General Assembly Meeting Minutes

13 November 2001

Meeting was called to order at 2:10 by Chairperson Cathy Weng.

Business meeting:

Minutes of the Assembly meeting of September 2001 were approved with one addition to the attendance list.

New Librarian to Temple: A. Vara introduced Molly Thomas, Electronic Resources Librarian.

Report of the University Librarian M. Pastine:

1. Mary Edsall began her work on October 1, 2001 for the Philadelphia Dance Archive, a collaborative libraries/university/community project. Mary’s title is Curator/Archivist. She is in a temporary part time position through July 31, 2001.

   We will be submitting a proposal to Dance Advance for funding, including permanent staffing for the position, along with other funding needs. As a temporary staff member, she is not a member of AAL, although she does have a library degree. May want to consider inviting her as guest to general assembly meetings however.

2. The Libraries/Press Executive Board’s second meeting took place on Monday morning, September 24, 2001. We brainstormed ideas for networking, building contacts for fundraising for priority projects. Several member of the board have contacted us since on areas that they would like to work on and some further ideas for contacts.
3. Highlights of the October 16-20 139 ARL Membership Meeting:
   • Plenary discussion on the ARL Statistics Measurements Committee on the Preliminary Findings of the ARL E-Metrics Project to obtain improved and expanded data on electronic resources and services. This Phase II project is an effort to explore the feasibility of defining and collecting data on the use and value of electronic resources. A group of 24 ARL libraries funded and are participating in a study to end on December 2001. The report recommends 16 network statistics and 3 performance measures; the collaborative efforts need to establish with the publishing and vendor community to support reliable and ongoing production of measures related to database use, users, and services; the value of these electronic resources and services to our community of scholars, faculty, students, as well as to the unidentified users who are accessing research library and university resources from around the globe. They have found that electronic resources from 1992-93 were 3.6% of the libraries’ budget and in 1999/00 12.9%. concentration on vendor statistics are from 12 vendors: Academic Press/IDEAL, Elsevier, Lexis/Nexis, OVID, Bell & Howell, Gale Group, ISI, netLibrary, Silver Platter, EBSCO, JSTOR and OCLS/FirstSearch. Key issues are related to acquisitions, accounting and cataloging systems not set up to support data collection; prescribed definitions and procedures are not compatible with local practices; and varying levels of resources are available to support data collection in libraries. Data elements tested are vendors, number of log-ins (sessions), number of queries (searches), items examined, and number of virtual visits to resources. The reliability of data by vendors is unclear. The focus is on high impact databases. They plan another pilot with more volunteers, along with the existing 24 libraries. They are counting consortia statistics the same as those paid for by individual libraries. The assignment of staff may be more important than the number of transactions.
   • The Scholarly Communication Committee requested approval of establishing an International Scholarly Communications alliance with international organizations (a virtual alliance). This was approved. This will not be a part of IFLA. There was discussion of the public library of science of free and unrestricted access to scientific literature and a similar library for social sciences and humanities library open archive. There was a discussion of the role of SPARC, particularly the European SPARC Initiative interested in Open Archives and the planning of a  Japan SPARC Open Archives.
   • There was a discussion on how the U.S. Copyright Office has not done the library community any favors – i.e. standards developed in digital rights movement is alarming – moving in the direction of patent law. There was focus on looking at models that provide free literature to the public domain. An important question: why are we paying for intellectual property we developed? At what point do we quit sending funds out to commercial publishers and repurpose those monies and get our institutions to understand? How can we keep AAU involved so that our institutions understand the crucial role of University Presses and provide strong subsidies? The AAU president is pushing hard for local recognition of university presses. ARL is setting up a virtual communication network.
   • Internet 2 middleware standards for multimedia is crucial. How will standards affect libraries? This is moving quickly and is closely related to electronic reserves.
   • More and more universities are focusing on being revenue producing – including libraries (often referred to as “Diversified Financial Capacity”). One half of the universities represented at the meeting have been told to be income producing, including the libraries.
   • There is a decline of state support to universities from 23% to 16% thus universities are being forced to create new revenues, including from the intellectual property of faculty. Space and information resources on our campuses are being forced to build new markets. It is predicted that universities will be for profits within 10 years. The risk is high. There will be more commercial partnerships between community and university. We will see many high level reference service models and be doing more grant and other fundraising. It was said that we need to create marketing departments for library products/services.
   • There was lengthy discussion of the place of technology in the libraries and changing position configurations/titles and hiring more non-librarian technical personnel. However, there is a poor pool out there. We need cutting edge thinking on this issue. It was noted many times the importance of middle management and how good it must be. Salaries must be made more competitive. We are losing our own graduates to the corporate world and to the disciplines who want to build their own “cybrarians.” Of the libraries represented there was a 50/50 split on Systems heads being librarians and nonlibrarians.
   • Jerry Campbell spoke about the need for a complex set of digital resources with a “Google” like approach for a super scholars portal. We must be knowledgeable experts with software such as Blackboard.
   • Some concern was expressed with a Council on Library and Information Resources newsletter being sent to our Presidents and Provosts without informing librarians with an implied note not to trust librarians on digital issues. CLIR seems to see themselves as not speaking for librarians but for academe as a whole. This is a concern. All were urged to scale up their digitization projects and not be blind-sighted by CLIR. Some disagreement with this issue – i.e. perceiving CLIR as undermining ARL’s role.
   • From the other representatives it was noted that Temple University librarians were gaining recognition throughout the country via heavy involvement in organizations, which was great to hear.
   011113MP
   (rev.WhAAL)

Continuing Education Committee report (B. Mayes): The first program of the year by the Committee will be on November 27th in the Lecture Hall: “Academic Publishing and the Future of the Book” with guest speaker Charles Ault, Director of Production and Electronic Publishing and Assistant Director of Temple University Press. Also at the meeting Lisa Panzer (Blitman Library) and Brian Schoolar (Zahn Library) will discuss their collections and the services they offer. (Discussion and refreshments). M. Pastine will send us the URL of C. Lynch’s site on e-books for pre-program reading.

PARA Committee update (M. Darby): The Committee has not met yet but has been active in meeting with candidates (currently four). There are more contract renewals coming up in February.

Faculty Senate Library Committee (rep. L. Lane): She attended the first meeting of the Committee on October 1st. Following an overview of the function of the Committee they continued with other concerns and interests: (a) student printers in SICs and in Paley, noting wasted time and wasted paper, and noting that printing across from the Reference Desk is now improved, (b) remote and compact storage problems noting that the Kardon building request for funding was not approved by the University to be passed on to the State Legislature, but approved by the President for partial Library use combined with apartments; noting a second priority on bettering the Traylor building storage reservations on security); and noting the completion of the compact storage shelving for Government Documents on the Paley ground floor, and (c) review and discussion of the success of the library in attracting outside funding and its acceptance of gift materials from the reporting by M. Pastine – of note were the Dance Archive, the $75,000.00 music cataloging grant, the $100,000.00 Norwick gift annuity, and the recently received Daily News Obituary File for Urban Archives. The Committee ended with a discussion of the future goals of the Library.

Steering Committee report (C. Weng): the Committee met in July with the chairs of the AAL standing committees to discuss revising and updating the procedures and guidelines of these committees, to be due to be submitted in March. In October the Committee revised its own Procedures, and they and the Minutes of the Steering Committee will be posted on the Home Page, not distributed. President Adamany has requested each unit of the University to produce, revise, or write its By-Laws for documentation and approval by he and the Board of Trustees. As part of the By-Laws of the University Libraries the Committee has begun revising, if needed, the By-Laws of the Assembly. C. Weng noted that the recent Enhanced College Visit program was very successful, heavily due to the participation of the Librarians.

Program (2:50 p.m.):

VIRTUAL TOUR OF BIBLIOTHECA ALEXANDRINA:

Laila El-Zein presented an illustrated review of the still to be opened Alexandrian Library in Egypt, which captivated the audience. During her May 2001 visit to family in Alexandria she was able to secure a private tour of the Library during which she documented her tour with photographs of the exterior and interior. With a cost now approaching $220 million dollars the library had its groundbreaking in 1995, was expected to open in June 2001 and now has a scheduled April 2002 opening. Designed by a Norwegian firm the building is circular with the entire ceiling glass and is designed to be a national library with an 8 million-volume capacity, in open stacks. It is a seven level or story building with the upper two floors for a School of Information Science. Her pictures vividly captured the reading areas, stack areas, and architecture of the building.

The presentation and the meeting ended at 3:30 p.m.

T. Whitehead, recorder

Agenda:

Meeting called to order at 2:10PM by the Chair: C. Weng

Present: C. Weng, M. Pastine, C. Lang, L. Lane, A Goldstein, C. Cunningham, G. McKinney, El Zein, P. Myers, T. Hoskisson, F. Rowland, J. Schoolar, B. Teske, S. Dreher, B. Wright, J. Chen, A. Vara, S. Stormont, M. Darby, G. Sneff , C. Brigham.

Business

1. Approval of May 2001 Minutes

Assembly approved the Minutes as presented by Thomas Whitehead as they were E-mailed.

2. Introduction of new librarians and IMLS Project Director: Hoskisson, Rowland, Schoolar, Teske, Dreher (Vara) As presented by the Vice-Chair, Vara (copies enclosed if you want the introductions as read to the Assembly)
3. PARA Election (Berhanu)

Berhanu not present: emergency; Ballots distributed by Myers.

4. Report from University Librarian (Pastine)

As presented by the U.L. (See enclosed Report)

5. Discussion of Merit Award Process (Goldstein)

Assembly discussed the topic; Are department heads to be included in the Merit process? The discussion seemed to favor that including department heads would not fulfill their duties (dept. heads) as peers of the librarians applying for merit. Some dept. heads present were for the inclusion, some against. The question will be remanded to the Steering Committee which meets on the 20th of September, room 309, at 2:00PM In addition, the entire the Merit process chronology is being pushed up, i.e., October might be the time when notices go out for those who want to apply. The U.L. has requested that all materials for merit be in her hands by February 15th. This will also be finalized by the Steering Committee on September 15th. It was important that merit is always for the previous fiscal year: for July 1 2000-June 30 2001.

Merit process will include ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as a recommendation from the individual’s department head. Revised forms include a Merit Salary Award Nomination form; AAL Committee on Merit: Guidelines and Procedures form; Clarification of Performance Criteria form; Policy for Merit Awards for Librarians in the University Libraries form; Merit Committee Recommendation form; Merit Salary Award Supervisory Recommendation form. All these provisional forms will be decided at the next Steering Committee meeting, September 20th, 2001, 2:00PM, room 309, Paley Library.
1. Brief announcement of future Assembly Meeting Forum topics (Weng)

Suggestions: PALCI, (other topics encouraged). Also El Zein’s photographic survey of Alexandria to be re-scheduled (tentatively for November)

2. PARA Election result (Berhanu)

Myers reported the results: McKinney and Thompson were elected.

Forum

AAL Homepage Demonstration (Davis Cunningham, Mckinney) This interesting presentation was very well received by the Assembly. Discussion: Does the AAL want the AAL Minutes and other material of the AAL to be available to the entire Temple community? Someone suggested to place a password at this website: ‘http://library.temple.edu/about/aal/’ so to restrict access ALA minutes except to members of the AAL. The Vice-Chair will keep the AAL minutes up to date on the website as well as other changes to the site. [as soon as Phil D’Andrea makes the necessary changes to his, AV’s, computer, and teaches the basics of HTML for editing the AAL page.]

AV/recorder for T.W.

General Assembly Meeting Minutes

May 8, 2001
Paley Library Lecture Hall

Presiding: Carol Lang, Chairperson.

The Minutes of the General Assembly Meeting of March 7, 2001 were approved with one revision.

Report of the University Librarian (M. Pastine):

1. Our Annual Library Staff meeting will occur on Thursday, June 7th from 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. in the Lecture Hall. In addition to the Staff Recognition Award for University Libraries, there will also be such awards for HSC and Law Libraries and possibly CIS. A short video will be shown by Human Resources on quality clientele service with a bit of discussion. The meeting is in June rather than earlier in May as we wanted President Adamany here to respond to questions. He is most willing to get some in advance – send them to me or Carol Lang and we will compile and forward, or just bring them to the meeting and he will respond.
2. I have completed the PARA and the Merit recommendations. I want to say that last year at this time I made a number of recommendations to the Librarians regarding what my expectations were for documentation coming to me, including the past two year’s annual reports, letters of support, the Committee’s documentation (first to me and I give it to Administrative Services when I have completed by reviews), and evaluations from the Department Heads. I also added what I expected beyond the position description, i.e. service / professional / scholarly work with copies demonstrating active participation, copies of publications or book reviews, etc.). And, I asked the librarian to provide the benefits to themselves as well as to the Libraries and the University. I also asked for more than 10 days to respond because April and May are really busy months for me. The majority of the Librarians remembered to do all of this. Thanks so much.
3. I also informed you that we would be getting the Immigration Ship Manifests returned to us. That decision has been changed so we will not get these.
4. I was also hoping that we would get to raise funds for the Baptist Temple for archival and special collections/museum type materials. Although that looked promising for a while, it no longer does – so put your thinking caps on this.
5. We were also just beginning the IMLS project. We are now well underway with another grant – for 2 years – with an extension on the first one. The second one is for $510,000. To see what has been done, check out the URL: diamond.temple.edu:81.
6. The PEW $167,000 grant for the Illuminated Manuscripts of many Philadelphia’s libraries and museums was completed and shown at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Our Special Collections was part of this.
7. The Ambler and Urban Archives compact storage is completed.
8. The Assistant to the University Librarian, Carol Lang, has been hired and doing really excellent work.
9. The Electronic Reserves module pilot program of Diamond has been underway for some time.
10. The Portable Laptop Program was re-opened in the Tuttleman Learning Center with a new hire, Dawn Bloomer, who is doing great.
11. The Greenstein Celebration has not yet occurred but processing will be completed this summer.
12. We celebrated the dedication of the Libraries/Computer Labs in both Norris Home Project and the Dunbar School.
13. We celebrated our two millionth volume.
14. We began a collaborative working relationship with the University Press, with them now reporting to the Libraries.
15. We brought up our portion of the PALCI URSA union catalog.
16. We received $75,000 from Access PA to catalog selected music materials scattered throughout the many buildings of the School of Music and will begin working on this soon.
17. We had the first meeting of the Libraries/University Press Executive Board to assist with advancement and development projects.
18. We began an Internship program.
19. We completed a systems audit. Dept. Heads have the documents.
20. We are hoping to fill 17 library positions. (Question: hiring freeze?)
21. We are still awaiting an answer to our request for permission to continue to proceed on hiring processes already started.
22. It is time now to review our Strategic Plan for the next year’s priorities. For budget planning purposes, our priorities will include User Education and bridging the gap between K-12 and the community; subject specialists liaison work with faculty; marketing and visibility and continuing systems work in the Libraries.

Merit Committee Issues (C. Lang): C. Lang noted that the University administration has begun to require more information and stricter procedures documentation with faculty merit, promotion and tenure considerations and M. Pastine believes that the same increased documentation and form will very probably be carried over to librarians’ PARA and Merit procedures: more librarian annual reports (achievements, problems, evaluative reviews of supervisors – usually by department heads). Clear and detailed checklists need to be prepared and the librarians’ Merit procedures need review. Andrea Goldstein will chair a task force to look into Merit guidelines, checklists, instructions, etc. M. Pastine noted that we don’t know for sure if Adamany will give as much attention to librarians as to faculty but he certainly might.

M. Darby noted his concern on peer review and department heads and philosophy on staff. Regarding both Merit and PARA he has concerns on the paperwork, on formal reviews of two-week old new staff, and he asks the all librarians read the TAUP contract and the procedures currently used in these programs and be ready to understand it all for any future paper changes and task forces.

Congratulations were given to Mark for his recent collective bargaining contributions for both faculty and librarians. M. Pastine noted that salaries for librarians is a hot topic of the ALA President, and that she is on the ALA Committee for Status of Librarians. And, she reminds all to “keep that special personal file!”

Assembly Elections (A. Goldstein, A. Berhanu): Ballot counting was initiated at this stage of the meeting, resulting later in the meeting with the report that there were two tie votes (for Chairperson-elect and for one of the Selection and Appointment Committee positions), and that a revote on these two was required. The final results were later reported by the Nominations and Elections Committee as:

• Vice Chairperson/Chairperson-elect: Al Vara
• Steering Committee, Member-at-large: Andrea Goldstein
• Continuing Education Committee: Carla Davis Cunningham, 2 years
• Anne Harlow, 1 year
• Faculty Senate Library Committee Rep.: Laura Lane
• Nominations and Elections Committee: Penelope Myers
• Selection and Appointment Committee: Carol Brigham
• Rick Lezenby

AAL Web Page Task Force Update (C. Weng):

At the March General Assembly meeting at Ambler C. Cunningham and J. Chen were selected to work on the proposed AAL web page with C. Weng as Chair of the Task Force. Later G. McKinney was recruited to the membership.

The Task Force meet on March 22nd and:

discussed and considered, without finalization, materials which should or could be on the site: all important AAL documents, hyper-interlinked (By-laws, members and addresses, meeting schedules (Assembly and Steering Committee), meeting minutes of Assembly and Steering Committee (5-year archive), standing committee annual reports and procedures, committee charges, committee members and terms of service.

agreed on assignments for the members of the Task Force: Carla and Cathy to begin collecting the documents from office holders, committees, past presidents, archives in Templana, and wherever else possible; Jeanne and Greg to work on design and the technical work.

planned a tentative time table: by the end of May have all documents collected and scanned, by mid-July have the majority of documents physically loaded on the web, and use August for the tweaking and cleaning up of the site.

C. Weng noted that already the Task Force has noted that there are, surprisingly for the past five years, missing annual reports and minutes.

C. Lang asked how the Task Force wanted the annual reports due today to be delivered. C. Weng will accept them now in any form but in the future they should be sent electronically. M. Pastine reminded the Task Force to check with the Library’s Webmaster (P. D’Andrea) to be sure all is up to par with Systems.

It was questioned whether the site would be restricted. C. Weng said that the thoughts of the Task Force so far were for openness. There was discussion on this and the T.F. will consider this further – perhaps may recommend restricting to the campus.

Annual Reports

C. Lang reported on the Steering Committee noting the Committee’s putting more programming into the General Assembly meetings, especially on professional issues and development. She reviewed the Assembly meetings and the programs the Steering Committee encouraged.

PARA was noted as handling four candidates during the year.

G. Sneff reported for the Continuing Education Committee, which held two programs during the year, their JSTOR meeting with a JSTOR guest and their “Brown Bag/Sharing of Meeting Information” meeting.

T. Whitehead reported on the meetings of the Faculty Senate Library Committee.

S. Stormont reported on his representation to the Faculty Senate and noted that in the future he would forward meeting minutes to all librarians.

C. Weng reported for the Selection and Appointment Committee and the ten searches they had participated in during the year (Copy Cat Coordinator, Database Manager, User Education and Social Sciences librarians, Access Services Librarian and Electronic Resources Cataloger, Science Librarian, Reference Arts & Humanities, Government Documents, and Systems librarians.

This ended the Business Section of the meeting, immediately followed by the topical program: the Intern Panel:

The three remaining graduate library interns, Maura Boyle, Susan Dreher, and Bob Hull each spoke to the Assembly, noting their backgrounds, their daily work here, their feelings and what they felt they had learned during their experience at Temple. One noted comment: “Everyone at Temple was willing to share information”. In response to “Would you recommend Temple?” all three resoundingly answered “Yes”! They were thanked by the Assembly for their work and for helping us learn from them and their up-to-date educational work. Susan asked if it were possible that interns could be put on the library staff e-mail list, and Bob, well Bob interested everyone with a recommendation for reading: What Do You Want to do When You Grow Up? Dorothy Cantor and Andrea Thompson. Little Brown, 2000.

The General Assembly ended at 3:45 following applause for the interns and applause for Carol Lang and her Chairpersonship during 2000-2001.

T. Whitehead,
Recorder

MINUTES

of the meeting of 7 March 2001

The Meeting was held at the Ambler Campus, Temple University, in Bright Hall and the Ambler Library, at 2:10 p.m. Carol Lang, President, presiding.

Welcomes to the Ambler Campus were given by Sandra Thompson (the Library) who introduced Dr. Patricia Bradley, Associate Dean, Ambler administration.

Business Meeting:

Minutes: There were no Minutes to review! New Librarian: Cathy Weng introduced Carla Davis Cunningham who started on February 19th as Copy Cataloging Coordinator in BSD, main campus (her background included Swarthmore and Drexel). University Librarian Report (Maureen Pastine):

She will soon (March 20-30) attend an academic publishing retreat in Italy with Lois Patton, Director of the University Press, where they will present a paper on the Press’ activities. She will then visit the Temple Rome campus and library.

Bottom Line, the journal concerned with finance of library activities, is expecting articles from her and Library staff concerning the procedures and costing concerns of the IMLS grant in which the system is currently involved.

She announced the approval of a second IMLS digitization grant, this time over $500,000.00; to begin after her return from Italy. She also announced that the attempt to acquire an NEH grant has fallen through, based on the poor performance by the Library and University on the 1986 NEH grant.

She noted the scheduling of the first meeting of the University Libraries/Temple University Press Executive Board (March 13th), at which Larry Kane, local CBS newscaster, will attend as a member. During the luncheon for the Board members Larry will hold a book-signing in the Tuttleman lobby for his new book published by the Temple University Press.

Other announcements and comments: the Staff Appreciation Day will be scheduled soon, the Libraries’ Strategic Plan needs updating (an annual job), the Technology Plan was finished and submitted, the University’s Major Capital Campaign is starting and the Library is submitting its needs and interests to the program, the Staff Council met yesterday in which salary problems were discussed and the national as well as local difficulties in hiring, a problem ALA is addressing with a task force.

Question from the membership: Have we or will we reach our goals for the first IMLS grant?

Answer: No, found that we overestimated and IMLS has approved our dropping our expected digitizing work to 35,000 (was 150,000).

Question: Update on Virtual Temple?

Answer (MP and P. Myers): There will be no Virtual Temple for now. Too many problems were identified and the proposal has been dropped for the time being.

Question: Can you tell us who is on the Executive Board?

Answer: I will soon have a list for you. However, I could still use additional names to invite to join since the Board will meet only once or twice a year and all cannot attend meetings and they can help without attending meetings.

Two-Millionth Volume Celebration: C. Lang described the planned ceremony day for the 2Mth volume —

Stats for the 2Mth do not include holdings of the Law Library nor the HSC

There is and will be full coverage of the day by Temple’s What’s New and The Temple Times, AND Channel 3 TV. New signs are going up in the Paley/Tuttleman lobbies.

The theme of the event will be “Philadelphia” – with the 2Mth volume being the latest best seller of the Temple University Press: Larry Kane’s Philadelphia, the 1,999,999th volume being a 1798 Philadelphia City Directory, and the 2,000,001st volume being a CD ROM “Naturalization Records: Philadelphia, 1789-1880”.

The two-hour book signing by Larry Kane, in which we hope everyone will attend and buy a book or two, will provide royalties which will be donated to the Library/Press fund-raising efforts.

The afternoon will find the 2Mth Ceremony in the Lecture Hall where the principal books will be presented and Larry Kane will talk.

Search Committee Updates:

Science Librarian – too early to comment on.

Administrative Services has submitted requests for three Librarians so we will be able shortly to act upon them: Systems, Government Docs/Maps, and Subject Specialist/Ref. Humanities.

Annmarie Heldt of Human Relations has acknowledged the problems with their web site that M. Pastine has pointed out to her: positions not found, data disappearing, etc. She noted that they had been using an outside consulting firm for their web work

Staff Recognition Award:

M. Darby noted that the deadline for award submission is Friday, 9th March, and the submissions will be reviewed next week. The Committee is desirous of more submissions and it is permissible to nominate more than one staff member.

Leaves of Gold Exhibition: M. Darby noted the major exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art: “Leaves of Gold. Treasures of Manuscript Illumination from Philadelphia Collections” which opens March 10th and runs through May 13th, 2001.

The exhibition is based on the work of retired Bryn Mawr Librarian James Tanis to locate and identify illuminated manuscripts in the collections of members of PACSCL, the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries. The majority of members will not be represented in the exhibition, but Temple University will be with one miniature painting from an administrative document. There will be a formal Museum catalogue of the exhibition, and a CD ROM produced.

AAL Documents-on-Line Proposal:

C. Weng initiated an open discussion of a proposal to place on the Web a limited number of documents and Minutes of the Assembly. A handout was distributed and discussion ensued over the contents of what is to be placed on the Web, the responsibility of entering and of updating the material, inter-linking the documents and a need for a task force to continue investigating the proposal.

The membership approved the proposal, several members agreed to work on the task force, all with the hope of accomplishing some placement on the web by August 2001.

Sandy Thompson proceeded with an historical presentation of Ambler, the origins and development of the educational site from its founding with two students in 1910 as the Horticultural School for Women through its fifty years as an independent school and its forty years as part of Temple University. The year-long celebrations at Ambler this year celebrating the 90 years since founding and the 40 years since its Temple connection heavily involve the graduates of the school. She reported on her and the campus committee’s work in the archives of the school and campus and explained the historical elements in the four panels hanging in Bright Hall prepared to graphically survey those years.

The meeting then continued in the Ambler Library where generous refreshments were served and the newly renovated library with its compact shelving was displayed for all to marvel at.

(Thanks are given to C. Weng for helping with the transportation logistics).

Tom Whitehead,
Recorder

General Assembly Meeting Minutes

12 SEPTEMBER 2000 2:00 P.M.

(Carol Lang Presiding)

rev. 15 Nov. 2000

1. Minutes of the Assembly Meeting of 9 May 2000 were not available.
2. Cathy Weng introduced Anne Harlow who had started in June 2000 as our Performing Arts Subject Specialist (RIS/Collection Development). Anne is a graduate of Temple and Drexel and comes to us with working experience from Raleigh, N.C., The University of the Arts and the Curtis Institute.
3. Andrea G. and Aslaku B. asked for revisions or additions to the election ballot and prepared for the election (below). Ballot for PARA slots: J. Chen, M. Darby, A. Goldstein and R. Lezenby; ballot for the vacancy on the Selection and Appointment Committee (Kennedy position): A. Berhanu and B. Congleton.
4. University Librarian’s Report (Maureen Pastine):
   1. General Report:
      1. The Library’s proposal for acceptance of Internships from regional institutions, particularly Drexel, which had been written in November 1998 and has been sitting in Human Resources for the past year or so has now been approved. Twenty-five positions are being advertised and we hope to get good interns. It is a program wherein both the Library and the interns benefit. (See also IV, (c), below).
      2. (Confidential at time of report): The latest Temple Student Satisfaction Survey to be released soon show that the Library system was rated on top in every category.
      3. The Blitman Reading Room will in the future be known as the Blitman Resource Center and it and its Librarian will be reporting to the University Libraries.
      4. Merit and Promotion letters have still not been received and Maureen has written another letter to the Provost’s Office.
   1. Staff Documentation and Selling Oneself.

   Maureen noted that the professional staff of the University Libraries is great, but when she reads our reports, resumes, applications, etc., we are too modest – the staff is not selling itself well. She and the Provost’s Office are expecting more support information, more documentation, more self-praise, more out-side references, more positive attitude on selling oneself both administratively and personally. She gave a number of suggestions on how to do so and she distributed a three-page document she had prepared: “Presenting One Self Well in Annual Reports, PARA (Promotion, Appointment, and Regular Appointment), and Merit.”

   2. Questions for the University Librarian: the number of positions available for internships was questioned, i.e. 25? She and Carol Lang replied that many of the positions are multiple positions (same position descriptions but a number of internships could be hired for the same work), and also that we cannot afford to fill all 25 positions, approximately only 10 or 12 this year

1. Election Results: Following a tie in the PARA voting and a runoff vote, the results were announced as:
   • Selection and Appointment: Aslaku Berhanu
   • PARA: Mark Darby and Jeannie Chen<

1. Update on Search Committees:
   1. User Education Librarian (L. Lane): Three candidates have been selected for potential interviews, currently taking telephone references.
   2. Access Services Librarian (P. Myers): Only one candidate. Currently advertising to get more applicants.
   3. Electronic Resources Catalog Librarian and other BSD positions (L. E-Z.): having been losing candidates, candidates withdrawing from further consideration, etc.
   4. General discussion followed on the problems we are having of attracting and maintaining applicants to all our positions – advertising, salaries, contacts, position descriptions, etc. Group felt we need additional help on advertising and recruitment techniques. The consensus was to continue discussion on this in the future. It was also noted that the Internship Program might help in filling future full-time positions. 
   5. Topics for Discussion for future meetings: In an effort to have fuller professional discussion in AAL meetings on individual topics of interest, concern, and library-wide usefulness, the Steering Committee had asked for ideas and topics to be considered. A discussion followed at this point on possible topics, including: Copyright (G.S.) collections outside the libraries (G.S.) Digital Library/Ref. Service (S.S.) PALCI (P.M.) Blackboard.com (B.W.) Needs of today’s students/Drexel? (L.E.-Z.) Technology directions of the University (B.W.) University Press (M.P.) End of the General Meeting, then:

      DIGITAL INITIATIVES

      The formal AAL meeting was followed by a special presentation by the staff on “Digital Initiatives” currently on-going within the Libraries.

      Carol Lang gave a background presentation on the new IMLS grant on digitization followed by Byron Mayes and Phil D’Andrea giving screen examples of the newly started scanning and digitizing work being done on the neighborhood photographs in the McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection in Urban Archives. All being entered into Diamond (III). Then, Jeanne Chen showed the digitizing work being done at Ambler of horticulture slides currently on the Web.

      Finally, Penelope Myers gave an update and demonstration through Diamond of the electronic reserves currently being set up for the Fall semester.

      Meeting and Digital Initiatives presentation ended at 3:55 p.m.

      Tom Whitehead, Recorder

GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING MINUTES

May 9, 2000

1. Nominations and Elections Committee began the spring election process.
2. Report of the University Librarian
   1. Reminder: all staff meeting and Staff Recognition Award is on Thursday May 11, 2000 from 2:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. in the Lecture hall
   2. Received approval for the IMLS grant for the Digital Imaging and Information Distribution Archive for $237,199.00. We will not know about the $500,00 grant submitted to the NEH until December 2000. This would be a 4-1 match, totaling $2.5 million to strengthen our ability to support humanities teaching, learning, research and community outreach activities.
   3. M. Jerrido and the Urban Archives received a grant from the family of the former last librarian of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin to digitize selected clippings and photographs from that archive.
   4. Participating members of PACSCL (Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collection Libraries) received a grant of $110,000 from the Gladys Kreible Delmas Foundation to support an Encoded Archival Description Project.
   Urban Archives and Special Collections are members of PACSCL.
   1. Special Collections is included in a $167,000 grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts to support an exhibit of Philadelphia’s illuminated manuscripts during the spring of 2001.
   2. There are plans for Temple University Libraries to implement the PALCI (Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium Initiative) URSA union catalog. 10 of the 28 libraries are already up and participating in this resource sharing. Full implementation should be completed by fall, 2000.
   3. The University Libraries have begun assisting the Norris Homes Library Project with books and technologies.

1. Committee Reports:
   1. PARA presented by A.Berhanu
   2. Continuing Education, most of the committee had left Temple, so S.Stormont reported on the Tuttleman tour and other ideas for the next committee.
   3. Selection and Appointment, committee chair had left Temple, so S.Stormont reported that four positions were in the hiring process this year, with one hire starting June 1 for the reference position. The other reference position has been reopened, and the committee for the two bibliographic services positions is gathering information about the candidates.
   4. Merit Committee presented by M.Darby.
   5. Faculty Senate Library Committee presented by T.Whitehead.
   6. Faculty Senate presented by J.Kennedy.
   7. Nominations and Elections Committee presented by M.Darby. He reported on the results of the spring election:
      • Vice Chair/Chair elect: C.Weng
      • Recorder: T.Whitehead
      • Member at Large: S.Thompson
      • Faculty Senate Representative: S.Stormont
      • Selection and Appointment: J.Kennedy, L.Lane
      • Continuing Education: B.Mayes (2 year), G.Sneff
      • Nominations and Elections: A.Berhanu
      • Elected in the fall to PARA: R.Congleton, B.Wright
   8. Old Business: M.Jerrido reminded us that the deadline for the mini grant proposals was Friday May 12, 2000.
   9. New Business: modification to the Guidelines and Procedures for the Academic Assembly of Librarians Committee on Merit. This would not be a bylaws change, but a change to an internal working document for the Steering Committee as it considers membership for the Committee on Merit. Discussion on the proposed statement followed and after many suggestions were tendered, it was decided that the proposal would be tabled and brought back to the membership after revisions.
   There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Sandra M. Thompson

Recorder, Academic Assembly of Librarians

[Steering Committee Meeting ensued]

Present: C.Lang, S.Stormont(chair), S.Thompson

After discussion, it was decided to reschedule the June joint meeting from June 13, 2000 to June 20, 2000. Incumbents should bring any paperwork that needs to be turned over to the incoming committee members.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING MINUTES

January 11, 2000

There being no further business the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
Sandra M. Thompson
Recorder

1. Minutes of the November meeting were approved.
2. Report of the University Librarian:
   1. Temple University is among other RLG institutions joining together to plan and develop a collaborative Cultural Materials Initiative for unique and rare materials. Members will pool access to these electronic resources.
   2. Temple University and other nationally recognized academic research libraries have been invited by Carnegie Mellon University to join the Consortium for a Scholarly Digital Archive. The aim of this consortium is to establish an electronic university library, with the aim of having all published works available electronically at any time, anywhere in the world, in any language.
   3. L. Cotilla and M. Pastine are involved in the planning for a new library, as part of the construction of a Learning Center at the Ambler campus.
   4. The reasons for the non-approval of the NEH Challenge Grant have been received. Concerns mentioned included the likelihood of our actually meeting the match, since we were unable to reach our goal in the earlier grant. Our long range planning was lauded, however, and revision and resubmission of the grant request for the May deadline was recommended.
   5. The circulation desk has been removed from Paley and the carpeting is being replaced. CIBaRS and Interlibrary Loan will be relocated soon, and the Laptop Rental Program will open sometime this semester.
   6. III implementation continues: the Law School went live on December 17, 1999 and 9,500 records from Podiatry have been added to the database.
   7. Art Papacostas has stated intent to assist the libraries with positions in the IMAARC initiative.

1. Promotion and Regular Appointment Committee : deadline for promotion materials is February 15, 2000.
2. Selection and Appointment Committee: M. Meola and C. Weng are the members on the Search Committee for the Music and Education Librarians.
3. The Faculty Senate Library Committee: will again support the Staff Recognition Day for the Libraries.
4. Merit Committee composition: the guidelines for membership on this committee need to be rewritten. We currently have only one L-4 on the staff. Discussion followed and statements were made that we should aim for distribution across the ranks, and that no one should have to serve consecutive terms on this committee. P.Myers and C.Lang will present draft statements to the Steering Committee. These drafts will be discussed, edited, etc., and a proposal for the new guidelines will be presented to the General Assembly at the March meeting.
5. Old Business: none
6. New Business: announcements were made: a tour and orientation to the classrooms and equipment at Tuttleman will be held tomorrow for any interested librarians; and a reminder that the retirement party for Edith Hampel will be on January 28, 2000.

General Assembly Meeting Minutes

May 11, 1999

1. Minutes of the March meeting were approved pending edits and revisions.
2. Report of the University Librarian
   1. An NEH grant proposal has been written. Many people in the library system and the university assisted in this effort. We asked for 1/2 million dollars, meaning we will have to raise 2 million dollars. The funds will be used for the purchase of library resources and electronic access; an exhibit gallery and lecture space; equipment monies for digitization; and temporary staff to catalog scattered collections around the university.
   2. A grant proposal is also being written for the federal government for digital equipment for preservation, access and retrieval uses. Two-thirds of the money would be raised by the state and the university, and one-third would come from the government.
   3. Thanks to Laila El-Zein and the working groups for all the work necessary to bring up the first part of III at the end of this month.
   4. D. C.Tucker and F.Immler, with the Administrative Council, are working on a document to move the current subject selectors toward a broad faculty liaison relationship. This would be a more interdisciplinary and collaborative relationship than we currently have.
   5. Kardon Building: its use for us is still questionable, because other university departments are also interested in its available space.
   6. Technology Plans: schools and colleges should be working with the libraries and the librarians on these documents. The proposals have been reviewed and are being passed on to the appropriate places.
   7. Academic planning and other draft strategic reports of the university are due sometime in May, and the final reports will be released in the fall.
   8. Summer projects in the library:
      1. sprinkler system installed
      2. work on space in Tuttleman
      3. move Special Collections and Administrative Services on the mezzanine
      4. L.Cotilla and M.Pastine are working on a proposal for the Ambler Library.
      5. a team will be working on Tyler space concerns
      6. vacant positions in the system: F.Immler has been hired as the Chief Collection Development Officer; Head, Science and Engineering Libraries is being negotiated; the Search Committee for Head, Systems and Information Technology is moving quickly and has narrowed the applicant pool
      7. serials vendor review in June; this is an informal review and four vendors are scheduled: SWETS, Faxon, Blackwell and Ebsco
      8. reorganization issues: both piecemeal and broader issues remain
      9. M.Pastine will be attending a Dean’s Retreat on May 29, 1999
3. Annual Reports of the Standing Committees: the reports were read or summarized and submitted to the Chair for the archives
4. Old Business: M.Jerrido has completed updating of the AAL documents and files and has placed the materials to be turned over in June in an archival box.
5. New Business:

Election results:
1. • Vice Chair/Chair-elect C.Lang
   • Steering Committee Member at Large P.Myers
   • Selection and Appointment Committee G.McKinney C.Weng
   • Continuing Education Committee F.Immler (2 yrs) L.Lane (1 yr)
   • Nominations and Elections Committee A.Goldstein(2 yrs)

Respectfully Submitted Sandra M. Thompson Recorder Academic Assembly of Librarians

GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING MINUTES (Draft)

January 12, 1999

1. Approval of Minutes for November 10, 1998
   • The minutes were approved pending corrections.
2. II. Report of the University Librarian
   1. Technology Plan: the Technology Plan/1999-2000 was delivered to Art Papacostas by the due date of December 31, 1998. The plan has been made available via many means, including a quick click on our home page.
   2. Open library positions:
      • Head, Library Systems and Technology: the draft position description has been completed and reflects a wider range of responsibilities. This draft has been delivered to Art Papacostas.
      • Chief Collection Development Officer: three candidates have been interviewed and one candidate was unanimously recommended and has been contacted concerning the position.
      • Head, Engineering and Science Libraries: candidate interviews are scheduled for January.
      • Systems: the staff position vacated by Gary Dahlin is currently being filled.
   3. Remote storage facility is on hold: the Health Sciences Libraries and the Law Library are also out of room and are interested in remote storage.
   4. Tuttleman construction: breakthrough from the library to Tuttleman should occur during intersession.
   5. The RLG Shares Roundtable is being hosted at Paley Library during the ALA midwinter conference.

1. Old Business
   1. Staff Recognition Award: nominations are due January 29, 1999. The first award recipient will be introduced at a public library function.
   2. George Brightbill is retiring on January 29, and a reception will be held in his honor on January 27.

1. New Business
   1. The installation of the new computers will be handled by computer services.
   2. The library did sign off for the indexing portion of III, and the data load has begun.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
Sandra M. Thompson
[Recorder, AAL]

General Assembly Meeting Minutes

November 10, 1998

1. Approval of Minutes for September 8, 1998

The minutes were approved.

• Report of the University Librarian
  1. Vacant positions

  Chief of Collection Development committee will be submitting 3 candidates for recommendation for interviews Head, Science & Engineering/Architecture Libraries: committee has recommended 2 candidates for interviews Harrisburg Library/SIC Coordinator: P. Myers and K. Kramer are interviewing 3 librarians Other vacant positions are being held open and looked at in light of restructuring/differing relationships.

• Restructuring/Reorganization of the Libraries Administrative Council has about 50 items to peruse, then will choose priority items to work on, then open the discussion for additional input.
• Tuttleman Learning Center: M. Henderson, I. Bayard, L. El Zein and C. Tucker will be meeting with M. Pastine on planning and issues concerning this building and its uses.
• Library Policies Manual: Library policies are being updated and will be available soon on the web
• PALCI: 23 of 28 library members have agreed to on-site faculty borrowing and Temple is one of those participating members, but we have not yet joined the ILL/photocopying piece of the agreement
• University External Issues: on December 2 and 3 Temple is sponsoring forums on challenges facing the University and will be followed on February 5 by a forum on Internal issues. The discussions are part of the development of a new academic strategic plan. M. Pastine sent a copy of a survey to AAL members to list library concerns and issues.
• Other: M. Pastine is meeting with I. Bayard and J. Falkenstein to discuss physical plant problems and renovations in Paley. The remote storage facility at the Kardon building will be discussed, and both Health Sciences and Law have expressed interest in space at this facility.

• Implementation Update (L. El Zein)
  1. Only 4 out of 277 shelf list drawers remain to be done in the barcoding/inventory project
  2. Records sent to Marcive for authority control should be sent directly from them to III via ftp around December 1, 1998. The Blockson records did not make it and will be resent to Marcive.
  3. Vendors should respond to the RFP for the retrospective conversion by the end of this week.
  4. The Unix server for the new system has been received and is in the systems office.
  5. The forms have been returned to III concerning the indexing, data mapping and online display for the new system, circulation forms will be returned by November 20.
  6. Approximately 50,000 records will be extracted to make up a test database by the end of this week. Training will take place December 7-9 for testing this sample database. Testing is critical, anything we want to modify after we sign off on the system will be charged. The sign off date is set for January 7, 1999. Data load should be completed by February 5, 1999. Circulation training will take place February 8, cataloging training February 15 and circulation information should be loaded February 25 -March 1.
  7. Acquisitions and Serials will be brought up in April. The Health Sciences records need to be cleaned up and loaded, and Law will be the last to come up on the system. We should be completely off the GEAC system by March 8, 1999 when we go live with circulation, the online catalog and cataloging on the new system. We will extract a gap tape because our information exchange will take place in three phases: the bib file will be loaded, then the holdings, then the gap tape.

• Old business
  1. The AAL manual will be updated at the end of the year when all standing committee have worked and updated their policies and forwarded their revisions to the steering committee.
  2. Outstanding annual reports of last year’s committees: Nominations and Elections, Merit and the Senate Library Committee.

• New business
  1. Reminder about the Staff Recognition Award.
  2. Continuing Education presentation is on Thursday.

• Meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
Sandra M. Thompson, Recorder, AAL