NJLA College and University Section

ACRL/NJ Chapter

Executive Board Meeting

Minutes

Dec. 3, 2004

Alexander Library, Rutgers-New Brunswick; Sprague Library, Montclair State University; Potter Library, Ramapo College

Present: Barbara Belicose, Margaret Deng, Karen Hartman, Frances Kaufmann, Nancy Madacsi, Marc Meola, Penny Page (Rutgers-New Brunswick); Ruth Hamann, Carol Nurse, Luis Rodriguez (Montclair); Judith Jeney, Annemarie Mascarenhas (Ramapo)

Call to order: 10:15 a.m.

Minutes: The minutes of the Nov. 5, 2004, meeting were approved.

President’s Report—Fran Kaufmann

The deadline for final program proposals for the NJLA conference was Dec. 1. Fran submitted our luncheon program proposal, and she has received a tentative schedule giving us a two-hour time slot on Wed., Apr. 13, from 12:30-2:30 p.m. Our luncheon speaker, Elizabeth Kirk from Johns Hopkins, will be arriving Tuesday night via train. The Conference Committee will make her reservations and cover her expenses. Fran will pick her up from the train and take her to dinner Tues. night. The title of her talk will be “Charting the Right Course: Thoughts on Mission in Action.” Although not stated in her title, her talk will include reflections on setting up and managing entrepreneurial library programs. She will also address the broader issue of helping libraries make sound decisions about offering non-traditional library services. Fran offered a tentative schedule for the luncheon program: networking from 12:30-1:00 (with salads served at the tables); results of elections, report of chapter activities, and awards from 1:00-1:30; then the speaker would have 45 minutes, allowing a 15 minute wrap-up at the end. Barbara Belicose suggested that we shorten the speaker’s time about 10 minutes to allow for questions at the end (unless the speaker prefers to take questions during the talk; Fran will check on this).

The VALE Users Conference will be Jan. 6 at the Busch Campus Center at Rutgers-Piscataway. The registration form is now online at the VALE website, and the deadline is Dec. 15. All participants should register so that the conference planners can get an accurate count. Registration is free, thanks to vendor sponsorship. Ruth reported an enthusiastic response for the poster sessions; there will be 8-9 poster presentations.

Chapter Topics is the ACRL online newsletter that comes out twice/year. Fran sent a chapter report focusing on the activities we’re co-sponsoring. She received an announcement from the NY chapter about a program being held today (Dec. 3) on scholarly communication. Mary Mallery is giving a poster presentation at this program.

Committee Reports:

User Education—Annemarie Mascarenhas

The committee met on Nov. 19 at Westfield High School and had a wonderful tour of the school facilities. They discussed planning for a two-day summer program to be held Aug. 11-12, possibly at Brookdale Community College. The theme will be “Information literacy across the curriculum” (building on last year’s program). The committee submitted a final proposal for their NJLA program on plagiarism, with Vib Bowman talking about her new book on the topic.

Membership—Carol Nurse

Our special membership program scheduled for Oct. 22 was canceled for low registration. However, the theme was used by someone in a scholarship essay contest. We will try again at a later date to schedule something. One problem with recruitment may be that people do not understand how our group fits in with NJLA or ACRL. Fran will try to address this in her report at the NJLA conference luncheon. Carol will be attending ALA Midwinter.

Job Shadowing—Luis Rodriguez

Luis will send another announcement to librarians in January to seek more volunteers for the program. He will send an announcement to student listservs in late January or early February.

Legislative Liaison—Luis Rodriguez

Luis reported on a recent federal court decision that denied a challenge to the copyright law that would have made it easier to make copies (print or digital) of works that are out-of-print and no longer available to the public but are still under copyright.

Funds for the Knowledge Initiative are currently frozen. Acting Governor Cody froze all newly-appropriated monies when he entered office, and this includes the KI funds. Monies are slowly being released, and the State Library feels confident that the KI funds will be restored.

Technology Committee—Barbara Belicose

The committee made a late change to their proposal form for the Technology Innovation Award; the winner(s) will be asked to make a presentation at the upcoming NJLA conference. The revised proposal form is on the website but has not yet been sent to library listservs. The date for nominees to give their presentations to the committee is March 10, and the tentative site is Monmouth University. All interested persons are invited to attend. The committee will select the winner on that date. The winner will have to register for the NJLA conference, but the committee will request lunch to be covered. The board discussed the possibility of finding a vendor or other organization/institution to provide an honorarium. This would have to be approved by the NJLA Executive Board, and there would not be time to resolve this for the upcoming conference. The committee will investigate the possibility for next year.

Research Committee—Karen Hartman

The call for submissions for the Research Award and the Research Forum will go out on Dec. 6. Seton Hall will again provide an honorarium for the Research Award. The committee has also submitted a second proposal for the NJLA conference for a program entitled “Qualitative Research for Librarians,” which will feature a panel with Dan O’Connor, Marie Radford, and Patricia Libutti. The Research Forum is scheduled for 2:30-4:20, immediately after our luncheon at the NJLA conference. Please encourage colleagues to submit abstracts for presentations, as well as nominations for the Research Award. Karen is doing a poster for the VALE conference which will display past award winners and some abstracts.

Distinguished Service Award—Marc Meola

Marc reviewed last year’s announcement and updated it for 2005. He will have this posted on the website and will send to VALE and ACALIBS listservs. Penny Page will send the announcement to the RUL list, and Nancy Madacsi will distribute to the Council of NJ Library Directors’ list. Marc noted that our Section awards are not listed on NJLA’s webpage of awards. We do have a list of most recent award winners on our Section website, and Marc will ask NJLA if they can link to this from their awards section.

Newsletter—Fran Kaufmann (for Nicole Cooke and Pat Fazio)

The fall issue has been mailed. Many thanks to Connie Paul and the Central Regional Cooperative for doing the printing. Nicole will begin soliciting material for the spring issue in January. Pat informed Fran that she sent out 396 newsletters this fall, an increase over last year’s 360 total. This represents over 40 new members. The board questioned how many new members came from ACRL vs. NJLA. Fran will try to get membership lists from both (if possible without fee) to see if we can determine.

Old Business:

Bylaws—Fran Kaufmann

The revised bylaws have been posted to the website. Fran thanked Penny Page for her editorial work and thanked all members of the board and committee chairs for all their hard work over the year. Special thanks to Vib Bowman and Ruth Hamann for their work on VALE conference planning.

New Business:

Luis Rodriguez reported that Jersey Clicks has stripped out all academic barcodes and IP ranges, so the only access now is via public library card. Montclair Public Library has offered library cards to anyone working at Montclair State, and many other public libraries in the state will probably do the same for those working in their areas. Jersey Clicks offers access to Ebsco’s Business Source Elite.

Next Meeting: There will be no January meeting due to the VALE Users Conference. Members are urged to register and attend. The next meeting will be Friday, Feb. 4 at 10:00 a.m.; we will teleconference between Rutgers-New Brunswick and Camden, Montclair State, and Ramapo.

Adjournment: 11:05 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Penny B. Page

Secretary