SSH Cluster Bibliographers Group
February 11, 2009
1-2:30
Room 276

Meeting Summary

Present: Leslie Abrams, Ken Calkins, Jim Cheng, Victoria Chu, Harold Colson, Sam Dunlap (convenor), Lia Friedman, Martha Hruska, Rebecca Hyde, Sanae Isozumi, Elliot Kanter, Rob Melton, Alanna Aiko Moore, Annelise Sklar, Kelly Smith, Michael Smith, Berenica Vejvoda

Announcements:
Sam introduced our group’s newest member: Kelly Smith, SSHL’s Collections Assistant.

Jim announced new hires and emerging campus needs in the area of Korean Studies and Martha concurred that we need to advocate with the Dean for library materials start-up costs.

Sam reminded the group that Marie Munns distributed revised WorldCat Selection instructions on 2/10.  We may now “select” titles (rather than forwarding to “Acq Order Unit”).  Selected titles will appear in a new folder until they are exported.  The records will remain in the exported folder for 90 days.

Sam had several reminders and announcements from Tony:
Funds should be around 70% encumbered/expended by this time of the year.  We will not carry forward unspent balances, but we will cover existing encumbrances.  All orders should be placed by May 15, but rush or reserve requests will be handled after the May 15 date.  We will not be pushing YBP slips through WorldCat Selection.

Martha reminded the group to submit Special Purchase Proposals that will be presented to the Friends of the Library Acquisition Committee.  They have around $40K available.  Proposals should be submitted through the Collection Coordinators and submitted by Feb. 13 using the Special Purchase Request form.

Martha reminded us to monitor endowment funds and spend them down.  Some approval plan subject areas will be charged to approval plans at some point.  Endowment income is anticipated to decrease 20% next year.

Harold announced that IR/PS will be transferring 25K volumes from the Annex to SRLF and 25K volumes from the IR/PS Stacks to the Annex.

New Databases:
Rebecca announced that we now have access to the full text of the Congressional Record, via LexisNexis Congressional Database.  Content currently goes back to 1974, but will eventually go back to 1789 and include all of the Congressional Record Predecessors.

Harold announced that we have trial access to the FBIS daily reports full text product from Readex:  http://infoweb.newsbank.com/best/studyfbisone

Elliot announced that we have access to three additional ProQuest Black Historical Newspapers: Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), the Los Angeles Sentinel (1935-2005), and The New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993).

Martha reminded the group that the Springer eBooks announcements were being sent out.

CCG Updates:
We discussed a variety of collections to highlight on the UCSD Libraries Collections page, including: Springer eBooks, Ebrary, Historical Newspapers (February is Black History Month), Melanesian Collection, Holocaust Remembrance Days (April), ArtStor, African American Song, Naxos Jazz, Smithsonian Global Sound, MOCA, and UCSD History.  Rob suggested promoting Empire Online.

We discussed the mid-year budget cut and began discussions of possible areas to cut, including: STOs, duplicate print subscriptions between the libraries, textbook purchases, leisure reading collections, low use eBooks.  Harold has a list of 52 duplicated print titles between IR/PS and SSHL, relics from the print-only era, and has identified around $9-10K in potential savings.  Martha noted that we have some collections reserves built up and that there will be no serials cuts, for now.  CDC is having a two-day retreat next week to discuss priorities for collections, possibilities for collaborative collection development in Area Studies, among other things.

Discussion:
The group reviewed the “SSH Cluster Collection Managers” document that Acquisitions staff refer to by call number to locate the responsible collection manager and to shelve books in the Approval Room.  They also use the list to see the initials of people currently selecting materials.  We will update the initials and list of call numbers with the responsible collection managers and delete the “interdisciplinary assignments” section.