Minutes of the meeting held in the School of Art Conference Room, 10 am, Tuesday November 11, 2008.
PRESENT: Mr. G. Bull, Ms. K. Collier, Mr. V. Elliott (Chair), Ms. I. Hansen, Dr. R. Hayward, Dr. P. Hely, Mr. A. Hicks, Mr. C. Hoorweg, Ms. S. Kosse, Mrs M. Pikler, Ms G. Buckley (Minutes).1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES
Apologies: Dr. A. Noble.
2. MINUTES OF CAPLAC MEETING OF MAY 2008
The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.
3. MATTERS ARISING
3.1 ArticleReach
ANU Library participation in Article Reach has been partially implemented. We have successfully sent articles to users in other libraries in the Article Reach system. ANU users will soon be able to request journal articles from partner libraries.
ANU is the first Australian institution to participate and University of Sydney will join soon.
3.2 Juan Davila Donation
A collection of books donated by the artist Juan Davila have been received by the ANU Library and catalogued. They are a Special Collection and are housed in the Menzies Rare Book Room. The Library will produce a brochure to describe and publicise this new special collection. The brochure and a reception will be timed to coincide with the completion early next year of the refurbishment of the Art Library.
3.3 Open Access Research Publishing
The Division of Information is drafting a policy about open access to research publications. This will provide support to academic staff at ANU who want to provide open access to their research outcomes. Mr. Elliott explained that funding bodies are increasingly mandating that research outcomes be openly available.
4. INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE & SERVICES REVIEW
The Information Infrastructure and Services Review (IIS Review) has been completed and the Division of Information management team has produced a response. Both documents are published on the Vice Chancellor’s website. Mr. Elliott noted that the IIS Review had focussed on the Division of Information and that there will be a review of college-based information infrastructure and services in 2009.
Mr. Elliott discussed 4 main issues raised by the IIS Review:
i) Collection Development Policy
There is a need for an overarching strategic plan for the development of academic collections. The Library has always depended on the academic community to guide development of its collections. However it is now also developing a high-level “contextual document”, outlining strategic directions, including, for example, policies on the balance between print and electronic material.
ii) Library Opening Hours
M. Elliott noted that Library opening hours have been extended greatly since 2003 in response to user-demand. Some responses to the recent Library Customer Satisfaction Survey indicate that users don’t realise that hours have been increased. However there are limits to extending opening hours due to limited funding resources.
iii) Customer Satisfaction Surveys
The Library has responded to Customer Satisfaction Surveys, despite a perception indicated in the Review that this response has not been well-publicised. The surveys are conducted every two years and a detailed process of analysis and planning follows each one. However the Library has not sufficiently publicised this two-year cycle of planning in response to customer feedback.
iv) Library Advisory Committees
The Library intends to keep the existing structure of school and college based library advisory committees rather than having a central committee. However these committees will be chaired by an academic staff member in future rather than by the university librarian.
5.ACCESS & COLLECTIONS
Ms. Pikler tabled and reported on the Creative Arts Library budget. She noted that the administration of expenditure on library collections is now being integrated with ANU Finance’s People Soft system. Ms. Pikler also pointed out that there has been an unusually large amount spent on binding in the last year. This was due to the move of a large number of print journals to the Print Repository, as it was necessary to bind loose issues before moving journals to the Repository.
Mr. Elliott pointed out that budget planning and forecasting is difficult because of falling and fluctuating exchange rates. As a precaution the Library ceased ordering monographs at the beginning of November to allow for any possible reduction in purchasing power due to further exchange rate falls.
Mr. Elliott also addressed the issue of lack of financial flexibility owing to the large proportion of electronic material subscribed to through packages or aggregated collections. And in addition to currency devaluation the subscription rates for these packages have increased.
M. Elliott noted that library advisory committees will meet next year to discuss strategies to deal with the the Library’s financial situation.
6 COLLECTION RELOCATION PROJECT
Ms. Kosse tabled a brochure and report on the Collection Relocation Project. She reported that the Project has been completed within the timetable and under budget. The primary objective of relieving congestion on the shelves had been achieved, and the target to have shelves 75% full to allow for growth had been achieved by relocating and backspacing print material. In addition the ANU Library has created flexible Learning Spaces throughout Library buildings. Also furniture has been improved and wireless internet access extended in all Library buildings. The document supply service from the Print Repository at Hume was being well received and had been refined following useful suggestions from users of the service.
7. SPACE
Ms Hansen reported that the Art Library will be refurbished during the next Semester Break. Carpet will be replaced, shelving partially replaced and reconfigured, computers relocated and learning space extended.
Ms. Kosse noted that any disruption of Library services will be publicised through posters, ads in Woroni, and the Library website.
6. OTHER BUSINESS
There were no other items of business.
The meeting closed at 11:15 am.