass. All are to be renewed.  The CRS shall review use of CJA so that a decision can be made next year. The CRS is to prepare a proposal for CUWL to review that addresses the long term needs of the SEC.

  • User Services (Frye)
    Frye distributed a report on the User Services work. There is use of iSkills on some individual campuses but there is no system-wide assessment recommendation. The key issue is what role does the library play in student learning. It was noted there are campus wide assessment programs and the System mandated Voluntary Assessment. We need to determine how the library fits into these. The User Services report also included a Web 2.0 report and a report on new reference models. We need to continue to find better ways to communicate what we’re doing and to share expertise across campuses as no one model fits all campuses. One idea was the use of D2L as a forum for continuing discussion.

  • Library Technology (Brunsting)
    An electronic report was distributed prior to our meeting. CUWL was asked to approve the recommendation to create a working group to investigate options for a new resource discovery tool for the campuses and a working group to investigate options for a new ILS for the campuses. Wilkinson/Van Gemert moved/seconded that the Executive Committee work with Frye and Brunsting to develop the charge for what comes after voyager. The charge will be brought to CUWL for review.  Motion carried.

  • Digital Initiatives (Ranger)
    Ranger distributed a written report. Specific reports will be discussed tomorrow.

Appointment of 2009 Steering Committee for CUWL Conference and Reorganization Working Group   

The appointment of the Steering Committee for CUWL Conference and the Assessment of the CUWL Reorganization Working Group was noted. CUWL Conference Planning 2009 Working Group:  Dina Kay (CRS, UW-Parkside), Mitch Lundquist (LTCC, UW-Madison), Steve Frye (USCC, UW-Madison), Dorothea Salo (DICC, UW-Madison), Lisa Jewell (UW System Administration), Ewa Barczyk, (CUWL Chair, ex-officio).
Reorganization Assessment Working Group:  Valerie Malzacher, Chair , Anita Evans, Mary Rieder, Steve Frye, Richard Reeb, Marlys Brunsting, Joshua Ranger, Lisa Jewell.

Annual report (Gilbertson)
The annual report is still in process.

DIN Discussion (Van Gemert, Pletcher, Frazier)
While the state budget picture is not good the Governor wants the UW System to move forward with its growth initiative. We will continue to move forward with the DIN. The next step is to begin writing letters to the Governor.  Van Gemert requested that we send him names of contacts who know the Governor. Frazier has drafted a letter.

WILS Update  (Schneider)
Schneider introduced Houtman as the key WiLS contact person for UW Libraries issues. Schneider gave an update on OCLC. A new policy was distributed related to attribution in records in Worldcat. This would mean we would need to ask OCLC for permission to take our records from Voyager to send to Library Dynamics. Other policy changes like this example are coming. OCLC will do more direct work with libraries, not through networks like WILS. The focus for WILS is changing. WILS will continue to do billing for OCLC only; a limited amount of training; and Illiad services. These options are only viable for WILS if OCLC compensates them at 3% of revenue. WILS is working on interviews with library directors.  This will be followed with discussion by focus groups to determine services WILS will offer in future. ILL is still the main service of WILS and cooperative purchasing is next largest. Options for membership are likely to change.  

Review and discussion of morning plenary session on Digital Marketplace

Ed Meachen, Paul Moriarty and others from the ITMC joined us for discussion.  The focus of this project would be to assist the System’s efforts to contain costs for textbooks. There is a potential for other resources that could add value beyond textbook costs. It was agreed that the CIOs and CUWL will look into the technological underpinnings of the Digital Marketplace to see if we can do this as a collaborative project with California with an application for textbook options.


Tuesday, November 11

We reconvened our meeting at 8:35 am.

Update on Federal Depositories   (Van Gemert)
Changes in the depository program are improving access to these materials. Nearly 97% of federal documents are issued electronically, 40% of those are still also issued in print. ARL institutions are working collaboratively with GPO to prepare an RFP to digitize the legacy print collections. Van Gemert urged us to be aware of the changes as there is concern at regional levels regarding accessibility of materials since fewer libraries are collecting these materials. 

Update on remote storage (Gottleib)
Gottleib reported on the remote storage facility for the Wisconsin Historical Society. This is a small capital project in conjunction with the UW-Madison. There are issues related to retrieval and delivery of materials as well as concerns about shared processing costs across the UW System. Funds have been secured for the building and some shelving. Additional funds are being sought for more shelving. It is anticipated they will move in 2012.  It is expected that 50% of the WHS collection in Madison will be housed there.  Future expansion of the facility could house collections from UW Libraries.   

Google Books (Van Gemert/Frazier)
Everything that is digitized by all of partners will be available via an institutional subscription. There will be no cost for UW-Madison as they will receive all of their digitized collections. The Google plan is for every public library and University to have one workstation with access to this digitized content. Records for the collection are available through Madcat. This is an inevitable evolution. A recent Chronicle of Higher Education article hints at the tension of many debates on this citing the potential to displace libraries. 

WLA Foundation  “Value of Academic Libraries” report (Evans/Hansen)
The WLA Foundation is also discussing the request for funding for an academic project today. The funding decision will be made in spring. Evans urged CUWL members to lobby DPI staff to get their support as this was useful in getting funding for the public library project. DPI will be administering the project.  It was noted that there are other proposals so this is a competitive process. Our key selling point is that we would be the 1st state to study all public, school and academic libraries. Interaction with local elected officials and our libraries and library users, as well as public libraries, seems to be minimal. There are also challenges when dealing with gifts to our collections from the public. Evans will send names for DPI contacts.

Reports from DICC (Ranger, Salo, Gorman)
1)MINDS@UW report and recommendations
2)The digital scope and directions document (formally known as our comprehensive digital plan)
The reports and recommendations were reviewed.  Some key concerns are:
-Need a budget plan.
-What is the niche for our digitization efforts:  support of the undergraduate research initiatives was noted.
-Related to this is a need to clarify the scope and scale of the efforts. 
Such as

  • Information that is not born digital
  • Copyright
  • Multimedia projects
  • Discovery tools

The key question is can we invest in a robust digital repository? Frazier/Roberts moved/seconded to accept the report with recommendations and directed the CUWL Executive committee to further discuss the concerns expressed with the DICC and take appropriate action. Motion carried.

Barczyk directed Ranger and the DICC to define the scope and prepare a budget to update the document.  It was noted that there is a need for joint IT-library discussion on data collection and resource management.  IT staff do not have the skills to create ‘markup’ data.

Report from New Reference Models Group (Frye)
Further discussion on this report noted the bibliography and book reviewed to prepare the report. Studies have noted the decline of traditional reference service; the changing roles of a variety of staff, including students providing reference service; and the nature of reference collection, particularly the great increase in digital reference sources. Clearly, student users still want an initial service point.  There are challenges related to training students who staff the desk, particularly as to when they need to refer question on to an ‘expert’ librarian. The location of the desk is important. Studies find its best when it combined with circulation and closest to the entry.  Staff at various levels need to know enough to answer or refer questions appropriately so we may need to change expectations on staffing also.

Roundtable discussions
Topics: 
*Diversity initiatives led by Anita Evans

This is part of the CUWL strategic plan. Sources are cited on the CUWL website. We need to continue our diversity work with ALA committee/conference. Other ideas included:

  • ALA/WLA scholarship increase needed.
  • Getting a snapshot of where we are with diversity hiring. 
  • Collaborative programs across system libraries.
  • Issues of funding these initiatives. What about the UW System Race and Ethnicity Program? LAMP programs?
  • Do our campus program reviews include diversity reporting?
  • Do we have library liaisons to the office of multicultural affairs on each campus. 
  • More best practices need to be shared.

*Staffing issues led by Deb Nordgren
There are recruiting, training and technology needs across all campus. Concern was expressed about the duplication of efforts at each institution in maintaining metalib system databases, SFX, voyager reports. Some campuses may not be able to attain expert staff to perform these duties. It was noted in the LTCC 9-29-08 minutes that a new resource discovery tool is important but there is no inclusion for staff or a solution for the inefficiencies on the staff side with the increase in maintenance of multiple systems.  Ideas discussed included:

  • Need to invest in technical infrastructure although we are not likely to get more staffing by centralizing staff.
  • How would such staffing be funded? 
  • Training needs for staff:  via WILS, automation managers.
  • Consideration of a UW System catalog.
  • Planning for the transitions, incorporating staff changes due to retirements as well as job retraining, to best position us to address long term changes. 

There was no time to discuss the following topics. They will be postponed until our next meeting:

*In-person access to UW students, faculty in view of restricted public access @our libraries

*Library/academic support service partnerships

Next CUWL Meeting & Library Legislative Day (February 3, Madison)
The Spring meeting will be in Stevens Point near the beginning of April.  (ACRL is Mar. 12, WAAL April 21).
The CUWL Conference will be June 3-4, 2009, Madison

The meeting adjourned at 12:04 pm.