Strategic Planning Committee Minutes, May 13, 2002

Strategic Planning (SPC) Committee Minutes
May 13, 2002

MEMBERS PRESENT:: Bruce Morton, Mark Sheehan, Kay Chafey, Jon Wraith,. John Carlsten, Mary Noll.

MEMBERS ABSENT: Greg Johnson, Bill Brown, Jaynee Groseth, Betsy Centa, ASMSU representative.

OTHERS PRESENT: Ben Sharp, Kathy Attebury.

The meeting was convened by Bruce Morton, Chair, at 3:00 PM.

As Dean of the Libraries, Bruce Morton discussed the current situation in the Libraries and plans for the future.

The 1991 university accreditation report gave the Libraries a rating of a C-. This rating did not change during most of the 90's, but today, Dean Morton would give the Libraries a rating of a "B". Several things have been done to bring this about. The Libraries has moved aggressively toward providing electronic journals and obtaining off-budget IDC's to fund additional library resources. In most cases, hard copy subscriptions to journals are not being kept if there is also an electronic subscription.. This cuts down on handling, shelving, and archiving. Some archiving of journals is now being provided through a private company, so archival material will continue to be available; there are also experimental archiving relationships being explored by Harvard and publishers. Part of the Libraries' strategy is to assume a distributed learning environment and be positioned to provide support for it.

Sharing of resources with libraries at other units of the MSU system is our operational default mode, however there are exceptions when it either does not make economic sense or is not feasible. Dean Morton has nominal administrative responsibility at the Great Falls COT but not at Northern or at MSU-Billings. All the MSU libraries now have the same book approval plan and the same serials vendors. There is some coordinated staffing. For example, when a vacancy occurs at one of the libraries, consideration is given to how it should be filled to serve a niche in the system, not just at the one school. The Dean would prefer to see a unified budget and staffing for the collective MSU Libraries, but this is not likely.

From the current renovation, the Library is gaining little additional space-about 12,000 sq/ft. Most of the renovation money is being spent to address issues that will bring the building up to current codes. However, some stacks will have been added, as well as study space. Five student study rooms have been added-our only such space. If a new library were built, at least twenty-four study rooms would be desirable, so a greater number could be used in the renovated library. Traffic space also uses part of the additional space.

In comparison to MSU's Libraries, the UM Mansfield Library is more than twice the size, has a collection 2 ½ times larger, has a budget $1.25 million/yr larger, and has 70 FTE in comparison to MSU's 53 FTE. This means that MSU Libraries needs to operate differently from UM. One of the big differences currently is that MSU is depending more heavily upon electronic delivery of information. Because disciplines in the humanities and social sciences rely more upon books than journals, and these disciplines make up a larger part of the UM disciplines than they do at MSU, this difference may continue. Humanities and social science literature is also significantly less expensive than the scientific, technical, and medical literature that is dominant at MSU.

As a campus priority, Libraries and ITC would like to see an expanded joint facility, incorporating the kind of facilities now available in the Burns Telecommunication Center. Until there is opportunity for expansion, the library will probably pursue non-paper options for delivering information more aggressively. However, the ideal configuration would be to have all info-structure (Libraries, ITC, BTC) in one place.

In response to a suggestion that MSU consider keeping older material in a different building, Dean Morton stated that this may be a possibility if MSU were totally science-oriented, but the humanities and social sciences make greater use of older material than the natural and health sciences, and shelving it in a separate building would make it more difficult to access. This was in response to a question based on the model being used by the Oregon Health Sciences University.

The largest use of space in the library is stack space. This will slow as electronic access increases, but books will continue to be purchased because they are an important component of a library and relevant to MSUs curriculum. In fact, a top priority of the Libraries is to build its endowments for purchasing more books.

As with other buildings on campus, the library has higher demand at certain times of the day, week, and semester. Students are requiring more technically appropriate space. The vision for the Libraries is to eventually have a mix of wireless and plug-in space available for students and faculty.

The question was asked how the Libraries might accommodate additional growth of the student body. Dean Morton replied that if the student body grows and the Libraries does not expand, the service provided to students and faculty will be different from the service that can now be provided. Students will be more crowded, and it may become less of a quiet place to retreat and contemplate. There appeared to be agreement that overflow into the SUB is not a good option, because the SUB itself is crowded.

The SPC has been charged to consider the optimal size of MSU. How will the mix of undergraduate and graduate student affect the Libraries? Dean Morton responded that undergraduates probably need more space and more paper-based information than graduate students do, so the "mix" will affect the Libraries.

It does not appear that the U.S. will move to a national electronic (virtual) library in the future. However, the U.S. government could help libraries if the federal government negotiated national site licenses as is done in the UK, Canada, Australia, Iceland, and a few other countries.

The Libraries budget is about $4 million. One-half of this is spent on materials, one-half on staff and operations. Staff was reduced by 13% in the 1990's partly in response to budget cuts, but mostly to redirect resources.

The several retirements and resignations within the Libraries this spring will bring about a period of rebuilding the staff. The first floor renovation will be finished by September, and the third and fourth floors are to be finished by December, and this will bring positive changes.

OTHER:

The SWOT analysis is to be prepared by late August. The work done so far was preliminary so UPBAC would have some guidance from SPC in reaching FY03 budget decisions.

Committee members will be polled to find the most convenient meeting time during the summer.

As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 4:30 PM.