LAUC-LA Executive Board Meeting 07-05
Tuesday, February 21, 2007, 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Schoenberg Music Building “Green Room” (Rm. 1230)

Present: Debe Costa, Miki Goral, Andrea Lynch, Michael Oppenheim (Substitute Secretary), Maureen Russell (Chair), Heidi Sandstrom

Absent: Keri Botello, Libbie Stephenson, Deborah Whiteman, Kristen Wilson

Guest: Gary E. Strong

1. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 1:18 p.m.

2. Agenda Review and Announcements

The agenda remained unchanged. By way of announcements, Maureen reminded everyone that the LAUC-LA Spring Membership Meeting will take place Monday, May 14, 2007, from 1 pm to 4 pm in the Faculty Center Sequoia Room, and the LAUC Spring Assembly will be at UC San Diego on Wednesday, May 30, 2007.

Debe announced that the LAUC Nominating Committee has successfully identified two candidates to run for each Statewide office (i.e., Vice President/President-Elect and Secretary).

3. Secretary’s Report (on behalf of Wilson)

The minutes of the January 16, 2007 meeting were approved with no changes.

4. Chair’s Report (Russell)

The next meeting of the UCLA Academic Senate Committee on Library and Scholarly Communications will be a tour of the Biomedical Library.

Maureen discussed highlights from the most recent meeting (by telephone) of the LAUC Executive Board:

• Greg Careaga (UC Santa Cruz) is going to redo a Cost of Living Survey that covers all UC campuses
• Efforts will be made to reinstitute meetings of LAUC divisional leadership with their Executive Vice Chancellors

 5. Vice-Chair’s Report (Sandstrom)

 Heidi reported on Library Human Resources’ draft “Curricular Framework” for the Library’s Learning & Development Program, as presented by LHR and discussed at the January 31 st Management Council meeting (see the minutes of that meeting on the Library Staff Intranet).

The LAUC-LA ad hoc Committee on Mentoring, which Heidi chairs, met in November, December, and is trying to meet again soon. The Committee has drafted a questionnaire, and hopes to make it available electronically (via Zoomerang or Survey Monkey) sometime in March.

6. Committee Reports

•  Committee on Library Plans and Policies (Oppenheim)
  
  Nothing to report.
  
  
• Committee on Professional Governance (Botello)
  
  Chair Keri Botello, who was unable to attend this meeting, had no report to submit.
  
  
• Committee on Research and Professional Development (Stephenson)
  
  Chair Libbie Stephenson had previously reported that she would be unable to attend this meeting.
  
  
• CAPA (Goral)

Chair Miki Goral reported that CAPA has started to receive files for the current peer review cycle. In addition, a number of appointments have gone through the Committee.

7. Other Business

University Librarian Gary E. Strong joined the meeting at 2 pm to discuss a variety of issues over the course of the next 45 or 50 minutes. He first addressed a number of questions concerning the composition and work of search committees. The composition of search committees is not a secret; that information is not being withheld from UCLA Library staff. At the same time, search committee membership rosters are not published, to safeguard members from being contacted by candidates in inappropriate ways. Anyone wishing to know the membership of a given search committee need only ask Library Human Resources (LHR). Names of prospective candidates should not be given to search committee members, though; those should go to LHR only. (On the other hand, search committees can seek out applicants on their own.) Some “new ideas” for the UCLA Library with regard to search committees are that every member of a committee need not be present in order for the committee to meet and move forward, and members of search committees can be replaced. The current practice for gathering references—via telephone only—is certainly time-consuming, but it is necessary these days, when hardly any employers are willing to commit any statements to writing. Gary stated that he approves all search committees, as well as all appointments, librarywide (he does not have the final say about appointments made in affiliated libraries).

Gary discussed his meeting earlier in the month with Acting Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh, most recently Dean of the Division of Social Sciences. They had a fruitful discussion, covering items that a Social Sciences Dean ordinarily would not hear about. Gary also meets with Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams, and has met Chancellor-Designate Gene Block once so far. Mr. Block, outgoing Vice President and Provost of the University of Virginia, already knew about the UCLA Library from his UVA colleague, University Librarian Karin Wittenborg, who served the UCLA Library as AUL for Collections from 1985 until she went to Virginia in 1993. Gary reported that incoming Chancellor Block is very interested in such matters as the competition for donations, and especially UCLA’s competition in that area with USC; the competition for the best graduate students; and enrollment issues, such as increasing the rate of acceptance among those applicants who are offered enrollment.

With regard to the combining of the Research Libraries Group (RLG) with OCLC, Gary is chairing the RLG Programs Council http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=21000, which will be meeting in Chicago on March 5 th. Gary noted that all RLIN records will be added to WorldCat.

The Library is looking for a planner who will redesign the first and A floors of YRL. Because of the seismic issues triggered by work done to the outside of the building, “we’re not going to touch the box.” The redesign has been budgeted at $10 million. In time, there will be an entirely new Capital Plan for the campus. Gary has design concepts for additions to the southern and eastern sites of YRL.

8. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m.