Executive Committee Meeting Summary for May 1, 2014
Diane Butler gave an IT and Access Services update, beginning with catalog changes now being tested in the Sirsi test system (cordoba) and soon to be implemented in the live system (alexandria). The changes resulted from feedback in the recent user study on catalog use (http://bit.ly/Sxklxy). The new study room reservation system is set to go live 5/27/14, with formal rollout in the fall. Study rooms affected by the upcoming renovations will be offline beginning after finals until their upgrades are complete, perhaps as early as mid-July. The limits on faculty renewal of material is being changed from 10 years to 5 years; some phasing will be necessary. In order to facilitate renewals, use of handheld devices in faculty offices is being explored. Feature film DVDs will now have a week-long checkout period. Replacement costs for lost books have been updated. The processing fee for a lost book is going up to $40 from $30; no fines will be charged unless the book is found and returned. Microfilm checkout period is one week; no microfilm will be loaned on ILL during the renovation. Fondren is collaborating with the Center for Oral, Visual and Written Communication (COVWC) on updating the furniture in study room 201. Diane is monitoring feasibility of having student workers from Central IT help users in the library evenings and weekends.
Sara Lowman shared library budget scenarios to be presented to the Rice Board of Trustees at the May meeting. We should know shortly after that meeting what has been officially approved. Sara is in talks with leaders from Medical Center institutions regarding resource sharing with Rice.
Sara and the renovation group working on furniture met with Louann Risseeuw, furniture rep for Rice Facilities, Engineering and Planning (FE&P). FE&P is waiting for bidding architects to return Rice’s request for proposal (RFP) for the Fondren renovation. First floor shelving and lighting scenarios are being discussed; current shelving has built-in lighting so lower shelving will require lighting changes wherever it is used.
Diane shared that the renovation group working on designing the instructional space was ready to turn in its final construction recommendations. The group’s other recommendations pertaining to equipment, furniture, etc. are still pending.
User experience factors are being considered in the placement of microfilm readers in the renovation of the Kelley Center. Acquiring more space-efficient microfiche cabinets is also under consideration.
At the next meeting, the group will review the costs and benefits of Fondren’s consortial memberships.
[Because there was not time to report as an agenda item, Melinda Flannery shared after the meeting highlights from the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries, including the following links:
Piper, a repository-agnostic batch deposit tool
https://conferences.tdl.org/tcdl/index.php/TCDL/TCDL2014/paper/view/765
TAMU implementation of ORCIDs across their grad student population:
https://conferences.tdl.org/tcdl/index.php/TCDL/TCDL2014/paper/view/730
Project to develop reliable OCR/transcription for ECCO through scholarly crowd-sourcing and the TypeRight software:
https://conferences.tdl.org/tcdl/index.php/TCDL/TCDL2014/paper/view/778
Three Minute Thesis program:
https://conferences.tdl.org/tcdl/index.php/TCDL/TCDL2014/paper/view/782]
Executive Committee Meeting Summary for May 8, 2014
No meeting