Academic Senate-Administration Library Working Group

During the fall semester, the Academic Senate-Administration Library Working Group (LWG) met to carry out part of its charge -- creating a formal advisory structure for the UC Merced Library. Co-led by Professor Ruth Mostern and Interim University Librarian Donald Barclay, LWG members — including faculty members, administrators and students — sought input from a variety of campus stakeholders and will soon issue a report calling for the establishment of a permanent Library Advisory Committee similar to other UC campuses.

The LWG identified a number of questions on which the future Library Advisory Committee might focus its attention, including:

Budget

• How and how much should the library budget increase as the campus adds faculty members, students and new programs?

Space

• With library spaces being used at near-maximum capacity, how will the library provide a growing campus with space for student study and collaboration, printed books, non-book materials (e.g. manuscripts, archives, etc.) and digitally based scholarly collaborations (e.g. data curation, digital humanities, etc.)?

Management of campus-generated information

• How will the campus process, preserve and provide access to the campus-generated non-commodity digital and physical information resulting from UC Merced research and instruction?

Educational role

• What is the role of the library in developing research-ready students, while responding to newly enhanced WASC requirements for information-literacy outcomes?

Research role

• How will the library support campus research? Support for research may take such forms as providing access to information resources, managing non-commodity information, and serving as a partner in scholarly research that would benefit from librarian input and expertise.

The LWG's formation comes on the heels of the Senate-Administration Council on Assessment-mandated periodic review of the library that took place during the 2012-2013 academic year. Led by Kathryn Deiss of the Chicago-based Association of College and Research Libraries, the Library Periodic Review Team solicited input from campus stakeholders. The report of the Library Periodic Review Team is available online.