Report of the Library Advisory Committee

 

The LAC met on Thursday, 2 October 2003 at 8:15, in El Pomar 304C.

 

Present: Lesley Ginsberg (chair), Rita Hug (Library), Dick Discenza (Business), Michael Kisley (LAS-Soc), David Weiss (LAS-Sci), Leslie Manning (Library), Rodger Ziemer (EAS), Mary Hagedorn (Beth El), Mark McConkie (GSPA).

 

  1. Lesley Ginsberg was elected to serve as Chair of the committee for AY 2003-2004.  6 votes affirmative (library representatives did not vote).

  2. Dean Manning presented the Library’s FY 2004 Budget.  The total budget for FY 2004 is $1, 996, 674.  This represents a slight increase over last year’s budget of $1, 975, 769.  The Library lost about 5% of it’s budget last year.  The budgeted expenditure on serials for FY 2004 represents 66.4% of the materials budget, down from last year’s 70.4%, which was an unsustainably high percentage due to journal inflation at 10% or more per year.  Various fund raising strategies were discussed.  Dean Manning will check into the legalities of publicizing a recent bequest; the committee suggested that we should announce gifts to inspire others to give.

  3. AY 2002-2003 Statistics re Collections, Budgets, Staffing, Circulation. Patrons, Electronic Resources, Library Instruction, and Interlibrary Loan were circulated.  Of note is the 18.9% of all patrons served by the Library who are members of the general community.  The Library is the single most used service on campus by the community at large.  The question of soliciting these patrons to make a contribution to the Library was discussed. 

  4. Christian Martinez put together a display honoring books authored by on the second floor of the library.   The notion of featuring individual departments was raised, particularly for those departments who value journal articles over books.

  5. The Library will be holding a book sale on Wednesday 8 October & Thursday 9 October.  These are donated books (not de-accessioned). 

  6. Library On-Line Tutorial.  This has grown out of a teaching with technology grant won by Sue Byerley and Judith Rice-Jones.  The tutorial consists of six modules that teach ways to access library materials, each module followed by a short quiz.  Though it initially targets students in the required freshman composition course English 141, it could be tailored to meet the research needs of many other undergraduates.  The committee emphasized the importance of being frank about plagiarism. 

  7. The results of last year’s on-line Library User Survey were presented.  The library is in the process of addressing the issue that showed most dissatisfaction—accessing electronic resources from home. 

 

The meeting adjourned at 9:30.  The next meeting will be Thursday, 30 October, at 8:15 in El Pomar 304C. 

 

Respectfully Submitted, Lesley Ginsberg, Chair, Library Advisory Committee.