University Library Committee
Minutes of the Meeting of the University of Texas Libraries Committee, March 22, 2006
Attending: Katherine Arens, John Kolsti, Ken Ralls, Michael Winship; Janine Henri, Peggy Mueller, Meghan Sitar; Jo Anne Hawkins, Fred Heath, Dennis Dillon, Sue Phillips; Damon Jaggars, Tom Staley, Richard Oram; Jocelyn Duffy (recording)
The next meeting of the committee will be on April 7 at noon in the Alec Room at the McKinney Engineering Library (ECJ 1.300). Susan Ardis, Head Librarian and Head, Science Libraries Division, will give a presentation. Dr. David S. Dolling, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Engineering, will attend.
Professor Ralls convened the meeting.
Ms. Duffy distributed the following
handouts: An example of the LibQUAL+ survey, a graph of Adequacy Gaps derived from LibQUAL+ data, an example of trend analysis based on LibQUAL+ data, and a description of the Post-1950s Authors Program at the Harry Ransom Center.
Damon Jaggars, Associate Director for Student Services at the University of Texas Libraries, and Jocelyn Duffy, Project Coordinator, gave a brief overview of the LibQUAL+ survey and how it is used by the University of Texas Libraries. The survey measures users' perceptions of service quality in three categories: Information Control, Affect of Service and Library as Place. The adequacy gap is the difference between the minimum level of service that a user finds acceptable and the perceived level of service a user receives; the larger the gap, the better. The University of Texas Libraries are doing well in terms of gaps scores when compared to the ARL aggregate and to five of our peers. The Libraries also analyze the survey results for trends and are especially alert to downward trends that indicate areas that need improvement.
Tom Staley, Director of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (HRC) gave a presentation about collection development at the HRC. The center is intent on making its collections alive and interesting for the community and in the latest issue of Texas Monthly, the HRC was chosen as one of the "75 Things We Love About Texas."
The collections within the HRC relate to each other and build on each other. The guiding premise for the center is that the published work is not the beginning of the literary study. Notes, early drafts and false starts, cross-outs and marginal notes are all important; they show the provenance and evolution of a work. Correspondence such as letters and postcards also help fill in the collections. The majority of the collections are author-centered, but the HRC is also interested in cultural context and it looks for items that define it for a collection.
The balance of the HRC's holdings is in literature and the current focus is on authors who were first published post-1950 (over 550 authors). The HRC has tracked the Booker Prize since its beginnings in 1968, purchasing winners and finalists. For most post-1950s authors, the center collects first editions, but for a select number, all published works and manuscripts associated with the author are collected. The center also looks at publisher archives and agent archives and is somewhat active in music, photography, film and theater. For each addition to the HRC, the center considers the form of publication, the genre, mode of writing, and the relation to other collections in the HRC.
Fred Heath asked if the HRC has ever had to let a collection on offer pass by because it would not fit the scope of the center's collections. Dr. Staley replied that yes the HRC has not been able to purchase everything it would like to. Collecting is a matter of money, timing, space and support. The center has finite resources and the collection process must be well defined. If the center cannot conserve, preserve and catalog in a reasonable time, it cannot purchase a collection. All of the collections deserve strong curation and the HRC is implementing a plan to develop its curatorial staff.
Janine Henri wondered what the center will collect to document the digital age. Dr. Staley responded that the HRC has not defined future collection efforts yet. E-mail may end the ability of the center to collect correspondence, but digital files can and do store changes and comments.
