Minutes of the October 11, 2007 Meeting

SML 409
2:30 – 4:00 p.m.

Present: Hannah Bennett, Gwyneth Crowley Jo-Anne Giammattei, Graziano Krätli, Haruko Nakamura (Chair), Ann Okerson, Marcia Romananski, Andrew Shimp, Martha Smalley, Paul Stuehrenberg, Dorothy Woodson.

Absent: George Miles, Kimberly Parker, Susanne Roberts, David Walls.

Guests: Tobin Nellhaus (Research Services & Collections).

Recorder: Graziano Krätli.

I. Announcements, questions, future agenda items

There were no announcements, questions, or future agenda items.

II. Collection Development Training Project (Hannah Bennett)

Hannah Bennett (Public Services Librarian and Assistant Director, Arts Library) presented a draft report about training of new selectors/subject specialists for the Yale University Library developed by an informal committee that has named themselves the "Collection Development-Review of Management Procedures" Group (CD-ROMP), which is affiliated with CDC's Education Committee. In addition to Hannah, this group includes Stefan Kramer (Social Science Libraries), Joe Murphy (Kline Science Library), and Anne Oechtering (Research Services & Collections). It was formed after the members attended a Basic Collection Development and Management workshop held in March 2007 at PALINET in Philadelphia. Organized by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) and facilitated by Peggy Johnson, Associate University Librarian for Access Services at the University of Minnesota, the workshop was aimed at "introducing participants to the responsibilities that make up collection development and management." Since at the time all future CD-ROMP members were still relatively new staff members and selectors, Ann Okerson (Associate University Librarian for Collections & International Programs) encouraged them to attend the workshop, thinking that it would help to get a better sense of collection development responsibilities, issues and practices. The working group was created soon after their return, upon Ann's invitation, to address a need for Yale-specific collection development skills that could be only partially met by such a workshop as the one they had just attended.

Far from having any prescriptive or mandatory elements, the report presents the results of the group's brainstorming and is based on the members' collective experience as new selectors at Yale, on what they learned (or not learned and wished they had) at the PALINET workshop, on what procedures and practices other Yale selectors shared with them, both from within and outside of Yale, and on a number of topics and issues that the group considered relevant to their daily selection duties and responsibilities. The report presents a list of major skills the group identified as specific requirements in relation to various areas of collection development competence. The discussion focused largely on the content of this list.

Marcia Romanansky (Chief Acquisitions Librarian) recommended adding something about vendor relationships and evaluation, since expertise in this area currently tends to rely upon individual senior selectors (such as Jeffry Larson, Sue Roberts, Dorothy Woodson). She also suggested adding knowledge of Acquisitions practices and procedures (i.e., knowledge of deadlines, such as year-end, and what they entail), as almost every area listed in the report crosses paths with the Acquisitions department.

Audrey Novak (Manager, Integrated Systems and Programming) suggested including a working knowledge of LSF selection and the Collection Analysis Tool. She also asked if there is anything peculiar or unique at Yale in the way selectors relate to faculty. Hannah replied that the group had indeed discussed the issue and agreed that it would be a good topic for a forum. Gwyneth Crowley (Social Sciences Coordinator of Collection Development, Librarian for Economics and Sociology) added that librarians at Social Sciences create and update departmental profiles with information about individual faculty members and their background (e.g., where they were before coming to Yale, where they got their degrees, etc.) Audrey further suggested including a working knowledge of Excel among the required skills, since the application is used in most programs implemented by ILTS. To this end, the Library could offer a customized Excel course focused on the core functions (12 or so) a selector needs to know to do his or her Library work.

Paul Stuehrenberg (Divinity Librarian) suggested to add, under "collection knowledge," an awareness of the relationship between similar collections (e.g., the Religion or Judaica collections in Sterling and the Divinity collections), to prevent the overlaps that may occur in a library system such as Yale's, with its many collections, subject areas and selectors. Haruko extended the concept of collection awareness to include other institutions, in order to build upon reciprocal strengths through cooperative acquisition programs and other consortial agreements. The idea of "collection awareness" was further linked by Marcia to the issue of how we evaluate our collections (by running audits, against bibliographies, etc.?), and what are the best tools and practices in this regard.

Ann made some suggestions for improvement in the way areas and related skills are listed on the report. For example, the "Know your customers" category could be moved to the beginning of the list, and in general topics should be grouped by broad areas (communications, etc.) and their sequence could convey a sense of priority. She then recommended that, before the year is over, CDC should decide how to expand and implement the recommendations included in the report.

III. Update from the Collections Collaborative Initiative (Martha Smalley)

Martha Smalley (Special Collections Librarian and Curator of the Day Missions Collection, Divinity Library), who serves as Principal Investigator for this initiative, distributed a summary update and illustrated its major points with the help of the Collections Collaborative Web site, which provides extensive background information on the Mellon-funded project, including links to the original proposal and subsequent reports.

The original three-year grant received in October 2004 has been extended until the end of June 2008. The project's four goals are to (1) develop and test technical systems to provide comprehensive and integrated access to collection holdings across repositories (i.e., cross-collection search); (2) develop training programs for reference staff to increase the number of staff knowledgeable about collections at Yale and to improve their ability to assist users in discovering them; (3) establish appropriate methods of sharing resources across repositories to expedite the processing and availability of Yale collections; and (4) create a sustainable structure through which Yale repositories can discuss issues of common concern, share information, and develop collaborative programs and projects. Martha pointed out that Goal #3 has been reformulated as how to find and use primary sources at Yale for research and teaching purposes, recognizing the variety of formats represented. As for Goal #4, the need for such a structure is exemplified by the fact that right now the only cross-campus group devoted to these topics and issues is the CDC’s Special Collections Committee.

Among the ongoing Collections Collaborative activities, Martha spent a few words to describe the World War I Experience, a project to select and digitize a range of primary sources related to this event (pamphlets, broadsides, posters, prints and sound recordings) and to develop a portal for access to these materials, as a prototype for improving description of and access to materials held across various Yale repositories. The portal includes a search function (based on a previous finding aid) that provides item-level access to the poster collection database.

Two task forces were formed to follow up on the goals identified at the 2007 Spring Symposium. The first was charged with the task of reviewing and revising the existing primary source pages, and then developing a gateway or portal for access to primary sources at Yale, to be linked to from the YaleInfo portal and other Yale pages. A draft of this new portal provides an overview of Yale’s repositories, a description of the different types of primary source materials, and a list of tools for discovering primary sources (i.e., catalogs, finding aids, etc.). The portal will also include selected research guides linking to existing guides for subject areas represented by primary source materials. To this end, Martha asked selectors who are responsible for these guides to identify the primary source component so that the new portal can link to them.

The second task force was created to develop a mechanism for and disseminating updates about new accession of primary source collections at Yale (see sample feeds). Again, Martha invited selectors to designate relevant acquisitions as primary source materials.

A number of Collections Collaborative activities are planned for the near future, including: (1) a Fall Workshop on the use of primary sources in teaching at Yale, scheduled for November 9th and featuring a faculty panel, presentations by librarians and curators, and a discussion on the ways faculty and graduate students can be encouraged and enabled to make use of Yale’s special collections in their courses; (2) a survey of faculty and graduate students, currently being developed by Katie Bauer (Assessment Librarian) with the aim of determining priorities for actions to improve access to primary sources at Yale; (3) one or more forums scheduled for the spring of 2008 to publicize the activities and accomplishments of the re-grant projects and task forces.

In conclusion, Martha invited CDC members to look at the new primary sources Web site and provide feedback and suggestions.

IV. US/UK vendor selection process and outcome (Tobin Nellhaus)

Tobin Nellhaus (Librarian for Drama, Film, Theater Studies), in his capacity as chair of the US/UK Vendor Review Steering Committee, updated the group on the blog and the Web site recently implemented to help Library staff keep up with the vendor transition. He encouraged selectors to register for one of the GOBI Training Sessions, pointing out that one third of the selectors had not yet met with Steve Hyndman, YBP's Sr. Collection Development Manager. Questions about the transition process were then solicited and a few asked about such issues as discounts, profile access and returns.

Andy Shimp (Engineering Librarian) asked if there are Yale libraries that are not planning to switch to YBP. Tobin replied that all libraries are transitioning to the new vendor, which will result in a significant discount (even taking returns in considerations). Andy added that, after meeting with Steve Hyndman a few hours before, he realized how this opportunity of creating new profiles and approval plans may really help to prevent or solve problems such as those experienced in the past; Steve’s willingness to work hard on these profiles was indeed encouraging in this regard.

Haruko Nakamura (Librarian for Japanese Studies) asked whether the new profiles are or will be available for anyone to see. Tobin replies yes, as soon as they are finalized.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m.

Next meeting: November 1, 2007.