The meeting was called to order at 7:30 a.m.at Café DeGrasta at Grace Hall by Chairman Harvey Bender. Also in attendance were John Adams, Gail Bederman, Maureen Boulton, Roger Jacobs, David Mengel, Brian Moscona, Mark Pilkinton, Margaret Porter, Walter Pratt, Jennifer Younger, and secretary Melodie Eiteljorge.
 

The minutes of the meetings of May 10, 2001 and August 30, 2001 were approved as written.
 

Younger distributed three sections of the Libraries' Self Study: the Table of Contents, Significant Issues, and the Report on Colloquy Funds and Recommendations, which describes progress in implementing the recommendations of the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on University Libraries.
 

The University Libraries are using the outline for the Self Study from the Graduate School. The emphasis is on goals for student and faculty learning, teaching and research. Though not a comprehensive review of library goals and accomplishments, it provides an important focus for the Libraries at this time.
 

Several observations were made: 
 

Recommendation #1 of the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on University Libraries suggested a total of 57 positions being added. However, only 27 currently have been added. 
 

In regard to recommendation #1, Boulton supported the comparison to the many bibliographers at the University of Chicago Library. Bederman noted in addition that in particular a bibliographer is need for History. Communication between the Libraries and faculty in academic departments is an essential piece of the bibliographers' job and one reason that so much emphasis was put on the need for bibliographers.
 

Younger noted that the external reviews of only a small number of academic departments commented on library resources. Bederman again noted the report of the Department of History, which included more extensive comments on the adequacies of library holdings.
 

The Libraries' acquisitions budget is funded from unrestricted monies (60%) and restricted monies (40%). Although one-time funds for retrospective buying were not provided separately as had been recommended, the Libraries did use some of the additional Colloquy funding for retrospective purchasing and processing. It makes the evaluation of the Libraries' acquisition budget more complex, because for current purchases the acquisitions budget compares well with some of its peers, though the budget is less adequate when seen in the context of both current and retrospective purchasing. As noted by Boulton, who served on the Ad Hoc Committee, the recommended $12.5 million in itself was recognized at the time as not wholly representational of the full needs across disciplines for retrospective purchasing.
 

We will revisit the question of retrospective purchasing in the strategic planning process next spring. This will include serial backfiles, such as the backfiles of journals included in JSTOR (Journal STORage). 
 

In the future, the Libraries will apply for one-time grants for equipment restoration and renewal from the Graduate School.
 

In response to a question on cataloging backlogs, Younger noted a great deal of progress has been made in reducing backlogs. Bederman suggested that a grant for retrospective funding might provide the necessary funds to adequately re-catalogue the microform collections. At Notre Dame, those media are shelved and catalogued using an obsolete and frustrating "system" found nowhere else. Remedying that ought to be seen as a retrospective funding issue. Younger agreed with her suggestion that a special project is needed to provide bibliographic access to microforms.
 

The discussion on interlibrary loan (ILL) brought an inquiry from Mengel on the need for bibliographic access to every journal title in "aggregated databases." The solution is currently in process, and Younger anticipates such access will be available next semester. Younger noted that both borrowing and lending statistics have increased since 1995-96. Jacobs and Boulton consider this an indicator of faculty demand, research interest and productivity.
 

In the discussion of significant issues, there was again concern expressed by faculty on library purchases for collections in support of new programs. It was noted that there is some capitalization for new faculty in Arts and Letters for library resources, but not to any significant degree in other colleges. Even where there is capitalization for new faculty, it is generally focused on their research, not necessarily the discipline in general.
 

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 8:45 a.m. The next meeting is scheduled for October 11, 7:30 a.m. in Café DeGrasta at Grace Hall.
 

Respectfully submitted,
 
 
 
 
 

Melodie Eiteljorge

Secretary