2012-13 Council on Libraries, Information Systems and Computing (LISC)
Minutes
March 4, 2013
3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
AS-122
Attendance: Elizabeth Gaffney, Chair; Christine Haile; Jean Guyon; Evgeny Dikarev;
Eliot Rich; Bill Ziman; Cary Gouldin; Debra Dickerson; Mary Casserly; Kimberly Van
Orman
1. Report from the Chair: Elizabeth Gaffney
The February 4, 2013 minutes were put to vote and unanimously approved by the
Committee.
2. Dean of Libraries – Mary Casserly
Personnel
Mary announced that, after one unsuccessful search last year, the search for the
Head of Library Systems has been successful. Five candidates were interviewed
and the job was offered to one of those candidates, and he has accepted. He will
start in April.
Mary Jane Brustman, the Associate Director for Public Services, will retire at the end
of July. This position is a critical one, and Mary is currently in the process of talking
to the faculty and staff about how the Public Services Division is currently organized,
how it should be organized in the future and the skills, experience and qualifications
that the person leading this division will need.
Replacement Computers for the Libraries’ Information Commons
Last year ITS was not able to replace any of the Libraries’ computers because the
SCAP funding that the campus was using for that purpose was no longer being
made available. Both Chris and Mary lobbied for funding to replace computers this
year and received $125,000 for this purpose. This translates into replacing about
125 of the 316 PCs located in the three libraries. The computers that are replaced
will then be used to replace even older computers elsewhere on campus.
Library Facilities
On Monday, March 4, Mary and her staff met with Campus Planning. The project to
provide more data and electrical outlets, as well as to update the lighting is moving
along.
Mary added that, although most of the Library’s budget is spent on personnel and
collections, a fair amount is spent each year to keep the facilities and furniture up-todate. Campus Facilities provides some funding for some of this but not all. Both
LISC Meeting
March 4, 2013
state funds and the Library Development Fund are used for this purpose. Over the
last 15 months we have added or replaced:
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Nemschoff cylinder coffee tables for ULIB 1st floor north group study (Qty 14)
Steelcase computer workstations for Dewey Library basement study area
(Qty 12)
Haworth Very Seating for ULIB AV Playback area (Qty 24)
Herman Miller Caper chairs for student seating in the University Library
Periodicals Room (Qty 45)
Carpet Replacement: AV Playback Room LI-B002, Assoc. Director for
Technical Services & Library Systems office LI-B34F, Acquisition Services
staff area LI-B34G, Interlibrary Loan offices LI-110 & LI-125, Computer
Classroom, LI-B48, Science Library Offices SL-141,142, 143, 144, & 145
Sidewalk Lounge chairs for the Science Library Barnes & Nobel Reading
Room (Qty 16)
Sidewalk Lounge chairs for the Science Library Second floor study area (Qty
8)
Bernhardt conference chairs for the Science Library Standish Room (Qty 20)
Carpet repair in the ULIB Current Periodicals Reading Room, carpet
replacement in Preservation Office
3. Report from CIO - Christine Haile
Chris reported that the Research IT Group and Atmospheric Sciences held a
ceremony on February 21 for a new computational cluster. The cluster will be used
for atmospheric modeling and general computation by the DAES research faculty. It
is the most powerful and architecturally advanced computation cluster at UAlbany.
Chris and the Provost are looking at On-line Learning for the University. The current
state and future of Online Teaching and Learning (OTL) emerged as a very
important focus of the 2010 University at Albany's Strategic Plan. A group of faculty,
students, and staff were asked to review our current structure and practices, toward
a goal of establishing a more intentional approach to online learning at
UAlbany. Their interim report and recommendations are expected in draft by March
15. Chris asked that faculty fill out the survey that was distributed.
Eliot Rich asked if ITS plans on pushing out the 2013 Microsoft suite to the campus.
Chris said she would look into it and respond via email to the Committee.
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LISC Meeting
March 4, 2013
4. Other Business
Elizabeth stated that nothing has been sent from the Senate so if there is anything
the Committee should be exploring further, please respond to Elizabeth directly. A
suggestion was made to include a presentation on the integration of Blackboard and
Eres (E-reserves) at one of its meetings.
Adjournment
The next meeting is scheduled for April 1, 2013 from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. in AS-122.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m.
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