Library Committee

2004-2005

Committee members: Dogan Comez, Nancy Lilleberg, Anne Hinderliter, Stefan

Balaz, Kevin Brooks,Ron Ramsey, Joseph Szmerekovsky, Leana Bouffard, Kara Wolfe, Paul Ode, Shawn Kram, Irene Askelson, Pamela Drayson.

The committee met twice during the year and the minutes of both meetings are posted on the library website.

Momentum Capital Campaign

The libraries’ have been included in the University’s Momentum Capital Campaign with a $1.5 million goal, mostly for an unrestricted endowment.

New online database
The NDSU Libraries are changing from the existing PALS online catalog to a new ExLibris system with ODIN, the North Dakota library consortia. ExLibris is the same vendor selected by South Dakota and Minnesota. However, because Minnesota is taking longer to implement it, Moorhead State and Concordia’s libraries will remain on the old Pals system six months longer than NDSU. During that period, interlibrary loan and other cooperative services between the Tri-College libraries will continue but may be awkward. However, once the Minnesota libraries have completed their transition the ability to search ND, SD, and MN libraries simultaneously will be available

TCU Film
TCU Film Library acquisitions budget for videos and dvds was $17,000 this fiscal year. The project to allow under-used videos to be checked out directly to students has been postponed until MSUM is up on the new ExLibris system. In the meantime students may request videos from the Tri-College collection through a librarian or faculty member

Casual Reading
A proposal for an endowed Casual Reading Collection has been funded by an NDSU alumna. The project includes renovation of the Main Library Lobby with new lighting, shelving, furniture and book collection. The books will be a combination of award winning mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, poetry, short stories, etc. along with a leased selection of popular fiction and non-fiction. Most of the policy statement was derived from the intent/agreement with the donor.

This project is well underway with an expected completion of May 2005. Student Government has been asked to do a ribbon cutting ceremony as a mini-opening. A dedication ceremony is being planned with the donor and Dr Chapman for Homecoming. A copy of the draft policy statement was discussed with the committee.

Accreditation
Tom Bremer, Associate Dir of the Libraries, served on the North Central accreditation preparation committee. Peer comparisons and other pertinent statistics have been provided to administration and the accreditation committee chair.

Facilities
The library continues to need additional space. Currently, the Institute for Regional Studies/Archives is open to the public in a rented space at the Skills Center. The Bound Periodicals/Annex collection is in another rented space that is closed to the public. A twice a day courier service delivers periodicals from the Annex to the Main Library. The Main Library is completely full and will not accommodate additional weight of shelving or volumes. Such an off-site arrangement is fairly typical of larger universities including Univ Of Minn, Univ of Illinois, Univ of Missouri, etc.A new building or addition remains a priority.

Budget
This year’s book budget remained the same as the previous year at $180,000. Over the past 10 years new funding made available to the library has gone for databases and electronic journal subscriptions. Thanks to supplemental funds from administration the trauma of subscription cancellations was avoided for another year. Book budgets allocated to the various academic depts. have remained stable over the past 4 years. Supplemental funds from the Provost have covered subscription increases. However, departments wanting to add a print or digital subscription must cancel another journal in their field for the equivalent $$ amount. It will soon become necessary to re-evaluate how the library’s acquisition budget is allocated, as new graduate programs and other factors result in increased in the number of students for various depts. However, it is hoped this can be postponed for a year until completion of the ConnectND and Aleph system migrations.

Food & Drink
Drinks in covered containers are now permitted in most areas of the Main Library. At the request of Student Government a pop and a snack machine have been installed in the Main Library. The library added some additional student-worker hours to tidy up in the evenings. Unfortunately, income from the machines does not come to the library.

Lockers
The representative from Student Senate brought a request that more lockers be made available at the Main Library. Currently 4 lockers are available at the Institute/Archives and 16 in the Main Library. Additional lockers will be purchased for the Main Library.

Book Returns

The Library is working with Student Services/Residence Life to identify locations around campus for additional book return bins. New bins have been purchased for outside the building and the plan is to intall one new bin elsewhere on campus each year for the next several years.

Lobby pay phones

Due to lack of use, the pay phones in the lobby of the Main Library have been removed. The two free phones for local calls will remain. Cell phones are permitted in the library and signs are posted asking people to use the front lobby area or the downstairs gallery area for phone conversations.

Health Sciences Library
It was noted that students had trouble getting into the library in Sudro Hall on weekends because the outside doors to the building were locked, even though the library was open. This was resolved with the Pharmacy dept.

Life Sciences Library

The Life Sciences Librarian position is currently vacant and being advertised in the Chronicle and a number of library journals and listservs. Char Myhre, who formerly held the position is acting as interim as well as chairing the search committee.

Architecture librarian

Responsibility for the Architecture Library has been transferred from Fran Fisher, Humanities Librarian, to Mark England, Engineering Librarian. Mark has previous experience serving Architecture. Fran is taking on responsibility for the Shott Casual Reading Collection.

Printing management system

The libraries will be included in the new printing management system being implemented campus-wide. This will limit the number of free prints/copies for each student during a semester and make more tech fee funds available for new computers etc. The system will address the problem of excessive printing by a small number of students, faculty who print large numbers of class handouts in the library, etc. Questions about the project should be directed to Mr. Tom Moberg/IACC.

Computer Clusters
The 3 computer in the Main Library are controlled by the NDSU IT Dept not the Library. The lack of staffing for evening and weekend hours has been a problem. Student complaints about lack of support, equipment problems and other issues computer clusters are referred to the IT dept in IACC bldg.

Other

Thank you to those who so graciously served on the committee this year. Their comments, suggestions, questions, time and expertise is greatly appreciated.