PRESENT: Deb Carver, Andre Djiffack, Peter O’Day, Dan
Pope, Michael Raymer, Melissa Baird.
GUEST: Andrew Bonamici, Associate University Librarian for
Administrative & Media Services.
Dan Pope, chair, convened
the meeting at 1:35 p.m.
SURVEY: CIRCULATION OF BOUND PERIODICALS
Deb reported that one of the library’s initiatives for
this year is to investigate whether to implement a policy that would
allow bound journals to circulate. The
task force assigned to this charge distributed a survey winter term to
departmental representatives and to the ULC. The
task force would like to get comments from the ULC before making any
recommendation. A handout
was distributed listing the survey results:
|
Total of 23 responses were received: 4 from AAA, 5 from
the Sciences, 5 from the Humanities, 4 from Social Sciences, 3
from Education, 1 from Journalism, 1 from Music. |
|
The library primarily used: Knight Library – 16; Science
Library – 3; Math Library – 1; AAA Library – 1;
multiple branches – 2. |
|
Should journals circulate? |
8 Not
at all |
5 Yes,
one day |
6 Yes,
three days |
3 Yes,
seven days |
|
Who should have borrowing privileges? |
8 No
one |
9 UO
grad students & faculty |
1 GTFs
and faculty |
2 Faculty
only |
1 All
UO borrowers |
1 All
borrowers |
|
Deb also distributed a handout listing Greater Western Library
Alliance Consortium member’s policies on circulating bound journals. Of
the 29 universities listed, 18 libraries allow bound journals to circulate
with varying loan periods, 8 do not list such a policy on their web site,
and 3 allow journals to circulate on an exception-only basis. After
reviewing these handouts, Mike Raymer made a motion that the library implement
a one-year trial period, providing 2-day circulation of bound journals
to faculty and graduate students. Because
this would be a brand new service for the library, the ULC members agreed
to start with a smaller group of potential borrowers. If the library decides to continue the
program after the one-year trial service, extending the privilege to
undergraduates would be considered.
Some
reasons that support this proposed policy are:
There
were several questions/concerns raised by the ULC:
Deb added
that OSU has been circulating bound journals to faculty and graduate
students for over a year and have not had any problems. They
recently extended this privilege to undergraduates. We would like to
start out with a smaller group of borrowers, and consider including undergraduates
at a later time. The undergraduates
are a large group, which could possibly create accessibility concerns
for high use journals.
Dan suggested
that we charge strict fines to all groups and make sure everyone is aware
of those fines. It was suggested to have strips of paper outlining the
fines placed in each journal when it is checked out.
Deb asked
the ULC if they feel another survey should be submitted to a broader
group of campus borrowers before making any decision. The
group feels it is not necessary to send another survey. The committee is agreeable to Michael’s
motion of a one-year trial period allowing faculty and graduate students
to check out bound journals with a two-day loan period. Feedback from the campus community will help in evaluation
and determination of whether to continue circulating bound journals. The committee is less agreeable to extending
this privilege beyond the UO campus community.
The ULC
also suggested that a letter be sent to faculty outlining the advantages
but also addressing concerns of this policy, and to ask them to identify
possible titles to exclude from the process.
Deb will
forward this information onto the committee in charge of the initiative. Deb stated that she will also have a
conversation with James and AAA about their concerns.
REGIONAL LIBRARY SERVICES CENTER (Orbis)
Andrew Bonamici reported that Orbis libraries are all experiencing
space problems and because of that, the consortium is exploring of possibility
of creating an offsite storage facility to house less frequently requested
material and titles that require special environmental controls. It is estimated that the cost of building
the facility, covering operating expenses, and purchasing preservation
equipment would be $8-$10 million and that it would house approximately
2.5 million volumes. He
added that no site has been selected, but that several locations have
been discussed.
The two main advantages of an offsite storage facility are
that it is very cost effective and preservation friendly. The retrieval of material housed off
site would be the same process as requesting items through Orbis borrowing,
which reaches the requestor within two days. The
offsite facility would simply be another site within the Orbis consortium.
Deb thinks the UO’s collections would comprise 70-75%
of the available space. We
must carefully weigh the benefits of a shared facility vs. a facility
built exclusively for the UO.
Andrew showed the video “The Harvard Depository” which
shows the creation and operation of Harvard’s offsite storage facility.
SHARED COLLECTION WITH OSU
Deb gave an update on the shared collection discussions with
OSU. Both libraries are
identifying expensive journal titles and working on developing a single
archive if an electronic version is available. Both
libraries feel this is a more rational method than having to go through
another serials cancellation project. Deb
will continue to update the ULC on these deliberations.
CHANGING ULC BYLAWS
The committee agreed to have the ULC’s bylaws changed
to reflect that its membership include a graduate student representative. In the fall, the committee will submit
a notice of motion for the Senate to address. Melissa
indicated that she would like to continue serving on the ULC next year;
Dan will pass that information on to Dave Hubin.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:40 p.m.
Submitted by
Sheila Gray