General Faculty
C-7 Library Committee

Report of Meeting
2003 October 30

Student members consisted of Don Drumtra, GSA and Margaret Scholz, Senate of College Councils. The committee spent most of the time discussing budgets for bibliographic resources. Electronic journals continue to rise. Over the last 8 years, the cost of UT-Austin serial subscriptions have risen in price almost 80 percent ($2,600,000). The library has cut over 2,500 subscriptions in 1996, 2001, 2002, and 2003. Journals and other serials represented 70 percent of the budget in 2002. Library staff analysis indicates that sustainment into the future with current quality levels would take an increase of perhaps $3 Million per year to keep up with the rising cost of material software and salary increases. The group approved a fee increase of 3 percent or 36 cents per credit hour for a net increase of about $360,000. This is about 1/9 of the needed increase. Dr. Heath is preparing a report for the Provost on his analysis of the state of the library. The official minutes are provided below.

Don Drumtra
GSA Sponsored Representatives
to the C-7 Library Committee

Library Committee Meeting, Oct 1 03

- The LC sub-committee on electronic Dissertations is trying to gather information on how electronic resources are used in the course of research.

- The Vice Provost was asked whether or not the library fees currently levied every semester will remain. The answer was "probably" - the Tuition Committee thinks fees will be frozen through 2004-2005.

- There are 592 areas of concern or "porosity" in the library system - fields of research in which the library is thin on sources. Distressingly, UT has hired 155 new faculty who fall within these fields. As part of their attempt to evaluate their porosity, the LC seeks anecdotes of student research that has been frusterated or rendered more difficult by the lack of sources in particular fields. These anecdotes can be used to influence the decision-makers.

- For those interested in how the library system decided to make collections purchases, their "Collection Development Policy" is online.

- Since the budget crunch, the library has cut $1.3 million in staff from their budget. They seek to increasingly replace staff with machines in order to save still more money. How this was to be accomplished was not discussed.

- It is faintly possible that the research grant monies that the State will no longer absorb can, in part, be used for collection expansion at the libraries. There are, however, many competitors for this money.

- The Vice Provost, recently hired from TX A&M, noted several ways in which our library system is actually less adequate than A&M's, including funding and anecdotal evidence of our porosity. He mentioned that A&M was ranked 11th among US college research libraries (he didn't indicate what the criteria were) and that they were ambitious to move into the top 10.

Submitted by Melanie Ulrich

University Library Committee Meeting Minutes
October 30, 2003

Present: Bailey, Dell'Antonio, Drumtra, Heath, Kevorkian, Minault, Palaima, Ralls, Scholz, Shorkey. Absent: Bajaria, Fischer, Gaul, Leung, Radin, Roser, Ulrich, Valencia. Library Staff: Dillon, Hawkins, Phillips, Duffy (recorder).

Next meeting: 8:30-9:30am, November 11, 2003

Student Library Council :
· student committee that is complementary to the University Library Committee
· charged with maintaining effective communication channels between student organizations and the General Libraries
· will work with library administrators in reviewing library issues and policies of interest to students
· 1st meeting on October 31

Materials Expenditures:
· money spent on monographs has been kept level in order to keep up with rising electronic serial costs (e-serials include electronic databases)
· ALCEP (UT System) monies are used to purchase e-books that are available to all UT schools
· increasing gap between the cost of serials (print and electronic) and what the General Libraries can spend
· members of consortia for both electronic and print serials, to help spread costs around
· publicly and privately funded research libraries are both struggling with funding, but public libraries are in more danger

Budget:
· 3% increase to library fee will help:
o maintain current book and serial purchasing levels
o bring in the new integrated library system
o continue retrospective collection enhancement (filling in the holes)
o fund merit increases for staff

Items voted on:
Unanimous endorsement from the University Library Committee for a 3% increase in student library fees

Agenda Items for the next meeting:
· Knowledge Gateway and the General Libraries role
· Consider a joint meeting between ULC and the new SLC
· Consider scheduling a December meeting