October 2004 Council on the Libraries minutes
Council on Libraries
Minutes
October 7, 2004
Treasure Room, 12:30-2:00 pm
Members Present: Kathy Cottingham (Chair), Jeremy Rutter, Xun Shi, Bill Hickey, Richard D'Aveni, Teoby Gomez, Cayelan Carey '06, John Crane
Invited Guest: John James
1. Welcome; introductions
2. Update on the Dean of Libraries search
Appointment of Jeffrey Horrell as Dean of Libraries and Librarian of the College was announced. His appointment will be effective in February 2005.
3. Council on Libraries membership
Several ideas about adjusting the membership of the Council were put forward and discussed. Dartmouth's Council on Libraries is smaller than comparable councils at several other institutions. More members would contribute a broader base of input and also for dissemination of information. Moreover, Tthe Dartmouth Plan creates discontinuity in attendance so it is can be difficult for individual members to learn about and contribute to important library issues.
Membership changes to consider:
- Add a second third member from each of the three Arts & Sciences divisions to cover for faculty who may be away for a term and to provide more points of contact with a large and diverse faculty.
- Add a second member from the Medical School, given its size and range of concerns from clinical to basic science.
- Look at programs and centers (e.g. Ethics Institute, Dickey Center, Interdisciplinary Council) for possible representation.
- Add one or two additional graduate students to represent the professional schools and the Arts & Sciences Ph.D students. In the recent past, MALS students have usually represented all graduate students, but needs may be quite different across our graduate student population.
- Attempt Work harder to have the Student Assembly fill the second undergraduate position with a committed individual; the position has been , which is established but often vacant.
- Each year appoint a Chair-Elect, who will be in training for Chair the following year. We will return to this issue at our November meeting, at which more of our members should be in attendance.
4. Brainstorming 2004-2005 agenda topics
We spent the majority of the meeting discussing suggestions for topics to cover during the coming year. Among the suggestions were:
- Examine research/reference support for faculty across the College. How do new forms of scholarly communication create opportunities and challenges for research services? Can economies be achieved or value added through outsourcing of services or through international collaborations?
- Understand important library budget issues and contribute to decisions on campus budget priorities
- Investigate the possibility of an institutional digital repository at Dartmouth (possible joint agenda topic with the Council on Computing)
- Learn in greater detail about initiatives/activities in various library departments (including the ìsatelliteî libraries like e.g. the Biomedical Libraries, Special Collections, Cataloging & Metadata Services) with short presentations by library department heads at each meeting
- Widen the circle of understanding among faculty and academic administrators about new forms of scholarly communication begun by last year's Council. Consider sponsoring programs for targeted groups of faculty (e.g. faculty on editorial boards, faculty/deans involved in the tenure process)