1. Minutes of the General Assembly Meeting of May 10, 2005 and the special meeting of April 12, 2005 were approved.
2. Vice Provost Larry Alford
   1. Search Committees:  Larry has met with the AAL Steering and Selection and Appointment Committees to discuss the composition and some procedural issues of search committees.
      1. A non-librarian should serve on each search committee.
      2. Department heads will be involved in the search process, but they will not automatically chair committees.
      3. Search committees should be formed for certain non-librarian positions.
      4. In the past, the search committees have recommended specific candidates.  Committees should submit evaluations of two to three candidates.
      5.  Past practice was to hire new librarians at the L1 level.  As positions are filled we need to take into account past experience and existing tenure to determine salary, rank, and status.  Caution is needed in cases when a candidate may be recommended to be hired with regular appointment.
      6. For this year, there will be one person from the Selection and Appointments Committee on each search committee unless S&A defers.
      7. For some searches, it would be appropriate to ask a faculty member to serve on the committee.
      8. Jobs that impact across the libraries should be filled through search committees.
      9. AAL members were concerned that the AAL Bylaws may need changing.  Positions on election and Appointments are elected, so there is a representational relationship.
   2. Questions from the membership:
      1. Funds have been released for continuing purchases.  The funds will not be allocated to individuals but will be spent after selectors reach consensus on purchases.
      2. There should be at least $700-750K for continuing subscriptions in either electronic or print format. $1M has been allocated for back files and monographs.  Larry intends to make a proposal to the President for a one-time allocation of $0.5M for monographic purchases.  Positions will need to be created to process new acquisitions.
      3. Although some of Paley’s space issues are beyond the scope of a committee, there will be a committee created to help decide on reconfiguring the space vacated by the Paley SIC.  Some space issues include: moving the reference desk, expanding the information commons, possibly moving some of the reference collection, creating inviting student study space, adding a McNaughton collection, and adding a state-of-the-art media resource center.  Jonathan LeBreton informed the Assembly that the retrospective conversion should be done in March; we will then be able to remove the remainder of the card catalog.
      4. Board of Facilities has approved the Kardon project with a $7M budget.  There are specs out for shelving and final design drawings will be created.  When complete, Kardon’s two floors will hold the equivalent of two million volumes.  Jonathan noted that recent increases in the price of steel may affect the implementation as shelving costs will also increase.
      5. The Tuttleman SIC will not close as a result of the opening of the TECH Center in the Bell Building.
      6. There were concerns about maintaining computer equipment, especially printers, once the SIC closes and the likelihood that Paley Library staff will be solely responsible for public computing equipment.
   3. PARA Guidelines:  Carla Davis Cunningham reported that the PARA Taskforce had met with Jonathan regarding the PARA procedures.  Changes to the calendar were made after the AAL-wide discussion of the need to change the bylaws to reflect provisions in the new bargaining agreement.
   4. AAL Documents:  David Murray reported that the Steering Committee will be working on the website; eventually all of it will be updated.  In the interim, all pertinent documents are being posted to the AAL folder on the H: drive.  Currently, the committee composition list, General Assembly minutes, PARA procedures and calendars, schedule of meetings, and the Steering Committee minutes are available there.
   5. New Business:
      1. Anne thanked the members of the 2004-2005 Merit Committee for their hard work.  Some of the members of that committee are helping revise the merit guidelines.
      2. Anne reminded the membership to pay close attention to the PARA calendars as all of the deadlines are earlier than before.
      3. It is more important than ever that committee chairs send thank-you letters to committee members.  The letters should contain specific information about the member’s role and contributions.
      4. Andrea Goldstein mentioned that the Temple Review had an article on the display in Special Collections.  That issue of the Temple Review also published the first ad with John Chaney as spokesperson for library development.
      5. Laura Lane mentioned that the plumbers and engineers had just inspected the site of the leak on the third floor.  Only five or six books were lost.
      6. Brown bag lunches were discussed.  The consensus is that these are intended to be less structured than continuing education sessions.  There should be a regular established schedule for them to make it easier for people to attend.

The meeting adjourned at 3:40PM.