Library Management Team
Notes from the August 25, 2004 Meeting

Attending: Karen Calhoun, Lee Cartmill, Claire Germain, Anne Kenney, Janet McCue, Sarah Thomas, Ed Weissman

1) Announcements
a) Sarah said that LMT meeting dates would be announced before the start of each semester and the summer break and she asked LMT members to keep these meeting slots free and to avoid travel on the dates meetings are scheduled.
b) LMT agendas will be distributed on CU-LIB prior to the meetings. This will provide an opportunity for staff to provide input on the agenda items through their AUL's.
b) Karen reported that the Technical Services Integration Project is progressing and that a meeting to report on the status of the project will be held on September 2, after the Academic Assembly meeting. All interested staff will be invited to attend.
c) Sarah reported that Cornell will be hosting a meeting October 19-20 about DPubS, the digital publishing system we developed with funding from the Andrew W. Mellow Foundation for Project Euclid. Representatives from fifteen institutions, including one from Australia and one from Germany, are being invited. The goal of the meeting is to develop a set of functional requirements for a digital publishing system. The Library recently received a grant from the Mellon Foundation to enhance and extend DPubS in order to make it available for use by other libraries, university presses, and other independent publishers.
d) Sarah announced that she will be scheduling a meeting for all professional staff in late November or early December that will focus on the implementation of the top priorities for 2004-2005 from the CUL Goals & Objectives 2002-2007. LMT will be discuss this at its September 1 meeting.
e) Sarah announced that intensive planning will be getting underway soon for a major collection development symposium to be held next fall at Cornell to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the seminal meeting on collection development held at Cornell in 1980. That meeting was an important part of the Mellon funded Project for Collection Development and Management at Cornell ) which was under the direction of Hendrik Edelman, the Assistant Director of Libraries for Collection Development at Cornell and, after Mr. Edelman's departure, J. Gormly Miller, the Director of Libraries.

2) Council of Librarians follow-up
Sarah reported on her meeting with Lenore Coral, Eric Acree, Erla Heyns and Zsuzsa Koltay, the working group that wrote the Council of Librarians Report with recommendations on the future role and structure of the Council. LMT discussed the recommendations at its April 21, 2004 meeting. Taking into consideration the group's recommendations and following further discussion, LMT agreed on the following: a) the purpose of the Council of Librarians will be to: i) increase effective communications among the Library's middle managers and between the middle managers and the Library Management Team; ii) serve as an advisory group to the University Librarian; and, iii) support the work of the Library Management Team through special assignments. b) The Council will consist of a Steering Committee to be named by the University Librarian from among the Council's membership. c) The membership will consist of managers within the Library who report to senior management, i.e., the members of the Library Management Team. d) The Council will meet quarterly. e) Sarah will appoint on a rotating basis a member of LMT to serve as a liaison to the Council's Steering Committee. f) LMT members will attend Council meetings. Arrangements will be made for writing up and distributing the notes of the Steering Committee and Council meetings. Lee will have Library Human Resources provide a list of appropriate managers for review by LMT so that the Council membership can be finalized.

3) Library Administrative Support Services
Sarah reported on the progress being made in rationalizing several activities that have been carried out by staff in the Library Administration and Library Administrative Services, the Instruction, Research and Information Services division, and the Rare and Manuscripts Collections division. Four task forces made recommendations last spring and these recommendations were reviewed by an oversight committee consisting of Susan Currie, Susan Markowitz, Anne Kenney and Lee Cartmill. The changes include:
a) As of September 1, the Department of Research in IRIS is renamed Research and Assessment Services and it will have principal responsibility for system-wide statistics and other data. A network of CUL information providers in each unit/division will be appointed to ensure that accurate data is supplied across the library. LMT will serve as the advisory board for assessment-related activities. Further work will be done to clarify the costs and processes for bringing together statistics and related data on personnel, functions, finance, etc., including the pros/cons and costs of establishing a data farm.
b) A "one stop shopping" location has been created in Olin Library as the point of contact for all patron/public requests. This office is handling such things as special requests for use of facilities (which are then funneled through the proper decision-making channels), public classroom scheduling and key pickup, special event ticket pickup, library cards, billing and fines, and faculty studies, grad carrels, and lockers. Until now, these requests had been handled in several different offices, a source of confusion for library patrons.
The focus is now on determining the best way to integrate and coordinate events planning, publications and publicity, and administrative/secretarial support.

Edward Weissman