May 5, 2004

TO: LAUC Members
FROM: Linda Kennedy, LAUC President
RE: Report to Spring Assembly, 2004

The following update since the Fall Assembly report will provide some context for the Spring Assembly discussions. Please contact me at lmkennedy@ucdavis.edu or 530-752-1656 with any comments, questions or concerns.

The LAUC Executive Board has been meeting on a monthly basis via conference call (in addition to the usual three in-person meetings). This was an experiment that we will be evaluating before planning next year’s schedule. Minutes of Executive Board meetings are posted on the LAUC web site at: http://www.ucop.edu/lauc/exboard/index.html.

A major concern of librarians is the current budget crisis on the campuses. LAUC campus divisions have not had any direct involvement in campus decision-making beyond reports from library administrators at some divisional meetings. We will be discussing a possible statewide LAUC statement at the next Executive Board meeting.

Information Literacy

In response to the recommendations of the Spring Assembly Information Literacy Task Force (ILTF) report, the University Librarians approved appointment of a LAUC Representative to the HOPS Information Literacy Common Interest Group (CIG). I forwarded the names of Sarah McDaniel, Katy Farrell and Annie Platoff to SOPAG for consideration for appointment. These three were members of the LAUC ILTF (Sarah was co-chair); several members of the LAUC ILTF are already serving as campus representatives to the CIG. The migration of the LAUC information literacy web site information to the IL CIG site is also underway.

I met with the University Committee on Library (UCOL) in San Diego in February, which included a joint session with the University Librarians. I reported on that separately in a report posted at http://www.ucop.edu/lauc/ucolreport-2004.doc. Because of the pressing scholarly communication issues this year; little progress has been achieved in promoting campus initiatives in the area of information literacy via Academic Senate Library Committees. I hope that, in conjunction with the HOPS Common Interest Group on Information Literacy, LAUC can help foster more faculty awareness of the UCOL resolution from last June (http://www.ucop.edu/lauc/ucol-il-res.doc).

Strategic Directions for Library and Scholarly Information; Shared Print

One of the topics at the UCOL meeting was the draft of Strategic Directions for Library and Scholarly Information, a major planning document for the University of California Libraries. The ULs and SOPAG will discuss the report’s distribution at their May 6-7 joint meeting. The report brings together many of the planning documents generated in the past year or so, some of which LAUC has commented upon. For a preview of the draft report, visit the SLASIAC web site at http://www.slp.ucop.edu/consultation/slasiac/. The February Agenda links to the report and the February Minutes summarize the discussion of Systemwide Strategic Directions for Library and Scholarly Information.

Most recently, I was invited to participate as LAUC President in the interviews for the Director of Shared Print Collections. This is a major position reporting directly to Dan Greenstein, and shared print is a key strategic direction outlined in the abovementioned document. I met with the two candidates, Nancy Kushigian (Davis) and Chuck Eckman (Stanford) along with senior CDL staff members.

LAUC Position Papers

At the LAUC Fall Assembly in December 2003, we reviewed proposed revisions to LAUC Position Paper #1, Criteria for Appointment, Promotion and Advancement in the Librarian Series as proposed by the Position Paper Review Task Force (PPRTF). There was a wide range of opinions and suggestions for additional revisions brought to the Assembly, and the Task Force’s requests for comments prior to the Assembly also showed no agreement. At the Assembly, LAUC adopted a new concept for LAUC position papers. We elected not to revise Position Paper #1 given the lack of consensus among the divisions (even on the minor changes proposed). We adopted the concept that position papers reflect LAUC’s position at the time of adoption. Position papers offer policy guidance that the divisions can then incorporate in local procedures as desired. Rather than revise existing Position Papers, we would adopt new ones. This new understanding of the position paper concept needs further refinement, such as how papers are reviewed and possibly rescinded or reaffirmed.

The PPRTF was assigned to revise the definition and guidelines for position papers. We will be voting on their draft revision at the Spring Assembly (see http://www.ucop.edu/lauc/ppr/report-spring-2004.doc) The next step for the PPRTF will be to review the status of the current Position Papers following the adoption of the new definition and guidelines.

Distinguished Step

Much of the discussion and lack of consensus on Position paper #1 involved the criteria for advancement to the distinguished step(s). Following a discussion with the Executive Board, in early March I proposed creation of a joint LAUC/University Librarians committee to address the issue of the distinguished librarian designation. At both of the LAUC President’s discussions with the University Librarians during the past two years, the ULs expressed concern about LAUC presenting finished proposals for University action without opportunities for the University Librarians to have input as a group into the development of such proposals. And LAUC, both at the statewide and at the division level, has devoted considerable amount of time to discussions of the distinguished designation, with a range of opinions expressed. A joint committee might be able to cooperatively address the issue.

Karen Butter responded April 22 indicating that the University librarians felt that the current system, following the salary scale restructure, had only been in operation and few years, was a considerable improvement and appears to be working well. She also notes that the University Librarians themselves do not have a common perspective on the issue of criteria for the distinguished step. She also stated:

A hallmark of the UC academic review process is that it is offers flexibility for campus discretion in defining the distinguished step. At our meeting last week your proposal that a joint LAUC/ULs group be created to develop systemwide “criteria for advancement to and with the distinguished steps” was discussed. The University Librarians agreed that it is not possible nor desirable to develop a single set of such criteria that would address all of the potential issues associated with such advancement. The review system was designed to allow maximum flexibility for individual pathways to distinction. The University Librarians also noted that in as much as the academic review process is governed locally procedures for determining the distinguished step should also remain a local matter. Any system that detracts from that flexibility could disadvantage the individual and run counter to the basic tenets of the UC academic process.

The Executive Board will be discussing at its next few meetings how to proceed with the issue of the distinguished designation. As a first step, we agreed to gather peer review data from the campuses, to the extent that data is available, on how many people are advancing within the upper steps of the series, including the distinguished steps. The issue will also come up, I am certain, as we discuss the PPRTF document on position paper definitions and guidelines at the Spring Assembly. I welcome your comments--on the divisional level, or directly to me or the Executive Board--on next steps for LAUC, including whether to continue to pursue the issue of criteria at this time or to give the matter a rest until we have the experience of one or two more review cycles.

Spring Assembly and Assembly Scheduling

This year, the Fall Assembly was devoted to completing work on LAUC reports and allowing time for discussion so we deliberately did not schedule a program. We have a lighter schedule of business for the Spring Assembly in Riverside and a timely program on One University, One Library: A Budgetary Perspective From the Outside In, bringing together three distinguished speakers who will discuss the process of developing and maintaining library funding, within the larger contexts of campus affairs, faculty relations, and statewide long-range planning. LAUC Vice-President Terry Huwe will moderate the program.

The issue of the distinguished step, the definitions and guidelines in addition to the program should make for an interesting day, and I welcome you to attend. For the first time, the program will be webcast (1:15 - 3pm. May 13th) for broader access to LAUC members. We hope to archive the program as well.

My observation of the LAUC schedule over the past two years is that it is quite awkward to require that committees prepare reports for the fall assembly—it is difficult to get committees to work together over the summer, and then the transition in membership requires that a new chair present the report of the previous committee at the Assembly. Refocusing the Fall Assembly on a program, and the Spring Assembly on business is something that Terry and I will be exploring with the Executive Board. I would appreciate hearing any comments and suggestions from the membership.