The meeting was called to order at 7:30 a.m. at Cafe DeGrasta, Grace Hall by Chairman Walter Pratt. Also in attendance were Wesley Calvert, Stephen Dumont, Roger Jacobs, Mark Pilkinton, David Smith, Gordon Wishon, Jennifer Younger, observer Gay Dannelly and secretary Melodie Eiteljorge.

The minutes of the meeting of September 19, 2002 were distributed via email.

October 11, 2002

Younger: We are interviewing five people for the Associate Director for User Services position. Two have been on campus and the other three are scheduled. Thanks to Wesley Calvert for attending one of the interviews.

Strategic Planning: We turned in a preliminary report. The Strategic Planning Steering Committee is incorporating changes and a final report will be sent to UCL members.

Younger reported briefly on a discussion with members of the University Coordinating Committee on Strategic Planning on October 9, 2002. She mentioned several important points concerning electronic resources as they are acquired and licensed by the library. Electronic resources are part of the library collections. There is some uncertainty about this point because e-resources don't get put on the shelf, thereby suggesting e-resources aren't part of the library collections. However, we subscribe to individual journal or monographs in e-formats or subscribe to aggregated packages of journal or other content, and in the future, will be subscribing to content in digital format instead of in paper format. Further clouding the perception of whether e-resources are part of the library collection is the fact that the licenses initially did not always allow the library to keep the content beyond a subscription year as is the case when we buy printed books or journals and that the content is not stored in the library. Increasingly, the licenses do provide for "access in perpetuity" and research libraries with other partners are pursuing models for the archiving and preserving of digital content. There will be multiple digital repositories, including JSTOR as one example of library-supported digital preservation and individual digital libraries as another example.

Electronic resources are as expensive or more so than information resources in print or other formats. There is a perception that Web-accessible resources are free. While there is content that is freely accessible on the Web, including pre-prints of working papers, selected journal articles and journals, reports and information about and from organizations and a wide range of professional associations, the majority of scholarly content is not free.

Weber: Do we own the digital? Younger: Sometimes we own, sometimes we license access to the resources. Dannelly: With a lot of large, full-text we often have option to buy up front. We are revising our licenses so as to get permanent access to e-journal, no matter where the data resides. We work through General Counsel. Archiving is a major concern; however, we expect most digital content preservation to happen collaboratively, e.g., the JSTOR Project which makes a commitment to digital preservation of the journals in its database. Licensing through the NorthEast Research Libraries (NERL) is useful both for the price discounts but also because NERL has had a voice in getting good statistical reporting of use from publishers.

Weber: Any danger of losing access to past content? Dannelly: We negotiate for rights to access in perpetuity.

Dumont: Since humanities is behind in the number of electronic journals, are there budget implications? Younger: Based on format and availability of e-resources, yes, there could be some possibility that more of the budget will be needed to support e-journals. The longer answer is that we are aware we need to preserve a reasonable allocation of funds across all subject areas.

Dumont: Are there limits for specific numbers of users? Dannelly: Not with databases. Younger: There has been some evolution in licensing from "number of users" to "site licensing" without specific limits on the number of simultaneous users.

Younger: Another discussion centered on the definition of collections and collection goals. In the report we mention our strongest collections, e.g., Theology, Medieval Studies. For the future, we propose to build distinguished collections in areas where collections are already strong. Building new collections, e.g., in Asian Studies, is costly. Dannelly suggested that building a new collection would range in cost from several hundreds of thousands to one or two million, depending on the subject and amount of materials to be purchased. Research collections are more expensive to build than collections supporting the curriculum. Notre Dame does not have many research level collections.

Jacobs: This is paradoxical because we hire faculty who do research and they need research collections.

Younger: Yes, it is. We then define a continuum of how we meet faculty information needs. In some areas, interlibrary loan might be more cost effective than building collections.

Dumont: If you haven't started the collection you can't build it.

Younger: In the area of grants, which also came up as a question, grants now tend to focus on preserving collections, not the initial purchasing. However, the library has been successful recently in purchasing collections from individual benefactors, generally with funds raised from private sources.

Younger moved the discussion to the topic of the pending cancellation of paper copies of journals received electronically: Last spring we reduced our journal and book commitments for this fiscal year by 6%. This fall, however, the economic situation has further deteriorated. Restricted income for library collections is flat and this is likely to continue for the next 3-5 years. She has informed the deans about the cancellation of paper copies and will be sending a letter to all University faculty. If we don't reduce our commitments to journals, there is the potential down the road that the costs of journals will subsume book budgets. Our goal is to retain access to as much content as possible, which is why we are canceling the duplicate paper copies. Since last spring restricted income from the University plateaued. There will be no increase this year. The collection budget is flat and probably will be for next 3-5 years.

Pilkinton: This is a new situation. Building has stopped as well. Faculty will understand the need to reduce commitments.

Jacobs: The supplies and expense budget is also frozen. Acquisitions is part of that.

Younger: Yes, and I believe there will be a zero percent again next year in the nonsalary budget.
Adams: Revenues from research funds have increased. Younger: Yes, that is true, but it is also the case that other infrastructure needs are surfacing, including space, in addition to research journals.

Jacobs: Is this next cut limited to journals? Younger: Yes, and specifically where we have duplicate content. We are keeping the electronic journal packages because they include more journal content than we ever had in paper.

Dannelly: We have a very short time frame to decide about electronic journal packages. Carole Pilkinton has been doing an analysis. We get 2000 titles that we didn't have in paper through e-journal packages. Also, currently, prices on the titles in paper are going up faster than are the prices for the electronic journal packages.

Younger: This is a new opportunity. In the past when we got a journal package we were not allowed to cancel the paper copy.

Dumont: What are the implications down the road in terms of broadband resources? Increased cost?

Wishon: Correct. There is a great deal of investment in the infrastructure upgrades. OIT is facing the same budgetary conditions as the rest of the University. On the positive side, the cost of bandwidth is dropping. We have a primary and secondary feed, the internet, and internet 2. Internet 2 is a high speed research and education network. In terms of access to libraries, we have much higher bandwidth now to what is stored at universities. We are engaged in a variety of projects to provide higher speed access. Other problems are on-campus connectivity and access from home. We are in a discussion with providers to negotiate a contract. Dial-up modems are becoming increasingly expensive to maintain.

Younger: Printing is another cost. We have a print management system operating on the computers on the first floor of Hesburgh that requires individuals to order their printing a second time. The intent is to reduce the amount of printing done accidentally or that doesn't get picked up. The library would like to see faculty print articles in their offices.

Dumont: That is a problem in some offices. There isn't always good support for faculty printing.

Nathan Hatch arrived at 8:30 a.m. to discuss the director's review process with the committee. Library members of the committee adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Melodie Eiteljorge
Secretary