LAUC-B SPRING ASSEMBLY
16 April 1998
Goldberg Room, Boalt Hall
I. Deborah Sommer welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order at 8:45 am.
D. Sommer introduced two new LAUC-B members:
Waverly Lowell, Archivist at the College of Environmental Design and Chuck James, Manager, Earthquake Engineering Research Center Library.
D. Sommer asked for any additions to the agenda. She mentioned that LAUC Statewide would discuss the future of LAUC and libraries at the May 1, 1998 statewide meeting.
II. Announcements - D. Sommer
a) All staff are invited to an Early Bird co-sponsored by the LAUC-B Research and Professional Development Committee and the Staff Development Committee on April 22, 1998, 8:30-9:30am in 223 Moses Hall. Barbara Glendenning and Ginny Irving, the LAUC-B nominated representatives on the University Librarian (UL) Search Committee, are interested in receiving input regarding the UL search process.
b) There will be a UC Diversity Conference in San Diego later in April. LAUC will send three representatives: Margaret Phillips (UCB), Esteban Valdez (UCSD), and Jacquelyn Marie (UCSC). The URL for the conference will be emailed out.
c) The UCB Committee to advise the Vice Chancellor on the implementation of administrative stipends for librarians has received its charge. The committee members are Kathleen Vanden Heuvel (Chair), Janice Dost and D. Sommer. J. Dost has gathered information from other UC campuses on how they are addressing this issue.
d) Gary Peete announced that the final report by the Library Planning and Action Initiative Advisory Task Force has just been released. It is available at http://www.lpai.ucop.edu/outcomes/finalrpt. He is also a representative on the Systemwide Library and Scholarly Communication Advisory Committee which will begin meeting on May 20, 1998. Comments are welcome.
e) Mari Miller announced that the Northern California CARL SEAL workshop on the Economics of Scientific Publishing will be held Friday, May 8, 1998 at California State University at Hayward.
f) Bette Anton has been appointed to fill the CAPA vacancy left vacant by Ann Swartzell's departure.
g) D. Sommer introduced the members of the Executive Committee (ExComm).
III. MINUTES - Linda Vida. The Minutes from the 1997 Fall assembly were approved as written.
IV. Reports
Chair's Report - D. Sommer
D. Sommer reported that the Executive Committee has had quite an interesting year thus far, and that her report should be understood as a work in progress, since the year is far from being over. The work of the Executive Committee this year has been dominated and colored by the investigations of the Blue Ribbon Committee (BRC). ExComm met with members of the BRC, prepared a letter of advice to the Committee, and met with the External Advisors Group. D. Sommer and A. Sevetson have met regularly with AUL Sue Rosenblatt. D. Sommer reported that these meetings have been productive, and that it's her perceptions that communication with The Library Administration is increasingly collegial. D. Sommer touched briefly on other LAUC-B events this year. She congratulated Bill Roberts, the UCB 1998 Distinguished Librarian, and Maryly Snow, Townsend Center Fellow. ExComm nominated two members to the University Librarian Search Committee: Barbara Glendenning and Ginny Irving. The LAUC-B website has been expanded and updated due to the efforts of A. Sevetson. Your comments are welcome. D. Sommer has appointed an Ad Hoc Committee to review the LAUC-B bylaws. Committee members are Terry Dean (Chair), Alice Youmans, and Patricia Maughan. A recurring issue this year has been the number of vacancies on CAPA and other LAUC-B committees that have taken some time to fill. LAUC-B co-sponsored a videoconference with the San Francisco Bay Region Chapter of the Special Libraries Association. A Reference Forum is in the planning stages. This may include a series of Early Birds examining the dynamic nature of reference services in today's electronic environment. D. Sommer will continue to send out brief reports of LAUC-B activities since it often takes awhile before ExComm Minutes are finalized.
LAUC-B Conference Planning - Jeanne Fong
J. Fong (Chair, Conference on Scholarly Publishing/Communication) provided an update on the LAUC-B Conference scheduled for Friday, November 6, 1998 from 8:30-4:30 pm in the Krutch Theater on the Clark Kerr Campus. The Conference is co-sponsored by The Library, Townsend Center, and UC Extension. Other potential sponsors have been identified. UC Extension is handling the publicity. Chancellor Berdahl will make the opening remarks and the conference is expected to appeal to a wide audience including faculty, administrators, and librarians. A Committee has been formed and a Conference website will be established. Please send suggestions for themes, speakers and moderators to J. Fong.
CAPA Report - Terry Huwe
T. Huwe thanked Bette Anton for joining CAPA to fill the vacancy left by Ann Swartzell's resignation. T. Huwe summarized the work that CAPA has completed to date for the 1997/98 cycle. CAPA has reviewed 44 dossiers, including 2 from the previous cycle, 3 appeals and 15 special review cases. This year CAPA has already received 70% of its cases in sharp contrast to previous years when the dossiers were late being forwarded to CAPA. LHRD has kept CAPA informed of pertinent matters. UL Peter Lyman intends to participate in librarian reviews through June, 1998.
CAPA and ExComm have commented on guidelines drafted by LHRD regarding internal reassignments.
Nominating and Elections Report - J. Fong
The Committee co-chair is Norma Kobzina and members are Cristina Campbell, Grace Dote and Kathryn Wayne. The committee announced the following slate of candidates for 1998/99 LAUC-B office. There being no nominations from the floor, this slate is final. Elections will be held in June 1998.
Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect: Barbara Glendenning / Myrtis Cochran
Secretary: Michaelyn Burnette
Treasurer: Michael Levy
Library Representative
Alternate: Phoebe Janes
Affiliate Library Representative
Alternate: Chuck James
Professional Research and Development Report - Ann Jensen
A. Jensen corrected the committee report which was distributed via email. There were actually two UCB proposals which were sent forward for statewide review, one of which was a joint proposal. Funding decisions will be announced on May 1, 1998.
V A. LAUC Committee on Professional Governance report - Deborah Kearney
D. Kearney stated that this committee has been charged by LAUC statewide to review restructuring the Librarian Series and provide a rationale. She briefly summarized the history of the Librarian Series which currently culminates in 5 steps with the 5th step being a "distinguished achievement" step. In 1974, 6 steps were proposed, but the Vice Chancellor decided to retain the 5 step series. In 1979 and 1987 additional steps were added in the faculty series to create 8 steps. Last year, several ULs suggested adding 2 steps to the Librarian Series, but only UCR and UCLA supported this and the measure did not pass.
Current demographics are: 470 librarians systemwide, of that 7% are at the assistant level; 30% associate; 62% librarian and of those 25% are at step IV and 8% are at step V. The committee also conducted a survey (see handout) to determine if the membership supports adding steps, whether the top step should be retained as a "distinguished achievement" step and to invite additional comments. The results of the survey indicate that the majority favors adding steps and also favor the top step being "distinguished".
V B. Professional Governance Survey: Discussion - D. Sommer
There was general consensus that more steps need to be added to the series in order to retain quality staff, however there was much discussion about maintaining the "distinguished" step and how the steps should be structured.
In the next five years, 30% of librarians will be eligible for retirement. Will UC be able to compete for quality staff in the future? There are arguments that can be made that UC cannot compete with other private or public universities. Many librarians migrate to other series in order to increase salary, we are losing many highly qualified individuals. In the past, other campuses rarely viewed Step V being a "distinguished" step as a problem, now they do. The faculty have a "distinguished" step, but the same criteria don't apply to librarians since our contributions are different and the faculty step is biased towards publishing. Librarians used to have opportunities for research, sabbaticals, etc.; now their jobs are more administrative. LAUC Position Paper #1 has one line addressing "distinguished" and has become too narrowly interpreted. The concept is also not applied consistently by ULs on the different campuses.
One viewpoint expressed was that LAUC should do whatever makes it easier to add steps and address the "distinguished" step at a later date. If LAUC Position Paper #1 is based on the APM, LAUC may need to rescind it in order to proceed with adding more steps. Areas of resistance may stem from an Office of the President (UCOP) document that found UC librarians well paid and found no recruitment/retention problem. Statements in the BRC's report contradict this. Perhaps LAUC should try to commission a new salary survey.
VI A. Report of the LAUC-B guest to the Senate Committee on Library - A. Sevetson
A. Sevetson's report was not given in order to permit sufficient time for discussion of the Blue Ribbon Committee Report. [Her report was subsequently distributed via e-mail.]
VI B. Blue Ribbon Committee Report: Discussion - D. Sommer
The Vice Chancellor has asked The Library staff to comment on the BRC report at brc@uclink4.berkeley.edu. ExComm will also send a response. T. Dean suggested that ExComm send a letter to the BRC thanking them for all of their work. D. Sommer noted that the External Advisor's Report was presently available in paper copy only; she will ask the Vice Chancellor's Office to consider placing it on the web.
D. Sommer summarized some highlights of the BRC report and asked the Assembly to help identify pertinent areas for ExComm to address.
D. Sommer requested comments from the staff regarding pertinent areas of the report that LAUC should address. Discussion ensued. Here are a few of the ideas that were suggested that might be included in LAUC-B's response to the Report: LAUC-B should emphasize the Report's recommendations to take up the cause to rebuild the professional staff; take a lead in outlining a communication plan with Library Administration; and, request representation on the proposed Library Advisory Board.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 am.