Library Committee Meeting Minutes 5/14/97 (Unapproved)

Announcements

• None.

• The minutes from the 3/19/97 meeting were approved with minor corrections.
• Discussion of AV issues was postponed until Bill Kranjak can attend a meeting.
• It was suggested that a memo be sent to the faculty inviting them to recommend books for addition to the collection. Mary Perdue mentioned that the library has a many publisher's catalogs that the faculty are welcome to review at any time.
• The idea of inviting the faculty to designate selected books as "Classics" was discussed at length. While many committee members felt that this was a good idea, there was some concern that if some books were designated as classics others might be considered undesirable and discarded prematurely. Chuck Tritt agreed to write a policy that would allow designating some books as classics while not implying that others were expendable. Committee members were asked to invite faculty to submit bibliographic information for classics (Author, Title, etc.) to Chuck Tritt while the policy is being developed.
• Partial lists of the library's current periodical subscriptions were distributed to the committee members. Member were asked to review these lists and share them with their departments. Any suggestions regarding adding or dropping subscriptions should be directed to the library. Mary Perdue announced that the library would probably soon enter into an agreement that would provide on-line access to the full contents of a number of periodicals.
• The idea of providing on-line access to some books was discussed. Katherine Wikoff mentioned that her students had found the on-line version of the Encyclopedia Britainica very useful. Mary-Lynn Robinson indicated the library probably would no longer need to have paper copies of pharmacological data because of the amount of information available on-line.
• It was agreed that we need more computers, but that the cost of such computers may be prohibitive. It was agreed at creative ways to solve this problem are needed.

• The idea of charging local students taking for credit courses in plant for copying was discussed. We ran out of time before working out all the details, but the committee generally felt that such students should be charged. Click here to see a letter for Mary Perdue explaining this issue.
• The is of how should the library provide library services off main campus was not discussed due to lack of time.

• Chuck Tritt and Mary Perdue will draft a letter to the faculty inviting them to submit requests for books to be added to the collection.
• Chuck Tritt will write a policy regarding the designation of classic books and collect suggested titles from the faculty.
• Committee members should review the periodicals lists distributed at the meeting with their peers.