Agenda (Dec. 6 and 13)
- Book funds and electronic resources
Roberta Winjum will join us for a discussion of possible changes to the book fund structure (or additions of book funds)that might be desirable for better understanding how materials money is spent, for describing our actual collections and purchasing, and for being able to respond to surveys and questionnaires that increasingly ask for more detailed information on electronic resources. (Please see the ARL Supplementary Statistics questionnaire as an example of the last.)
- Formalizing operational groups (e.g., SFX, Web maintenance)
- Announcements
Meeting notes
- Data requirements for responding to the ARL Statistics survey were discussed. On the main survey, each of the libraries should respond to the electronic materials expenditures #21. Computer files and #22. Electronic serials. On the Supplementary Statistics questionnaire, Roberta will provide counts for the electronic resources, drawing data from SFX. For expenditures, there is no easy way to come up with the data; libraries will need to try to respond as best they can to questions 7 through 10 which cover expenditures for different categories of e-resources, and questions 11 - 16 on the use of e-resources and questions 17 - 19 on digitization activities, though Jody will be asked for figures on the number of collections, size and items, and use.
Further discussion concluded that the existing book fund structure is not very helpful for being able to respond to such questions OR for understanding how we spend our materials money on electronic resources--now a very large portion of our overall expenditures. Data needs were discussed, and the group concluded that it would be helpful to have bookfunds that would represent electronic periodical, A&I databases with full text, e-books and documents, and other reference sources, instead of the current e-resources. These would continue to map to the Electronic Resources in the University's account structure. John agreed that the Collections Committee would work through the details of these book fund changes/additions.
The part of the discussion that's driven by the Statistics Questionnaires generated some discussion about the utility, or lack thereof, of this kind of data for measuring library performance. Changes are being considered by all the library statistics gathering organizations--ARL, AALL, AHSL--to make them more meaningful and useful. We also posed the question of how we should measure quality with respect to collections--a topic for a future meeting.
- Announcements
- There was brief discussion of a problem patron.
- Has there been discussion about library involvement in pandemic planning? Bill asked as the Divinity School has been asked to do some. Jody has been working with people on campus as it relates to the ability of OAK to support off campus instruction should the University be closed.
- Mention had been made of more restrictions on undergraduates in Eskind. Follow-up with Frances Lynch revealed that there is no intent to do so. In fact, they have been working on providing more space so that more patrons (undergrads included) will be able to find places to study and use the collection.
- John mentioned that the Collections Committee is recommending the creation of a database that will be available to all staff that will include information on our e-resources--licenses, terms, shared costs.