Executive Committee Meeting Summary for April 17, 2014

Diane Butler, Melinda Reagor Flannery and Sara Lowman provided feedback on a draft job description for the head of the Kelley Center.

Rice has hired consultants to review staff job structures and compensation.

The Friends of Fondren Board has decided to use remaining money in the book sale fund to cover part of the cost for equipping the new DMC video production studio.

Executive Committee Meeting Summary for April 24, 2014

No meeting.

Executive Committee
4/3/14 meeting summary

Building renovation update: Sara Lowman reported on the renovation project. Now that the architectural planning phase is complete, Facilities, Engineering and Planning will conduct a short-turnaround request for proposal (RFP) to select the design architect and contractor(s). We are thus one month minimum away from starting design work. Design must be completed before any detailed construction estimates are developed.

Collections preparation for renovation: May 15 is still the target date for reducing Kelley Center collections by 40%. Lisa Spiro will confirm by next meeting an estimate on the number of reels Kelley Center staff can process per week as well as the projection of being able to reach at least 39% with identified collections. The microfilm Houston Post and Chronicle and the New Orleans Times-Picayune will be transferred to the LSC shortly, though there is hope of bringing these back to Fondren eventually. Transfers from the basement stacks and Reference collection are well underway and must also be completed before construction can begin.

Rm B39 instructional space: Because of the delicacy of the new high end scanner, B39 must close as an instructional space earlier than projected. Its computers will be moved to the GDC instructional space, which has a teacher monitor, broadcast capability and appropriate seating. Keys will be made available to those who need to teach after hours. B39 was lightly scheduled through July 1 and those time blocks will be rescheduled either in the GDC instructional space or in Rm 156. Several staff were trained on the new scanner and will teach others as appropriate. Rm B39 will develop into a center for scanning-intensive work; other equipment may be moved there.

Study room renovation: Diane Butler reported that student input has helped identify the least liked study rooms and that the funding available has been sufficient to renovate all previously unrenovated study rooms. Each study room will get carpet, paint (including an accent wall), translucent shades, new tables and comfortable chairs. Students have requested artwork in the study rooms and the use of photographs from Rice sources is being explored. Non-tile ceilings will be painted and tile ceilings will be replaced. Because students vary in lighting preferences, new lights will be dimmable. Some furniture formerly in the DMC will be reused in the study rooms.

Next week: The group will discuss meeting topics through August and identify any summer meeting dates to be cancelled due to two or more member absences. Sara Lowman also asked for ideas on spending out the remaining balance of the Friends of Fondren Library (FoFL) booksale fund, as she needs to provide at least 3 options for the FoFL Board to consider at their next meeting.

Executive Committee
4/10/14 meeting summary

Suggestions for Friends Board on spending out booksale fund: Group members came up with several ideas for Sara Lowman to share with Judy Howell for consideration at the Friends Board meeting next week.

Building renovation update: Sara reported that she met yesterday with Ben Sauceda, Ana Ramirez and Louann Risseeuw, who agreed that the first floor renovations are minor and that only lighting changes at the south end might require consultation with the design architect. Sara will call together the Fondren group working on furniture for the renovation to begin active planning. The DMC should start working on a list of needed equipment for the new space. Sara shared that the RFP to architecture firms is going out today. She believes that the project will proceed as planned, though she doubts that the more substantial changes in the basement will be in place for the start of the fall semester. Facilities, Engineering & Planning is still working on correcting errors in the original budget for the renovation, but final refinements cannot be made until design architecture plans have been completed.

Renovation communications plan: Diane Butler suggested and all agreed that Jeff Koffler will create a renovation update space on the top Fondren page, and that Sara will ask the Committee on Marketing and Customer Service to develop and implement a. plan for putting updates there throughout the course of the project.

B39: Lisa Spiro shared a proposal to repurpose B39 as a digitization lab, including support for reformatting of obsolete formats for campus and public users. Caution was expressed that maintaining equipment for comprehensive reformatting services is virtually impossible and that reliance on commercial services as needed is common practice. There was general support for the idea of dedicating B39 to supportable digitization purposes.

Collections preparation for renovation: Lisa provided a document describing progress in Kelley Center collections reductions. She has been working with reports generated by IT staff and is concluding that there are more analytics (set titles that have individual records for all individual works in the set) in the remaining microfilm collection than had been thought. She believes that perhaps 800 reels will still need to be processed by the new target date of May 15, with 38% of the desired 40% of the collection relocated. Her document presented several options for increasing the percentage; temporarily relocating microfilm Early English Books in Sims Alley, with appropriate signage, was the measure approved. The GemTrac representative has told Lisa he can work on moving empty GemTrac cabinets; the rep will be asked for advice on selling those we no longer need.

Primo proposal: Our Ex Libris representative, following on a recent site visit, submitted a proposal for Fondren to purchase Primo as a discovery layer. This time, the company has agreed to a trial. Diane will discuss with the Sirsi database administrators the current status of implementing recommendations from the recent user study on the catalog/discovery layer, and share the Ex Libris proposal with them. The proposal will be discussed again in two weeks.

Members were asked to submit agenda items by Wednesday at noon before each meeting. Calendar review through May resulted in the cancellation of meetings on 4/24 and 5/8, dates on which two or more members will be absent.

March 20, 2014

Sara Lowman summarized key points from the Board of Trustees meeting. Among the highlights:

• The economics department is hiring a new chair and four new economics faculty as part of an initiative to enhance research and teaching (economics has the largest number of majors at Rice.)
• Rice’s student body is quite international, with 32% of graduate and undergraduate students coming from outside the US, the majority from China. International students tend to spend more time in the library than other students and have a favorable impression of Fondren, perhaps due to our outreach efforts.
• Kathy Jones was named the Acting Associate Vice President for Facilities, Engineering and Planning.

Executive committee members are working with the Friends of Fondren Board to identify ways to spend remaining funds in the book sale account.

In order to save funds on the DMC renovation project, Facilities, Engineering and Planning is exploring retaining part of the existing glass wall in the microfilm room.

The committee discussed different paths toward meeting the 40% target for reducing the on-site microforms and maps collections. As part of the effort, Technical Services and IT are collaborating to withdraw all microfilms from the American Periodical Series (which is available online) and to update associated catalog records.

March 27, 2014

Lisa Spiro presented a strategy for the Kelley Center and discussed plans for the search for the head of the Kelley Center. So that the skills of the head complement those of existing Kelley Center staff, the job description will emphasize expertise in both government information and data management and analysis. The search committee will include representatives from across the library.

Executive committee members discussed how to include technical competencies in job descriptions.

The Horizon group will be asked to research open educational resources as a factor in effective development of MOOCs. The due date for the report is August 31, 2014.

Steady progress continue to be made on the library renovation project. Technical Services and IT staff will collaborate to withdraw the American Periodical Series by April 15.  The shelvers will be done with their shifting work before April 15.  The deadline for completing the work on the Kelley Center collections has been extended to May 15.

The following tentative schedule for reading period and finals week has been developed:

• April 28: Popcorn & coffee study break
• May 1-3: Pet therapy