BLFC Minutes, 5/7/03

Present: Nancy Boerner, Becky Cape, Erika Dowell, Jian Liu, Jo McClamroch, Bob Noel, Mary Popp, Andrea Singer, Mary Strow, Suzanne Thorin, Gary Wiggins

Substitutes: Moira Smith for Marion Frank-Wilson

Guests: Stephen Cape

Jenkins Award Plaque

With the addition of Pat Steele this year, the Jenkins Award plaque is now full. Stephen Cape, chair of the Jenkins Award committee, reported that Roberts Advertising made the current plaque and that the choice is between a new, bigger plaque and a second plaque. Dean Thorin suggested that Susan Yoon work with the Jenkins Committee on this matter. Mary Popp added that the location of the plaque is also a consideration. BLFC prefers keeping it in the lobby of the Main Library. Popp also mentioned that there continues to be problems with the funding for and timing of the ceremony.

Election Committee Report

Becky Cape reported that the revisions to the Peer Review document were approved by a vote of 33 in favor and 6 opposed. Cape also presented the results of the Committee Preference Survey.

P & T Review Committee Report

Gary Wiggins and Erika Dowell reported that the sub-committees are preparing their reports and that Betty Jo Irvine and Linda Fisher will prepare the final draft of the committees report. There was discussion of where the draft report would go; Dean Thorin suggested that it go to CHL first and then broader distribution with organized discussion of the proposed changes, possibly in October.

BFC Representative

Mary Popp reported that the Bloomington Faculty Council has new officers for the coming year: President of the Bloomington Faculty Council: David Daleke and Secretary of the Bloomington Faculty Council: William Wheeler

Both the Bloomington Faculty Council and the University Faculty Council had one last meeting before the end of the semester. Each meeting wrapped up a good bit of business that had been hanging for awhile. Some highlights:

Bloomington Faculty Council (BFC)

Received a report about Spam and the IU Bloomington email servers (copy provided) Implemented a black list software that cuts off known spammers, called SPAMHAUS that reduced spam by 25%. We still need to get rid of more. 25-35% of our relayed mail continues to be spam. UITS is looking at opt-in blacklisting and opt-in filtering solutions.
Report of the Affirmative Action Committee and the Affirmative Action Officer. No real surprises for the Libraries. We lost one Asian American minority librarian in 2001-2002 (Thomas Lee).
Discussed the campus mission statement draft that Andrea had sent to us. It has been tabled and will be discussed again in the fall. There was a lot of disagreement about the first paragraph on what to call the Bloomington campuspremier residential campus, flagship, etc. More work will be done in language about promoting creativity and about stewardship of natural resources.
Renamed the BFC Affirmative Action Committee to the Diversity and Affirmative Action Committee.

University Faculty Council (UFC)

Mary Popp was not able to attend this meeting, but Moira Smith shared her materials with her.

Report from ARTI, the Advanced Research and Technology Institute. This is the unit that protects the IU trademarks and promotes the transfer of new technology and research ideas from the lab to the business sector One of the most interesting things is the number of patents IU got in 2001-2002: there were 35 new patents (most in medicine) and we have 219 active patents.
Affirmative Action report not good news statewide. Minority faculty down more than 15%

There was a large increase in foreign graduate students, and the new rules for international students have not yet eroded those numbers.

There was a report from Judith Palmers office about how the auxiliary enterprises are working with the data from the administrative review. A number of these units are working on a strategic planning process called the Balanced Scorecard to track operational and financial goals.
There were two recommendations that were passed. Both of these documents are on the UFC web site:

v Addition of a new subcommittee of the Athletics Committee to allow the committee to have input into dismissal and hiring of coaches and athletics directors.

http://www.indiana.edu/~ufc/circulars/02-03/U5-2003.htm

v New procedures for reviewing campus chancellors. http://www.indiana.edu/~ufc/circulars/02-03/U7-2003.htm

Deans Report

Dean Thorin reported that she is on the search committee for the Chief Information Officer; one of the issues that has come out concerns communication with UITS.

There is no budget update as yet. Guidelines might come out next week.

Dean Thorins recruitment report included: LibrariansCecile Jagodzinski is chair of the search committed for Head of Preservation. First review of applications began March 15, 2003. The position has been reposted and interviews will begin after May 15. Librarian for Latin American, Iberian, Latino, and Chicano-Riqueno Studieswe are in the process of approving the position posting. Professional Staff--three interviews have been held and a report submitted by the search committee for the Libraries Facilities and Renovation Officer. Karen Sweeney is chair of the committee. The search committee for the Hamilton Project Archivist, chaired by Dina Kellams, is reviewing applications. Susie Trisler is chair of the search committee for the Assistant to the Dean. Interviews are scheduled for May 19-21. Biweekly Appointed Staffthere are openings for Assistant to the Slavic Bibliographer (SSOF), Senior Collection/Reference Assistant, SALC (SSOF), and Office Services Assistant, Development (SSOF).

On Friday the Commitment to Excellence awards will be made public.

Dean Thorin discussed upcoming renovations to the Lilly Library (handicapped entrance and restroom) and the Wylie House (painting).

Dean Thorin discussed progress on the Common Databases project, temporarily called the Indiana University Digital Library. The group is trying to create the structure for the project now.

Dean Thorin reported that after reviewing the IUB librarians annual reports that she has concluded that while the librarians excel in service and performance, as a whole we are not as strong in professional development. She would like to see this issue looked at, possibly by a committee or a study group, and some recommendations on the matter made.

Dean Thorin has asked CHL for feedback on Government Documents and privacy issues. Policies concerning privacy should be university wide. There are also going to be major changes at the GPO in regards to electronic documents and this needs to be looked at university wide as well.

There was discussion concerning Dean Thorins suggestion that next year we discuss the possibility of an outside review of the libraries.

SERC Proposal

There was discussion of the Salary Equity Review Committees request that a full salary equity review be given every three years only to those people for whom conditions have changed in some way since the previous review, e.g., by promotion, more supervisory responsibilities, and advanced degree earned, etc. SERC is proposing this based on a pilot review conducted of a sample of librarians this year in which it found much had not changed for many of them. BLFC wants the committee to discuss this issue in its annual report and that it should be a topic for discussion of the charges for next year.

Herb White Visit

There was a reminder of events scheduled for Whites visit to accept his honorary degree.

Other Business

Gary Wiggins shared some questions about the revisions to the peer review document: whether the language of who was not subject to peer review needed to be clarified (BLFC decided not) and whether the wording of the timing of peer notification needed to be clarified (BLFC noted there was no real change in the wording of this from the earlier document.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Becky Cape