What: Minutes of the December 12, 2003 meeting
Where: Molinaro 236 Conference Room
Who: Committee Members Lester McCann (chair), Al Crist, Dennis Kaufman, Mary Lenard, and John Longeway
Absent: Gwen Miller (excused) Guest: Barb Baruth, Interim Director of the UW-Parkside Library

The meeting began with the establishment of a quorum at 10:15 a.m.

The minutes of the October 6th meeting were approved without modification.

Interim Director Baruth gave the committee an overview of the library's budget concerns as they involve the book and serials budget, and their plans to address those concerns.

The UW-Parkside's library has a combined book and serials budget of approximately $550,000 annually. This amount has been nearly constant for at least the past four years. During this time, the costs for periodicals have grown at faster rates than the costs for books. Because the percentage of the budget devoted to serials has been maintained at approximately 78% for the same four year period, the amount of money available for books has decreased and is in danger of becoming insignificant in upcoming years if conditions continue.

Since 1997, the library has saved over $82,000 through migration from print to electronic subscriptions, reductions in microfilm, cancellations of internal standing orders, and subscription nonrenewals. In order to increase the book budget percentage from 22% to a goal of 30%, the library will be looking to reduce its periodical budget by approximately
$40,000 by eliminating subscriptions for infrequently used and high cost-per-use publications that are determined to be expendable.

In mid-December, the library is planning to email the faculty and instructional staff with an explanation of the periodical reduction plan. Early in the spring semester, the library anticipates providing academic departments with lists of periodicals related to their disciplines. The lists will include usage information and suggested candidates for cancellation. Department chairs will be asked to respond to the library with their suggestions and concerns after consulting with their faculty and staff members.

The committee members agreed that it was reasonable to reduce some periodical expenditures to permit more book acquisitions. The state of the book collection has been a concern for several years, as noted in patron surveys. The committee offered Baruth several suggestions to help the faculty and instructional staff understand the rationale behind and implications of the proposed periodical reduction. These included:

- Explain why trading periodicals for books is desirable
- Provide an example or two of the current costs of periodicals
- Prepare the chairs for the change in advance of the spring announcement
- Step up education of faculty and instructional staff regarding electronic versions of the periodicals in their fields
- Be prepared to help faculty and staff learn how to locate and access periodicals in electronic form

In miscellaneous business:

o The chair distributed schedule forms for the spring semester. The members were asked to complete and return them to the chair.

o Committee members were encouraged to attend as many of the Director of Computer and Network Services candidate sessions as possible. The final three candidates are to be on campus December 15th, 17th, and 19th. Each of those days, the 2:00 - 3:00 hour is reserved for the candidate to meet with the IRC, Deans, and Faculty in the library classroom (150J). The description for the position is available at http://oldweb.uwp.edu/employment/cnsdir.cfm.

o Committee members were reminded of the opportunity to see the capabilities of Desire2Learn. Sessions are available on December 12th at noon and December 18th at 1:00, both in the classroom in the library's D-level.

No time was set for the next meeting. The chair will call a meeting when a sufficient quantity or urgency of business has accumulated.

Meeting adjourned at 11:05 a.m.

Minutes taken by the chair.