Spring Assembly minutes - May 5, 1999

Handouts: agenda, draft minutes from LAUC-B Fall Assembly, committee reports

I. Welcome

Andrea Sevetson, LAUC-B chair, welcomed the fifty-one attendees and called the meeting to order at 8:33 A.M.

II. Speaker: Carol Christ, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost

Christ began by outlining recent changes at UCB: reduction in state funding and a concomitant growth in fund-raising; the retirement of a third of the faculty and the 10% reduction in faculty size; the increased competition for admission to UCB (Berkeley rejects more applicants than any other institution); the increase in fees so that UCB is now a high fee/high aid school; the transformation of research; the most capital construction since the 1950s (much of which will affect libraries); seismic work; deferred maintenance; and the increase in the international profile of UCB.

Revenue generation is crucial: fees, fundraising, cost recovery are necessary for supplementing state support, but all raise important policy issues. Berkeley entered the nineties as a fully public institution and will enter the twenty-first century as a public/private hybrid; the challenge will be to sustain its identity as a public institution while integrating private donations into the public sphere. We must all think creatively about non-state funds while maintaining a public identity.

Faculty often mention the research environment as their highest priority, and libraries are integral to the information technology which helps form that environment.

Access to education is being widely discussed as California prepares for "tidal wave 2." Currently UC has 150,000 students; if the master plan is followed, UC should expect 210,000 students in 2010. Even if all UC campuses are fully enrolled and UC Merced is in operation, UC will not have room for 30,000 of these students. UC administrators are looking at ways to accommodate more students: among the strategies being discussed are the use of remote sites, more summer courses, and a different use of extension. The need to maintain diversity must always be kept in mind.

Undergraduate education is being examined, especially which opportunities will be offered and the changes required by the new information technologies. The Libraries are important in helping students, especially given their differing levels of information literacy.

Chancellor Berdahl is concerned with operational excellence on the campus and has established the Center for Organizational Effectiveness, CORE (see http://www.urel.berkeley.edu/berkeleyan/1999/0407/org.html for the announcement in the Berkeleyan).

Christ outlined four key areas for the libraries:

1. funding: as materials costs increase dramatically beyond state support, private funding is ever more crucial. We must also explore cost recovery and fees.

2. the libraries serve as the port of entry for students learning how to use information technology. The Teaching Library plays a crucial role. Students need just-in-time instruction.

3. to make optimal use of the acquisitions budgets, the libraries must be more connected to academic planning.

4. the libraries should use the increase in capital construction as a time to look at the distribution of libraries. What is the optimal distribution of libraries? What makes the most sense and insures the best service?

Christ also talked about systemwide library initiatives:

1. the California Digital Library (CDL) is the most visible.

2. strategizing about library cooperation; UC must act as one library to share resources.

3. strategizing and stimulating discussion about new modes of communication. UC must look at national and international changes; each library needs to decide how to cope with the changes and maintain excellence.

The Vice Chancellor ended her remarks with a request to hear about what does not work.

During the question and answer session, Christ solicited further information about a suggestion for sharing resources across UC; addressed the implementation of the new Berkeley Financial System (the structure of the servers and the need for more training are being looked into), and responded to a question about the decision not to seek ALA accreditation for SIMS.

III. Announcements

None.

IV. Minutes of the LAUC-B Fall 1998 Assembly were approved.

V. Reports
A. Academic Senate Committee on the Library (COL) (Professor Marianne Constable)

With the arrival of the new UL, the COL has shifted its focus from the internal operation of The Library. The COL is interested in the AUL recruitment process and hopes to be involved in the searches. The COL feels the future of the second floor of Doe is an important issue and is pleased with Jan Carter's work in the new Graduate Services. The COL maintains a link to Graduate Services through the membership of one of its members on the GRDS Advisory Committee. The COL is vitally interested in CAG's work, especially the distribution of the additional collections funding.

The COL endorsed The Library's 1999/00 budget proposal, which seems one of continuity, and will be especially interested in next year's proposal, which will benefit from having the new administrative team in place. The COL hopes that, if user surveys and accredidation studies show that a reshuffling of library staff positions is inadequate to deal with faculty and student needs, the campus administration will consider a strategy of new permanent positions, rather than mortgaging.

The campus must figure out ways to involve The Library in academic planning, most obviously when that planning affects library collections and services. The Library must have input at the highest levels of acadmic planning--when changes occur in degree programs that may affect it, for instance--and also at the local level through selector/department interaction. The COL hopes that the UL and the new AULs will actively meet with faculty.

Constable suggested more substantive articles for Library Briefings to inform readers about issues.

Constable asked librarians to pay attention to what is happening systemwide, particularly at CDL, and to keep the COL and faculty informed. The faculty need librarians to decipher the impacts of systemwide discussions and decisions on the UCB libraries and their users.

Campus libraries could also be affected by the upcoming decision on the computing committee report.

Facilities planning is a constant issue. The Academic Senate's Committee on Academic Planning and Resources Allocation will be split next year; Constable hopes for library representation on both sub-committees.

The probable chair of the COL next year will be Tom Leonard.

Questions and answers included the addition of steps to the librarian series (Constable advocated taking the proposal to the COL and to the Senate as a whole) and led to a discussion of compensation for all levels of library workers.

To acknowledge Constable's leadership of the COL for the past two years and her invaluable service during the turbulent but productive 1997/98 year of library review, LAUC-B presented Constable with a gift. This gift, unique in LAUC-B history, is a tangible expression of its gratitude for her service to the academic community. Constable left the assembly through a loud round of applause.

B. Chair's Report (Sevetson)

LAUC-Berkeley

Sevetson introduced a new librarian, John Gallwey, a cataloger at the Institute of Transportation Studies Library, who is just starting this week.

The current and future formation of new library committees and the role of LAUC was the topic of the regular meeting of Jerry Lowell, Barbara Glendenning and Sevetson. The preliminary discussion concluded with the idea that any librarian appointed to a committee would be responsible for reporting its activities to the LAUC-B Executive Board; thus LAUC-B would not have designated appointees but would rely on librarians to keep it informed and represent LAUC-B views.

In response to a request from someone outside the library to be on the lauc@library reflector, the Executive Committee (ExComm) held several discussions about the reflector. In January ExComm agreed that the reflector should consist of LAUC-B members, those campus library employees with a library degree and/or responsibilities which make valuable the information distributed on the reflector, and staff in the library with a justifiable reason. Any requests by non-LAUC-B members for inclusion on the reflector must be reviewed and approved by ExComm.

Since many LAUC-B members contacted members of ExComm with their concern about the decision not to seek ALA accreditation for SIMS, LAUC-B sent a letter to Dean Varian. LAUC-B members saw both the draft and the final version of the letter on the lauc@library reflector. Dean Varian has not yet responded.

In January LAUC-B received a note from AUL Frohmberg suggesting "casual" lunches with librarian candidates. These lunches offer the candidate an opportunity to ask candid questions about The Library, LAUC-B and just to relax a little bit during the day. LAUC-B reps have lunched with candidates for The Bancroft Curator and the Public Health Library Head.

To better inform the membership about the Townsend Center Fellow opportunity, LAUC-B has added information to its website about previous Fellow projects and a description of the application process. LAUC-B is concerned about the low number of applicants the past two years. Sevetson urged any interested members to read about the different projects and talk with previous fellows.

For the first time, LAUC-B officers devised draft budgets for each committee to end the practice of making the LAUC-B chair or ExComm approve each expenditure. Sevetson feels this innovation has worked quite well since the committees are empowered to work on their charge and given the funds to carry on their work. The ExComm also authorized $50 as a memorial for Pat Flowers, UCR.

ExComm received a recommendation from the Research and Professional Development Committee to purchase both a tape recorder and a laptop and has not yet had a chance to discuss this idea. In the meantime, The Library has decided to purchase digital tape recorder to be housed in the Media Resources Center to record events. A digital tape recorder will allow feeding the audio through the web and thus avoiding going to MRC to hear recorded speeches. The Executive Committee will talk about the purchase of laptop at its next meeting.

Statewide LAUC

At the March Executive Board Meeting, members reviewed the LAUC position papers. Papers 1, 2 and 5 may be revised. The papers are: No. 1: Criteria for Appointment or Promotion to the Ranks of Associate Librarian and Librarian and Advancement to Librarian Step V; No. 2: Development of Effective Communication between Statewide LAUC and Library Council; No. 5: The Academic Librarian in the University of California; No. 3: Documentation Guidelines for the Review of Librarians; No. 4: Review Procedures for Librarians Outside the Normal Campus Peer Review Process. LAUC President Lucas will consider suggestions about 1 and 5 and may appoint a committee to revise 2.

A draft copy of the policy for the statewide LAUC web was distributed so that all LAUC-B members had an opportunity to comment.

During the fall Assembly, LAUC filed the report of the Committee on Professional Governance and adopted a resolution mandating campus action. Sevetson gave copies to UL Lowell and Executive Vice Chancellor Christ and have had follow-up conversations with Lowell about the views of the other UC ULs on the proposal to expand the number of Librarian merit steps from five to nine.

C. LAUC (Statewide) (Kari Lucas, LAUC President)

Lucas made a special visit to UCB to discuss the proposal to increase the number of Librarian steps from five to nine and to move the barrier step from Librarian 5 to Librarian 9. The proposal is currently being reviewed by Myron Okada's office in UCOP; the expected cost is part of the analysis because this information is needed by the Council of Vice Chancellors and for collective bargaining. The campus ULs have asked their human resource officers for costs and analyses of the implications of the additional steps. The ULs are also concerned with the lower end of the series.

The approval process for adding steps involves UCOP, campus ULs and Vice-Chancellors and also collective bargaining. Lucas is travelling to all LAUC divisions to ask unrepresented members to support the proposal for additional steps and represented members to get in touch with members of the negotiating team to let them know that this is an important issue in collective bargaining.

Lucas and a LAUC delegation will be meeting with Okada and others at UCOP on June 10 about the proposal for the expansion of the Librarian series.

During a question and answer session, LAUC-B members brought up the sources of funding for the added steps, the need for looking at the lower end of librarian salaries, and the addition of step 9 late in the process of writing the LAUC proposal. Lucas added step 9 because the professorate and professional researchers currently have proposals to add step 9, and she felt that librarians needed at least to parallel those proposals. The addition of step 9 also provides for adequate career growth potential for incumbents in the series and parallels other market groups to which UC loses librarians. Lucas made herself available during the afternoon for further questions and discussion.

D. Committee Reports

1. Sevetson asked if there were any questions about the committee reports, which were available as handouts.

2. Nominating and Elections Committee (Kathryn Wayne)

For committee chair Cris Campbell, who was unable to attend, Wayne thanked members of the committee for their work during the year; all are pleased with recruitment of nominees and with the high level of enthusiasm displayed for LAUC service.

The slate of nominees for LAUC-B Executive Committee:

Representative (Affiliated Libraries) (1 vacancy): Beth Edinger and Alice Youmans

Representative (General Library) (2 vacancies): Suzanne Calpestri, Mari Miller, AnnMarie Mitchell, Hideyuki Morimoto

Treasurer: Yu-Lan Chou and Beth Sibley

Secretary: David Farrell

Vice Chair/Chair Elect: Barclay Ogden

Wayne solicited further nominations from the floor; none were forthcoming. The ballot will come out in late May and be due back in June.

3. Suzanne Calpestri, current librarian Townsend Fellow, spoke about the program and asked members for comments about the paucity of applications for this position the last couple of years. Possible reasons: lack of time (faculty fellows get release time to participate; librarians do not); the 40% decrease in the number of librarians leaves little leeway for outside activities, no matter how exciting; lack of feedback for applications which were not accepted. Calpestri and Gary Handman, a former Fellow, reported the many positive benefits of participation, most prominently the intellectual stimulation and enrichment and to opportunity to form collegial connections with the faculty and grad students.

4. Terry Dean, chair of the Distinguished Librarian Committee, reminded everyone that nominations for the award are due May 28. There have been articles in the Daily Californian and the Berkeleyan about the award.

VI. Old Business

None

VII. New Business

None

The meeting adjourned at 10:10 A. M.