Rama Rao (Chair), Verna Urbanski (Secretary), Ronnie King

Rama announced that Jeff Michelman will not serve as a replacement member of the committee filling the vacancy created by the resignation of Valerie Spitler. Bob Waldrup has agreed to serve.

Rama introduced Kathy Cohen, Interim Director of Libraries. She distributed a UNF Library fact sheet and provided an overview of the progress being made in the construction of the library addition. The current building is 20 years old and provides 120,000 sq. ft. of space. The addition will add 79,000 sq. ft. The original plan was to add 120,000 sq. ft. to double the size of the building, but finances were not made available to do that. The cost of the expansion is a total of 22 million dollars. 16 million dollars will build the new building. 4 million will be used to renovate the original building and 2 million is set aside for fee and contingencies, including furniture. The addition is being built at a cost of $190 per sq. ft. The building will include some areas for compact shelving to be installed later when money is available.

The Library addition is on track to be completed in early May. Renovation of the original building will be completed by mid September. Technical Services will move to Bldg. 11 temporarily during the renovation. Circulation and Media departments are merging and will be located on the first floor. Documents and Reference departments are merging and will be located on the second floor. The mergers reflect a need to utilize the same staff in a larger building. When completed the library will provide 50 carrels for graduate students (currently there are 15) and 12 group study rooms (there are currently 2). The completed building will provide wireless access throughout the Library. Plans for a cyber café were dropped due to costs. The Atrium will no longer be part of the Library. It will be renovated as a study lounge and it is hoped that this area can be used by some company as a coffee shop. There will no longer be second level access to the library. In response to a question, Kathy stated that while the Library is open to the community, it is not a facility for children. Our computers are unfiltered and the collection is designed to support the academic needs of the UNF curriculum, not the general browsing public.

Kathy turned next to the library budget. She distributed a graphic indicating the wide variation in budgets over the past several years. While the money spent has grown, it has not kept pace with the rising cost of materials, especially electronic resources and serials. This year 1.1 million will be spent for serials and electronic resources with $300,000 allocated for books and media. Due to erratic budgeting amounts, the Library has not maintained an approval plan to buy books which fit a predetermined profile. Rather all orders are individually placed. Faculty suggestions for purchases are welcome. The Library home page provides for online requests.

The Library faces many challenges including keeping the building open and providing services during the renovation of the original building. It is also a challenge to continue to provide resources to a growing body of students and faculty with limited and fluctuating budgets. As new programs, particularly doctoral programs, are added, the budget and resources of the Library need to be figured into the cost of providing services to support those programs.

The Library has an informal advisory board made up of one student representative and several faculty members who have an ongoing interest in the needs and success of the Library. They try to include a representative from each college. David Courtwright is the current chair.

The next meeting of the committee will be March 1 st, at 12:15 in the Faculty Association meeting room.

Adjourned 1:10 p.m.

Submitted,
Verna Urbanski,
Secretary to the Committee