June 6, 2003
PRESENT: Val Burris, Deb Carver, Peter O’Day, Dan Pope.
GUEST: Mark Watson, Associate University Librarian for Collections and Access.
Dan Pope, chair, convened the meeting at 8:45 a.m.
Deb reported that 653 titles are on the list of titles to be eliminated. Ten of those titles make up 25% of the target amount to be cancelled. She is concerned that this process is affecting the diversity of the collection. In the future, it will be necessary to be much more aggressive in identifying duplicate print and electronic titles, as libraries are beginning to maintain more e-only collections. It was suggested that each discipline should continue to maintain hard copies of some titles for students to access. Deb agreed that core titles should remain on the shelves if at all possible. Another way to reduce titles without adversely affecting the collection is to build a collection of shared, expensive titles with OSU. We also need to change how we manage our collection. We do not want to go through this process every 3-4 years. It is very labor intensive for all parties involved and it does not necessarily end up with the best choices. We need to continually review our collection. Deb stated that she did meet with Geography Department about their concerns. Some interdisciplinary titles will be moved from Science General to Geography.
Deb discussed gift journals with library staff and the consensus is gift collections are very difficult to manage. It would be hard to ensure that we receive every issue in a timely manner. There are also a number of publishers who state that libraries cannot accept gift subscriptions, although the legality of that statement is not known.
Deb gave an update on Knight Library’s journals circulation policy. The data provided covers the time period February through May.
The library will continue to monitor the program over the summer. At this point, the library does not see any need to revise the process.
The UO Library is participating in a statewide, online reference system. There is a link on our home page that lets you access the service. There are 24 libraries participating in the experiment; six representing academic institutions. The reference interaction is done online and is available between 1:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. At this point, it is not being heavily used. Our librarians are averaging about five questions in a two-hour time period. The UO Library will need to decide whether to continue participating in the statewide consortium, offer this service on our own, or possibly collaborate with another academic consortium. Having other library participants from academic settings would be more useful to our students and faculty. But at the same time, it is important to support the state’s project. Val asked if it would be possible to do a two-tier system—general questions versus specialized questions. Deb responded that this is being discussed. We will continue to monitor the program.
Dan asked Deb to discuss how the library is responding to the US Patriot Act. Melinda Grier, UO’s Counsel, has told us that if the FBI comes to the library with a request, regardless if they have a warrant or subpoena, we are to inform them that we are willing to cooperate but that we must first pass their request onto University Counsel. Libraries might be asked to turn over patron information. The information that the UO Library has available includes what items are currently checked out and by whom, and who last checked out an item. We do not have any other historical information. It is possible queries could be directed to our vendor, who may keep more detailed information. A question was asked if we have a contractual statement with our vendor stating they must get permission from the UO before releasing any information about our records. Deb is not aware of any, but she will look into it. Deb stated that University of Washington has a very good privacy statement that could be useful for putting together our statement next fall. UW’s statement can be viewed at http://www.lib.washington.edu/about/privacy.html.
Deb thanked Dan for chairing the committee over the last two years. The chair of next year’s committee will be selected at the first meeting during fall term.
The meeting adjourned at 9:25 a.m.
Submitted by
Sheila Gray