Tuesday, April 28, 1998
1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Meeting
3:00 PM to 4:00 PM Refreshments
Downstairs Lounge, UCLA Faculty Center

1. CALL TO ORDER

   The meeting was called to order at 1:12 PM.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

   The minutes of the Fall Membership Meeting, held on Wednesday, November 5, 1997, were approved.

3. ANNOUNCEMENTS
   
   
   1. LAUC-LA Librarian of the Year
      
      The LAUC-LA Librarian of the Year award for 1998 was made to Gordon Theil, Head of the Music Library. Gordon's accomplishments in the area of automation, particularly as the UCLA Library Webmaster, as well as his qualities of intellectual creativity, leadership, and moral courage were outlined by Norma Corral, Chair of the LAUC-LA Librarian of the Year Committee 1997/98. Norma thanked the committee: Leon Ferder, Tina-Karen Forman, Lise Snyder, and Leah Lievrouw, UCLA GSE&IS Department of Library and Information Studies. Gordon was presented with a certificate, $150, and flowers from LAUC-LA, and an anonymous monetary gift for the Music Library. Gordon expressed his astonishment, appreciation of his colleagues, and thanks to the committee and membership for the honor.
      
      
   2. Announcement/Introduction of Candidates for 1998/99 LAUC-LA Office
      
      

      K. Botello announced the slate of candidates:

      Chair-Elect: Marion Peters
      Secretary: Elaine Adams and Ruby Gutierrez
      Representative-at-Large: Eliezer Chammou, Chris Coleman, Judith Herschman, June Liebert, Katalin Radics, Lise Snyder, Elizabeth Stephenson, Chuck Wilson, and David Yamamoto.

      Additional information on the candidates was posted on LAUCTALK-L.

   3. Call for Nominations

      None were offered.

   4. Acceptance of Nominations
      

      Motion was made, seconded, and accepted. Election will be held June 12, 1998.

   5. LAUC Statewide Assembly

      The LAUC Statewide Assembly will be held Friday, May 1, 1998 at UCSD. The agenda was posted on LAUCTALK-L. UCLA attendees include Keri Botello, Amy Achison, Norma Corral, Steve Fry, and Linda Maisner.

   6. LAUC Librarian Survey Results

      K. Botello reviewed a handout listing the results of the survey with a percentage breakdown by rank and step, and the breakdown of votes by campus. Discussion will be held later in the meeting.

4. LAUC-LA COMMITTEE REPORTS
   
   
   1. 1997/98 Chair's Mid-Year Report
   2. Research & Professional Development
   3. Committee on Programs
   4. Peer Review Committee
   5. Professional Governance
   6. Nominating
   7. Election
   8. Library Plans & Policies
   9. LAUC-LA Webmaster
   10. Peer Review Documentation Workshop
   
   
   
5. DISCUSSION OF LAUC-LA REPORTS
   
   
   1. Research & Professional Development Committee report:
      
      

      Some librarians have meetings in July, so the fiscal year ends before they can request additional funds. Question: can unallocated money be held up until librarians attending meetings after June 30 have a chance to submit all of their expenses, which will go over the $420 allotment? Answer: The deadline was extended until July 15, but the committee can actually wait until the end of July. It was pointed out that this is the first year under these procedures, so that it's reasonable to request that the committee wait until the end of July. It was noted that the intent of the May 1 deadline was to encourage librarians, who know ahead of time that they will not use their entire allocation, to free up their money for others. The deadline was to encourage librarians to turn in their receipts in a timely manner. It was asserted that $420 was not enough, which was met with applause from the assembly. It was suggested that at the other campuses, the university librarians have discretionary funds, which they can choose to allocate. The report indicated that a survey will be forthcoming so members can make comments and suggestions about the procedures.

   2. Peer Review Committee report:

      Steve Fry thanked the committee for their work.

   3. Nominating Committee report:

      Joan Lopear thanked all who agreed to run.

      K. Botello thanked all of the committee chairs for filing their reports and all of the committee members for their diligent work on the committees' charges. Motion was made, seconded, and approved to accept the reports.

6. STATEWIDE COMMITTEE REPORTS
   
   
   1. Professional Governance
   2. Cultural Diversity Gabriella Gray announced the resignation of Linda Yamamoto from UCD.
   3. Scholarly Communication
   4. Esther Grassian encouraged members to look at the Scholarly Communication web site, which is listed in the report, and send her any comments or additions.
   5. Research & Professional Development N. Corral announced that they had no statewide submissions from UCLA, probably because people are too busy doing their jobs. Perhaps a workshop should be organized to encourage submissions. There were problems with submissions this year in that some had to be returned three times to the originators because they were not precisely worded, however the awards were finally made.
   6. Committees, Rules & Jurisdiction
   7. Library Plans & Policies
   8. LAUC-LA Representative to Library Human Resources Committee
   9. LAUC-LA Representative to Preservation Committee
   
   
   
7. DISCUSSION OF STATEWIDE REPORTS
   
   
   1. Professional Governance
      

      Linda Maisner provided background on the charge of the committee, which was to look at the librarian series. The committee focused on the issue of topping out at librarian step 4. At the request of the statewide executive board, the committee sent out a survey to assess the feelings of the membership on two issues: Does the membership want extra steps at the top of the series, and shall the distinguished step criteria being retained for the top step. The second question was if there will not be extra steps, does the membership want to retain librarian step 5 as a distinguished step or make it a normal merit. There were lots of feelings about this. Most people wanted extra steps and, by somewhat of a majority, if extra steps are added, they wanted to retain the top step as distinguished. However, if there are no extra steps, they definitely wanted the distinguished criteria to be eliminated for step 5. The last question was if all steps became normal merit, would the members want another way to recognize distinguished librarians, and the majority voted yes. With the results of this survey, the committee came up with three resolutions to propose at the statewide assembly on May 1:

      1. LAUC shall revise Position Paper Number 1 to delete references to special criteria for reaching Librarian Step V.
      2. LAUC shall officially request that the University administration add three more steps to the Librarian Rank (steps VI, VII, and VIII).
      3. LAUC shall develop criteria for these additional steps such that Step VIII shall be reserved for those librarians whose careers and continuing achievements can be regarded as distinguished.

      Miki Goral suggested that the LAUC-LA delegates be prepared for a contentious discussion when the issue of a distinguished step comes up since other campuses have a different experience with Step V. At UCLA, there are five Librarian Vs and 50 Librarian IVs, which is the lowest ratio in the UC system. The overall UC ratio of IVs to Vs is 3.13 to 1. It was also pointed out that at least two of the five Librarian Vs have retired, which might upset the proportion. After much discussion, there was a call for a straw vote to accept each of the three resolutions. After a quorum was established, the resolutions were read and voted on as follows:

      Resolution 1: In favor: 47; Opposed: 0; Abstention: 2.
      Resolution 2: In favor: 54; Opposed: 0; Abstention: 2.
      Resolution 3: In favor: 16; Opposed: 29; Abstention: 5.
      

   2. Research and Professional Development report:
      

      N. Corral reported on a resolution from the LAUC Research & Professional Development Committee, which was prompted by the uneven way that awardees submit their required research status reports:

      WHEREAS the librarians at the University of California greatly benefit from the University of California Research Grants For Librarians Program, and;

      WHEREAS, LAUC recognizes that the Program has been generously funded since 1980 by the University of California Office of the President, and;

      WHEREAS, the Program requires recipients to submit periodic reports on the status of their funded research and submit evidence of completion of goals or a final product, or communication regarding inability to do so, and;

      WHEREAS, the continued success of the Program requires strong participation in sharing the results or outcomes of undertaken research; therefore,

      BE IT RESOLVED that LAUC supports the university-wide and divisional Research & Professional Development Committees' efforts to meet research objectives and to document results by encouraging all recipients to fully comply with Section I Reporting in the Research Program Guidelines.

      The question of whether or not a resolution was the most appropriate way to deal with this problem was raised by Miki Goral. The issue of bringing this problem to UCOP was also brought up. N. Corral said that a Web page is being created to report on research in progress, but it would not be a vehicle to report on delinquent reports. A motion was made and seconded to urge LAUC-LA delegates to vote against this resolution if it comes to a vote on the floor at the Statewide assembly. Discussion followed focusing on the idea that the issue is between the awardee and the committee. Also, that the reports are designed to share research in support of the profession so that all LAUC members may benefit. The web will facilitate this communication, not punish awardees who have not yet filed reports. The vote to urge delegates to vote against the resolution was 40 in favor; with 0 opposed and 0 abstentions.

      A motion was made, seconded, and passed to accept the statewide reports.

8. NEW BUSINESS
   

   The issue of there not being any more money for the LAUC-LA Librarian of the Year award will be brought up at the executive board.

9. OTHER
   

   K. Botello thanked the executive board, committee chairs, and Jenifer Abramson as parliamentarian for their help.

10. ADJOURNMENT
    

    The meeting adjourned at 2:50 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Kathy Dabbour LAUC-LA Secretary 1997/98