1) TCCJCL Chair, Martha Tandy, called the meeting to order at
4:10 p.m.
Introductions were made of TCCJCL officers and members.
2) Paul Dumont received special recognition as one of the founders of TCCJCL in October 1993.
3) Kathy Fulton, Secretary/Treasurer, distributed the minutes. A motion made and seconded that the minutes be approved as written. Motion carried.
4) Kathy Fulton distributed and read the Treasurer’s report. The current balance is $3,268.54. Motion made and seconded to approve the Treasurer’s report. Motion carried.
5) Martha Tandy thanked South Plains College for hosting the TCCJCL website. A link to the TCCJCL website is available from the Texas Library Association website as well. Francis Cotton is the new Library Director at South Plains.
6) Maryann Readel could not be present to report on the State Book Contract, but Martha hopes to disseminate this information via the TCCJCL list.
7) Joe Dahlstrom who represented community colleges on the TIF Library Working Group reported on the demise of TIF. This working group was the first to submit a proposal to TIF for the next round of grant awards in 2003. Unfortunately, between their submission in November and TIF’s meeting in January the Governor froze any distribution of TIF funds until after the legislative session.
Funding for TIF and TIF Board was cut from the state budget. TIF no longer exists. Some discussion ensued concerning what had happened to TIF’s money that was specifically designated for technology when TIF was created by the legislature. Speculation is that it may be helping to fund technology at the public school level.
8) Martha Tandy began the TexShare Database Report. She was our representative on the Taskforce on TexShare Database Fees. Members of the Taskforce spent most of their time trying to design an equitable fee structure for the various types of libraries: public, 2-year, 4-year, university and health science. The fee structure went through 14 versions to produce the current interim fee schedule. Input from libraries may produce changes to the structure, which the TexShare Advisory Board will examine next year. (Martha will be our representative to this board.) For more information visit the FAQ section on the TexShare website.
Ann Mason, TSLAC TexShare coordinator, spoke further on the development of the fee structure. She mentioned that community colleges as a whole had been supportive of the Working Group’s efforts although there are unresolved issues concerning multi-campus community college districts. An appeals process will be available for those libraries that choose to contest their assigned fees. Ann distributed a chart listing the community college fee structure and commented that five colleges had already paid their fees. Ann described some of the difficulties involved in developing the fee structure.
A TCCJCL member asked if TSLAC would take an active role in pursuing pricing for TexSelect databases. Ann responded that Russelene Waukechon was in the process of doing just that, so libraries wishing to subscribe to databases outside the core could do so at reduced consortial prices.
Further discussion involved how much of a share libraries should contribute to the purchase of TexShare databases in order to get future state support for TexShare and how the lack of funding for K-12 school’s Texas Connection will impact TexShare database providers.
9) Julie Todaro reported for Cary Sowell on the proposed revision of ACRL’s standards for college libraries. Currently representatives from community colleges, 4-year colleges and universities are working toward the development of a set of standards to cover all types of academic libraries. The standards with the proposed name “Standards for Libraries in Higher Education” are outcomes based. The draft of these standards is available on the ACRL website. Cary welcomes comments on this draft.
Discussion followed concerning these draft standards and their relation to regional accrediting bodies.
Julie also reported on the adoption of a council statement by the American Association of Community Colleges on learning resources. Text of the AACC Position Statement on Library and Learning Resource Center Programs can be found on their web page. She is working with others to promote another council statement concerning the support that libraries offer for distributed learning. She emphasized the importance of the library community to firm up relations with other groups such as the AACC to promote libraries and their services.
10) Martha Tandy announced a change in the agenda so that our featured
speaker, Gloria Meraz from the Texas Library Association, could address
the group on the 78th Legislative Session. Gloria gave a recap of some
of the outcomes of the last session.
• Everybody lost in this last session.
• Libraries got hit, but other agencies came out even worse.
• Texas Library Connection is dead.
• Discounts for telecommunications are still in place. Money raised
from TIF fees is still being collected by the state. Money not being dispersed
through TIF as its administration was dissolved.
• TIF is scheduled to sunset in 2005.
She thanked all who worked so hard to inform legislators about
library issues and concerns.
What happens in the future, specifically in the 2005 session, depends a great deal on how quickly the economy recovers. She emphasized that the library community needs to devise a plan for partnerships to bring to the next session. She predicts it will be a huge victory if we can keep TexShare steady.
Martha expressed our appreciation to Gloria, who worked tirelessly during the legislative session to promote and protect library interests with Texas legislators.
11) Martha distributed the merger proposal developed in the spring by members of TCSUL, TICUL and TCCJCL. The proposal advocates the merger of these three groups into an umbrella organization tentatively called the Texas Council of Academic Libraries. (TCAL) The group would continue to have three subgroups representing community college, public college and university, and private college and university libraries. Texas Library Association would contract to act as the group’s administrative arm.
Discussion on the advantages of forming this group ensued. One set of by-laws would govern the group and the three subgroups. TCAL would elect one set of officers with perhaps a facilitator elected for each of the subgroup meetings. Bylaws would be developed before the next annual meeting and approved at that time.
Paul Dumont made the motion to approve of this merger and Dennis Read seconded. The motion passed unanimously.
Next a discussion of an interim dues structure occurred. Since TCCJCL officers were presented with this information shortly before the meeting, no handouts were available for the attendees. Several attendees expressed concern about the dues structure, which is based on the amount of expenditures found on the Academic Library Survey form that the majority of libraries submit to the TSLAC yearly. Martha emphasized that this is a tentative dues schedule and that our representatives to the bylaws committee would be able to address this issue further. Marian Jackson moved that we accept the dues structure for this year, seconded by Bobbie Long. The motion carried unanimously.
TCCJCL representatives to the bylaws committee will be Marian Jackson and Joe Dahlstrom. Jay Clark volunteered to provide advice as needed and Lonnie Beane offered to serve as an alternate.
12) Martha made closing announcements concerning parking passes, vegetarian
meals, vendor recognition for receptions: EBSCO for the evening’s food,
Baker & Taylor/YBP for the evening’s drinks and Blackwell for continental
breakfast on Tuesday. Joe Dahlstrom recommended that if the TCAL merger
is approved that community colleges participate in the fee survey which
the college and university group conducts. Martha adjourned the meeting
at 6:00 p.m.