University of Rhode Island

Report of the Faculty Senate Library Committee

May 10, 2001

Introduction

This report covers the activities of the URI Faculty Senate Library Committee. It includes comments on budgetary directions for the library, sections on library activities and accomplishments and suggestions for next year's committee based on this year's activities.

Budgetary Issues and the University Libraries

In a memo dated August 28, 2000 to the Faculty Senate President Carothers responded to Resolution #99-00--6 (April 27, 200) as follows "I support the commendation of the staff of University Libraries for their work. I support as well the aspiration for a greater endowment for Libraries. I am uncertain as to the source of overhead funding for the Libraries and from what current allocation such funding would be deducted. Until there is greater clarity to the Senate's intent, I must withhold endorsement of that portion of the resolution." President Carothers reiterated that sentiment at the opening meeting of the Senate in September 28, 2000. At the Senate meeting of March 22, 2001 the topic of funding was again discussed by President Carothers in the open forum. The basis for this was the Three Year Strategic Plan which lists the following as an implementation strategy "Support enhancements of library capital and academic information systems". This is followed in the measurable outcomes section with "Achieve funding goals for library and information technology".

Matters Considered by the Committee

The events referred to in the section above took the committee in the following directions. The first was to consider the overall importance of the University Libraries to the Community as whole. This has brought us to the development of a pilot survey that will help us ascertain how the library is used, who uses it and how much do the users, or potential users know about the University Libraries and their offerings. In a time of new opportunities such as on-line journals, electronic databases, Net Library etc. this is very important. The current Chairperson of the University Library Committee will continue to work on the survey and will summarize the preliminary results. The committee also discusses several opportunities for funding. These included special fund raising for the aforementioned endowment as well as a request from the State of Rhode Island for line item funding based on the contributions and significance of the University Libraries to the people of the state. While no special recommendation is being made that does not mean that the 2001-2002 Library Committee and Faculty Senate Executive Committee should not give these ideas serious consideration.

Past Library Committee Reports have emphasized budgetary issues, which are of course paramount. A major objective of the second half of this report is to point out not just the "state of finances", but also to highlight the impact that the University Libraries have on the community.

I Activities of the Libraries

The University Libraries at Kingston, Narragansett and Providence consist of 19.5 faculty and professional staff, 41 support staff members, and approximately 24 FTE student workers.

*During FY 2000 we expended $ 5,528,226 for information resources, furnishings and equipment, salaries, and consortia in support of the University's curricula and research activities:

*We added 32,721 volumes (including books and serial backfiles), 26,912 microform units, 224 current subscriptions (including government publications) and 483 audiovisual items. A ten-year compilation of the library's statistics is available on our website at: http://www.uri.edu/library/statistics/annual/annual.html

*We provided over 14,000 items to other libraries via interlibrary loan, and received nearly 17,000 for our community's use.

*Circulation transactions, including reserve materials, numbered over 124,000.

*Nearly 7,000 students attended the 393 information literacy and bibliographic instruction programs of the libraries.

*The Kingston Library was open 100 hours per week with an additional 39 hours offered by the 24-Hour Room

*During a typical week we completed over 1,700 reference transactions.

*During a typical week nearly 21,000 users entered the Library.

*Current year statistics will be completed after June 30, 2001.

II Budget Issues

In October 2000 the Vice President for Business and Finance presented a chart of Library expenditures to the Faculty Senate. The graphic may be viewed online at: http://www.uri.edu/busfin/facsen/fy01/slide11.jpg

The materials budget increased modestly by 4% between FY2000 and FY2001. However, to accommodate the rising increase of publications of about 10%, we reallocated thus:

FY	Serials	Monographs	Other	Totals
2000	$ 1,666,000	$ 382,225	$ 57,347	$ 2,105,572
2001	$ 1,836,000	$ 364,000	$ 0	$ 2,200,000

Included in this budget is the sum of $ 887,757 from the Library & Computing Fees account, which goes directly to current serials subscriptions. We remain concerned about the shrinking amount available for monographs, particularly as we obtain more materials in digital format.

III Accomplishments This Year

Thanks to the energetic efforts of the Libraries staff, we provided a number of services and new initiatives to the community during Academic Year 2000-2001:

*Growth in Information Literacy full-credit courses from 2 to 4, with additional requests for the future.

*Increase in professional activity on the part of the Library faculty, including an award to three librarians for the most "Outstanding Paper" in the 2000 volume of Reference Services Review.

*Implementation of the Library Impact Statement by Curriculum Affairs Committee and Graduate Council, to coordinate curriculum changes with collection resources;

*Significant progress toward recommending the Cranston St. Armory in Providence as the site for a proposed Joint Center for Political Papers and Government Records, a collaboration between the University Libraries and Rhode Island State Archives.

*Creation and partial implementation of space plans for the Kingston Library, and contact with architects for design guidance.

*Reorganization and relocation of our Microforms collection, including new reader-printers for Kingston and CCE.

*Retrospective cataloging of thousands of Microform titles and government publication serials.

*Creation of the Mezzanine storage facility for archival materials and lesser used volumes, alleviating crowded conditions in the lower level stacks.

*Receipt of a Champlin Foundations grant for $132,000 for digital wireless computers to create "portable electronic classrooms" as teaching-learning-technology centers for CCE and Kingston.

*Purchase of new electronic full-text resources to the Libraries, including e-books and, soon, electronic scientific titles.

*Addition of one new library to the HELIN consortium and a ninth member now in negotiations.

IV Concerns

Although we have the promise of two additional faculty positions for the Libraries (Serials Librarian and Political Papers Archivist), we have not received funding for either. During the past year we were greatly saddened by the untimely death of a staff member crucial to our bibliographic technology operations. We also lost to retirement, resignation or promotion our Fiscal Clerk, Director of the GSO Library, Library Technician in Government Publications, an anticipated Library Technician retirement this spring, and Humanities Reference Librarian. The latter vacancy is filled with a temporary lecturer, as is a two-year vacancy in the Archives. But we are hamstrung in both our administrative and business functions. The state-mandated cap and the method of queuing vacancies is felt by everyone at the University. Our concern is for the hampered ability to provide even ordinary levels of service. In addition we worry about the "morale fatigue" experienced by staff members struggling to reconcile the demands of the job with the helplessness of the situation.

Space shortages, building renovations and the Chafee closing have squeezed library space this year. While we have anticipated the relocation of some OIS Help Desk staff into the former Microforms Room, we have absorbed the busy operations of the Instructional Media Services group because Chafee is offline. The Registrar's Office has taken over one of our Library classrooms as a general assignment classroom; we have had difficulty providing bibliographic instruction due to lack of space. We have had to resort to using a section of the Galanti lounge for library instruction and to use the CD-ROM room (which limits the number of computer terminals available to the public.) We have also had to provide library instruction in other computer labs on campus, which often means transporting library material across campus.

Finally, we remain concerned with the materials budget, having heard the possibility that we may lose funding in FY2002. For the past three years we have been successful in preventing a serials cut. To avoid one in the future, however, will require either additional funds or further decimation of the monographic budget, now at its lowest point since 1996. The quality of a University library for undergraduates, let alone for researchers, cannot be sustained without sufficient funds.

V Future Projects

We shall hope to fill our existing and projected vacancies and receive a generous increase to the materials budget. We will implement the wireless digital classroom initiative. We will continue to work on long-term projects, including

*space reallocation;

*copyright policy;

*"24x7" and digital reference service discussions;

* electronic resources acquisitions, archiving, and cataloging issues;

*Political Papers processing;

*Joint Center/Cranston Street Armory proposal

* FSLC Questionnaire to Faculty

Finally, we shall continue to provide, to the best of our ability, the often understated but always critical core services of

*acquisitions in all formats

*cataloging, processing and preservation

*circulation and reserves

*collection management

*committee work

*consortium activities

*information literacy instruction

*interlibrary loan

*media and microforms

*reference and research

Recommendations

1. That the Faculty Senate include the Director of the University Libraries as an ex officio member of the Library Committee.

2. That the Faculty Senate endorse the Library Committee's proposal that the Provost's Office earmark at least $3,000 from its discretionary faculty development funds for Library faculty and staff to attend conferences and training institutes relating to the evolving "21st Century Library" during the next three years. This should be over and above the current level of budget amount allocated for this purpose.

3. That the Faculty Senate urge the President to identify sufficient funding to fulfill Goal III, Objective and Outcome #7 of his Three Year Strategic Plan which requires the President to "Support enhancements of library capital and academic information systems" and to "Achieve funding goals for library and information technology". Funding goals were identified and recommended in Resolution #99-00--6 last year.