May 2004 Council on the Libraries minutes
Council on Libraries
May 10, 2004
Treasure Room, noon to 1:30 pm
Present: Kathryn Cottingham (chair), Havah Armstrong-Walther, Malcolm Brown, Harold Frost, Teoby Gomez, Jeremy Rutter, Jeffrey K. Ruoff, Barry Scherr
Guests: Mike Gazzaniga, Dean of the Faculty
Library Staff attending: John Crane, Barbara DeFelice, Susan Fliss, James Fries, John R. James, Cynthia Pawlek
Recorder: Julie Blain
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1. Approval of Minutes (Kathy Cottingham)
Status approved.
2. Update on the search for the Dean of Libraries/Librarian of the College (John R. James)
The committee has received 40 applications.
This will be narrowed down to a short-list of 6 candidates. The committee expects to interview these candidates in Boston during the 1st week of June.
The short-list will then be narrowed down to two or three candidates who will be chosen to come and interview on campus in July and August.
3. Update on Education Programs, including RWIT (Susan Fliss)
Susan Fliss reported on the first year of RWIT - the student center for research, writing and information technology.
Susan Fliss, Malcolm Brown, and Karen Gocsik collaborated to form a student service designed to meet Dartmouth students' increasingly demanding and complex writing, research, and technology needs. This centralized service, sponsored by the Library, Academic Computing and the Composition Center, integrates writing, research, and IT tutoring to produce a complete and systematic support effort for Dartmouth students. RWIT provides a comfortable, accessible, successful learning/mentoring environment where students can receive instruction in all aspects of their research and writing processes, including data base construction and multi-media composition tasks. The center opened in a room off of Novack Cafe in September of 2003.
The RWIT administrative team has expanded from the original three to include Mike Beahan, Jones Media Center; Stephanie Boone, Coordinator of the Composition Center; Laura Braunstein, Librarian; Susan Simon, Academic Computing and Sarah Maxell, RWIT Head Tutor.
RWIT tutors are trained to help student clients acquire research skills, become adept at locating and evaluating information, and learn about the library services, resources, and people that are available to help them. RWIT technology tutors are also trained in digital video creation and work with staff in the Jones Media Center and Academic Computing to support student multimedia needs.
Ideas for expansion of RWIT services include expanding hours to cover late afternoons, early evenings, and final exam period. RWIT could also establish a Writing Assistance model for technology tutors. RWIT technology tutors could be assigned to specific courses using technology or producing multimedia works in order to deliver technical support.
Questions included the possibility of expanding RWIT services to graduate students, including MALS and Comp Lit students. RWIT could also further develop support for the work of students in the sciences, such as creating graphs and charts, etc.
Recommendations for candidates for RWIT tutors can be sent to Stephanie Boone in the Composition Center.
4. Scholarly Communications II - national models for dealing with the issues we began discussing in April
(Barbara DeFelice, Jim Fries)
Barbara DeFelice and Jim Fries organized and facilitated the second of 3 discussions on "Scholarly Communication: Threats, Problems and Opportunities".
In this second session, they focused on current and emerging economic models for scholarly publishing, with an emphasis on the open access movement for journals in science, technology and medicine, and a brief overview of other initiatives in scholarly information management such as institutional repositories. The powerpoint slides for this talk are linked to the Council on Libraries web site.
The next session on June 9th will feature activities that other institutions have undertaken to inform their faculties about scholarly communication issues, followed by a discussion of what might be done at Dartmouth.
5. Meeting adjourned