Tuesday, December 3, 2001
Charles E. Young Research Library, Administrative Conference Room 

Present: Maureen Russell (chair), Elaine Adams, Adrienne Adan, Ellen Broidy, Valerie Bross (recorder), Debe Costa, Michael Oppenheim, Lise Snyder, Ken Wade (guest)
Absent: Ruby Gutierrez

1. CALL TO ORDER 

Maureen Russell called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m.
 
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Minutes were approved for Oct. 2nd and for Nov. 6th (motion to approve: Lise Snyder; second: Elaine Adams)
 
3. CHAIR'S REPORT
• Web Master: David Yamamoto will be working with David Cappoli, the new web master, during this transition period. For now, send LAUC files for the LAUCtalk web site to David Cappoli or to both David Yamamoto and David Cappoli.
• AdCon Meeting: Maureen Russell reported on discussions regarding the budget, and strategies for minimizing an anticipated shortfall.

 
4. VICE CHAIR'S REPORT
• AdCon Meeting: Michael Oppenheim attended the Nov. 14th retreat; he reported on the event and referred Board members to the minutes for more information. One outcome from the meeting has been an email message inviting people who meet certain qualifications to apply for the 6-week Steering Committee that will be writing a vision statement.

Action: Maureen Russell  will send a message encouraging LAUC members to volunteer if they meet the qualifications.
5. REPRESENTATIVES AT LARGE REPORTS

Maureen Russell, Ellen Broidy, and Debe Costa reported on the fall LAUC Assembly at Davis. Among the highlights of the meeting were:
• LAUC Statewide Reports. Of particular interest was the Professional Governance Report conclusion regarding revision of the CALL and the need to account for divergent references to the APM or MOU (for exempt or covered librarians, respectively).

Action: Maureen Russell will send an announcement to LAUCtalk to remind members of the reports available at: http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/LAUCD/assemb/draft_agenda.html
• Librarian series: Clarification of criteria needed for librarians moving from step 5 to step 6 and from step 6 to step 7.
• Budget (Myron Okada):  Not pretty.  Okada mentioned various steps the university might take in order to address the expected shortfall.  The hiring freeze currently ion effect is among them.  In response to a question, Okada said that he had not heard anything about a forthcoming VERIP.
• Information Literacy and Competency: A LAUC-statewide Task Force on Information Literacy was established; among the members are Esther Grassian.
• "CDL Transition Issues"   (Beverlee French): 

Many challenges face UC libraries. The digital divide is high on the list, both the divide among socio-economic classes and among disciplines (and the availability of digitized resources). Sharing content across campuses is difficult; there is no model for sharing content or for dealing with issues of distributed funding. The interdependence of print and electronic versions is another issue: only a portion of the cost can be record through print cancellations. So, just canceling print will not provide a substantial financial benefit. CDL has discovered limits in leverage for deals with some publishers/suppliers. The lack of a systemwide archiving policy is a matter of great concern. Inflation of digital publications (7% per year) is another issue of concern, and one impetus for  CDL's experiments with escholarship initiatives.
Two candidates for Head of CDL have been interviewed: Rich Luce (Los Alamos) and Dan Greenstein (Digital Library Federation) 
Yet another issue is the anticipated delay in implementing Ex-Libris. The telnet version is done; in Dec./Jan. CDL will decide whether to delay roll-out of the system. Possibly, CDL may decide to provide UC-limited access in the spring. Finally, there is the question of how long to run the old/new system in parallel, once Ex-Libris is available.
• During the q/a session, LAUC members asked Beverlee French about CDL hires outside the librarian series.

 
6. NEW BUSINESS
• Hires within/outside the librarian series: Continuing a discussion begun at the LAUC Assembly meeting with regard to CDL hires, Board members wondered how the various campuses compared on hires inside and outside the librarian series. Points raised:
• CDL has been hiring professionals outside the librarian series for more flexibility in the pay scale
• What is happening at other UC campuses? 
• How does the hiring tendency affect salary equity within the organization
• How do professionals inside & outside of the librarian series compare in terms of:
• Performance evaluation cycles
• Salary ranges
• Equity with other professionals
Action: Maureen will draft a charge for the Committee on Professional Governance, with the goal of developing a set of issues & questions to take forward to Statewide LAUC
7. Gloria Werner (2:00-3:00 p.m.)

Follow-up discussion of meeting regarding strategies for improving communication, LAUC-LA's advisory role, etc.
• Steering Committee: ExComm's approach on this (inviting interested, qualified librarians to volunteer) is a direct response to the concerns raised by librarians regarding the ERDb process. EB appreciated that the current approach has two benefits: (1) to identify stakeholders; and (2) to inform staff about what's happening.
• Librarian/Technical professionals: GW expressed concern that librarians accept involvement of technical professionals. LS  responded with concern about balance: that the perspective of a technical professional be balanced by that of librarians/staff; and that those concerns outside the view of technical professionals also be forwarded for consideration by AULs.
• Ideas: 
• GW commended suggestion from Ken Wade that future efforts consist of collaborative efforts of small, knowledgeable groups that the majority would trust (even when they disagree with specific decisions).
• GW noted the lessons from the Web PT/ERDb experience. Now we need to put this behind us & move forward. She suggested that 3-4 interested LAUC members meet with the AULs to work on communication.

Action: Maureen Russell will send a message to LAUCtalk inviting interested, qualified members to volunteer.
• GW asked whether it would help to consider expanded use of UCLA Library Staff NewsWeb. LS agreed; asked whether some features from the old print version be re-instated, e.g., columns by AULs.
• Board members discussed expansion of Lunch-with-LAUC to a monthly get-together, during this next year, to provide a way for library staff to share ideas on issues of common interest. LS wondered whether AULs might have time to come, if invited. GW thought yes.

Action: Maureen Russell will send a LAUCtalk message to gather ideas for Lunch-with-LAUC sessions
• GW asked whether quarterly "Town Hall" meetings would be helpful. Several Board members agreed.
• Conclusion: Maureen Russell thanked Gloria Werner for coming.

7. NEXT MEETING / ADJOURNMENT 

The meeting was adjourned at 3:10 pm.

The next meeting will be held Jan. 8, 2001.