Executive Committee Minutes 05/13/2015

LAUC-B Executive Committee

May 13, 2015
10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Room 303 Doe Library

Members present: Rita Evans (chair), Lynn Jones, Kendra Levine, Lisa Ngo, Elliott Smith (recorder), I-Wei Wang

I. Announcements

  • L. Jones: There will be another LAUC-B Social Hour at the Faculty Club, May 21, 4 - 6 pm
  • R. Evans: LAUC-B has been informed that the revised Berkeley Procedures have been approved by Library Admin and forwarded to the Academic Personnel Office (APO).
  • R. Evans and L. Jones will coordinate LAUC-B's farewell letter to University Librarian Tom Leonard.
  • R. Evans: LAUC-B website administrator Julie Lefevre has informed R. Evans of continuing website problems after the migration of the site to Drupal 7. The Library Systems Office is working on fixes.
  • L. Ngo: The Engineering and Physical Sciences Division is recruiting a Science Data and Engineering Librarian; the position is currently under CAPA review.

II. Reports

A. Treasurer's Report (L. Ngo)

  • Current balance: $64,129

ACTION ITEM: R. Evans will set up a meeting with E. Woods, L. Ngo, and the incoming Treasurer in July to discuss carryforward funds.

B. Meeting with the University Librarian of April 15, 2015 (R. Evans, I. Wang)

  • HR procedures for extraordinary appointments & Berkeley Procedures re: greater than standard merit reviews: Susan Wong confirmed that LHRD will routinely include the CAPA Chair any time that a search waiver is being requested for a position in The Library. On a somewhat related note, T. Leonard noted that some search waiver requests are currently in process for academic positions in the Magnes Collection, which is now administratively under the Provost's office (i.e., these are not library positions).

    S. Wong and T. Leonard confirmed that there is no specific meaning or salary points limitation associated with the phrase "greater than standard merit increase," that is, that a request or recommendation for such an increase may be for any number of salary points above the number defined as a standard merit increase within any given rank in the Librarian Series. S. Wong also confirmed that the review candidate is the only person (other than the University's deciding officer who has discretion to award a specific number of salary points) who may specify a particular number of points in conjunction with a review for greater than standard merit increase. That is, review initiator, other administrative officers involved in the review process (i.e. in Affiliated cases), CAPA, and ad hoc committees should not recommend a specific number of salary points even if recommending a greater than standard increase.
     
  • LAUC-B and Library Budgets: We expressed LAUC-B's gratitude for approval of our proposed budget. T. Leonard noted he would be discussing with the Dean of the Law School the future of professional development funding for librarians not reporting to the University Library.

    Regarding the Library Budget, T. Leonard noted that the Library has received the new money ($5.6 million) that resulted from the Commission for the Future of the Library and related discussions with former Chancellor Breslauer. He speculated that as a top priority, the new UL may undertake an outreach campaign (to which LAUC-B would be able to provide support and assistance) to faculty to encourage voluntary dedication of research funds, esp. draw-down funds that are due to "expire."
     
  • The Library's Strategic Plan: Following up on an unexplained reference to a "strategic plan," we asked T. Leonard if the Library had a formal document or other form of strategic plan. T. Leonard responded that the Re-Envisioning process, which was ongoing approximately 2009-12, was essentially the beginnings of a strategic planning process, but that the effort had been "big-footed" by the Commission for the Future of the Library. T. Leonard noted the new UL may decide to start a new planning process, and referred us to Andrew Szeri as the lead for strategic planning for academic units.

C. Committee on the Library, Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate (I. Wang)

This was the last LIBR meeting of the year as the committee does not meet over the summer. Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education, Catherine Koshland, who was scheduled to attend to address the general question of her vision of the Library's role in undergraduate education, cancelled at the last minute. Highlights of the meeting:

  • NRLF: AUL E. Mitchell: de-duplication and expansion of storage as two possible paths for addressing the RLF anticipated "fill date," a report on which (including long-terms costs and logistical implications) will be provided to CoUL in June. He also described some possible public-private approaches to the RLF situation based on a recent presentation and meeting with Iron Mountain, a private provider of document storage services and facilities. T. Shannon noted that UCOLASC is still treating the option of a new storage facility somewhere in the Central Valley as a contender, but Mitchell and UL T. Leonard opined that at least at the moment, CoUL seems to be of the consensus view that Richmond Bay is the leading option.
     
  • Library budget: UL T. Leonard noted he will send a summary of the Library's budget hearing, though he noted he does not expect to see the letter with the final budget numbers until June or later (noting the negotiations between UC President Napolitano and the state government over the UC budget.

D. LAUC Statewide Conference Call (R. Evans)

  • Discussed and approved guidelines for the LAUC Research and Professional Development Committee regarding criteria for judging grant proposals and the requirement that grant recipients submit required reports.
  • Reviewed and discussed proposed changes to LAUC's website. LAUC-B members will be asked to submit at least two "Meet Our Members" profiles for the statewide Diversity Committee to include in the new"Meet Our Members" section.
  • Statewide ballots will be sent to members shortly before the election commences on May 18. Divisional voting will be done separately.
  • LAUC sent comments to CoUL on the proposed APM revisions and got no response. LAUC-B reported that the Berkeley Academic Senate Committee on the Library endorsed the text of the resolution passed at the LAUC statewide assembly.
  • The systemwide UCLAS (UC Libraries Advisory Structure) is being restructured. SAGs are being asked not to undertake any new projects while the restructuring takes place.
  • The Office of Scholarly Communication (OCS) provided statistics showing the success of the Open Access mandate harvester. OCS is making a case for continued funding of the harvester.

ACTION ITEM: R. Evans will contact the LAUC-B Committee on Diversity about coordinating UC Berkeley librarian submissions to the LAUC "Meet our members" page.

III. Continuing Business

A. LAUC-B/Affiliated Libraries Joint Spring Assembly Recap (All)

  • The Joint Spring Assembly planning committee was congratulated for an excellent program that sparked a thoughtful and wide-ranging discussion.

B. Committee on Diversity New Librarian Brown Bag

  • The New Librarian Brown Bag on April 22 sponsored by the Committee on Diversity and moderated by Liladhar Pendse was commended as an excellent model for informal collaboration and sharing of knowledge among librarians.

ACTION ITEM: R. Evans will revise LAUC-B ExComm documentation to encourage the sponsorship of similar meetings by LAUC-B committees.

C. 2015 LAUC-B Conference (L.Ngo)

  • An update on the planning for the LAUC-B 2015 Conference, Open Access: Reclaiming Scholarship for the Academy, to be held Friday, October 16, 2015, was given by Conference Planning Committee co-chair L. Ngo. A request for poster presentation proposals was extended until Friday, May 15.

D. Draft APM 360 and 210-4 revisions (R. Evans)

  • Comments on the draft revisions are being solicited by LAUC Statewide through May 20. On June 1, LAUC will send a letter to UCOP regarding the draft revisions.

IV. New Business

A. Election (R. Evans)

  • The LAUC-B election will take place May 18 - May 31. The ballot will include the bylaws change proposed by ExComm shortening the waiting period between the closing of nominations and the beginning of the election to two weeks.

    It was noted that the candidate for vice-chair/chair elect, the current vice-chair/chair elect, and the current chair are all members of Affiliated Libraries.

    ACTION ITEM: R. Evans will ask the Nominations and Elections Committee to recommend that, in the interest of balance, an extra effort be made to recruit a candidate from The Library for vice-chair/chair elect during the next nomination and election cycle since the the vice-chair/chair elect, the chair, and the past chair all will be members of Affiliated Libraries.

    ACTION ITEM: E. Smith will revise the documentation on the duties of the Library Representatives to include the responsibility for forwarding messages on Library-only e-mail lists to ExComm.

B. LAUC summer activities and schedule (All)

  • The ExComm transition meeting is tentatively scheduled for July 8, 2015. Following recent past practice, incoming ExComm officers will take on their new responsibilities beginning with the August ExComm meeting, if possible.

  • The possibility of holding another brown bag in July for sharing brief reports and presentations from conferences was discussed.

    ACTION ITEM: R. Evans will contact the Professional Development Committee about coordinating a possible conference report brown bag in the summer.

Next meeting

  • Monday, June 22, 10:30 am - 12 pm, 303 Doe