Minutes of the Meeting of the University of Texas Libraries Committee, September 14, 2006
Absent: Katherine Arens, Jennifer Fuller, Nadine Schulte, Blair Morrison, Chris Stewart, Shannon Weigum, and Michael Winship.
The new chair, Dr. Michael Winship, was not present, so last year's chair, Dr. Kenneth Ralls presided for him. Dr. Kenneth Ralls briefly talked about some of the past tasks of the committee. On the agenda were 2 items - election of an assistant chair and the creation of a letter to President Powers regarding continued support for the Library System.
Dr. Richard Hazeltine was elected as assistant chair.
Dr. Fred Heath (Vice Provost and Director for UT Libraries) presented an overview of the purposes of this committee for the newly appointed members. He sees this group functioning in an advisory capacity to the overall Library System at UT. He discussed how the committee has been responsive and supportive to the needs of the UT Libraries.
A handout was provided with everyone's responses as to when he or she is NOT available to meet and a discussion about meeting times followed. Based on the information presented, it seemed that Tuesdays from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM might be the best time for the monthly meeting. No conclusion was reached and this issue will be decided by Dr. Winship.
Dr. Heath discussed the overall budgetary situation regarding the UT Libraries-$40 million per year is the current expenditures budget for all of the campus libraries to maintain current salaries, services and programs. The designated fees from student monies are barely enough to help maintain current library services, and the library will need extra monies very soon to stop further erosion of those services by continuing inflationary pressures. No dollar amount of necessary support was discussed.
Over the past 20 years, the UT Library has ranked as high as 10th among the research libraries in the nation in purchasing new library materials. However, over time and given inflation those materials purchases have declined significantly so that now UT is ranked only 43rd among research libraries in the nation.
Drs Thomas Palaima and Richard Hazeltine began discussing library support by the Regents, while commenting that any letter from the committee to President Powers needs to be a very strong message from the affected academic communities regarding the centrality of a well-endowed library system.
Dr. Heath informed us that in the past few years, the Regents have provided $2.5 million annually to help supplement the costs of shared library materials within the UT System. He indicated that these funds have been crucial for the library due to the steadily inflating costs of monographs and journals.
No plans were made for next month's meeting. Dr. Heath will be talking to Dr. Winship further and we'll all be notified via email once a date and time are established.
Respectfully submitted, Linda L.G. Brown
