2011-12 Council on Libraries, Information Systems and Computing (LISC)
Minutes
April 30, 2012
1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
AS-122
Attendance: Nancy Newman, Chair; Bruce Dudek; Charles Hartman; Larry Raffalovich; Lisa
Trubitt; Christine Haile; Bill Ziman; Abebe Rorissa; Kimberly Van Orman (for Bill Roberson)
Jean Guyon (recorder)
1. Report from the Chair: Nancy Newman
Approval of the minutes of the April 2nd meeting was postponed until revisions can be made.
Nancy will ask Deb Dickerson to revise and send under separate cover to the Council for
review and/or approval, with suggestions noted.
2. Chair’s Report: 2012-2013 membership
Nancy presented the Senate Council Roster with the proposed LISC membership for the
2012-2013 Senate year. Nancy noted the following new members for LISC for the coming
year: Evgeny Dikarev (Assoc. Prof., CAS/Chemistry); Eliot Rich (Assoc. Prof., School of
Business); Meredith Weiss (Assoc. Prof., Rockefeller College); Mark Wolfe (Sr. Asst.
Librarian, Univ. Libraries); Elizabeth Gaffney (Asst. Dean, CAS). Changes to the Roster will
be voted on at the 4/30 Senate meeting.
3. Information Technology Committee: Larry Raffalovich & CIO’s Report: Chris Haile
Larry Raffalovich reported that the IT Committee has not met since the last LISC meeting.
Chris Haile stated that the final version of the Responsible Use Policy was distributed to
CAFFECoR and that Council approved the draft document without revisions. Chris said the
document was then reviewed by University Counsel John Reilly, who made some changes
to the language, mostly in an effort to clarify and make more explicit the University’s policies
and procedures for protecting the UA computing network. Specifically, Chris indicated that
Reilly made changes to several paragraphs in the section entitled Protecting the
University Network. According to Chris, the changes John Reilly made were based on a
review of Responsible Use policies of several peer institutions, particularly Ohio State.
Nancy opened the floor for discussion of the policy. A question was raised about the
timeframe for distributing the policy to LISC for review; Lisa Trubitt indicated that the policy
was still undergoing final revisions as late as c.o.b. Friday, 4/27 and that the policy was
released to LISC as soon as those final edits were completed. Some Council members
expressed concerns regarding the absence of language relating to the role of LISC in
developing and reviewing the policy. Chris indicated that while such language may have
appeared in previous versions of the Policy, reference to internal governance was removed
from the current version on advice of University Counsel. Several Council members voiced
concern regarding this change, indicating that in the current iteration, the language does not
fully realize and is not in keeping with the original intent of the suggestions made by the IT
committee and discussed by LISC as a whole regarding the role of governance in reviewing
and approving University policies. Since it is unclear whether LISC has the authority to
suggest revisions to John Reilly’s proposed changes, or whether the policy should move
forward as is to the Senate, where an open a debate on the role of governance might be
realized, it was agreed that a separate meeting should take place between John and the IT
committee to discuss the spirit and intent of this portion of the policy as well as concerns
regarding privacy and the monitoring of content. Nancy will work with Lisa to arrange the
meeting this week. Nancy indicated that any additional suggestions for changes to the
wording should be circulated via email to all LISC members as soon as possible. She will
check with the SEC on the deadline for submission of a bill in time for the Senate’s final
meeting of the year, May 14.
4. Library Committee: Charles Hartman
Charles Hartman stated that the Library Committee met on 4/13. Mary Van Ullen, Associate
Director for Collections, University Libraries attended that meeting to discuss departmental
allocations of the Libraries’ budget. Mary Van Ullen said that the existing allocations are
historical and have not been revised in many years. Since the Libraries are preparing to
revise departmental allocations, Mary wanted the Library Committee and LISC as a whole to
be aware of the pending revisions and advised the Library Committee of how the process
will move forward. Mary indicated there are different options for assessing the allocations,
including comparing our current formula with other universities’ formulas or developing a
formula independently. Discussion ensued regarding LISC and the Library Committee’s role
in assisting in the re-allocation process. It was suggested that the Library Committee might
help develop a survey, including a list of questions and topics that could be used to help
analyze current needs of each department on campus. Mary Van Ullen indicated that the
timeframe for the reevaluation has not been determined yet but ideally, should be done fairly
soon. Charles indicated that this process should be included on the LISC / Library
Committee agenda for the coming year, as it clearly falls within the provenance of LISC.
5. Strategic Plan Working Group, “Emerging Technology:” Bruce Dudek, liaison
Bruce Dudek stated that the sub-groups have met and succeeded in narrowing down a long
list of ideas into several focus points, which will be prioritized at subsequent meetings.
6. Announcements and New Business
There being no further business, Larry Raffalovich motioned to adjourn (Haile second).