Council of University of Wisconsin Libraries

CUWL meeting
Stevens Point

May 4-5 2009
Minutes

Present : Ewa Barczyk, John Pollitz, Kirsten Houtman, Anita Evans, Paul Roberts, Myrna McCallister, Valerie Malzacher, Mark Rozmarynowski, Pat Wilkinson, Ed Meachen, Steve Frye, Marlys Brunsting, Richard Reeb, Josh Ranger, Ed Van Gemert, Kathy Schneider, Tony Gulig, Lisa Jewell. April Goodwin (Day One), Bill Gillard, Kathy Davis, Ruth Ginsberg (Day One), James Hibbard,, Kathy Pletcher, Paula Ganyard, Ken Frazier (Day Two), Deb Nordgren (note taker Day Two), Jean Gilbertson (note taker Day One)

Not present for either day:  Vanaja Menon, Paula Huff, Kristin Eschenfelder, Michael Pickart

Ewa Barczyk called the meeting to order at 12:30.

Consent agenda -- Anita Evans moved, John Pollitz seconded, and motion passed.

UW System report (Meachen/Jewell)

Ed Meachen

No news on the library budget. UW System has to take about $3M cuts.

Working on broadband stimulus package for WiscNet customers (handout dated April 10, 2009).  Want to build infrastructure that will serve every community with a reasonable population - at least in first pass. Early broadband stimulus funding will be announced in May/June. Anticipate getting $100-200M in the stimulus package.  Interested in working with non-profits.  Interested in adding fiber connections between selected campuses.  Building backbone to backbone. Improving capacity to Colleges. 30GB are fastest networks at this point (like ATT). Future capacity of UW backbone will be much greater.  In the long run, will result in savings at the campus level. 

HRS Project - Workshops being done to determine what needs to be done on each campus.  Also looking at the business processes related to PeopleSoft. Will present implementation plan to the Board of Regents.  No final estimated costs for implementation.

Lisa Jewell

Coordinating schedule for updating Voyager.  Voyager training is highest priority training identified for LAMS.  Lisa provided update on CUWL Summer Conference/meeting.

SCLS Delivery contract is up for renewal.  Has been approved as an intergovernmental contract.

Lisa has new CUWL roster to distribute.  Let her know about any changes needed.

Biennial Budget Committee Report (Pollitz)

Committee members are John Pollitz, Ed Van Gemert, Ewa Barczyk, Kathy Pletcher, Lisa Jewell.

Committee met via phone in February with Ed Meachen.

Priority is to protect the items “above the line” in the budget.  We’re hopeful that System will consider the $100k reduction already taken as our contribution.  Ewa explained that the new budget is structured differently - Collections/resource sharing as one section -- operations as second section.

Draft budget was distributed.  Library Dynamics renewal will not be funded, LibQual will not be done for at least four year.  ISkills pilot surveys will not continue.  There could be reduced support for student assistants and CUWL meetings.  There will continue to be funding support for document delivery, but need to work out the details.  The SCLS contract will be renegotiated.  There was a suggestion to form an advisory group to think about what issues to consider in the negotiations.  Possible members mentioned included Ruth Ginzberg, Lisa Jewell, Deb Nordgren, Kathy Schneider, John Pollitz, Erin Czech.

Need to consider our ongoing relationship with BadgerCat.

There will be an exercise to look at what’s important (priorities) and where to take potential cuts.

Question:  do we need to look at making Draconian changes to our services?  We need to think carefully about preserving the things that directly affect faculty and students.  

CUWL should pass a draft budget before the new fiscal year begins.  Ed Meachen suggested passing the current draft in principle.  The Budget committee recommended passing the current draft and it passed by a voice vote. We should have the final budget (with corrected dollar amounts for WorldCat and BadgerCat) for approval by CUWL at its July meeting.  Ruth Ginzberg offered to help with any contract negotiations, regardless of what the source is.

John Pollitz said that the budget group will start to turn its attention towards defining strategic initiatives for the next biennium.  The current Strategic Plan goes through 2011, but the group needs to define the next action plans to support our strategic objectives.   We assume that we will go forward with another DIN for next biennium. 

Ewa asked Ed Van Gemert to comment on the DIN.  Ed said that the video was very successful and that everyone contacted understood the issue of needing access to electronic resources.  We should think about how to stay with that theme but strengthen it.  This is about services for users, students and faculty, not about libraries.  April Goodwin agreed with Ed that the request was well understood and supported.  She suggested that we start working on this again in March 2010.  There was some discussion about being included in the Growth Agenda, none of which went forward.  Ed Meachen suggested collecting statistical data on what’s been happening (cancellations, reductions,etc.) since last July and also during the next biennium. Is there a way to document that faculty did not come to UW because of poor library resources?  Valerie Malzacher mentioned that a new program in sustainability management offered across four campuses misrepresented access to electronic library resources in the program description. We may want to emphasize that collaborative distance programs need comprehensive e-resources available. 

Coordinating Committee Reports

Note: this was the last CUWL meeting for the Coordinating Committee chairs, since their terms as chairs end July 1. CUWL has greatly appreciated their contributions and presence over the first two years of the new committee structure. 

User Services CC (Steve Frye)

The report will be posted on CUWL site.  Committee has been having monthly forums on various topics.  There have been about 25-40 staff attending these.  Attendees will be surveyed after they are done. 

Library Technology CC (Marlys Brunsting)

The report will be posted on CUWL website.  Marlys updated attendees on the Voyager upgrades.  We expect lower costs on Voyager licenses because of lower volume numbers.  Arrangements are in place for Voyager 7 training. 

Digital Initiatives ICC (Josh Ranger)

DICC would like to invite Vicki Tobias to the summer CUWL meeting to talk about her assessment activities related to UW Digital Collections.   

Collections and Resource Sharing CC (Richard Reeb)

Reeb was given extra time on the agenda because several issues needed to be addressed by CUWL

SEC Renewals for fiscal 2010 

The Shared Electronic Collection budget has been somewhat changed by today’s announcement that additional funds will be added to SEC next FY.  However, there are still problems to address.  CDC will be reviewing the grades of business databases available through Proquest.  They need to find out what new products might be added to Badgerlink and when that will be resolved/decided.  There is also interest in being more aggressive about negotiating better terms for our current products.  If, in addition to the additional funds, all products have zero price increases, we would be OK.  There is interest in getting the assistance of UW System licensing staff in negotiating annual price increases.  CUWL voted to approve the current renewals and to initiate negotiations with the American Chemical Society for  the renewal of its journals. 

Document Delivery Funding and Budget

There is a proposal for restructuring/consolidating the BRS, CISTI, and commercial doc deli budgets into one budget.  Current proposal is that campus will cover 25% of all costs for BRS, CISTI, and commercial doc deli.  Staff need to be clear about processes and workflows for determining the appropriate source for an article.  There are specific suggestions for ways to track buying patterns. CUWL approved the new structuring of the document delivery budget effective July 1 by voice vote. 

ERM Assessment Working Group (Kirsten Houtman)

Staff do not appear to understand all of the issues related to this.  ExLibris was asked to provide an informal price quote for five campuses to come onto Verde.  There were significant costs plus significant annual license fees.  The group discussed how important this type of product is at this point, how much local work and support it would require, and whether the product costs were affordable.  The primary question was - do we all need an ERM system?  The group decided to defer any decision and not to pursue an ERM as a UW System-wide initiative at this time.

Expanding consortial purchasing beyond UW libraries

Richard Reeb reported that Marquette University is interested in consortial purchases w/ UW Libraries. There was discussion about the overall collaborative relationship with Marquette.  There was a motion passed by a voice vote to expand discussions about collaborative licensing to include Marquette, as well as other private institutions in the state. Richard clarified how CIC goes about negotiating licenses/pricing on behalf of CIC institutions.  He said that there are no guarantees about getting other UW System campuses included in those licenses.

Appointment of Coordinating Committee chairs and members

Ewa Barczyk has received nominations for committee memberships.  There are four persons going off each committee. Ewa has about 27 suggested new members thus far. 

WILS Update (Kathy Schneider)

Kathy explained the new WILS organizational structure and new service levels. WiLS may have difficulty meeting its budget goals and will need to monitor contractual work very carefully.  Kathy reminded the meeting attendees about WiLS World coming up in July.   

OCLC Changes (Pat Wilkinson)

There are major changes coming in how OCLC communicates with its member institutions.  The last meeting of the current Members Council is coming up.  In the future there will be 3 regional councils - one for the Americas (includes organizations with 30,000 members at this time), one for Europe/Middle East/Africa, and one for Asia/Pacific. There will be designated members who can vote.  There will be a global council with reps from the 3 regional councils. The global council will be much smaller than the current members council.  Pat will be the first chair of the Americas Council.  Pat would like about 45 minutes at the next CUWL meeting to talk about OCLC-related issues of most interest to CUWL.

Roundtable discussion of budget cuts

Colleges -- An emergency budget committee appointed by chancellor has made it recommendations.  They include: a $50k reduction in funding for electronic collections and technology purchases and a $500,000 targeted cut in staffing for UW Colleges Libraries.  There is an expectation that reorganization of the libraries will occur to achieve efficiencies.  Staff layoffs are anticipated.  The Provost is working on a plan which will be done by fall.  This announcement generated a great deal of discussion and concern among CUWL members. Per Mark and Bill (both of the CUWL representatives from the Colleges), the Colleges routinely operate in deficit.  It is possible that there could be library closures within the UW Colleges.  There is also a possibility of having one library director for all thirteen libraries in the Colleges.  

Milwaukee -- Vacancies will make up most of a one-time lapse, but a 4% cut in base is also expected.  The library had done an exercise for higher percentage cuts.  A task force is being formed to look at all of the library’s operations, number of service points, possible areas for consolidation.  The budget reduction requires rethinking everything.  Some staff will have new assignments. There will be more serial cancellations.
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Stout -- The library will have a small base cut. Two positions will be on hold and they will rethink their current operations. 

Eau Claire -- There is 3.5% cut to the library’s base.  This will result in a reduction in standing orders, an increase in journal cancellations, and a close review of materials in the reference collection.  There will be some consolidation of position FTEs. John hopes to have a reduction in Voyager licensing costs.  Eau Claire went with a Level 2 service agreement with WiLS. 

Oshkosh -- Final cuts are not yet known, but scenarios were done for 1.9%, 2.5%, and 3.8% reductions.  Pat wants to protect ongoing staff positions, but will probably reduce some student staff.  The library plans to move journal collections from print to electronic to achieve cost savings and will also put more emphasis on electronic databases and media, rather than books.  The library will look at all operations budgets, including binding.  There is an expectation that budget flexibility will decline. Pat would like the materials budget to be protected from the reduction, but expects that journal cancellations will need to be done anyway.  

Madison -- Ed discussed the libraries’ strategic plan and its moving forward principles.  Libraries took a base reduction of 1%.  This was done through the elimination of two vacant positions, a reduction in the S+E budget, and a reduction in the collections budget.  No additional cuts are anticipated (at this time).  Library administration is working with the Office of Quality Improvement to do a broad process review of all library areas.  The plan is to rely on attrition to achieve efficiencies and also to reduce duplication.   

Ewa introduced the topic of how our libraries can work together to reduce duplication and create efficiencies across UW System.   Attendees mentioned the following areas to consider: reducing duplication of government documents, reducing the purchase of duplicate books within UW System, getting a consultant to help us rethink how we can be more efficient as a System, buy more shelf ready materials, have a more consolidated approach to cataloging, being more aware of all the options for contract cataloging (including OCLC).  It was a good discussion.

Day 2

Steve Frye presented the Metalib assessment report [continuation of discussion from Feb. meeting]  Ewa noted that Milwaukee had done a study also and the results will be written up tomorrow.  In sum, there was generally positive response to the quicksets for freshman with no instruction.  Those with instruction liked the native interface.  Librarians found results of metalib search were as viable as native interface. Quicksets or search sets are working well for Madison.  Variety of configurations at the other campuses.  Students are challenged to know which databases to search and the metalib search box does it for most.  Upgrade will be more staff-friendly.  The upgrade is planned for the summer. Purchase of the X-server would allow for more organization of resources.  Use of LibGuides would be cost effective also.  River Falls links from Libguides to metalib so only one change to be made by staff when there are vendor changes.  River Falls had similar results to Milwaukee and Madison with their focus groups.  We expect to review costs for the products, including upgrade of servers this year.

Patrick Wilkinson reported on a trial at Oshkosh with Serials Solutions federated search product, 360. Oshkosh continues using A-Z journal product so 360 seemed a logical extension.  Implemented SFX and Metalib product caused some staff frustrations. Generally Oshkosh found the Serials Solutions products easier to maintain and customer service is very good.  Pat noted that they had not done a user assessment yet.  CUWL members had questions on the comparability of the products. It was noted that the new products like Serials Solutions and Ebsco’s search product may be the next generation.  There was a discussion about campus autonomy in using other products within the One System-One Library concept.  Budgets and staffing are other considerations. Ed Meachen suggested some formal experimentation in the next year and then do RFI/RFP.  This could be part of the Common Systems proposal.  There are no System funds for research and development.  There is also a parallel discussion happening in the in Resource Discovery Task Force.

Frye continued with the Resource Discovery Exploratory Taskforce report.  It was noted there may be multiple components combined into a single interface.  Ed  M. feels the type of vision, which is cutting-edge, could be presented to Common Systems for funding for 2010.  It would be preceded by a pilot which CUWL could present in December.  At this time, there will be a final report of the task force at the July meeting.  Revenue sharing & funding look for 2010. CUWL to endorse & move forward for RFP. 

Brunstig presented the report of the Library Management System Exploratory Taskforce.  Their goal is to be prepared for time when we need to move from Voyager.  We’ve learned the end of support of this product has been delayed. Many things are changing and the Taskforce did an environmental scan.  Their questions are:

  • Is the task force heading in the right direction?
  • What are your thoughts on open-source software? 
  • If we recommend open source software will there be support for adding new staff to handle migration and future development?
  • What are your thoughts on joining the OLE Project?
  • What are your thoughts on hiring a consultant to analyze the current workflows from collection development to acquisitions to cataloging to circulation?

The final LMS report due in October.

After considerable discussion it was decided that CUWL needs to shape vision then move forward. The LMS & Resource Discovery Task Forces had done some good work to provide some background information.  The July CUWL meeting will be a facilitated retreat to help us develop a vision for issues that have a large impact on our future. 

Ranger reported on the handling of sensitive materials.  Generally these are not legal issues, but ethical issues which are an extension of the core mission of the library.  We changed the last sentence to read “control access or limit discovery”  Note that the policy, while a CUWL one, would reside with the copyright, etc. policies that are part of the UWDC.  Motion carried to approve the document as revised.

Malzacher reported on the Taskforce on New Committee Structure.  She shared quantitative data shared  There will be a qualitative analyses later.  In general, the findings are that there are still concerns on communication but staff are generally satisfied with the new structure.

Ewa reviewed the plans for the CUWL Annual Conference in June.  The sign up spreadsheet will go out next week. We look forward to another great conference.

Evans gave an update on the WLA Foundation proposal update.  The proposal did not get approved at WLA foundation meeting.  There is a perception that academic libraries do not serve the public and the cost of the study was seen as too expensive.  It was noted that other proposals were submitted a second time before funded.  There was a suggestion that the study could be funded by LSTA funds.  This will be discussed at the next meeting.

Van Gemert reviewed the Research Fellows Pilot Program. He noted UW-Superior request to access SciFinder.  There are a number of issues to be resolved related to the temporary authorization to licensed resources, particularly for the American Chemical Society resources. The program will use zero-dollar appointments (reviewed by Affiliation Review group at UW-Madison).  There will be a limited number of research fellows.  Criteria are being developed. Initially the program will be opened to Oshkosh to get started and work out the bugs. The intent is to support undergraduate research.  The program will be public, transparent and equitable. Evaluation needs to be part of the process.  It will expand campus by campus after the pilot project. 

Van Gemert continued the discussion of the Federal Depository program changes. Generally scholars feel government documents are getting harder to find.  ACRL prepared a white paper on GPO and the problems with its programs.  While, few public libraries participating, there is a need for public access.  The CIC recognized the need to digitize legacy collections.  Madison will be working with Stevens Point, Whitewater and others who have cataloged collections with item records.  Madison has no place to store materials so each library will need to box them until needed.  In the process of digitization the materials will be destroyed.  They will not go back to the libraries.  There is the Google option to purchase an institutional subscription so digitized materials would be available to all System libraries.  The University of Illinois-Chicago entered into GPO agreement to digitize information.  It is not clear if this will be part of the CIC trust project. There will be further discussion at the June Annual CUWL conference at a session with Ed VG.

Pollitz reported the results of the CUWL Nominating Committee.  The slate is:
Vanaja Menon--vice chair/chair-elect
Myrna McCallister--secretary
Mark R Rozmarynowski--member-at-large.
The slate was unanimously approved.

The meeting adjourned at  12:00 p.m.