Executive Committee Minutes 04/08/2020

LAUC-B Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

April 8, 2020, 10:00-11:30
Online

Present: Naomi Shiraishi, Ramona Collins, Susan McElrath, Jianye He, Stacy Reardon, Jane Rosario, Jim Church
Guests: Sam Teplitzky 

Regrets: Joe Cera

 Agenda

 I. Announcements 

 II. Reports

a.    Treasurer (J. He) 

  • Balance: $262.50 overspent
  • Question about funding being transferred for this year; President and Treasurer will talk to the Business Office staff.
  • Possibility of any carryforward budget being used towards the conference next year.
  • Next year's library budget unclear; budget process period is going on now.

b.    Monthly UL meeting (N. Shiraishi) 

  • Current work-from-home conditions are changing the way we work. Meetings and instruction have moved online; focus of collections is online. What happens when we go back to campus? Jeff feels the mission of the Library will not change. Library staff should be adaptable and attuned to user needs. 
  • Power outages and fire situations may also continue; campus should be prepared to shift to online. 
  • If the current conditions extend beyond Spring, what will be the result on the way people do their job?
  • Effect of the current situation on the Review process: Jeff is optimistic. Evaluations should be made based on what people did given the constraints. Librarians can also request their review be delayed for a year.

c.    LIBR meeting (R. Collins) 

  • We are not yet in negotiations with Elsevier
    • How do we separate the savings from the Elsevier licenses this year
    • Will we get 2019 content? Will depend on the new contract. 
    • Biologists especially impacted
      • We have a three year agreement with PLOS
      • ILL
  • ​Pursuing a range of strategies for open access (e.g., transformative agreements, OERs, supporting OA organizations) 
  • Opening up our collections through the Digital Collections portal
    • Copyright, ethics, and privacy workflows for digitizing collections
  • Budget
    • No budget deadline yet (usually would be in place by now)
    • Jeff argues libraries are more important in the shutdown
    • Maybe not final budget until August
  • Library adjustments to the current situation
    • Limited time to transition to library closure
    • Unique crisis for the library; we would normally be the last to close, but that was not possible this time due to health concerns
    • Laptops checked out to students for online learning
    • Shifted due dates
    • Request and hold functions suspended
    • Focus on supporting remote instruction
    • Helping students who moved back to other countries get access
    • Getting more resources online, HathiTrust (we cannot scan at this time)
    • Purchase recommendation form
    • Some publishers are offering free access to their materials; sometimes strings are attached.
    • Staff obstacles working from home; library trying to help staff with meaningful work
    • Buildings do still need to be maintained
    • Preparing for a May 4th reopening just in case

d.    LAUC statewide conference call (N. Shiraishi) 

  • From Research and Professional Development: Considering asking for rollover fund for LAUC presentation grants, since we anticipate many people may not end up using them this year.
  • Clarifications for peer review for anyone going up for review during COVID-19 closures. CPG Group soliciting feedback for drafting a letter to university librarians. 
  • DOC discussed the HathiTrust emergency access.
  • LAUC will resume drafting a letter regarding Academic Freedom policy.

 III. Continuing Business

a.     Diversity Librarian Task Force (R. Collins) 

  • Next step is to draft an outline of report.
  • Need to reschedule interview with Davis librarians
  • Will report progress at Spring Assembly
  • Task Force Report will follow sometime later.

b.     LAUC Statewide Assembly (N. Shiraishi)

  • All presenters agreed to present virtually or in person at a later date
  • Many options were discussed
  • The committee will form working groups
  • At this point, some people are hopeful for the Fall in person, some leaning toward virtual approach.
  • We don't have a full election slate yet.
  • If we have it in the Fall in person, it would happen at a different campus.
  • The Spring Assembly 2021 committee has already started planning for a Spring meeting.

c.     LAUC-B Spring Assembly (N. Shiraishi)

  • Speaker prefers to postpone lecture until the Fall Assembly.
  • Naomi will invite another speaker for the Spring Assembly (April 22). Combine with business meeting as well as breakout room discussion on what LAUC-B can do during the emergency. Report from Scholars Group. Committee reports (Stacy will reach out to committee chairs.)
  • We don't have the election calendar yet for statewide. We do have one for local elections. If the statewide isn't ready by the time of our elections, we can separate out.
  • Postpone a few weeks, late April or May, and hold in the late morning or early afternoon.
  • Consider creating an RSVP form that asks people to choose breakout room topics.
  • Breakout room topics:
    • Reviews
    • Technology
    • Workload
    • Repurposing and transforming in-person work to online

d.    LAUC Election (S. Teplitzky)

  • We have a local slate for the election
  • Affiliated reps: Naomi will check in with Joe
  • Candidates will be introduced at the assembly.

IV.  New Business

a.     What can LAUC-B do during the Library's closure?

  • Consider spending professional development funding on online trainings
  • We will make this a topic for discussion during the Spring Assembly.