Grundy Reporter

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Senate Committee on Library met Nov. 7.

Here is the minutes provided by the committee:

Present: Chair Catharine Gray, Rabin Bhattarai, Rudolf Haken, Pia Hunter, Hedda Meadan- Kaplansky, Venkatasubramanian Venkateswaran

Ex officio: John Wilkin

Absent: John Boesche, Caitlin Kingsley, Thomas Kuipers, Mimi Nguyen

A regular meeting of the Senate Committee on Library (LB) was called to order at 1:05 pm with Chair Gray presiding.

I. INTRODUCTIONS

Introductions were made.

II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Approval of the minutes for the February 8, 2019, March 8, 2019, April 19, 2019, and September 24, 2019 meetings was deferred due to a lack of quorum.

III. PUBLIC COMMENT

No requests received.

IV. CHAIR’S REMARKS

No remarks.

V. UPDATES BY DEAN OF LIBRARY

Copies of the Strategic Framework 2019-23 and the “Transformative agreements report” for Library Office Notes, November 2019, were distributed.

Dean Wilkin shared that the Library completed an inclusive and comprehensive strategic planning process in late summer. The results of that process are online and referenced in the Strategic Framework 2019-23 document. The process that produced the plan relied on the Library’s divisional structure to ensure broad representation, incorporated feedback from the Library’s executive committee and administrative team, and engaged most of the Library’s faculty and staff at a half-day retreat. The plan is being utilized to shape strategic investments, departmental planning, and individual goals.

Dean Wilkin reported that the University’s FY20 budget allocation for the Library was generous and coincided with his negotiations for terms around his reappointment. The Provost has made a commitment to meet most Library collection inflationary needs. Dean Wilkin mentioned the need to examine commitments to materials with very low use and high cost, or materials that are no longer in scope for the collection needs. This robust commitment to supporting the Library’s collection is unusual (e.g., Northwestern’s 8% reduction vs. nearly 5% increase in the budget). Additionally, funding was provided for the all of the Library requests, including:

• Data Science position

• Chief Diversity Officer

• Illinois Distributed Museum support

• State-mandated wage increase

Dean Wilkin conveyed the Provost made two other commitments as part of the negotiations related to his reappointment:

• A strong commitment to supporting funding for the Library building project

• Ongoing attention to trends in the Library’s budget, giving consideration to the

possibility of aligning growth with growth of the budgets of the schools and colleges.

Dean Wilkin reported he will be establishing a Dean’s Advisory Committee on Collections comprised of faculty. The goal of the committee will be to ensure the highest level of engagement around the directions taken with the shape of the collection and the departmental libraries.

Dean Wilkin mentioned the rampant inflation with journal subscriptions which are typically four times the rate of inflation. Outside of the United States, there has been significant movement toward negotiating a different form of agreement with publishers, where the current amount of spending is shifted to payments to publish, and where “reading” comes along as a no-cost corollary benefit. This form of “transformative agreement” is called a “publish & read” or PAR agreement.

Dean Wilkin recently attended two meetings on behalf of the Big Ten Academic Alliance and the University, one with Andy Suarez, Head of the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior, and the other a meeting of Chief Negotiators in Berlin. In Berlin, he learned that by the end of the year, over 50% of all of the agreements in Germany will be PAR agreements and not subscriptions, and that number is much higher in some countries like Hungary. For purposes today, he presented the concept of PARs and committed to providing updates about the transformative agreements at future meetings.

LB questioned how PAR would work for students. Dean Wilkin indicated the Library would pay a portion of the cost to publish in the multi-payer model. Dean Wilkin noted that in some cases the PAR cost could be less than the subscription price to a journal.

VI. OLD BUSINESS

LB.19.03, 2018-2019 Annual Report

Chair Gray requested LB review the report and provide any suggested revisions to her for discussion at the next meeting.

LB.20.01, Review of the Bylaws, Part D.15 – Committee on the Library

LB discussed the Bylaws, Part D.15 to determine if there were any revisions needed to its duties or membership.

LB recommended that the following language be added to the existing duties:

The Committee shall advise the Chancellor on the appointment and annual reappointment of the director of the campus Library. In addition, it will coordinate with the faculty of the campus library to evaluate the performance of the director at least every five years.

LB also recommended reducing the faculty terms from three years to two years.

LB will continue its review of the Bylaws, Part D.15 at the next meeting.

VII. NEW BUSINESS

No new business.

VIII. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 1:58 pm.

https://uofi.app.box.com/v/Library/file/569873536540