LIBRARY EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
May 16, 2006
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Present: Baughman (scribe), Ruschoff, Vikor, Williams (facilitator), Wray (timekeeper)
Absent: Lowry
Topic: Meeting Agenda
Outcome: Agenda was finalized and pop-ups identified.
Topic: Interlibrary Loan Processes and Costs
Outcomes: Tanner Wray and Charles Wright reviewed the Interlibrary Loan Report, which detailed statistics on current borrowing and lending activity and current and projected expenditures and income for the first ten months of FY06. The increase in borrowing is 38.9% from calendar year 2004 to calendar year 2005 while lending increased by 3.2%. Changes in activity were more modest in the first 4 months of 2006 (5.8% increase for borrowing, and a decrease of 1.8% for lending). This multi-year increase in borrowing activity has significantly increased the expenditures without an increase in budget allocation. The ILL staff has been reviewing this change to understand the increase and has been looking at current practices and procedures for improved efficiencies.
Specific recommendations for additional data collection and discussion at the May 23rd LEC Meeting:
- How many requested items (books and articles) are picked up by the Libraries’ customers.
- The number of articles that are viewed via document delivery.
- The percentages of articles filled and loans filled at peer institutions.
- Recommend to Charles Lowry that medical and law libraries associated with CIRLA universities be brought into CIRLA resource sharing agreements.
- Review the borrowing figures with libraries in the state of Maryland. Identify the number of requests that UM is filling.
- What are peers spending on ILL activities and how do they make decisions about changes in ILL (look at PALINET or other ARL libraries)? The point of comparison with other institutions should be net borrowers. [Note: some Big Ten schools are heavily subsidized by the state.]
- How much are the Libraries willing to allocate to ILL activities?
- Are the Libraries an access or collections model?
Topic: Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) Pilot
Outcome: Sue Baughman and Johnnie Love briefed the LEC on the pilot project. Overall the pilot group feels the inventory is a good tool to identify areas for self-development. The training needs to be longer than 4 ˝ hours to allow enough time for discussion and activities. One concern expressed was about incorporating the results and future action steps into work plans and day-to-day activities.
Next Steps:
- Brief LAG on the pilot project.
- LEC recommends using tool with another group of people.
Topic: Pop-ups
Outcomes:
- Access to Documents for Administrative Reviews. Only those documents that are in the public domain are available to Review Committees or PRCs. Jane Williams will contact Mary Giles in the University Senate Office for any documentation about any grievances that may have been filed with the Senate for librarians currently going through review processes.
- C-Team Retreat Pre-Work. Members will read Chapter 3 of Reframing Organizations.
- Job Descriptions. LEC reaffirmed that draft job descriptions should be completed before a search committee is formed. This gives the search committee the opportunity to suggest minor changes before the position is advertised. Full draft job descriptions should be completed for any new positions or any re-tooled positions.
- Position Lines and Searches. Campus has instituted a new policy whereby the Libraries had to return five state lines. Other departments had to return lines as well. At the same time the Libraries converted five contractual positions into regular line positions by using vacant lines. These two actions resulted in the Libraries having no vacant lines currently. This will change shortly as a result of recent resignations and retirements.
- Patriot Act. Jane will ask Anne Bowden to review the Libraries’ Patriot Act Guidelines in light of the recent changes in the law.
Topic: Announcements
Outcome: Jane Williams shared the new Libraries Annual Report for FY05 and congratulated Jennifer Hanna on a job well done.
Topic: Agenda for May 23, 2006
Outcome: Topics were identified including Guidelines for Teams and Interlibrary Loan Processes and Costs.
