I. Description of New Program or Major Enhancement of Existing Program:

Additional staffing is required for support services to meet extended facilities and hours of operation.

II. Statement of Need/Justification:

With full-time GA positions and backup student support, the Gee Library would be able to:

1. Extend classroom support hours to include weekends.

2. Extend hours for Intersession mini-terms, including Friday evening, when appropriate.

3. Supplement Engineer’s technical support to the campus.

III. Budget:

2FTE GA $ 8,330 ea. (Adjusted for doctoral level if appropriate)

1FTE Student Assistants $ 9,800 adjusted to 2000/2001 payscale.

I. Description of New Program or Major Enhancement of Existing Program:

Purchase of DRA-Media Booking Module to allow for scheduling as well as circulation of media items via the automated system. Initially limit this to the AV materials, e.g. videotapes; determine whether hardware booking can be accomplished within the same system. Media Services supports hardware booking and room scheduling as well. We would expect any long-term solution to support all three booking elements:

Media,

Equipment, and

Library Rooms.

Renovation and relocation of associated Curriculum, Media Services, and Music Collection materials, staff and services to expand to Library hours access to these items for students and faculty.

II. Statement of Need/Justification:

Cataloging for Media collections has remained current with library materials purchases throughout 1998/99; we anticipate that to be true, absent special donations of large collections, through 1999/2000. We need to allow limited circulation of materials to faculty and, by permission, students for in-building review and use. Requires a system upgrade to include media booking to allow for scheduling and non-classroom use to coexist. Maintenance of the departmental listing for the academic departments of items held by Media Services was both labor intensive and costly for printing and distribution. LION access is less limited for individual faculty members.

Renovations will allow for adequate access whenever the Library is open to the full collections in these three areas (Curriculum, Media Services and Music Collection) with preview capacity and viewing/listening facilities available beyond the M-F 8-5 (Media) and 15 hours per week (Music Collection)

3. Budget:

Software License Fee: $ 15,000

Maintenance Fee: $ 75.00/month

Enhancement of Media Materials budget $ 10,000

Cataloging Costs:

Ongoing $ 5,000

Staffing:

I. Description of New Program or Major Enhancement of Existing Program:

Document Delivery is incurring new and rising charges. This proposal allows Gee Library to respond to the general benefit of the Library users more effectively:

The InterLibrary Loan Department (ILL), Gee Library proposes to purchase softcover, bound copies of dissertations for library patrons who have requested loanable copies. Purchase will be used to supplement borrowing when (1) no copy can be borrowed, or (2) speed is of the essence, and (3) the item fits the curriculum of the University and long-term collection needs. The student or faculty member will be given immediate possession of the dissertation upon its arrival, but after the student is finished with it, the item will be added to the Library’s collections.

The InterLibrary Loan Department, Gee Library, proposes that the Library pay all charges incurred while obtaining copies of journal articles for faculty and staff. Although most copies arrive with no charge, sometimes there is no source except a library or business that charges for borrowing. A frequent source of specialized proceedings papers charges $25.00 per item for borrowing privileges, strict renewal charges the same, and replacement costs in excess of $100. Except for replacement costs which should be charged to the Library user for abuse of privileges, the access in lieu of ownership should be considered a Library operational cost.

II. Statement of Need/Justification:

There is a need for this service because many dissertations cannot be borrowed. ILL may have many sources to use for borrowing a book, but there is often only one sources for a dissertation--the school where it was done. When the school won’t loan, or the item is missing from its collections, the student has no option for obtaining the item other than purchasing it via University Microfilms. Student and faculty research can be greatly aided by implementation of this new service.

When it becomes clear that a charge is inevitable, the ILL department must contact the requester to se if s/he is willing to pay and maximum expenditure approved. If the patron is willing to pay, the ILL request must be placed again. This results in extensive time delays for the library patron, plus of charge of $8-10 per article, or more. Staff time is used in contacting the library patron, re-submitting the request, and collecting and handling payments. This service extension would allow more immediacy of getting articles for faculty and staff, saving several staff intervention steps in the procedure.

III. Budget:

In 1994/95, ILL had approximately 100 unfillable dissertation requests. At $36.00 each, the budget adjustment required is $3,600. This would allow a test program without removing funds from departmental book budget allocations.

In 1994/95, the ILL office was billed $1,756 for such charges. In 1995/96 the figure grew to $1,967. We are requesting a seed grant of $5,000 to underwrite 2000/2001 expenditures in this area.

Additionally we need additional staffing for the current workloads in ILL and Reference:

I. Description of New Program or Major Enhancement of Existing Program:

Ongoing access to GPO Selective Depository items is increasingly under pressure of political requirements by different areas of the federal government with differing access and cost recovery mandates. Currently many items traditionally received from the Superintendent of Documents are being transferred to cost recovery agencies such as the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and Information Industry Association (ISA) which speaks for various information providers who re-package federal data for sale. With the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) increasingly under pressures, some of these resources will remain available to the campus only by subsidizing electronic access or via a single workstation within the Government Documents Collection. This proposal would allow for the more traditional broad access at least to the primary campus clientele: Students and Faculty/Staff.

II. Statement of Need/Justification:

Many standard census databases will become available only at subscription or site licensing rates rather than deposited freely to our Documents area. This proposal would subsidize the transitional year while the reworking of the Superintendent of Documents statutory and funding supports for the more traditional FDLP program are reviewed by Congress. Also allows us to capitalize on any cooperative purchase power generated by TexShare, Phoenix or AMIGOS for these services.

III. Budget: Estimates:

Citrix Winframe or Windows Terminal Server $ 6,000

Additionally we need a staff position to respond to the service demands that better knowledge of the documents collection is generating:

I. Description of New Program or Major Enhancement of Existing Program:

Enhance Bibliographic Instruction program with hands-on module by equiping classroom with networked PC’s for BI efforts.

II. Statement of Need/Justification:

Bibliographic Instruction has been limited to demonstration mode or hands-on within the LAN Reference area at the detriment of service to other library patrons. Modifing former distance learning classroom for hands-on bibliographic instruction would allow this learning capacity. Anticipate needing 20 PC’s to work with students in small groups (up to 32 students) with actual database searching and Internet services using the students’ own topics of interest. Students will have a better understanding of search strategies and service limitations caused by network clutter with knowledgeable librarians available to assist in sorting out problems encountered.

III. Budget:

20 PC’s with networking established for teacher and student control. $ 50,000

Workstations and chairs for the area. $ 7,500

I. Description of New Program or Major Enhancement of Existing Program:

Additional staffing is required for Metroplex Library to meet extended hours of operation and growing student demand.

II. Statement of Need/Justification:

Current technological changes are an enormous benefit to those students participating in distance education, and as a result, the Metroplex library is experiencing increased use in all areas - circulation, InterLibrary loan, and reference. Now with four distant education classrooms, the Metroplex facility will see an even greater demand for library resources. Students expect and are entitled to at least the same access to information as the students on the main campus. With additional staff support, more students will find this access easier.

Additional staff support is necessary to assist students and faculty in using the advances in information retrieval. This will only grow with the improved access to A&M-Commerce’s resources on-line.

Changes are evident in the types and number of courses at the Metroplex. Efforts are also being made to offer library resources to those TAMU-Commerce students taking courses at the Universities Center of Dallas. The presence of these students during expanded Metroplex programming should be matched with additional staffing and library support to their curriculum.

With an additional full-time position and backup student support, the Metroplex Library would be able to:

1. Extend Library hours to include weekends (Saturdays) and mornings in the Fall and Spring semesters.

2. Extend hours for Intersession mini-terms, including Friday evening, when appropriate.

3. Extend hours for the Summer terms, when classes are taught at the Metroplex from 7:00am to 10:00pm.

III. Budget:

I. Description of New Program or Major Enhancement of Existing Program:

Upgrade/Migrate DRA system to software environment.

II. Statement of Need/Justification:

The evolution of client/server computing services is being experienced within the library automation community. DRA and other major library systems suppliers are migrating their software and hardware requirements to this new technological arena. Gee Library has committed to upgrading to the client-server system (TAOS) within the next two years. The changes in the system will required public PC’s for web access and may include electronic reserves elements for student access to readings online.

III. Budget:

One-time costs not yet covered: $119,000

On-going, annual software maintenance: $ 35,000

Upgrading from terminals to PC’s for public access within the libraries (24 upgrades plus expansion of public equipment: 30 machines)

Upgrade of library staff equipment to standard: 20 machines

Upgrade software license; re-license report writer; upgrade CPU and associated equipment and operating licenses; conversion of existing databases to new format; etc.

Add new modules for:

Electronic Ordering and Direct communication to library materials vendors for orders and claiming, plus associated workstation.

Media Booking and Room Scheduling component

Electronic Reserves