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Library Managers

University of Waterloo
Library Managers, October 1, 2008
9:30 a.m., Davis 1568

Present: Allan Bell, Betty Graf, Jennifer Haas, Mark Haslett (Chair), Michele Laing, Sharon Lamont, Alex McCulloch, Richard Pinnell, Susan Routliffe, Mary Stanley, Debbie Tytko, Annette Dandyk (Recorder)

Regrets: Eric Boyd, Jane Forgay, Susan Mavor, Ann Naese

Guest: Karen Hamilton, Finance

1. Accounts Receivable

Karen Hamilton is the Manager of Student Accounts and is also working on implementing an accounts receivable system. It will allow UW to track accounts receivable (revenue/money coming in) institution wide, which has not been done in the past. An ‘accounts receivable’ is money owed (e.g. if a service or item is invoiced it becomes a receivable; payment at the time of service or sale is a cash sale). UW already owns the People Soft software but has not been using it. Karen has been meeting with people across campus, including some from the Library, to learn more about revenue in each department and to explain about the project. Anyone who is taking in cash or invoicing is already aware of this project, and those who work with Karen Cressman (Finance) for invoicing will continue to do so, but in a different way (on a SharePoint site). The change in practice will be minimally disruptive to people.

The student system also has a module with service indicators on student accounts. If a student owes more than $50 anywhere on campus the service indicator prevents them from registering for courses, graduating, etc. The Library could choose to send Finance a list of students who owe fines etc that can be added to the service indicators. It would save time for the Library as Karen’s office would send out the invoices. Some issues need to be worked through if the Library decides to participate and would not be implemented until phase two of the project.

Annette will send Karen a list of staff who should attend a training session, likely to be scheduled in next two – three weeks.
Action: Annette

Karen will check with Jane Manson (Head of Finance) about what the minimum amount will be, (e.g. ILL transactions and many fines transactions are $10 or less). Finance is still trying to come up with a solution to how to handle these small amounts.

Managers should forward their questions to Karen or Annette.

2. a) Chair’s Remarks

• Recognition and Commendation
October anniversaries
October 1, Gail Sperling, Systems, 35years
October 3, Gabrielle Huber, Acquisitions, 30 years
October 20, Amy Zhao, Facilities, 5 years

Conferences attended
Allan Bell, Mark Logic User conference, July
Ted Harms, CRL workshop, September
Mark Haslett, IFLA, August; OCUL, September
Laura Howell, Science in the 21st Century conference, September
Susan Routliffe, CRKN, September

Coming up
Allan Bell, Access 2008, October
Jennifer Haas, ARL, October
Mark Haslett, CARL and ARL, October
Sharon Lamont, CLA HR Summit, October

• Updates
October 28 has been designated Library day; October is library month.

Managers are encouraged to read the report of the Task Force on Staff Engagement, recently distributed by HR and available on the web http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/staffengagement.htm. The Library already does many of the points mentioned.

Mary and Nancy Collins led a new initiative where 77 new faculty members received a customized email from Mark welcoming them to UW, and introducing them to their Liaison Librarian. Mark has received much good feedback.

Following a recommendation of the Academic Integrity Committee the library coordinated the preparation of a copyright FAQ. Tomorrow (October 2) the Copyright FAQ will become available on the web http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/copyright/. The Copyright Roundtable consisted of representatives from departments across campus with responsibility for work that involves copyright: the Bookstore, CTE, Distance and Continuing Education, Grad Studies Office, Graphics, IST and the Library. Susan R worked closely with Chabriol Colebatch, who works for Office of Research and five other universities on matters related to intellectual property. Wish Leonard, Alex McCulloch, Susan Mavor and Mark contributed to the FAQ. The Roundtable will meet at the end of October to decide if they need to continue or if another group should be formed to deal with copyright issues as they arise.

Mark will resign as Chair of the CARL Copyright Committee after serving for more than five years, and Chair for three years.

Fundraising and next steps – we received funds from IEEE’s VTE (Vehicular Technology Society) and one-time funds from the Provost in support of an e-print publishing initiative.

The Acquisitions budget received $500,000 one time funds, and an increase to base to keep up with inflation.

Bruce and Lois’s request to the Provost for permanent funds for a UW Archivist was declined; however the Provost has provided funds for $70,000 for two years to hire a contract Archivist. [Note: this position was affected by the President’s October 20 memo about Financial Challenges and will not be filled]

Mary and Mark will meet with President Johnston on October 20 to discuss the three strategic initiatives of e-initiatives, student engagement and space. The Library has a good track record and we want to continue to build on it. Soon the Managers will turn their attention back to the initiatives, engage a broader group, and align priorities with next year’s budget proposal. Jennifer and Mary will engage others on student experience; Allan will give further thought to e- initiatives; and Mark, Sharon and Mary will be looking at space. Even the smaller donations that we receive help out because they provide funds for items that don’t have to be purchased from operating dollars.

b) Around the Table Updates

Alex
Alex gave a brief update on the Porter main floor renovation, which will reopen to the public October 14. Alex will send an update to staff.
Action: Alex

Michele
Musagetes first open house on September 18 to welcome faculty, new, and returning students and to highlight their resources was a moderate success. They plan to do it again next September.

Michele is planning a tour of Musagetes for new staff who have not had an opportunity to visit Musagetes, tentatively October 29 or 30. Managers were asked to send her a list of people who might go by October 8.
Action: Managers

Betty
Agnes Zientarska-Kayko has accepted the Liaison Librarian position in Porter ISR. Larisa Smyk is being trained and will take over cataloguing Russian materials from Agnes. Agnes had also recently begun map cataloguing; someone else will need to be trained for this task.

Sharon
A great turnout is expected for the first informal luncheon to meet new staff. Sharon outlined the mingling strategy.

Susan R
Susan and Mark met with Dr. Magdy Salama (Electrical and Computer Engineering) who will be on site in Dubai for a year to coordinate matters related to a introducing a UW campus. The campus was originally to be in Abu Dhabi; expectations are that it will relocate from Dubai within a couple of year. There are plans to have about 20 students registered when the campus opens in September 2009; enrolment is expected to increase over time. The program will start with civil and chemical engineering. There are also plans to introduce two math programs in 2010. The curriculum will be identical to the one followed here. Students will study in Dubai for the first two years and at UW for the last two years.

UW has been given space at the Men’s University in Dubai for the first year or so. It is a very western, modern, high tech facility with a capacity for 20,000 students although it is currently under-used with enrollment of about 2,000. While the library appears to be quite comprehensive there are still unknowns, such as:
o Does the Men’s University have staff that could provide support to UW students? Dr. Magdy will pursue this question.
o Will the collections meet our students’ needs or will we have to supplement them??
o Will the students be expected to use UWAce?
Dr. Magdi will be putting together a local committee, including a member from the Library, to help him make decisions and finalize arrangements about all aspects of the Dubai campus. We’ve been asked to create a list of responsibilities that we would expect of a librarian working with our faculty members and students in Dubai.

Jennifer
Kathy Szigeti has accepted the Liaison Librarian (Chemistry) position in Davis ISR and is expected to start between November 15 and December 1

Jonathan Sutherland has registered UW for a NISO SUSHI Webinar tomorrow. The webinar is for people who are interested in implementing SUSHI and learning how it works.

Work is being done on DCLearn; Anne Fullerton will meet with Marianne Peereboom (Plant Operations) about furniture soon.

Mary
The official reopening of the main floor of Porter is scheduled for October 28, to coincide with the Board of Governors meeting in the afternoon. A VIP reception for Board members and significant donors will be held in the late afternoon. An open house type event for the public will be held in Porter during the day.

Each faculty has a student endowment fund with different criteria for applying. Each term Cheryl Kieswetter watches the deadlines and contacts them to inquire if they want to fund any projects. Managers were asked to think about potential ventures, and were reminded to send Mary a copy of the proposal if they become involved with any projects.

Allan
Allan had a telephone conversation with the Exlibris NA president last week. The fixes have been received and are being tested.

Allan attended an ODESI external advisory board meeting. A highlight from the meeting was the development of an improved search option for the Nestar Data. Scholars Portal demonstrated the new functionality they created with Mark Logic.

The new Emerging Technologies Librarian position will be posted internally on October 8.

Allan has been working on an engineering pre-print server with Adam Patterson. The project is going well.

3. Business Arising from September 17, 2008

2 b) Around the table - Bill met with some Circulation Services staff about creating forms.

 

Next meeting: October 22, Davis [Note: rescheduled to Oct. 30]


 




 




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June 10, 2009