Hoover/SUL Realignment

Transition Steering Committee

Meeting of March 23, 2001

9:00-10:15, Assunta Pisani’s office

Present: Tony Angiletta (SUL), Linh Chang (Hoover), Joseph Dwyer (Hoover), Assunta Pisani (SUL, chair), Karen Rondestvedt (staff), Paul Thomas (Hoover), Catherine Tierney (SUL)

I. Issues and timetable

A. Curatorial areas and people responsible

The following people will discuss retention and future collecting policy for their areas:

Western Europe: Tony Angiletta (SUL), Maciej Siekierski (Hoover), Helen Solanum (Hoover). Helen will be the main Hoover person.
Russia & Eastern Europe: Joe Dwyer (Hoover), Karen Rondestvedt (SUL), Maciej Siekierski (Hoover)
Middle East: Ed Jajko (Hoover), John Rawlings (SUL), Assunta Pisani (SUL)
Africa: Karen Fung (Hoover), John Rawlings (SUL).

Other areas and people responsible:

Latin America: Adan Griego (SUL) and Bill Ratliff (Hoover) will discuss retention. Collecting has already been shifted to SUL.
International collections: Bill Ratliff, Tony Angiletta.
East Asia: Mark Tam (Hoover), Assunta Pisani, John Rawlings. While there is no question that the East Asia Library collection will be moved en bloc, there needs to be discussion regarding materials on East Asian subjects existing in the Hoover Tower. No East Asian material has been added to the Hoover Tower for a long time. The Steering Committee thinks it best to move all these to Green/Meyer ( 6-8 ranges of 6).
Uncataloged collections (government documents and GDSP) need to be considered also, although no one has been designated.

B. Curatorial tasks (these are separate steps)

Define policies for de-selection from Hoover Tower.
Formulate new Hoover collection development policy statements.
Formulate new SUL collection development policy statements to encompass Hoover areas that have been transferred.

Cath suggested that all reviews should consider the handling of standing orders, open terminal sets, and active serial titles. She distributed a working draft of the key decisions that Technical Services needs from the Collections officers in order to prepare for a smooth processing transition, entitled "Hoover Ser/Acq Conversion for 9/1/2001, With Pertinent Notes about Cataloging and Preservation."

Joe raised the question of whether the amount of Hoover collecting should be driven by staffing levels after realignment or vice versa. (Collecting requires staff to process the material.) Collection policies should be written to match resources, according to him. Assunta suggested that Hoover curators and Paul have a conversation with Charles to discuss Hoover plans for future support of collection development.

II. Staff moves

Everyone expressed an urgent need for information on which staff resources will move. The Committee discussed the timing of the move:

Curators and curatorial staff will move in September.
Technical services staff will move in September.
Public services staff. The transition timetable <http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/diroff/hooverrealign/time.html> states that public services staff should move as the collections move, over 2-3 years. Several public services issues were raised. Among others, when do reference librarians and circulation staff move? How many will move has already been decided, but what measures will be used to determine when staff are moved? The Committee determined that this issue requires a local Hoover conversation.

III. Service points. The questions below were raised as requiring future discussion:

Hoover currently has two reference librarians (exempt status), who perform reference for all areas, although each has an area of expertise--one in Western Europe and the other in Russia/Eastern Europe. They refer questions to curators if they can’t answer them themselves. How will Hoover public service be delivered as the transition proceeds, and who will deliver it?

Hoover has significant backlogs. How will we locate material in them during the transition? How will we keep users informed what is where?

IV. Transitional policy on filling Hoover vacancies

The Committee asked for agreement to post and fill Hoover vacancies in general and two technical services positions specifically (Head of Serials, Slavic Cataloger). It was agreed that these two will be posted and filled, keeping in mind what the functions of the Hoover people who are being moved will be after the transition.

V. Other issues

A. Technical services

SUL needs to begin training Hoover staff now for billets that will move, rather than waiting until September to do all of it.
Hoover serials need to be converted to online check-in as soon as possible. Therefore Technical Services needs to know from the curators which titles will move.

B. Newspapers

Back files. Joe stated that Charles does consider newspaper back files primary source materials. Some back files may stay at Hoover for that reason while others are transferred.
Current subscriptions. Hoover’s current subscriptions total approximately 1800 current periodicals and 400 newspapers. It will be necessary to decide how many and which of these will move to SUL. (Newspapers included in the 400 figure are mostly not fugitive titles.)

C. Collection policies

Collection policies will vary by area of the world, but we need an overall policy/philosophy, too. It was suggested that the Steering Committee and all the curators involved meet in order to articulate an overall policy/philosophy.

After the curators have an overall philosopy, they can write specific policies for their areas. Drafts of the specific policies should be delivered to the Steering Committee by June 1st. The Steering Committee’s role will be to coordinate the process but the approval of policies rests with Charles, Assunta and Mike as applicable.

VI. The next meeting will take place on Thursday, April 12 at 10:00 in Assunta’s office.

Respectfully submitted,

Karen Rondestvedt

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