Wayne State University Library System
University Library Committee
February 16, 2006

Minutes

Attendance:  John McGinnity, Chair.  Members:  Janet Hankin, Marion Jackson, Simon Ng, John Rothchild, Jeff Trzeciak ,Sandy Yee, Dean. 

  1. Minutes from January 19, 2006 meeting were approved.

 

  1. UGL Task Force Update:  Dean Yee reported on the results of the meetings with the UGL Task Force.  The task force was formed at the request of Dean Yee in collaboration with Student Council.  To date Dean Yee and Associate Dean Trzeciak have met with representatives of Student Council to address the issues of noise and cleanliness in the UGL.  As a first step, some additional noise reducing ceiling tiles have been added to the third floor. 

In addition, a new monitor has been hired to enforce the policy of the third floor as “silent study only”.  We hope the additional monitor will reduce the level of noise on the third floor.  The policies she will be enforcing include:  no eating, no cell phone use and no group study.  Groups who wish to study on the third floor will be asked to use group study rooms.

  1. Institutional repository demo:  Matthew Martin, Digital Projects Librarian, was invited to attend as a guest.  Matthew provided a demo of the libraries’ new Digital Commons platform.  The site can be found at digitalcommons.wayne.edu.  Currently the libraries are working with Detroit Public Schools, the College of Fine and Performing Arts, and Political Science on demonstration projects. 

Digital Commons allows the libraries and archives to continue our traditional role as the stewards of the university’s intellectual and cultural resources by capturing, preserving, promoting, and facilitating access to the output produced by our students, faculty, researchers and community partners.
The site serves to two purposes: to highlight the intellectual and cultural output, thereby promoting our institution; and to support easy digital access, long-term storage, and preservation of these our institutional output through a single, searchable interface based on the international standards of open access.
In addition to complementing the traditional methods of scholarly publishing, “The Research Commons” provides new avenues of disseminating scholarly materials, thereby not only benefiting the university but also the broader research community as well. The website will include a variety of file types (pre-prints, research reports, published articles, conference proceedings, research data, special lectures, theses, dissertations, performances, masters projects, field studies, clinical studies, etc.) and file formats (text, images, datasets, audio and video).
A copy of Matthew’s presentation is attached.

  1. There were no additional announcements or discussion.