The 1999/2000 academic year was a busy one for both the Peer Review Coordinator and Peer Review Committee. In October 1999, the Peer Review Coordinator (PRC) appointed a 32 member Peer Review Committee. Working with Rita Scherrei, the PRC planned and presented two combined appointment/action orientations for the new committee. Previously separate orientation meetings were combined last fall to take advantage of Rita's expertise prior to her retirement in Dec. 1999.
The 1999/2000 CALL document was issued in Nov. 1999, after substantial revision and updating by the PRC. No paper copies were issued to librarians. Rather, they were directed to word and PDF versions available at: http://staff.library.ucla.edu/hr/call/index.htm
At the PRC's request, the Peer Review Documentation Workshop Committee sponsored an informal meeting in Dec. to discuss the issues, the process, and the documentation related to preparing for a "distinguished" review action. A handout from that meeting, The "Barrier Step": Hints & Tips, is currently available at: http://www.library.ucla.edu/committees/laucla/librarian5.html. The committee also presented their annual Peer Review Documentation Workshop in Dec.
Following their orientation in Oct., the 1999/2000 Peer Review Committee began work on appointments in Nov. 1999. As of Oct. 15, 2000, the committee had reviewed 15 appointments at the following levels: Assistant Librarian - 2Associate Librarian - 9 Librarian - 4
The committee began work on peer review actions in March 2000. As of Oct. 15, the committee completed 47 actions. As of that date one file was still outstanding. Below are more specific details about the actions. Total number of librarians eligible for actions - 48Number of deferred actions - 2 Number of out-of-cycle/accelerated actions - 2 Total number of merit actions - 22, including 6 "Distinguished" actions Number of merit actions approved - 19Total number of accelerated merit actions - 5 Number of accelerated merit actions approved - 5 Total number of promotion actions - 9Number of promotions approved - 8 Total number of "Review Only" actions - 16 Number of "Review Only" actions approved - 16**Three of these were converted to merits on the new pay scale for unrepresented librarians. Total number of decelerations - 0 Number of actions where the committee disagreed with the Review Initiator or the final administrative recommendation - 6 We currently have a total of 124 librarians, including those in both permanent and temporary appointments, at the following ranks: Assistant Librarian - 5 Associate Librarian - 35Librarians - 84; of these 12 are Librarian Vs or "Distinguished" Librarians
Although the 1999/2000 Peer Review Committee has not yet been discharged, the committee debriefing with Gloria Werner was held in Sept. 2000.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the1999/2000 Peer Review Committee. It goes without saying that I could not have done my job without you, but I want you to know how very much I appreciate the your quick response when called for an appointment or action committee and your dedication to the task once assembled.
Respectfully submitted,
Lise Snyder
1999/2000 Peer Review Coordinator
The committee received three excellent nominations for LAUC-LA Librarian of the Year after issuing a call for nominations on LAUCTALK and in the UCLA Library News for the Faculty. The committee selected Kate Pecarovich from among the nominations, and the award was made at the LAUC-LA spring assembly on May 25, 2000, at which time the following announcement was presented:
It is with great pleasure that LAUC-LA names Kate Pecarovich Librarian of the Year, in recognition of her ongoing contributions and leadership in ORION2 activities, and her recently completed key role in designing the new UCLA Law Library. Kate has enriched her fellow librarians and the entire UCLA Library community through her work in these areas, and has demonstrated the qualities of intellectual creativity, innovation, and leadership repeatedly throughout her twenty-year career at UCLA. Because of Kate's distinguished contributions, all UCLA libraries have ready access to complete and accurate holdings of the Law Library, and the Law Library is also a beautiful study facility with an inviting and useful collection design.
During the ORION1 years, Kate made vitally important resources visible to the community at large by her efforts on two major projects. She converted the massive file of legal serials records to ORION format, and also designed a way to convert and integrate the sizable collection of the Law Library's uncataloged government documents into ORION. As if this weren't enough, Kate also almost single-handedly reclassified nearly 60,000 law items from an old Yale-Columbia classification system into the Library of Congress classification system, making the records accessible for all library users. All of these efforts are indicative of the great weight that Kate places on the public service aspect behind Technical Services.
Kate saw the development of ORION2 as an opportunity to solve the many problems that ORION1 presented to patrons when they attempted to ascertain the status of supplemented materials. As part of the Data Migration Team, Kate helped to create algorithms that would assure that multiple supplementation records would properly migrate to the catalog record. In addition, Kate was a member of the ORION2 Implementation Steering Team, and Chair of the OCLC/DLA Data Exchange Team. These are only a few examples of Kate's contributions to ORION1 and ORION2 which provided comprehensive holdings information for UCLA Law Library materials.
During the past several years, Kate has served as a member of the Law Library Building Committee and was involved in every aspect of the building planning, from air conditioning to chair selection. Kate was also appointed chair of the Collection Configuration Subcommittee of the Building Committee, because of her in-depth knowledge of the project, and her skill in organizing and executing complex projects. Because of Kate's hard work and leadership skills, the UCLA Community has a beautiful library facility with a collection arrangement that has been endorsed by the entire Law Library staff, and that works for the all of the library's users. Law School Dean Jonathan Varat acknowledged Kate's significant contributions at the library's dedication in January of this year.
Kate has earned the admiration and respect of all who have worked with her, and she has been an inspiring role model. Kate has demonstrated unwavering commitment to providing the best possible access to the Law Library's collections, and her efforts have quite literally transformed the Law Library for many years to come. Kate has demonstrated steady leadership, vision, professionalism, and creative thinking throughout her career, and for all these reasons she deserves to be publicly acknowledged as Librarian of the Year.
At the ceremony, Kate received a certificate, produced by Library Communications, along with flowers. No monetary award was included. In addition, a virtual plaque was created by David Cappoli, with technical assistance from David Yamamoto, which honors all LAUC-LA Librarian of the Year recipients. The plaque may be found through a link in the upper left-hand corner of the LAUC-LA Web site.
The award was publicized in the UCLA Library Staff Newsweb. In addition, Library Communications submitted press releases for publication in the UCLA Library News for the Faculty and the UCLA Daily Bruin. A short profile of Kate's achievements also appeared in UCLA Today. Notification of the award was also sent to the American Association of Law Libraries, the Southern California Association of Law Libraries, and to the Daily Journal.
The committee thought that one way for a monetary award to be established for future recipients would be to solicit contributions in the amount of $25-$200 from each LAUC-LA member, to be used as an endowment. The interest earned from the endowment could provide funds for a monetary stipend as part of the award. Another possibility is to ask the Friends of the Library to match contributions received from LAUC-LA members to establish an endowment account.
The committee also wondered about the possibility of announcing all nominated candidates or the recipient of the Librarian of the Year Award slightly prior to the spring assembly date. Presently the recipient is notified approximately one week in advance of the assembly by the LAUC-LA Chair, so that he/she may invite family members, colleagues, etc. to witness the event. Making a more global announcement ahead of time could encourage more attendance at the assembly meeting, particularly if several nominees from different library units were involved.
Committee on LAUC-LA Librarian of the Year Award, 1999/2000
Alan Carr, Biomedical Library (Chair)
Anita Colby, Science & Engineering Library
Linda Maisner, Law Libray
Mary Woo, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing
Members of the LAUC-LA Committee on Library Plans and Policies for 1999-2000 were: Leon Ferder, Judith Herschman, Barbara Schader, and Caroline Miller, chair. The Committee on Library Plans and Policies became more active during the second part of the year. Although one of our charges at the beginning of the year was to discuss the statement of purpose of the LAUCTALK listserv, the issue was brought to the forefront when an e-mail was forwarded to the list regarding union decertification. Many of the members of LAUC-LA felt that this was an inappropriate use of LAUCTALK. The Committee held an emergency meeting to discuss how we could clarify the LAUCTALK statement of purpose, in addition to how bargaining unit information and other non-LAUC related information could be passed along.
Although there is a union listserv, it was unclear to the Committee whether non-union members in the bargaining unit could subscribe to it. I contacted Miki Goral, Chief Negotiator for the bargaining unit who assured me that any member of the bargaining unit could subscribe to the union listserv, regardless of whether or not they belonged to the union. This was particularly important information considering that bargaining updates for the unit, which are of interest to all unit members, were only being sent out on the union listserv. The URL to join this list is http://cft.org/uc-aft/cyber-picket.shtml. Miki also informed me that she would be setting up a list for all members of the bargaining unit for announcements and information sharing. If you would like to be on that list, please e-mail ucaft@africana.com.
Where does all of this leave LAUCTALK? The Committee felt that the only way to be as fair to the LAUC-LA membership as possible is to leave the LAUCTALK listserv for LAUC Statewide or LAUC-LA related issues only (i.e. LAUC meeting announcements, agendas, and minutes), moderated by the current LAUC-LA secretary. The Committee also recommends that there should be a separate list for other announcements or news items of interest to professional librarians (ex. LACASIS meetings, ACRLEADS, etc.), which could possibly be moderated by the Library Personnel office. Further details would need to be worked out for this new proposed professional librarians' listserv.
After careful review of the LAUC-LA by-laws, the Committee discovered that LAUCTALK was not mentioned anywhere, since the by-laws pre-date listserv-type communications. The Committee felt that an addition to the by-laws should be made that would include a definition of LAUCTALK including who moderates it and who may subscribe, as well as a clear statement of purpose that would contain a list of topics specifically excluded from discussion on the list.
Respectfully submitted,
Caroline Miller,
Chair, 1999-2000 LAUC-LA Committee on Library Plans and Policies.
Members of the 1999/2000 Committee on Programs were: Beth Feinberg (YRL Cataloging), Cathy Brown (College), Maureen Russell (Ethnomusicology), and Louise Ratliff (YRL Cataloging), chair. Thanks are due to my fellow committee members for their creative energies and diligence, which made the year such a success.
Last fall, the Committee hosted the New Librarians' Reception, following the LAUC-LA Fall Membership Meeting, on November 11, 1999, at which ten new librarians were introduced.
On February 17th a brown bag lunch session was held to explore views on the criteria for Librarian V. About 20 people attended and some lively discussion took place. The comments were recorded and taken later by LAUC-LA Chair Marion Peters to the LAUC Statewide Board meeting on March 3.
The March 10th program, entitled "Information Studies at UCLA: the State of the Art," featured three professors from the Department of Information Studies of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies: Michele Cloonan, Department Chair; Marcia Bates, representing the Professional Program Committee; and, Virginia Walter, representing the Doctoral Program Committee. The presenters summarized and commented on the latest Curriculum Plan, which is currently in draft form. The Plan attempts to achieve the objectives of creativity in approaching new knowledge and skills, attracting more ethnic minorities, maximizing effective use of faculty and facilities, and responding to the high-stress student environment. The Ph.D. program was also discussed. Comments from attendees indicated that people welcomed the opportunity for this interactive forum.
The next program, on June 14th, was a Travelogue (attended by about 30 people) at which three librarians spoke and showed slides and a video of interesting travels. Elie Chammou showed a video of a trip to New Zealand during which he and his wife visited both north and south islands. They also had the opportunity to visit a Maori village and be entertained by the villagers with traditional Maori music and dance. Diane Childs showed slides and described her impressions of life in Azerbaijan, where even the most basic services such as running water and electricity are in very short supply, and where many people shared their lives with Diane and her husband John. Kathy Donahue showed slides of a bird-tagging field study in which she participated on Johnson Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. She sported quite a few scratches from holding large, feisty sea birds! The last program of the year, a brown bag conference sharing session, took place on July 27. There were only 8 of us there, but a number of interesting topics were discussed: e-books, information literacy, web-page usability, and the like.
The Committee on Programs was urged to plan a more formal session for next year, or after interesting conferences, where people prepare brief statements in advance and report them at the session.
Respectfully submitted,
Louise Ratliff
1999/2000 Chair, LAUC-LA Committee on Programs
Ruby Gutierrez, Chair
Michael Oppenheim, Statewide Representative
Audrey Jackson
Alice Kawakami
Catherine Lee
Janice Matthiesen
2 elections were held on June 9, 2000:
Biographical information for LAUC-LA Officer candidates were sent via LAUCtalk-L. Biographical information for LAUC Statewide Officer candidates were sent with the ballots. Ballots were sent in the traditional manner in print with 2 envelopes.
All ballots were tallied on June 12, 2000 and the results were sent to LAUC-LA Chair, Marion Peters and LAUC-LA Secretary, Jan Goldsmith for forwarding to LAUCtalk and to the LAUC Statewide Chair.
A total of 122 ballots were sent out and a total of 82 valid ballots and3 late (invalid) ballots were received.
This year's Elections Committee appreciated the efforts taken by the 1997/98 Elections Committee to weed and reorganize the Elections Committee files, which made finding and filing information much easier.
The Election Committee files were to have contained a rubber stamper for indicating where on the return envelope Librarians are to sign and print their names. The stamp was not in the files and this year's Elections Committee did not have time to order a new stamp before the elections. We recommend that next year's Elections Committee purchase a new stamper for use. However, before continuing this practice, the LAUC-LA Executive Board may want to consider the following comment which one Librarian had written on the Voting Instruction sheet along with their completed ballot, "Not a good idea to send a signature through the mail on an envelope! So, I will sign here."
I would like to thank my supportive and hard working committee members, Carol Sommer and Elaine Adams. I would also like to thank Marion Peters, LAUC-LA Chair and Lise Snyder, LAUC-LA Chair-elect, for their help, support and advice.
Lauri Kram,
Chair, LAUC-LA Election Committee
The committee (Rita Costello, Rhonda Lawrence, Mike Randall, chair) nominated the following slate of candidates to run for the 2000/01 term:
The committee invested a considerable amount of time and effort in contacting potential candidates. We thank all who considered our offers, even if they could not accept a nomination at the time. Many who were unable to accept nominations agreed to being contacted the following year. Names of these individuals will be forwarded to the 2000/01 Nominating Committee.
We were gratified and encouraged that the response this past year provided voters with a choice of candidates.
Mike Randall, Chair
The Peer Review Documentation Workshop Committee 1999-2000 has a membership of Esther Grassian, College Library; Russell Johnson, Biomedical Library; Keri Botello, Department of Information Studies, Committee Chair. The Committee is charged with the development and presentation of programs to assist librarians up for review to prepare their documentation packets.
This year there was extensive discussion of the proposal to restructure the librarian series, and the effect the restructure would have on this year's peer review process. Rita Scherrei posted a message to lauctalk-l in answer to concerns of many librarians regarding documentation packets if the scale change occurred prior to reviews. There were also many questions about eligible librarians going for Librarian V. In response, the Committee held the yearly workshop to assist librarians under review, and a workshop specifically geared to librarians contemplating the barrier step.
The Committee developed a program targeted for librarians considering the step from Librarian IV to Librarian V. This program was presented by Esther Grassian, Peer Review Documentation Workshop Committee, on December 9th, with input from Bob Bellanti, and reviewed by Barbara Valk, Eloisa Borah. A document synthesizing the tips presented at the brown bag lunch is linked to the LAUC-LA web page, or can be accessed via http://www.library.ucla.edu/committees/laucla/librarian5.html.
The yearly Peer Review Documentation Workshop, given to assist librarians new to the Peer Review process, or wishing to review the documentation preparation process was held on Tuesday, December 14, 1999. Presenters were Lise Snyder, Peer Review Coordinator; Keri Botello and Russell Johnson, Peer Review Documentation Workshop Committee. 24 librarians attended this workshop. This workshop was held earlier this peer review cycle in a conscious effort to have pertinent information available to librarians preparing their packets sooner than previous years in light of the uncertainty in the librarian series, and to implement a recommendation from the 1998-99 Peer Review Documentation Workshop Committee.
The Committee received many constructive comments prior to the workshops which facilitated preparation of appropriate content; and received helpful comments for future workshops.
As outgoing chair, I would be pleased to answer any questions, or be of any further assistance to the new Chair, Esther Grassian.
Respectfully submitted,
Keri S. Botello Chair,
Peer Review Documentation Workshop Committee
It was decided during the 1999/2000 LAUC year that this group functions as an Editorial Board, rather than a standing committee and therefore, appointments need not be made in the same manner as committee appointments. This year, the committee worked on a draft of "Editorial Positions" statement http://libweb.ucsc.edu/scomm/editor.txt. After many years of hard work keeping the "Issues in Scholarly Communication" site up & running, Lee Jaffe (UCSC) would like to be relieved of his responsibility as Editor-in-Chief. Work is continuing on finding an Editor-in-Chief. The url for "New Horizons in Scholarly Communication" is http://libweb.ucsc.edu/scomm/. Below is the text of the interim report he filed in May.
TO: Patricia Inouye, LAUC President FR: LAUC Scholarly Communication Editorial Committee RE: 2000 Interim Report
Committee Charge:
At the LAUC meeting of committee chairs on September 29, 1999, it was decided that LAUC needs to address the issues surrounding effective continuation, growth and further evolution of the LAUC Scholarly Communication web site. I will bring these issues and the list of suggestions of how to create a structure that would work best for the maintenance and growth of the LAUC Scholarly Communication Web site, a LAUC publication, to the Executive Board. I will also pose the issue of LAUC's goals and objectives, that is, what does LAUC want the publication to be, for the publication, to give direction to you as editors. With the beginning of the 2000/2001 LAUC year as a goal for implementation, this year the committee will continue as stated below:
According to the Bylaws (Article IV, Section 7.h), which gives the President the authority to appoint "the editor of any regular LAUC publication," the standing charge to this committee is to: a) Continue to organize and maintain the New Horizons in Scholarly Communication Web site. b) Promote awareness of the site c) [To be deleted from the Bylaws]
Summary of Action Items:
Discussion:
With the encouragement of the LAUC President, the editorial board met at Santa Cruz, 11/18/99 to discuss reorganizing the structure of the board and the role of its members along editorial and functional lines. The discussion lead to the creation of a draft position description to be used for the current year. The intent is to take use this year to assess the new structure and recommend adoption or changes in our final report. The plan was presented as an information item to members at the 1999 Fall Assembly.
The current members have selected areas of responsibility based on interest and skill. Several subject areas remain uncovered at this time.
Otherwise, work on building and maintaining the site continues as before. After a weeding and updating project, there are more than 1,200 entries in the database. (We reported 1150 entries in our 9/1/99 annual report.)
The site continues to be popular with nearly 25,400 visits since 12/17/95. (We reported 23,500 visits in our 9/1/99 annual report.)
Board Members:
Lee Jaffe, Santa Cruz, (2000), Editor-in-Chief
Diane Fortner, Berkeley (2001
(vacant), Davis (2001)
(vacant), Irvine (2001)
Sharon Shafer, Los Angeles (2000)
(vacant), Riverside (2000)
Elliot Kanter, San Diego (2000)
David Owen, San Francisco (2000)
Sylvia Curtis, Santa Barbara (2000)
There was no activity by the LAUC Statewide Committee on Library Plans and Policies after May 2000, when Roy Tennant stepped down as the committee chair. Below is the text of the interim report he filed in May.
16 May 2000
TO: Patricia Inouye, LAUC President FR: Roy Tennant, Chair LAUC Library Plans and Policies Committee RE: 2000 Interim Report
Besides our general standing charge to "advise the President and Executive Board on issues related to University wide library plans and policies," the particular focus of our charge this year is to investigate "the University of California libraries existing initiatives for the preservation of digital material." We have begun learning about the issue, using key papers and web sites relating to digital preservation (see our web site at http://www.ucop.edu/lauc/lpp/ for some of these). Our preliminary review has found very few existing initiatives at UC to preserve digital material.
One such initiative is the establishment of a task force by SOPAG to look into this issue, for which we nominated one of our number to serve. Our expectation is that our work will be complementary rather than duplicative.
A difficulty we are having fulfilling our charge is that not all members of the committee feel that they have the experience or the interest to address this issue. It is possible that one of our recommendations may be to abolish this committee in favor of topic-focused task forces, for which the appropriate members can be recruited.
With this report I am stepping down as Chair, since a job change leaves me ineligible to serve. The Committee's Vice Chair, Andrea Duda (UCSB), will serve out my term.
Roy Tennant, Chair
LAUC Library Plans and Policies Committee
The Committee has been very active this year under the able leadership of Barbara Ceizler Silver of UCSB. It held two meetings, 11 November 1999 and 28 January 2000 in Oakland, and three videoconferences, 14 December 1999, 22 March 2000, and 19 May 2000. A grid has been created to synthesize the recommendations from earlier reports, noting accomplishments and identifying needs to be addressed by the Committee in subsequent years (see attached). The highlights of the activities of the Committee are:
Respectfully submitted,
Catherine Y. Lee,
LAUC-LA Representative,
LAUC Committee on Cultural Diversity
The Statewide LAUC Research and Professional Development Committee met three times during the 1999/2000 year: twice by teleconference (November 17, 1999, and April 13, 2000), and once in-person (February 18, 2000, at the UC Office of the President). Much communication took place, inevitably, by e-mail, as well. Under the outstanding and tireless leadership of Committee Chair Cathy Palmer, the Committee entirely fulfilled its charge for the year.
The Committee recommended the following proposals, which were subsequently funded by the Office of the President:
The Committee recommended to LAUC that only one call for research proposals be issued in 2000/2001-the practice heretofore of a first and second call seems confusing, unduly complex, and generally gratuitous. Accordingly, the Committee revised the grant application proposal calendar and guidelines to reflect the change. The Committee also discovered that the "three-year pilot project [italics added] to request personnel replacement cost" had been in effect for at least ten years. Inasmuch as grant money had been awarded for replacement personnel for at least a decade, the Committee reasoned that the "pilot project" had succeeded and indeed evolved into standard practice. The most recent grant guidelines and the 2000/2001 calendar are available on the LAUC webpage at http://www.ucop.edu/lauc/research.html. Cathy Palmer distributed the Call for Proposals to the LAUC Executive Board members on September 1, 2000. Committee member Mari Miller (UBC) has volunteered to identify and mount 2-3 "model" grant proposals on the LAUC website.
Additional Charge Activities
The Committee was also charged "to update and make available to the membership a list of LAUC-funded research projects that was begun in 1992." Accordingly, the Committee updated an Excel file that lists LAUC Division and University wide research projects from 1980 to the present; that file will be accessible at http://www.ucop.edu/lauc/research.html.
Nancy Kushigian, UC Davis, agreed to serve as a "bridge" person to facilitate the transition to a new Chair in 2000/2001.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael Oppenheim,
LAUC-LA Representative Statewide Research & Professional Development Committee,
1999/2001