Dean of Libraries, Barbara Dewey, expressed her pleasure at coming to UT and noted several individuals or groups whom she has met recently. In September she prepared a budget briefing document for the Provost outlining FY 01 funding needs for library collections, especially recurring funding to address 8-10% inflation on periodical subscriptions. Dean Dewey mentioned some of her priorities, including increasing funding related to top 25 public research university status; pursuit of digital initiatives and virtual services; emphasis on curriculum-related, information literacy for users; and advance support of research through specific programs.

Bill Robinson, Chair of the Faculty Senate Library Committee reported that the group has held one meeting and is planning activities for the year. Send Bill a message about your concerns: wrobins1@utk.edu.

Linda Phillips, Head of Collection Development, gave a presentation, "UT Libraries Collections at the Turn of the Century: Balancing on the Academic Tightrope." UT library holdings include 2,063,284 volumes, 2.5 million microform pieces, access to over 200 commercial databases, and links to hundreds of libraries where interlibrary loan is possible. Changes in scholarship, tight budgets, and astronomical serials cost increases have affected library collection practices in the last three decades. From 1986-1998 the cost of periodicals at ARL (Association of Research Libraries) libraries increased 207%, during a time when AAUP faculty salaries increased 68%. Number of periodicals purchased declined 6% and books purchased declined 26%. UT currently spends 75% of the collection budget on subscriptions and 25% on one-time orders.

Phillips described several UT Libraries collection management projects, including book cleaning, a collection growth study to determine stack space needs, and development of a process for placing more low-use materials in the Storage collection. Projects such as JSTOR (complete backfiles of more than 100 scholarly journals), the Information Alliance Serials Archive (one copy of low-use titles held among UT, UK and Vanderbilt), and the Center for Research Libraries (archival copy of reference sets, e.g. Books in Print) can generate additional space.

UT librarians receive numerous and frequent requests to expand the Libraries' electronic collections. Phillips displayed wish lists that total nearly $1 million in ongoing costs. Recent purchases include Web of Science citation indexes that are much more powerful than print, but twice the cost. Another new online acquisition, ScienceDirect provides web access to the complete holdings of Elsevier Science publishers, effectively reinstating some journals that were cancelled in the past decade. The electronic environment is bringing the academic community closer to realizing its dream of comprehensive access to scholarly information in every discipline--at a cost.

Powerpoint slides from the presentation are available on the CDM web pages: http://www.lib.utk.edu/~colldev/century.ppt

Representatives identified several unmet information needs of their academic departments:

• More Latin American resources needed
• Link to Knox County Library Catalog desirable [I have informed Knox Co. librarians about its value to UT. Their text-based catalog has trouble linking with Web-based catalogs.]
• Need more databases that index 18th and 19th century periodicals
• Need more access to unique materials held at ORNL
• Need temporary access to the expensive Patrologia Latin database
  * trial access now available at: http://www.lib.utk.edu/~colldev/test/testpp.html

Library reps also suggested ways that the Libraries can support UT's research focus:

• Collaborate with Office of Research to identify funding sources
• Offer research service by appointment [currently available -- see list of subject librarians at: http://www.lib.utk.edu/~refs/reference/services.html
• More subject librarians
• More full-text databases, particularly with journals
• Provide access to technical reports and ongoing research projects of UT faculty

The meeting concluded with tours of the Preservation/Conservation area on the third floor and Hodges 310 where faculty may review approvals, candidates for discard, and gift materials.