Attending:  Lee Cartmill, Joanne Davenport, Claire Germain, Anne Kenney, Susan Markowitz, Ellen Marsh, Janet McCue, Jean Poland, Oya Rieger, John Saylor, Ed Weissman, Scott Wicks.
Guest:  Xin Li

1) New Association of Research Libraries (ARL) indices and methods for measuring collection
        The ARL Board of Directors at its February 89 meeting voted to take several actions with regard to its statistics and measurements program based on a report from the Task Force on New Ways of Measuring Collections.  The Final Report of the Task Force on New Ways of Measuring Collections is posted on the ARL Web site at  < http://www.arl.org/stats/aboutstats/index.shtml>:
        1.Reserve use of the current membership criteria index for those occasions when it is needed for consideration of membership issues.
        2. Implement an expenditure-focused index.
        3. Use the new expenditure-focused index for any public reports, such as in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
        4. Experiment with another alternative index that combines the following three factors: collections, services, and collaborative relationships.
        5. Revise definitions for collections-related data categories currently collected and experiment with a variety of new measures, including usage data, strength of collections, and service quality measures to develop a richer set of variables for potential inclusion in the three-factor alternative index (see above).
        6. Collect qualitative data to develop a profile of ARL member libraries.
        
        Xin Li told the Library Management Team (LMT) that these new measures add a dimension of output/outcome to ARL's traditional and largely input-focused measures.   Since the implementation is at a very preliminary stage, i.e., no definitions have been published, Xin explained that her assessment of the impact on CUL is rather speculative. 

Overall impact on CUL:

     - No immediate, significant impact other than adjustments of data in some sub-categories.

     - If implemented, significant, additional investment in data collection is required; new and significantly wider collaboration with, e.g., CIT and other University units, consortial partners, is a must.

     -Some data may not be practically attainable.

Recommendations:

     - Actively participate in ARL decision making process; evaluate and help shape definitions.

     - Decide within the next 12 months which measures are of value to CUL, to what extent, if at all, to invest in development of new data collection workflow, and how much resource to allocate for this purpose.

     -Should the new measures require more investment than CUL is prepared to put in, decide on an alternative or even an exit plan.

        Xin's full report along with the background documents are available at < http://wiki.library.cornell.edu/wiki/display/culpublic/05-02-07+ARL+proposed+new+measures+and+its+potential+impact+on+CUL >.
        Janet commented that ARL should be engaging university administrators as they modify the indices, especially those concerned with university rankings, since library rankings affect university rankings.

         2) Responsibilities during the interim
        In an April 6 message to cu-lib, Anne announced the "Interim administration in the post-Calhoun era."  LMT discussed where responsibility resides for:

• policy,  content, and strategic planning of the institutional repository (IR):  Policy, content and strategic direction for the IR is the responsibility of  Scholarly Communications and Collections.  John is chairing a group charged with creating a white paper with recommendations for the future of Cornell's Institutional Repository strategy by October , 2007.  Technical administration and support is provided by Digital Library and Information Technologies (D-LIT).  John and Oya agree that this separation is not good in the long term.  John said that among the short term strategies are to remove DSpace from the URL for Cornell's IR--DSpace is the software utilized but should not be part of the name--and to develop a collection policy.  The long term goal is to develop a strategy to present and fund the IR campus-wide. The recommendations from the IR group will serve as a basis for assigning responsibilities for the IR over the long term.

• digitization and digital library project review: Anne asked John and Oya to bring back recommendations on how best to assign responsibilities for discussion at an upcoming LMT meeting (June 6).

• system-wide web support: Anne asked Oya to take the lead in developing recommendations for discussion at an upcoming LMT meeting (June 16). 

3) Emergency response preparedness
        LMT discussed the Library's readiness to respond to emergency situations.  While we have procedures in place, we agreed that they should be reviewed.  We also agreed that we having public safety experts visit each unit to look for potential trouble spots would be helpful.  Susan reported that the university's Human Resources Council is developing protocols and procedures. Anne asked Lee, Susan and Jean to develop a proposal for follow-up action.

4) Safe Place cards/signs
        Susan will investigate the appropriateness of installing "Safe Place" cards/signs at the front doors of library units.
        [Following the meeting Susan reported that this would not be appropriate.  The FAQ section of the Safe Place web site (http://www.lgbtrc.cornell.edu/safeplace/staff/index.html) makes this clear with the following:

Should this project be a department or office initiative?

No; displaying a Safe Place Card is a powerful statement and a personal choice. Therefore, participation in the Safe Place project is, and should be, completely optional. Making this project a department or office initiative carries the connotation of mandatory participation, thereby weakening the message and impeding the success of the project. Only those that fully agree with the principles of the project should participate. As an active participant, one can encourage others to participate by explaining the project and refering them to this website.]

5) Announcements
        Claire announced that the Cornell Law School and the Cour de cassation, France's top civil and criminal court, have agreed to establish the Cornell Center for Documentation on American Law. The new Center in Paris will include a 13,000-volume collection of law books from the Cornell Law Library as well as special training and instruction from Law School librarians.  A press release about this is available at < http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/newsstory.cfm?pageid=56366>.

Edward Weissman
Assistant to the University Librarian