Cornell University Library
Goals and Objectives
January, 1998 to December, 1999

Annotated with Accomplishments and Activities
Through December 1998

Cornell University Mission: To serve society as a major university of the first rank.


Cornell University Library Mission: To support the instructional, research and service goals of the University by working collaboratively, creatively and efficiently to:

Cornell University Library Priorities


I. Service to the Public Provide outstanding service to the University in support of Cornell's information needs by integrating traditional and digital resources and services.
II. Collection Development and Preservation Build and preserve the collections required of a major university according to a rational collection policy.
III. Organization Organize the collection for effective use.
IV. Staff Foster a productive and collegial work environment in which staff has the flexibility and support to achieve their assigned responsibilities.
V. Funding Promote more efficient use of existing Library resources and add new resources to advance the Library's mission. Goals and Objectives

  1. Provide outstanding service to the university in support of Cornell's information needs by integrating traditional and digital resources and services.

    1. Work with faculty, students, and staff on their needs for the library of the 21st century.

      • The Library is in the process of planning a survey of the Cornell community to obtain input. Ross Atkinson visited some key academic departments in the fall semester, to provide updates, and to continue to prepare faculty for the offsite move.

      • As part of the CALS Undergraduate Academic Program Review, a survey questionnaire was mailed to all CALS undergraduates. Included on the questionnaire were seven questions which were submitted by the Mann Library Advisory Committee. These questions related to the services and facilities of the library. The survey showed that students are generally satisfied with the Library's services (i.e. the lending policies, the number of hours that library is open, the number of computer terminals), and that they find the staff helpful and accessible. Undergraduates also expressed a preference for electronic access. The only question on which Mann fared poorly was in response to the statement: "Mann Library is one of my favorite places to study." It is expected that this response will improve with the new addition and renovation! Results from the faculty/staff survey and an alumni survey will be available soon.

      • Through its web site, in particular the Legal Research Encyclopedia, the Law Library is creating mini-guides on US, foreign and international law, that represent the collection both in electronic and in print form. The electronic sources include commercial ones, such as Lexis and Westlaw, and the Internet, with direct links to full-text sources. Using these guidelines, a current project is the review and assessment of the foreign law collection.

      • The University Faculty Library Board and other unit library boards are an ongoing source of information about faculty concerns and interests.

      • The Cornell Institute for Digital Collections is collaborating with faculty, staff and units on several projects related to this goal:

        • Karen Brazell, Asian Studies - Japanese theater database
        • Geri Gay, Communications - Frick Library project
        • Johnson Art Museum curators and staff - Museum online project
        • Johnson Art Museum, Architecture, Art and Planning, and History of Art slide collections - IMAG/CU Multi-Mimsey database implementation
        • East Asia Program - Cornell East Asia Series
        • Salah Hassan, Africana Studies - African artists database

      • The Rare and Manuscripts Collections Division is collaborating with University units on several projects related to this goal:

        • Development of photographic image database for the history of the College of Human Ecology
        • An electronic records research project with College of Human Ecology, College of Arts and Sciences, and central administration

    2. Continue to provide and enhance information services as appropriate to the broader community in support of our extension and land grant mission.

      • The TEEAL project, which began in January 1998, reflects Mann Library's commitment to enhance information access in the developing world. This electronic library contains the full text -- complete with all graphics and illustrations -- of 125 agricultural journals, stored on compact disk. Designed to support agricultural research in regions where there is an urgent need for increased food production, TEEAL will be made available to 108 of the lowest income food deficit countries (as listed in the World Bank's 1996 World Development Report).

      • On September 1, 1998, Mann Library became an official FGDC Federal Geographic Data Committee) node for metadata and data in NYS. The CUGIR (Cornell University Geospatial Information Repository) site CUGIR is an active online repository providing geospatial data and metadata for New York State, with special emphasis on those natural features relevant to agriculture, ecology, natural resources, and human-environment interactions.

      • The USDA Economics and Statistics System, which has subscribers throughout the world, received a major facelift this summer with a redesign of the interface and system architecture. In addition, a survey of the subscribers is currently underway to determine a user profile and user satisfaction with the system.

      • The Flower-Sprecher Veterinary Library provided ongoing reference service for members of the general public with veterinary questions and provided fee-for-service document delivery for members of the national and international veterinary medical community

      • The Law Library's mission statement includes the provision of "outstanding and innovative information services to the law school, university, and the worldwide research community." It fulfills this larger role primarily through the information provided on our content-rich law library web site www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library. A particular service of interest is inSITE, a regular compilation of annotations to new legal web sites, with a search engine, and free email subscription (currently over 900 subscribers).

      • Sarah Thomas was named to The New York Regents Commission on The Future of Library Services, a statewide group that will hold hearings with New York citizens and recommend services that will meet growing information needs. A final report will be issued in 1999.

      • CUL has made an agreement with the Ithaca City School District whereby individual teachers may borrow materials from CUL for purposes of curriculum development.

      • Staff in the Rare and Manuscripts Collections Division presented a lecture/demonstration for staff and volunteers of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute (Jamestown, NY).

      • Phil McCray, RMC, serves on the New York State Documentary Heritage Program Advisory Board, and with the Regional Council of Historical Agencies, provides frequent consultations for regional historical repositories and agencies.

      • The Department of Preservation and Conservation, with support from the Division of Library Development of the New York State Library, provides libraries in the Central New York region with the means to establish the basis for preservation programs through the training of staff in standard preservation techniques.

      • The Nestle Library provides a fee based reference service to practitioners in the hospitality industry that answered more than 540 questions in 1998.

      • The Nestle Library is the leading member of THIP-SIG, a subgroup of the Counsel on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Educators (CHRIE) that brings together hospitality librarians from the Northern Hemisphere. We also host THIS-L, a listserv that accommodates the needs of these librarians worldwide.

      • Katie Margolis serves on the board of SCRLC, and is treasurer and chair of the finance committee of that organization. SCRLC ties together multi-type libraries for our seventeen county region.

      • Over the last year, Catherwood accelerated development of Workindex.com, an electronic information product developed as a joint business venture with LRP Publications, Inc. of Philadelphia, PA. The staff selects sites on the Internet of special interest to those with information needs in human resource management and industrial and labor relations. Abstracts are written for each site, and they are categorized among 40 broad groupings. Access is also provided via a search engine on the home page of Workindex.com. Each site is periodically reviewed to ensure currency. Any changes are ported to the publisher's server on a weekly basis. There is no charge for web access to this file of over 2,500 sites which provides quick access to the best of the Internet for practitioners in the HR and IR fields.

      • Catherwood reference staff promoted Internet training initiatives throughout the state and nation in two ways. In collaboration with the school's Extension Division, staff provides content for Internet training programs targeted at human resource professionals and offered nationwide in over 14 cities this past year, including three locations in New York State. The reference staff also offers a separate initiative for members of labor organizations. These Internet training programs were offered this past year in Ithaca and New York City reaching over 60 attendees, all of which were sold out to capacity. Programs in Rochester, Albany, and Washington, DC (a joint initiative with the U.S. Department of Labor Library) have been scheduled based on the success of these programs to date. One reference staff member at Catherwood focuses primarily on improving service to Extension Division staff at the school's five off-campus locations throughout the state.

      • An important step towards making resources of the Kheel Center more widely available over the Internet was taken this past year with release of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire electronic exhibit www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire. For many years, requests for information on this historic event have come from high school students across the country and now they are able to view photographs, contemporary cartoons, and eyewitness accounts of the tragedy including audio excerpts from oral histories provided by survivors of the fire. In a relatively short time, this has become one of the more heavily used pages of the school's web site.

      • Catherwood continues to select and mount documents for viewing on its "Electronic Bookshelf". These are primarily government documents for which there are no copyright restrictions. The most recent addition is the report of the National Commission on Retirement Policy; "Can America Afford to Retire?" released earlier this year. Other documents are made available from the school's server such as the AFL-CIO's "Public Policy Position Papers" by special arrangement with the union. The integrity of many of these documents is assured by providing them in Adobe PDF format so that they appear as exact replicas of the originals.

    3. Assess information needs to support lifelong learning.

      • TSEG, PSEG, IRPC and CDEXec each have discussed this topic. Library staff will produce an information paper on this, which will (a) define "lifelong learning," (b) determine what has been done by other major research libraries in this area, and (c) delineate the kinds of information we will need to gather in order to assess the impact of such a program on the Library.

    4. Assess distance learning needs, undertake a systematic evaluation of the costs to the Library of establishing an effective distances learning program, and develops a strategy for Library support.

      • In January 1998, the University Librarian appointed a Distance Learning Working Group to write a white paper outlining the Library's position and needs with regard to distance learning and how the Library "can best support distance learning in all its variations." The group members were Phil Davis (chair), Tony Cosgrave, and Constance Finlay and Peter McDonald. The paper, presented to Sarah Thomas on March 11, identified the key issues impacting the Library and made nine recommendations. The report was presented and discussed at meetings of the Council of Librarians, the Library Management Team, an open meeting hosted by the Professional Development Committee, the Faculty Library Advisory Board, and the Cornell University Distance Learning Advisory Committee. In response to the recommendations in the White Paper, the University Librarian in May 1997 appointed a Distance Learning Task Force to advise her on the issues, to recommend actions the Library should take to anticipate demands that will be made, and to develop a model for providing effective library services to distance learning students using a distance learning course as a test case. The Task Force members are Phil Davis (Chair), Tony Cosgrave, Deb Lamb-Deans, Scott Wicks, Lee Cartmill and Tim Lynch. The most significant achievement of the Task Force to date has been the receipt of a $7500 grant from the Office of Distance Learning to support the provision of access to print and licensed digital library resources to students in the Cornell Entrepreneurship Certificate Program, a distance learning course planned for the spring 1999 semester. This Course will serve as the test case for developing the model for providing effective library support. Here is a summary of the actions resulting from the recommendations in the White Paper:

        1. CUL should play an active role in the development of distance learning policies at Cornell and abroad.

          • Actions include the creation of the Distance Learning Task Force, the allocation of resources to support the provision of library services to students in the Cornell Entrepreneurship Certificate Program. In addition Phil Davis made a presentation, "Library Support of Distance Learners: Access, Support and Caveats," at the Distance Learning and Higher Education Conference at Cornell on November 2.

        2. CUL should appoint a distance learning team, composed of at least one member from the following groups: Acquisitions, Library Technology, Document Services, Reference & Instruction, Finance, and one member from the Network division of CIT.

          • The appointment of the Distance Learning Task Force fulfilled this recommendation. Tim Lynch Maintains appropriate contact with CIT so a CIT staff member was not appointed.

        3. CUL (in collaboration with the Office of Distance Learning) should develop a cost-recovery model to account for the additional resources, services, and personnel required supporting distance learners.

          • The Task Force will use the first distance learning course to gather data and to develop this model.

        4. Develop library-wide polices regarding support for distance learners, and makes this information available to faculty and students.

          • After gaining experience from the course, the Task Force will be in a good position to recommend policies.

        5. Develop a stronger relationship with CIT so that library-computing needs are adequately supported.

          • Tim Lynch and LMT will work closely with CIT.

        6. Explore proxy servers, permit servers and related authentication technologies.

          • The Library Gateway Committee is determining the resources needed to implement a proxy server and to use the Notis patron file rather than CIT's PH database to authenticate net ID holders. At Tim's recommendation, LMT and the Faculty Library Board will ask CIT to extend SideCar support for the UNIX platform.

        7. Investigate 1-800 numbers for library services.

          • Phil Davis investigated 1-800 numbers and learned that long distance calling cards are preferable because there is less potential for abuse. As a result, calling cards with a fixed dollar limit will be distributed to students in the first distance learning course.

        8. Increase development of Web-based training materials and the infrastructure to update them on a regular basis.

          • The Gateway Help Working Group within the Instruction and Reference Group's Documentation Subcommittee should spearhead the development of Web-based training and support materials.

        9. Actively promotes indexing services to the academic community.

          • As the library becomes an established player in the distance learning arena, library services can be developed to support faculty developing, organizing and managing their information.

    5. Improve cooperation between CUL Ithaca and the Cornell Medical School Library.

      • Staff of Cornell Medical Library and counterparts met on July 13-15 to identify areas of common ground. Recommendations included adding Cornell Med to all appropriate negotiations with vendors for databases, and continuing to include Mark Funk telephonically in all Science Selection Team meetings.

    6. Review and systematize processes by which we distribute information about Library services; decide which information should be distributed in paper, and which online.

      • The Instruction/Reference Program Committee (IRPC) Documentation Subcommittee was created his fall in order to keep such information distribution up to date. Access Steering has also reviewed its handouts. PSEC will collaborate with the Gateway Committee on the issue of alerting users to database changes.

    7. Increase the gathering of information about CUL user needs and perspectives; improve methods of disseminating that information within CUL; review services to ensure that they are responding to identified needs.

      • PSEC will initiate an effort to determine what kinds of statistical and administrative information are already available.

      • Planning is underway for a survey of library users. Christian Boissonnas is chairing a planning group consisting of Peter McDonald, Steve Rockey, Phil Davis and Nancy Skipper. The planning group has met with LMT, the Faculty Library Board, the Council of Librarians and various library groups.

    8. Increase emphasis upon innovative instruction and outreach programs; increase collaboration in teaching among staff in different units, and between staff and faculty.

      • IRPC Steering is creating a subgroup to look into this. Its first action will be to create a union calendar of instruction for the CUL system.

      • Olin and Fine Arts reference staff have assumed joint responsibility for teaching class sessions in architecture, art, history of art, and city and regional planning. This collaborative effort has resulted in the freeing of a .5 FTE academic line for reallocation in conformity with our larger Goals and Objectives.

      • CUL is participating in distance learning initiatives, including a spring 99 entrepreneurial class taught by Profs. Streeter and Hubbard. Phil Davis is chairing the committee which is investigating the issues and he and Tony Cosgrave is coordinating the instruction component of the class.

      • RMC

        • Conducted 65 instructional sessions in cooperation with Cornell faculty for graduate and undergraduate students (January - October, 1998)
        • Redesign and substantially enhance RMC Web site with additional online finding aids, exhibits, and other links
        • Participate with Russian Studies in the Nabokov Symposium and Exhibition
        • Participate with the English Dept. in the Archie Ammons Exhibition and Festival
        • Conduct the Laura (Riding) Jackson Exhibition and Academic Symposium
        • Brought the Fiske Visiting Curator to Cornell to meet with faculty and staff and deliver a public lecture
        • In cooperation with the Department of Comparative Literature, brought a scholar from the University of Virginia to discuss applications of digital technology to the study of Dante.

    9. Take steps to ensure continued interaction between staff and users despite the increasing use and provision of remote access to Library services.

      • Howard Raskin and Susan Currie spearheaded an effort to select, license and implement the ILLiad interlibrary loan management system, which will be, put into production in all six interlibrary loans units (including the Medical College) in 1999. ILLiad will bring increased efficiency to the interlibrary loan borrowing process, improving service to thousands of users. The software also allows user-initiated ILS requests. In addition, access services staff redesigned the current ILS request form that is available on the Library Gateway to make it easier for patrons to request ILS material.

      • Work is underway to expand the Robison electronic information kiosks in Olin to include Uris and potentially other units as well. Reintroduction of self-checkout for materials in Uris awaits the new LMS. The development of an interface allowing its use with the latest versions of NOTIS is not likely.

    10. Continue efforts to assist users in assisting themselves, such as user-initiated recalls, renewals, annex requests, and ILL requests.

      • Users can currently initiate all of these activities online, although staff interaction is still required. The capacity to provide these services need to be a high priority for a new LMS. The CoPY Project will be monitored for opportunities in interlibrary loan.

    11. Provide for the maintenance of the Library Gateway, and allocate resources for that purpose.

      • The Gateway Committee has been meeting regularly since June. It has prioritized many recommendations for improvements to the Gateway and has assigned work for those with the highest priority. The Library has identified funding for ongoing support.

    12. Implement an effective Web-based Z39.50 interface to the library catalog and to other core networked bibliographic resources.

      • Upgrading to Notis version 6.4.1 did not prevent system crashes when Z39.50-based queries were processed. The Library is working with CIT to isolate the Z39.50 server (PacLink) processes by reconfiguring the mainframe so that they will not affect the production system if something goes amiss.

    13. Continue and accelerate the development of digital resources and services, where content is fully integrated with bibliographic finding tools, within the context of campus-wide, intercollegiate, national and global initiatives; such resources and services should be available 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

      • The Database Review Task Force (DRTF) made decisions, in consultation with IRPC, on key databases for 1998/99. DRTF has been reorganized (see Goal 2.4 below) to select and evaluate subscription databases more effectively.

      • Technical Services staff in CTS, Mann, and ILR collaborated to catalog the 1720 full-text electronic serial titles in the ProQuest Direct databases. Bill Kara, Karen Calhoun, Yumin Jiang, Barbara Watson, and Jim LeBlanc coordinated this effort. At the request of the Gateway Committee, Greg McClellan created a searchable list of these ProQuest serial titles in the Library Gateway. This searchable title list can now be used for other electronic journal aggregations to provide title level access to the specific journals.

      • Bill Kara and Karen Calhoun made presentations on the topic of bibliographic access to aggregations at the Catalog Management Discussion group meeting at the ALA midwinter meeting and Yumin Jiang has submitted a proposal on this topic to NASIG.

      • Karen Calhoun is serving on CONSER's Task Force on Cataloging of Electronic Journals

      • The Law Library is participating in the Internet Scout's Project Isaac, based at the University of Wisconsin Computer Science Department. Project Isaac will link geographically distributed metadata collections into a single, virtual metadata collection. The Law Library will contribute information about legal resources (from its own InSITE database of annotations of new legal web sites). The Engineering Library generously agreed to provide space on its Unix server for the project, as well as technical expertise. Jean Pajerek is Project Coordinator for the Law Library

      • The Law Library is involved in a project to digitize early law reviews in collaboration with CIT (Rich Marisa) and the Hein Publishing Company. Cornell law librarians are providing user feedback and help in developing a user-friendly interface, metadata, and a search engine.

      • The Library participates in the Digital Library Federation. Sarah Thomas chaired the steering committee in 1997/98. Jerry Caswell and Tim Lynch were commissioned by DLF to write a paper analyzing digital library architecture. The DLF architecture group met at Cornell in April 1998 to learn about NCSTRL from Carl Lagoze and his staff.

      • Tim Lynch was appointed assistant director of the Digital Library Research and Development unit, Information Technology Division, to develop a strategic plan for digital initiatives and to coordinate digital initiatives.

      • Lenore Coral presented a phased-plan for digital library support in the reconfigured Lincoln Hall. Funding for the proposal will be sought from private donors.

    14. Select and implement a library management system that adheres to evolving standards.

      • The LMS Steering Committee decided to postpone the selection of a new LMS until the spring 1999, pending the further maturation of the client/server software market and the availability of software that better meets library needs.

    15. Explore electronic publishing options and recommend viable alternatives for Cornell.

      • The University-wide Electronic Publishing Committee, chaired by Sarah Thomas, presented a report and recommendation to the Provost in October. The recommendations include infrastructure development, training or hiring of staff to advance electronic publishing by faculty and students, and outreach to faculty on important electronic publishing issues such as intellectual property rights.

      • Marty Crowe wrote an analysis of options for electronic theses and dissertations which served as the basis for a meeting with the Dean of the Graduate School to see what Cornell's direction should be.

      • The Cornell Institute for Digital Collections hired an Electronic Publishing Specialist to assist faculty in e-pub projects. CIDC is supporting the development of a database on Japanese Performing Arts.

      • Steve Rockey is coordinating an initiative to create a site bringing together electronic publications in mathematics from multiple sources.

      • The California Digital Librarian Richard Lucier spoke to EPSC and LMT members about a California/Ivy Digital Press initiative. Sarah Thomas and Lucier coordinated a meeting in the fall to continue discussion and feasibility planning.

      • The Library joined SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Research Coalition), an ARL-launched endeavor to offer more economical alternatives for publication.

      • The Engineering Library, with CUL support, has agreed to support, has agreed to support a portion of the development of the Association of Computing Machinery electronic publishing efforts.

    16. Upgrade and provide for the ongoing maintenance of public computer workstations and other equipment needed to access information in electronic form.

      • The Networking and Desktop Support Department (NDS) installed 65 Pentium machines in public service areas. 20 Power Macs that had been in public service areas were redeployed in the stacks, thereby enabling old Mac LCIIs to be retired.

  2. Build and preserve the collections required of a major university according to a rational collection policy.

    1. Complete the team-based Cornell Primary Collection Responsibilities (CPCRs), and consolidate these into a unified collection description for CUL.

      • Linda Stewart is now chairing the CPCR Design Task Force, which should have its recommendations ready for CDExec in the spring 1999 semester. Final work on reconciling the CPCRs and eliminating overlaps is now beginning.

    2. Review and update the CUL collection policies, and consider how these can be more effectively related to the CPCRs.

      • When the CPCRs are completed, we will ask selectors to update their selection policies, to ensure that the policies are consistent with the CPCRs. CDExec will then consider how we fuse and present the policies and the CPCRs.

      • Veterinary Library current collection development policies coordinate closely with the CPCR designations for veterinary medicine and related subjects acquired by the Veterinary Library. CPCR categories will serve as a foundation for preparing updated policy statements.

    3. Identify goals, priorities and values that drive cooperative agreements regarding access to digital resources.

      • The Database Review Task Force was reorganized into a standing Database Review Committee, which is responsible, among other things, for clarifying the basis for cooperative selection, and for regulating the cooperative selection of databases in future.

      • Science selectors are working on providing access to a range of online journals in the science disciplines.

    4. Expand access to electronic resources in a variety of formats (audio, visual, numeric, spatial, geospatial and text) through purchase, license, local creation, or collaborative projects, through the acquisitions of necessary software, and through the provision of training in a collaborative manner.

      • Open Text Livelink software was acquired and installed to provide a stable and reliable platform for the libraries digitized and SGML encoded collections.

      • The CUGIR (Cornell University Geospatial Information Repository) site at Mann Library (see 1.2 above) is expanding access to geospatial resources.

      • The Law Library purchased a site license for access to the Legal Scholarship Network in the Law School. It is hoped that a site license can be purchased for the entire campus for access to all Scholarship Network products.

      • CIDC is working with the Primary Source Media Company to develop a networked research product based on portions of the Witchcraft Collection.

      • Electronic resources available in the Electronic Text Center in Olin continue to be expanded. The potential for integrating this service into a larger facility in Uris Library is to be explored. Selectors are being encouraged to fund additional electronic titles.

      • The Music Library has developed a proposal for the incorporation of a digital sound library in the renovated Lincoln Hall.

      • Assist in the improvement of University record keeping and retention practices and provide for the long-term preservation of those records in all formats deemed to have legal or historical value.

      • RMC, in a project funded by the National Historic Publications and Records Commission is working with the College of Human Ecology, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the University administration to implement new campus-wide electronic record retention practices.

    5. Create a digital preservation program and explore digital archiving alternatives.

      • The Preservation Department continues its planning for this. A CLIR grant has been funded for work on an assessment tool and IMLS funded a project to design, plan and implement a digital archiving program. There is also a strong preservation component in the DLI2 proposal

      • Greg Lawrence received funding from CLIR to explore "Risk Management of Digital Information". He will survey the Library's digital holdings, identify the preservation risks associated with the digital formats represented, develop Prototype risks assessments tool, and investigate practical preservation procedures to implement a formal migration strategy. In addition, Mann Library has worked with the National Agricultural Library to develop a framework for the preservation of USDA digital publications.

    6. Establish a short-term access and archiving policy for CUL images.

      • All files copied from EPIC optical drives were rechecked before the drives were decommissioned. Backups have been made from magnetic disk. A minimum of one year of each of the twenty-four titles in the Making of America and most math books have been made available online.

    7. Continue and expand conservation efforts to ensure long-term physical access to the collections in all formats.

      • Work on the conservation treatment of library and archives material was pursued through grant funding with the Delmas Foundation's support of the treatment of Dante and Petrarch Collection materials, the Graham Foundation support of the A.D. White Photograph Collection, the Noyes Foundation support of the treatment of rare and unique Americana, and additional indirect support via the New York State Library and the Henry Luce Foundation. Complex conservation treatment was also applied to the Law Library's considerable holdings of rare books, vault material from the Mann Library, and general Kroch Library rare and unique materials, including the treatment of a large and badly deteriorated collection of Russian war posters. Microfilm projects continued to complement physical conservation with the Dante and Petrarch project funded by NEH and a number of New York State projects in cooperation with other New York State libraries.

  3. Organize the collection for effective use.

    1. Provide for the ongoing growth of the collections and reduce the inefficiencies resulting from the overcrowding in the library stacks by building the expansion to the Library Annex and moving into it lesser-used materials from campus libraries.

      • Physical construction of the Library Annex was completed in March 1998. The new inventory control system was operational by the end of May 1998 and the move of materials from the central campus to the new facility began in June 1998. One million volume equivalents will be transferred to the Annex by May 2000. Delivery service of requested material from the expanded Annex be increased to twice a day in July 1998.

    2. Review and strengthen measures required to secure the collections from theft, harm, or deterioration.

      • At a Library Management Team meeting on June 9, Richard Strassberg, the chairs of the Library's Safety Committee, led a discussion of the security and safety issues facing the Library. As a result of the discussion, the Library Management Team added personal and collection security to the responsibilities of the Safety Committee. The renamed Safety and Security Committee consists of Carmen Blankenship, Michelle Brown, Jeff Diver, C.J. Lance-Duboscq, Joanne Leary, Susan Markowitz, Susan Morse, Deb Lamb-Deans and Richard Strassberg, Chair, with Dan Maas, of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), ex officio. Committee members are undertaking leadership roles to meet committee goals that include: 1) assurance of compliance with University guidelines 2) addressing immediate safety needs identified in DSR meetings, 3) developing an ongoing CUL training program in safety partnered with EHS, 4) assuring compliance with existing CUL safety and security policies, 5) developing an on-going program in collection security.

    3. Develop a library-wide assessment of spatial needs taking accepted standards into account and estimate the cost of renovation or addition in cooperation with the colleges and university facilities management.

      • No action taken to date. Needs further definition in discussions with LMT.

    4. Insure bibliographic access to electronic resources through metadata, cataloging, and other means.

      • We have to update catalog records for materials we have digitized in-house since these digital files have migrated to a new server. We will also continue to pursue a process for the routine updating of information in records for digital materials; the work being directed by Christian Boissonnas and Lynne Personius on PURLs may well assist this work.

      • Technical Services staff in CTS, Mann, and ILR collaborated to catalog the 1720 full-text electronic serial titles in the ProQuest Direct databases. At the request of the Gateway Committee, Greg McClellan created a searchable list of these ProQuest serial titles in the Library Gateway. This searchable title list can now be used for other electronic journal aggregations to provide title level access to the specific journals.

      • The Law Library is participating in the Internet Scout's Project Isaac, based at the University of Wisconsin Computer Science Department, which will link geographically distributed metadata collections into a single, virtual metadata collection.

    5. Enhance access to the collections by means such as adding table of content data or abstracts to bibliographic records.

      • Marty Crowe's study on tables of contents, submitted earlier this year, was reviewed and endorsed by TSEG and IRPC. The issue of funding needs to be addressed by LMT. We will also re-examine the suggestion that TOCs might be added to records for materials sent to the Annex.

      • Mann Library introduced a free subscription service this fall: the tables of contents of selected journals in Mann Library's current periodical room and the Entomology Library are e-mailed to Cornell students' faculty and staff who subscribe to this service as soon as the journal issue is received in the library. If this service proves successful, it could be expanded to include other libraries.

    6. Improve bibliographic access to microform materials.

      • CDExec has discussed, and will ensure that selectors in the future consider the availability of analytic as part of the selection decision on microform sets. We will also create a process to watch for analytic that come available for sets we have already purchased. LMT needs to discuss funding.

    7. Initiate efforts to complete the retrospective conversion of manual files for bibliographic records.

      • The Law Library will convert their few remaining manual records. Work on unconverted collections in Olin Library and RMC is proceeding. A project to convert records in German literature was completed in 1998 and the next area to be converted will be French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese literature. RMC is in the process of converting its Samual May Anti-Slavery Collection records.

    8. Increase cooperative cataloging programs with other institutions, especially in order to catalog materials provided through database aggregators.

      • Ross Atkinson is participating in discussions with the "Big Ivies" to try to stimulate cooperative action.

  4. Foster a productive and collegial work environment in which staff have the flexibility and support to achieve their assigned responsibilities.

    1. Refine decision-making processes and structures to ensure effective and routine communication and coordination among all Library functions and units.

      • Ross Atkinson has discussed this with the functional groups. One interest is greater staff input into and understanding of LMT.

      • The Life Sciences cluster will work to establish greater collaboration and coordination among the life science libraries. Vet and Mann ILS and technical services which could benefit from closer coordination. Mann and Geneva already collaborate in ILS services and technical services and will discuss further, particularly in areas, such as electronic journals.

    2. Ensure that CUL underlying values and goals are broadly shared, while allowing the expression or attainment of those values and goals to vary from one unit to another.

      • The Law Library has its own library plan, developed by its entire staff. The goals and objectives of the Law Library plan match the ones of the CUL Tactical Plan.

    3. Strive for greater collaboration and coordination in the development and provision of Library services.

      • The Law Library is engaged in a successful partnership with the CUL Dept. of Preservation. Joint projects include the outsourcing of books to be repaired with Law School money ($5,000 per fiscal year); implementation of a grant to produce a CD-ROM on preservation (Daniel Smith and Michele Brown), and help from John Dean in developing a comprehensive preservation plan for the Law Library. Much progress has occurred in the construction of acid-free boxes, using current techniques.

      • Olin and Fine Arts reference staff have assumed joint responsibility for teaching class sessions in architecture, art, history of art, and city and regional planning.

    4. Review standards for performance and service; review methods used to measure performance against those standards.

      • Initiated regular personnel evaluations for Veterinary Library staff.

      • All Library Management Team members received performance reviews.

      • Library Human Resources is developing a performance management training program for supervisors. This program will be offered in 1999/2000.

    5. Foster staff development by providing opportunities for training and continuing education programs; encourage and support participation in professional activities.

      • Pamela Rothbard was hired as the Staff Development Specialist. She will develop a comprehensive plan for staff training. Need to evaluate adequacy of existing training budget and conference training budget for support of professional activities.

    6. Redesign staff workspaces to provide efficient, functional, attractive, and ergonomically sound environments.

      • A major upgrade of CTS, Gifts and Exchange, and Authorities and Catalog Maintenance space in 107/110/111 Olin Library was completed. This included the installation of 78 new ergonomically correct workstations. The renovation and workstation upgrade of the Interlibrary Loan Department in B42 Olin Library and Library Accounting in 235 Olin Library is in progress. The consolidation of the Preservation Department into 215 Olin and the relocation of the External Relations and Library Facilities departments is being planned.

    7. Upgrade and provide for the ongoing maintenance of staff computer workstations and other equipment needed to create information in electronic form.

      • More than 25 Pentium machines were installed in Central Technical Services and 5 in OKU Reference.

    8. Increase affirmative action efforts: recruit underrepresented categories with the goal of increasing staff diversity at all levels.

      • Susan Markowitz attended October 1998 ARL sponsored diversity conference at Penn State. Plan to invite new OEO director to future Council of Librarians meeting. Need to develop strategic plan to increase staff diversity.

    9. Encourage staff to be visibly involved in the intellectual life of the campus and the profession.

      • Professional staff serve on the College of Human Ecology Curriculum Committee, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Distance Learning Committee, and the Agricultural Electronic Technology Committee (AGET). Janet McCue and the Mann Public Services staff are visiting each department to discuss ways to enhance involvement in the intellectual life of the college.

      • Graduate level credit courses in the Department of Asian Studies were taught in spring '98 by Charles D'Orban and Fred Kotas in the Wason Collection; another will be taught in fall '98 by Allen Riedy in the Echols Collection. Area Studies selectors continue, in general, to be very actively involved in the intellectual and administrative activities of their respective Area Programs.

      • RMC and CIDC staff is frequent speakers in library and archival meetings across the country (SAA, ACRL, CNI, Sharp, etc.) The following staffs hold the following positions:

        • Peter Hirtle - SAA Council
        • Tom Hickerson - SAA vice president
        • Elaine Engst - Chair, SAA Standards Committee
        • Katherine Reagan - Chair, RBMS Public Services Discussion Group; RBMS Preconference Program Committee, 1999; RBMS/ALA Program Committee, 2000
        • Margaret Nichols - RBMS committees
        • Brenda Marston serves on the Women's Studies Board

  5. Promote more efficient use of existing Library resources and add new resources to advance the Library's mission.

    1. Review Library operations and services to determine their effectiveness and recommend ways to improve services (e.g., decentralize preservation services, serials check-in), reduce current costs (through either more efficient or alternative processes), and reallocate existing resources (financial, human, spatial) to meet new service demands.

      • The LMT has met numerous times to recommend reallocation of resources to priority initiatives, including salary improvement, preservation, and staffing for the Library Annex. As a result, the LMT has redirected $300,000 to these efforts.

      • The Law Library is using cataloging streamlining techniques following a review conducted by Karen Calhoun, in cooperation with Jean Pajerek, Scott Childs, Scott Wicks, and Jim LeBlanc. The Law Library has also started a cross-training program among library departments, notably between circulation and technical services.

    2. Link development activities to Library priorities and create a plan to increase private donations to the Library, working with Alumni Affairs and Development to harmonize with University initiatives.

      • The Director of the Veterinary Library met with Director of Development for the Veterinary College to discuss issues related to Veterinary Library fundraising.

      • RMC and CIDC staff worked with Jon Lindseth in obtaining $100,000+ for book and manuscript acquisition.

    3. Identify opportunities for funding from private foundations and public agencies and prepare proposals to solicit funding for Library priorities.

      • The Library received over $3 million from external sources in 1998.

    4. Evaluate Library funding needs and prepare a financial plan for the University Administration with a realistic assessment of Library financial needs.

      • In November, the University Librarian presented the Provost with a list of library funding priorities that had been updated by the Library Management Team.

    5. Encourage more selectors to become actively and regularly involved in fundraising for collections.

      • The Director of Library External Relations, Marisue Taube attended a CDExec meeting to encourage this.

      • Because of the Mann Library campaign, selectors have been involved in presentations to donors, tours, and workshops. They will continue to do so during the coming year.

      • The Africana Library has prepared and actively distributed a proposal for endowment support for its program. A Reunion '99 activity is being discussed with the purpose of encouraging greater alumni involvement with the program.

      • All selectors in RMC are actively involved in fundraising. 

03/18/99             Cornell University Library Goals & Objectives, 1998-99
September 1, 1998    Cornell University Library Goals & Objectives, 1998-99

Rev. 3/29/99, dih