Five Colleges of Ohio Library Committee

1. Budget. The committee reviewed the libraries portion of the OhioLINK budget for 1998/99, made corrections, and raised questions, which Damon will transmit to Susan Palmer.

2. Documents Cataloging Project. Damon distributed copies of the contract for the new Documents Cataloging Project coordinator, Ellen Conrad, and described her background (former Government Documents associate at Wooster for 16 years) and qualifications. The Documents Subcommittee will ask Ellen to produce a budget, spend time on each campus (possibly including some evenings and weekends to work with student copy catalogers), and investigate the best way to do original cataloging (including discussing TechPro with OhioLINK and seeing about getting enhancement status for the project). Denison has a laptop computer that she can use. Each campus will provide her some space to work. The subcommittee will meet with her Thursday, July 16, at Kenyon.

Ray raised the possibility of using some of the grant money to increase Cecelia’s hours at Oberlin so that she could oversee the project there. Damon responded that the documents librarians from the other four institutions had agreed to absorb this staff cost internally for both the local supervising librarian and the student workers. Denison is actually hiring a part-time person at its own expense to oversee this work and to assist in Documents while Mary Prophet is acting director. Ray said that Oberlin would find a way to do its part also.

3. Information Literacy Project. Ray reported that the Information Literacy Task Force has developed a proposal, has been tweaking it, and will discuss it at Kenyon on Tuesday. Then it will be put in grant-proposal form. One possibility to include in the proposal is participation by one or more of our librarians in the National Literacy Initiative Effort (NLIE) 4.5-day immersion program in July 1999 at Plattsburg State University to discuss issues concerning the training of academic librarians in information literacy and how we can become trainers and advocates and provide support at our colleges for information literacy. The program will be for new librarians, librarians who have not been teaching, and mid-career instruction librarians who will assume a leadership role in information literacy.

It is clear that each of our campuses faces a different situation regarding faculty involvement and staffing patterns, and a grant needs to be tailored in such a way as to take this into account. Ray will speak with Susan Palmer about the process of writing the proposal and about circulating drafts for ideas. Mellon and Pugh seem to be likely possibilities. 4. Systems Librarian. Since Frank Wojcik is moving to Kenyon as director of information resources, we need to seek a new CONSORT systems librarian. Frank agreed to chair the Search Committee, which will include Judy Orahood (OWU), Gil Chang (DEN), Donna Wilson (KEN), Margo Warner Curl (WOO), and Bill Quimby (KEN). An initial meeting was set for Friday, July 17, 10:00 a.m., at Kenyon. Frank has also agreed to be the new person’s site supervisor, which raises the issue of whether the person should work at Kenyon or at Denison. Frank felt that it could be either, although the person will have to work with the computer services people at Denison. (Since Frank plans to continue living in Granville and commuting to Kenyon, he could work with the person at either place.) The time needed to take care of the system varies a lot from full-time to less. Frank distributed a draft job description, and the committee added HTML and Unix experience to the qualifications, and suggested that the duties be amended to include training and serving as a resource for library applications other than systems. Skills needed include strong interpersonal skills and knowledge of Innovative Interfaces and OCLC. The work includes problem-solving, helping people, retraining, finding ways to use the system to enhance cooperative collection development, and a variety of other issues (machine- related, interlibrary loan, circulation, cataloging, etc.). He or she must be a trainer and teacher, and must be willing and able to travel to each campus. Much of the advertising for the position can be done via various free lists: LIBJOBS, OhioLINK, OHIONET, Innovative, and Five Colleges. Frank hopes to place an ad within ten days.

5. Resolution of appreciation. The committee asked the chair to write a letter to Dave Pilachowski expressing its deep appreciation for his leadership, both in the inception of the Five Colleges and in the development of the library part of it, and for his colleagueship and friendship, and to wish him well as college librarian at Williams College.

6. Other. Ray encouraged everyone to try out the new OhioLINK database server, which is a good blend of basic and expert searching. The meeting adjourned for a tour of the Wooster’s new Timken Science Library in Frick Hall, followed by lunch.

Damon D. Hickey, chair