University Library Committee Minutes
November 19, 2003

Present: H. Cannon, D. Mattingly, D. Moxley, C. Roney, C. Schochet, D. Magidson, Chair, Staff: B. Lessin, L. Sutton, S. Yee,
Absent with notice: S.E. Bell, J. Langlois, K. Pothukuchi, J. Rothchild, G. Shreve

1. The meeting was called to order by D. Magidson, Chair, who welcomed all new and returning committee members.
2. The committee roster was circulated for corrections in contact information with a request for scheduling information for the winter term.
3. Dean Yee provided an update on activities in the library system since last spring.

• Two RFP’s are being issued for feasibility studies of building renovation projects in the Shiffman Medical Library and the Purdy/Kresge Library. This latter project will explore the feasibility of merging the Science and Engineering Library with the Purdy/Kresge Library. The Committee requested invitations to attend the architects’ presentation as part of the RFP process and suggested that department chairs may also wish to attend.
  The library system continues to create and provide access to digital collections. Major collections include:
  Virtual Motor City project, collaborative project with Reuther Library digitizing a portion of the Detroit News photo collection, funded by a $110,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. http://www.lib.wayne.edu/resources/special_collections/local/vmc/index.html
• Dorothea June Grossbart Historic Costume Collection, a collaborative project with the Fashion Design and Merchandising Dept., digitizing images of over 400 garments and accessories of the 19th and 20th centuries.
  http://www.lib.wayne.edu/resources/pecial_collections/local/hcc/index.php
  Using this project as a pilot, a new Digital Dress grant has been received from IMLS in the amount of $249,433 in a collaborative effort to digitize the costume collections of The Henry Ford, the Detroit Historical Museum and Meadow Brook Hall. http://www.lib.wayne.edu/geninfo/units/lcms/dls/grants/ddgrant.php
• Writing the River, a demonstration digitization project focusing on urban poetry from the 1960s and 1970s in Detroit and Windsor. This project was funded by a small grant from the Michigan Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
  http://www.lib.wayne.edu/resources/special_collections/local/wtr/index.php The Committee had questions about copyright permission to use the digital images and provisions for server back-up. Jeff Trzeciak, Director of Library Computing and Media Services, will be invited to a future meeting to address these and other questions.
  Scholarly communications update: national groups following scholarly communications developments still generally view the situation in “crisis mode.” Progress is being made with open access publishing initiatives such as BioMed Central, Public Library of Science and SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. Copies of the November 3 article “A New World of Scholarly Communications” in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Richard Atkinson were distributed to committee members.
  LibQUAL+ study: LibQUAL+ is a national web-based survey of library service quality in which the University Libraries have participated for several years. B. Lessin gave a brief overview of the 2003 survey results and how they are being used as a catalyst for service improvements. He will be invited to a future meeting to discuss the program in greater depth.

4. Plans for USA PATRIOT Act event: Last year’s Committee set a goal of sponsoring an event in 2004 on the topic of the USA PATRIOT Act. Preliminary discussion took place on how to go about arranging such a program. Several background articles were distributed to members. It was agreed to devote the next meeting’s agenda to planning the event. Members should bring names of potential speakers and ideas for consideration.
5. Other input from members:

• C. Schochet asked if the Libraries would consider sponsoring a “school for chairs” in order to explain how the library acquisitions budget works. S. Yee thought this an excellent idea and will refer the idea to Richard Jasper, Director of Resource Services, for implementation.
• H. Cannon inquired on the possibility of wireless in the libraries. S. Yee replied that an Omnibus grant was secured that will provide wireless in all WSU libraries by the end of this fiscal year. H. Cannon further inquired what the libraries are doing about integration of library resources into Blackboard. S. Yee reported that many library services (electronic reserves, library instruction, virtual reference) are in the process of being incorporated into Blackboard. She will invite appropriate staff to a future meeting of the Committee for a fuller presentation.

6. The next meeting of the Committee will take place on Wednesday, December 10 and will be focused on planning for the USA PATRIOT Act program.

Notes by: L. Sutton