minutes20050907t

Meeting began ca. 10am.

Daniel had suggested that everyone read papers by Deanna Marcum and Thomas Mann in advance, and mentioned that copies of the Eden book had been ordered for all committee members.

We discussed that we still don't have an official charge. Actually, I talked with Joan about this, and we do now have a draft charge and even a name, i.e., "Task Force on Catalog Department Vision and Directions" (see attached). Mostly, I would say, this first meeting consisted of questions: Are we being asked to prepare position papers? If so, with which audience or audiences in mind? Should we go through team leader recommendations one-by-one, and write up justifications for each? In light of Thomas Mann's essay, what if some or all of us were to find ourselves in disagreement with certain Team Leaders recommendations? For example, what if a committee member were unsympathetic to the proposal to discontinue classification of LSF-bound titles? Would he or she prepare a position paper in opposition to the team leader recommendation? Alternatively, is there an expectation (however unrealistic) that committee members will simply toe the line? Should we be conducting our own investigations to determine whether Team Leader recommendations are in fact well-considered?

We know that Deanna Marcum's speech is having an effect on high level Yale Library administrators. Are we given to understand that [some may believe] too much money is being spent on cataloging operations, and that this, in part, is why our committee has been formed?

Given current instability in the profession, and increased scrutiny on our department, and in order to have maximum effectiveness and credibility, this committee needs to know whether departmental budget cuts or layoffs are expected over the next few years. Moreover, any recommendations coming out of our committee will need to be based on compelling evidence. Earl reports that, on PIC, even very sensible proposals are sometimes rejected if there is no empirical evidence backing them up. Youn suggests we focus on case studies which use concrete metrics. Britta offers to keep statistics on her own cataloging work to determine impact of Team Leader proposed changes in call number assignment.

Pressing Questions:

When are we going to meet next? Is Joan planning to attend? What will be regular meeting time?
Should Daniel's annotated bibliography be expanded? (I think it can't hurt. Please feel free to submit citations and summaries to me)
Is our draft charge (see attached) specific enough for us to move forward?
Should we start drafting position papers?
Should Daniel set up Web site for tracking committee decisions, documents, etc.? (I'm planning to do this shortly)