Collection Management Committee Meeting: May 13, 2020

Zoom / Conference Call

Members attending: David Bell, co-chair (Eastern Illinois University), Daniel Blewett, co-chair (College of DuPage), Chad Buckley (Illinois State University), Keith Eiten (Wheaton College), Kelli Getz (DePaul University), Lorene Kennard (University of St. Francis), Paolo Gujilde (Northwestern University), Gretchen Schneider (Oakton Community College), Scott Thomson (Rush University)

CARLI staff present: Elizabeth Clarage and Jennifer Masciadrelli

Tasks Assigned

  • Lorene Kennard will make final suggested changes to the minutes and submit them to Elizabeth Clarage and Jen Masciadrelli.
  • Elizabeth will create an invite for one final meeting of the Alma Analytics subgroup to perform data cleanup on their project.
  • Dan Blewett will draft a message for a call for 2020-2021 chair/co-chairs to be sent out to the committee members in June.
  • David Bell will send a draft of the annual report to be reviewed once he gathers all the subcommittee reports.

Decisions & Deadlines

  • The committee will not meet in June.
  • CARLI extended the submission date to August 15 for the annual report and annual projects.

Announcements

  • CARLI Update:
    • The Alma migration is still on schedule and on track.
    • We have reached the technical freeze in both Voyager and in the Alma configuration.
    • Data extracts are proceeding as anticipated.
    • We will go live with Alma for all I-Share libraries on June 24.
    • CARLI is looking at what the schedule will be for review of instances; once decided, expectations will be covered in an open office hours on how to proceed.
    • The CARLI Board had a virtual meeting. They approved a cut of the FY21 membership fees of 10%. For now, FY22 will remain unchanged. The board decided to pause the following special initiatives: the professional development reimbursement program and the mobile digitization lab. Gale has agreed to not increase prices for FY21 if participating libraries commit to purchase by July 1st. After July 1st, libraries will be charged the capped amounts from contract. InfoBase prices will remain as quoted. Lexis Nexis will not increase in FY21. Ovid lowered their prices by 2% for most of their products. EBSCO will offer a rebate that will be passed on to members offering a 3% reduction to renewals.
    • A meeting was held about the implementation and marketing for the Wiley contract. This will be an evidenced base program. CARLI members will have access to Wiley ebook titles from 2017- current. CARLI will use usage statistics to inform purchasing selection the next year. CARLI will let the membership know what items were used by their patrons and what will and will not be purchased by CARLI.
    • The Oxford University Press ebook contract is still pending. It is currently being reviewed by purchasing and legal.
  • Member announcements:
    • David Bell (Eastern Illinois University): The university is planning for classes to be in person during the Fall semester. Classes are only online for the summer. The library building is currently open reduced hours with the computer lab being open for students with restricted access and social distancing.
    • Daniel Blewett (College of DuPage): The library is shifting to ebooks purchases. They are developing plans for limited access. Full-time librarians will be off campus for reference, and the college is planning hybrid classes for the Fall semester. Collection development will focus on electronic resources for a least a year. One full-time staff member is retiring next month. They are not sure if will be filled. Virtual study rooms are being provided in Blackboard for students to check out. The library checked out 300 laptops to students. The college may have to budget for replacements (the library is unsure that they will get back all the laptops).
    • Chad Buckley (Illinois State University): The university is seeing some decline in enrollment and is planning for budget revisions. The library has open searches for 2 non-tenure track librarian positions.
    • Keith Eiten (Wheaton College): The library was informed that there will be a budget reduction, mostly out of acquisition budget and some from the faculty development budget. They are still planning on the structure for fall semester.
    • Kelli Getz (DePaul University): People are working from home. The library building is closed at least through summer up to June 15. The college has concerns for the safety of their community using public transportation. The spending freeze has been lifted. Collection policy makers are considering going e-only for summer, possibly fall as well. Working on a cancellation project for monographs since the library knows it will be taking a hit to their budget. The library is waiting tuition numbers before making more budget plans. There is restructuring in the library because of hiring freeze.
    • Lorene Kennard (University of St. Francis): Lorene has been furloughed for the Summer semester along with 16 full-timers and most part-timers at the university. Anyone not furloughed will have a pay cut. Furloughed employees can get unemployment and still keep  their benefits, and are furloughed until August. The library has given up some of their budget. No money will be spent on print books. The main floor of the library is still open. Classes will only be online during the summer.
    • Paolo Gujilde (Northwestern University): The library building is closed, and they are not sure when they will open. While working from home, he is cleaning up acquisitions in Alma. Northwestern is furloughing 250 staff members for the summer including some staff in the library. Hopefully, furloughed staff will be recalled September 1st. The financial budget can be found at: https://www.northwestern.edu/coronavirus-covid-19-updates/developments/financial-update.html. They are unsure what the library budget will look like (their fiscal year starts in September).
    • Gretchen Schneider (Oakton Community College): The budget for the library has not been impacted for fiscal year 2021. Collection development will be focused on e-resources for now, and there will be a reduction in print periodicals. The college will be providing online Contact Tracing classes this summer. Classes are online this summer. Classes are being planned for in-person with a caveat that they may become hybrid or online based on the state of the COVID-19 crisis. The library is hiring 2 people, one full-time tenure tract faculty position and one full-time staff position.
    • Scott Thomson (Rush University): Administration took pay cuts. There is a hiring freeze. All full-time salaried employees are taking a week of PTO. The library is reducing its budget, and renovations are on hold. lasses are online during the summer. Enrollment should be stable.

Discussion

  • Annual Report
    • David Bell has received reports from the various subcommittees and has added them to his template for the annual report.
    • David sent the draft for the report to the committee. He is asking everyone on a subcommittee to designate someone to write their portion of the report for the committee if they haven’t already. He will send the draft of the full report to everyone once it is put together for the committee to review.
  • Alma Analytics
    • The group will hold one final meeting to do data cleanup and review. They submitted the draft for the annual report and finished most of the blurbs needed for the website.
  • Collection Development Help-Consultants
    • The group submitted a draft for the annual report.
  • Open Access Ebooks
    • The group submitted the draft for the annual report and will continue as a subcommittee in future.
  • Weeding Ebooks
    • The subcommittee met last week and are working towards August 15 as the date to finish the project. They submitted their draft for the annual report.
  • Change in Membership & Leadership
    • The committee said farewell to Gretchen Schneider since this was the last meeting she will be attending.
    • Dan Blewett will send out a call for leadership to the membership in June to find candidates willing to serve as chairs or co-chairs for the committee next year.

Next Meeting and Deadlines

The next meeting will be held in July (date to be determined). Scott Thomson will take minutes.