Report of the Library Blue Ribbon Committee

From: Elliot Hirshman, Provost

As we prepare for the fiscal 2011 budget process, we have undertaken a series of initiatives to facilitate our planning process. As part of these initiatives, we created a Blue Ribbon Committee to consider new ideas and approaches for meeting the library’s budget challenges. This committee was tasked with considering these challenges in the broader context of changes in methods of scholarly communication and the overall functions and purposes of the library. Recognizing the centrality of the library to our academic programs, the committee was asked to review current funding levels, gather practices from peer institutions, examine the challenge posed by the escalating costs of serials and recommend priorities and processes for allocating resources moving forward. The committee has submitted its report to the Council of Vice Presidents and Deans. The report is available for review by members of the campus community on the Provost’s Web site.

Moving forward, the report will be presented to the Library Policy Committee of the Faculty Senate, the Academic Planning and Budget Committee of the Faculty Senate and Student Governance Organizations, among other groups, for review and comment. To ensure further campus input, I am writing to invite you to share your perspectives on the report. Forward any comments on the report and its specific recommendations to Vice Provost Tony Moreira (chair, Library Blue Ribbon Committee; moreira@umbc.edu) by Friday, April 23.

I wish to close by expressing my sincere gratitude to Vice Provost Moreira and Larry Wilt (director, Albin O. Kuhn Library), the members of the committee (listed below) and Librarians Robin Moskal and Joyce Tenney for their efforts in moving this important initiative forward.

UMBC Library Blue Ribbon Committee

Antonio Moreira (Provost’s Office), Chair

Linda Baker (Psychology)

Jessica Berman (English)

Terry Bouton (History, Library Policy Committee)

John Jeffries (College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences)

Lasse Lindahl (Biological Sciences)

Sandy Parker (Geography & Environmental Systems)

Geoff Summers (Office of Vice President for Research)

Tim Topoleski (Mechanical Engineering, Faculty Senate)