New Business —

• The committee members go around and introduce themselves. Steve Bien-Aime is the chair this year.

• Josh Bolick, chair of the Library Faculty Assembly, will be talk a bit later about “Open Access.”

   

• Dean Carol Smith visits to the committee about the KU Libraries Strategic Access team and the Watson Library Renovation Project:
  • Carol is the dean of Libraries. Libraries are critical to the academic and research infrastructure of the university. 

  • Watson and Anschutz are in sincere need of updates. An architect has been hired for this. There’s a meeting coming up soon in which Carol will learn more but hopes that Anschutz is a central part of the campus master plan. 

     

• Watson is being envisioned as a center for “research and discovery” while Anschutz is part of the “student success” master plan center.
• We may have some committee work to do on Anschutz. Both Watson and Anschutz are entirely dependent on securing funds to expand the “off-site library annex,” our high-density off-site remote storage.
• For us to have more user-centered, student-centered space, we got to move the books out and we’re running out of space. 

• Open Educational Resources (OER) Updates:
• Josh and Heather MacBean presented to the deans last fall a proposal to invest in open educational resources focusing on high enrollment courses with high DFW rates -- to hopefully increase student retention in these.
• While Provost will be stepping down, she has put a substantial amount of funding in OERS and high impact courses: $75,000 a year over a 3-year period.
• The deans will be leading this proposal. Josh and Heather, along with input from Academic Affairs, will be helping.
• This is an important proposal and Carol would love the committee’s help and insights to elevate this work.

• Please pass along a thank you to Provost for her support.

   

• KU Libraries has a strategic plan :
  • Making great progress on this by internally structuring ourselves.
  • We have objective teams that are working on initiatives such as:
    • Open data repository
    • Institutional data repository – this is a companion to our Scholar Works repository. Publications in institutional data repository help make research data more available.
    • Carol would like to see a campus open data policy.

Wages remain a concern across campus for all of us. Libraries are among the lowest paid faculty on campus. Low faculty wages impact staff wages. KU Libraries has about 50% staff, and we can’t function without staff. If you’re in a room talking about wages, which is a top KU priority, please remember the Libraries.

A committee member asks how this committee can help do this: 

• It may be helpful to identify one or two areas for the committee to focus on collectively as a governing body to bring forward and amplify and put in front of the right people at the right opportunities.
• It’s also helpful to become more educated about library opportunities and initiatives. In your departments, with your students, and the various committees you serve on -  you are a voice. 

Josh Bolick talks to the committee about Open Access: 

• Josh works on scholarly publishing issues and advocacy for open access in addition to retaining rights as creators of your scholarship.
• The “Open Access Advisory Board” helps with figuring out the mechanics and implementation of this:
• The board provides input and perspectives on library issues and the Open Access Policy.
• The Open Access Advisory Board would like to hear thoughts on the potential revisions to the Open Access process of policy implementation. 

• Josh would love to hear the committee’s thoughts on the revisions to the Open Access policy that the board has suggested. 

   

Perhaps this spring, this committee should put significant focus on the Open Access policy and suggested revisions. 

Work between committee meetings would be helpful. This committee can advocate for resources, especially with the recent round of budget cuts. 

There are also high hopes for renovations. Provost has helped advocate for Watson renovation which is greatly appreciated. 

Agenda for December can include Quick Talking Points/Facts Page for the Libraries, Budget, Open Access, Renovations from various perspectives (including students as they use the libraries from day to night). Maybe Nathan could give a student perspective? 

Meeting Adjourned.