Library News for the Faculty

From University Librarian Gary E. Strong

The new year brings a number of changes to the UCLA Library, both in terms of personnel and of facilities.

Many of you may have heard that Cindy Shelton, associate university librarian for collection management and scholarly communication, has retired as of early January. Cindy has been with the Library since 1986, became head of the department that develops and manages the Charles E. Young Research Library's collections in 1993, and was named associate university librarian in 1999. Her able management of the Library's collection development has helped us to weather reduced funding for acquisitions, and her extensive knowledge has assisted in the ongoing transition from print format to online subscriptions for many scholarly journals.

However, even as you read this, it's likely that Cindy will already have returned on recall for six months. During that time, she will continue to work with me on several major issues. Chief among these is scholarly publishing. Cindy has been actively involved with the Library's efforts in this area for many years; two of its most visible manifestations are the lunch series for faculty and the extremely successful symposium on intellectual property that the Library organized in November 2005. As we continue to confront the challenges of static or decreasing acquisitions budgets, dramatically reduced escalating prices for journals, authors agreements that require faculty to sign away their copyrights, and the linkage of tenure to publication in traditional, and often high-priced, journals, her depth of knowledge and breadth of contacts will be invaluable to the Library's activities in this area.

In addition to hiring a new associate university librarian, there are several other major staffing changes on the horizon. We are in the midst of recruitment for a director of scholar services and collections in the social sciences and humanities. This redefinition of the role of the head of the Research Library's Collections, Research, and Instructional Services will enable the Library to enhance its services for faculty, graduate students, and upper-division undergraduates.

Along with redefining this position, the Library has created a new position dedicated to undergraduate services. The director of undergraduate initiatives will focus on advancing the quality and character of information and instructional services for undergraduates, closely integrating the Library's service role with the university's educational mission and implementing new programs and services that anticipate and respond to changes in higher education and information technology. We hope to have both of these positions, which will report to Sarah Watstein, associate university librarian for research and instructional services, filled by the beginning of the next academic year.

One additional change I'd like to call your attention to regards a shift in the location of some of our behind-the-scenes staff. With the move of the arts, design, and media arts faculty and students back to the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center, the space in the Kinross South Building that those departments formerly occupied has been made available to the Library. We will be moving the acquisitions, cataloging, and technical processing staff currently housed in the Research Library to Kinross during the winter quarter. This will free up badly needed space in the library for public usage, and we are currently working with campus architects on plans to reconfigure the building's public spaces to better accommodate user needs. Please note that the subject specialists will remain at the Research Library in order to be easily accessible for faculty consultation and instructional activities.

I welcome your questions or comments about any of these changes. You can reach me by telephone at extension 51201 or by email.