2. Libraries' Strategic Indicators-- Carol Diedrichs, Assistant Director for Technical Services and Acting Assistant Director for Collection Management gave a presentation concerning the strategic indicators that are used for benchmarking with the peer institutions that have been identified by University Resource Planning and Institutional Analysis. Ms Diedrichs had made a presentation at the May council meeting that showed how we ranked with our peer institutions based on available statistics for the 1997/98 fiscal year. At that time the attendees had expressed interest in seeing more figures that demonstrated the impact of retrenchment and inflation over the past 10 years. This presentation updated the rankings with the peer institutions using figures for 1998/99 and also showed the most recent 10 year history for each of the indicators, when known.

Rankings with our peers, when applicable are as follows:

Number of Articles Downloaded from the OhioLINK EJC
Dataware Database Usage
User Satisfaction with net.TUTOR
Reference Transactions (1st)
Interlibrary Borrowing (1st)
Circulation Transactions (4th, down from 3rd the preceding year)
Interlibrary Lending (2nd, up from 3rd the preceding year)
Total Acquisitions Expenditures (5th, up from 6th the preceding year)
Currently Received Serial Titles (8th)
Total Volumes in the Collection (8th)
Number of Volumes Added Yearly (8th)
Personnel (8th)
Operating Expenditures (Supplies, Services, and Salaries) (9th)
Total Salary Expenditures (9th)
Library Total Expenditures (9th)
Library Budget as Percent of University Budget (7th out of 8)
ARL Criteria Index (9th)

Our strengths lie in the provision of electronic resources, reference transactions, interlibrary borrowing and lending, circulation transactions from our own collections, and the acquisitions budget. Conversely, our weaknesses lie in the areas of total collection size, library personnel, salary expenditures, total expenditures, and library expenditures as a percent of the University's E&G Expenditures.

3. Main Library Renovation--Joe Branin and Wes Boomgaarden traveled to Boston and New York City in late February to meet with the architects who are conducting the Architectural Feasibility Study for the Main Library Renovation Project (Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson, and Abbott (SBRA) and URS), as well as to visit libraries that have been or are being renovated by SBRA. At Wellesley they observed interesting things that had been done with group studies and technology. The renovation at Columbia began in 1995 and is still in progress; they are moving to the establishment of 10 multidisciplinary reading centers; the walls of all public areas are either wood or marble, and high end furnishings have been used throughout. At the New York Public Library Main Branch and the Science, Industry, and Business Library (SIBL) the use of high end materials was again observed, as well as their growing interest in the need of providing training facilities.

The various upcoming meetings were noted: On April 4 from 2:30-4:30 p.m. the Directors of three libraries that have recently been built or renovated will take part in a panel discussion. Paul Willis from the University of Kentucky (new building), Deb McWilliam from the Columbus Metropolitan Library (renovation) and Nancy Eaton from Pennsylvania State University (renovation) will each spend 15-20 minutes describing their experiences, followed by an open question and answer session.

The Town Meetings are scheduled for April 5th and 6th. Council members are encouraged attend as many of the sessions as they wish; a Council member will lead off each of the sessions devoted to non-Libraries personnel, as follows:

Thursday, April 5, 1:30 p.m.     Thursday, April 5, 3:30 p.m. Friday, April 6, 9:30 a.m. Friday, April 6, 1:30 p.m.

Open meeting with Faculty and Staff    Open meeting with Students Focus group with Students Focus group with Faculty

Michael Scott Katie Schmees Michael Scott Ethan Knapp

4. The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m. The date and time of the April meeting will be set after the beginning of Spring Quarter.

Elizabeth Sawyers for
Joseph Branin