University Library Committee Meeting Minutes 4/14/14
Members present: A. Armstrong, B. Brown, E. Plant, T. Ravas, G. Stanley, M. Triana R.
Wakimoto
Members absent/excused: M. Baldridge, B. Clark, R. Hazen, L. Muir, S. Shen
Ex-officio member: S. Zhang
The meeting was called to order at 4:10 p.m.
The minutes from 3-10-14 were approved.
Communication Items:
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The membership Bylaw amendment was approved at the Faculty Senate.
Library Dean Update
The big news is that the Library Archives will be a repository for the Baucus papers and
will include a donation of $850,000 for processing and maintenance. A significant
portion will be spent on legal fees, as well as a full time staff person to organize the
papers. The Law School was instrumental in persuading the Senator to choose UM. The
planned Baucus Institute for Public Policy and Service will be housed in the Law School.
Archivist Donna McCrea also worked hard on this project of getting the Baucus papers to
UM. Several libraries competed for the honor, including MSU, MT Historical Society,
and Carroll College. The MSU’s Library Dean congratulated Dean Zhang.
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On April 11th, a delegation from the Central South University of Forestry and
Technology in China visited the Library Archives’ Forestry Management collection. The
visit was hosted by the College of Forestry and Conservation. The delegation was
impressed with the collection.
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The Library participated in the second annual Innovation and Imagination (II 2014) event
by hosting the creative scholarship session: Biblioclasm: The Beginnings of Book
Burning. It also sponsored a music performance as part of the reception.
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Tomorrow there is a Poetry-for-Lunch reading session from 12:00 p.m.- 1:00 p.m. The
Library has been hosting these sessions for 10 years. They are well attended by students.
In the past the poems were published in The Oval Magazine. The Library is working out
the details to publish the poems online to provide the students with exposure.
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The Library is now working on the implementation phase of the strategic plan. Action
plans at the library level are being developed.
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Recent facility improvements include the replacement of 30 year old chairs in the landing
areas (between stairs) and the installation of the Library foyer display. The current
displays are photos from the Library’s Archives. The displays will showcase primary
sources from the library’s Archival materials for research on UM and Missoula.
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Megan Stark was invited to serve as a Global Leadership Initiative Mentor. This is the
final year for the first cohort of GLI students.
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The Library budget reduction of $615,723 will come mostly from library collections
given the library’s small operating budget.
Business Items:
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The Committee discussed whether it should adopt a resolution to be presented to the
Faculty Senate. Since the library collections budget was presented to the committee in
October the library has received two additional rescissions for this fiscal year. Currently,
the library has been told to expect an 8% reduction to its total budget and no inflationary
increase to the collections budget for next fiscal year. Both of these large cuts will have
an additive impact on library collections. The President spoke to the Senate last week
about the budget and indicated that the university worked very hard to preserve the
instruction portion of the budget. It will only have a 1% reduction where other sectors
have an 8% reduction.
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Departments will be notified of the proposed resource cuts, a fairly large list, by the end
of the week. The Library collection is the infrastructure for research and teaching.
The reductions will put UM’s Library Collections far behind MSU. It will be difficult to
regain parity given that the reductions to inflationary increases are compounded each
year. One of the Library’s strategic plan goals is more collaboration with MSU and other
Montana Universities. The proposed (a joint legislative request) purchase of the
discovery system for the MUS system would integrate the library systems so that a search
would show collections at other institutions. The Libraries are working together not
competing. UM’s research focus is quite different from MSU’s.
Chair Wakimoto reminded the committee of its charge:
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Communication: The University Library Committee (ULC) communicates between
the Faculty Senate and the library administration.
Advocacy: The ULC advocates on behalf of the development and maintenance of
library resources and services as well as the needs of library stakeholders, including
faculty, students and staff, especially as communicated through the Faculty
Senate. Additionally, the committee reviews library matters as they relate to the
University’s academic mission.
Review: The ULC reviews the annual library acquisitions budget and strategic
plan. The committee participates in the selection and periodic evaluations of the
Dean of Libraries. The committee also participates in the accreditation processes
affecting or involving the Mansfield Library.
The Committee voted and unanimously approved the resolution. The final wording will
be revised and sent electronically for members to comment and approve in final form for
submitting to Faculty Senate. ASUM will be voting on a similar resolution at its’
Wednesday night meeting. It was suggested that the resolution be sent to Graduate
Council as information.
The committee will meet again on May 5th.
Good and Welfare
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Graduate Student Member Triana was congratulated on his accepted into a PhD Program
at the University of Washington.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:55p.m.
The Associated Students of the University of Montana
Resolution Regarding Library Budget Cuts
April 16, 2014
SB96-13/14
Authored by: Ryan Hazen, ASUM Senator; Shelby Ryann Dolezal, ASUM Senator
Whereas, many University of Montana (UM) students value and utilize the Mansfield Library;
Whereas, Mansfield Library collections and services serve as essential parts of the University of
Montana infrastructure for research and creative scholarship and are also vital for a strong
teaching and learning environment;
Whereas, UM is experiencing budget shortfalls;
Whereas, the Mansfield Library is undergoing a budget reduction;
Whereas, the Mansfield Library is expected to receive a higher proportion of a budget reduction
than other academic instruction departments;
Whereas, the Mansfield Library has requested that the Associated Students of the University of
Montana (ASUM) take a position on their budget reduction;
Therefore, Let It Be Resolved, ASUM requests that the President, Provost, and Vice President
for Administration and Finance not cut the library budget proportionately more than other
academic instruction departments and to provide adequate yearly inflationary increases to the
library collections budget;
Therefore, Let It Be Further Resolved, that a copy of this resolution be sent to Royce Engstrom,
President of UM; Mike Reid, Vice President of Administration and Finance; and Perry Brown,
Provost of the University of Montana; Shali Zhang, Dean of the Mansfield Library.
Passed by C
Mansfield Library - Collections Budget - 3 Year Snapshot
FY 2012 Allocation = $4,641,551 (8% Inflationary Increase)
No Rescissions
Impacts: Maintained existing resources; Added significant new resources
Comparison: MSU Library Collections FY 2012 = $4.6 Million
FY 2013 Allocation = $5,010,076 (8% Inflationary Increase)
Rescission of $201,000 after allocation
Net Collections Budget = $4,809,076
Impacts: No new resources added
Comparison: MSU Library Collections FY 2013 = $4.9 Million
FY 2014 Allocation = $4,826,680 (Base budget decrease of $360,000; < 4% Inflationary Incr.)
Additional Rescission of $277,000 after allocation
Net Collections Budget = $4,549,680
Impacts: No new resources added; cancellation of some existing databases & journals
Comparison: MSU Library Collections FY 2014 = $5.3 Million
FY 2015 Allocation = $4,210,948 (Base budget decrease of $615,732; 0% Inflationary Incr.)
Impacts:
• no new subscriptions or large electronic resource acquisitions;
• no new electronic journal backfiles;
• large reduction of monograph and media acquisitions;
• large reduction of digitization projects; and
• a substantial reduction in the number of current databases & journals
Comparison: Expected MSU Library Collections FY 2015 = $5.6 Million