October 1, 1997

MEMO TO: Dr. Donna Arlton, Vice President for Academic Affairs

MEMO FROM: Carolyn Kacena, Director, James G. Gee Library

SUBJECT: Staffing Requirements for 1998/99 [revised, October 28, 1997]

The library is in the all-too-familiar position of doing more with less. In the past, it has been possible to absorb cuts, but in the present, there are too many new things to be done, and too many things that cannot be left undone any longer. See the table below concerning staffing levels in 1977/78, 1987/88, 1992/93, 1996/97, 1997/98, and proposed for 1998/99. These proposed additions would bring the Library staffing component close to the level of 10 years ago and allow the Library enhanced support for the new technology roles assigned within the Library and demanded in today’s classroom technology environment.

* Beginning with 1996/97, 1 FTE is an exempt, non-librarian position.

** Use of salary savings pool for project librarians.

*** Includes 3 FT Instructional Designers - 1 per school

* Includes student budgets for James G. Gee Library, Metroplex Library, Media Services/Instructional Multimedia, and Campus Engineer

During this time, the nature of the work to be done has changed due to the advent of OCLC, the DRA integrated library system, and other electronic database options, but the work has not diminished. The growth in public workstations within the Library as well as the support demands as we deliver electronic journals and other databases to campus and off-campus users is overwhelming the public services staff.

At the same time, new areas of concern have been added to the library’s responsibilities — Media Services, Instructional Media, Multimedia Classroom Support, Faculty Software Support, and Campus Engineering Services. In addition, Distance Education is housed by the library, if not administered by the library, and library personnel serve as backup for classroom technical problem resolution.

The addition of new courses of study at the Metroplex and at the DEC and the expansions of A&M-Commerce courses into other distance education sites make library outreach mandatory to meet SACS goals of equitable treatment for distant students. No provision has been made for library services to students at the DEC, except as they use the Mesquite Facility Library or other TexShare libraries within the Metroplex.

Technical Services staffing needs:

--Systems support for non-DRA components of library technology. This would include LAN and WAN support, web page oversight, general technical (hardware and software) help, and electronic reserves support This added service will become a necessity as more distant courses are taught.

--Additional library assistant support for OCLC copy cataloging and database maintenance to accommodate new initiatives in Documents, Music and Media access.

 

Public Services staffing needs:

--Outreach to Dallas area and all Distance Education sites to support additional offerings by A&M-Commerce at the Metroplex and the DEC as well as the proliferation of under supported class offerings at other sites.

--Additional help in Interlibrary Loans, as document delivery becomes more important for all patrons. Enhanced electronic access to indexing and abstracting services are increasing the demand for access to articles and books identified but not owned by Gee Library.

--Additional help in Government Documents, as the inclusion of these documents in the on-line catalog increases demand and requires extended database maintenance. Proposals for access to the CD-ROM documents will require better and longer hours of support for library users.

--Both Instructional Multimedia Production and Campus Engineer need more technical support. This would free the existing person for design of instructional materials to support the faculty. The additional GA for Instructional Multimedia Production and the staff position reinstatement for the Engineer will increase the usability of existing multimedia classrooms. This is the minimum required; further positions within the 3 schools would provide a positive support environment for faculty developers.

 

These are all very real needs for people to do specific tasks. Existing staff is at the limit. They no longer have the time to perform these very important jobs. None of the requests above address the reduced Library hours. The funding requested for 1998/99 student assistants across all areas reporting to the Library Director would reinstate 1977/78 student assistant hours of support. If combined with the reinstatement of the 16 FTWS students cut in 1997/98, the necessary support for reinstatement of Friday evening and Sunday evening hours would be in place.

Recommendations:

Use Systems Librarian line to recruit a joint systems/library automation support and distance education support librarian.

Supplement Metroplex staffing support by 1 FTE Library Assistant II to support increased support for Metroplex curricular changes.

 

The OCLC and database maintenance increases can be supported by extending the half-time Library Assistant I to full time. There is plenty of work to keep a full-time person busy, and a permanent, trained individual is highly desirable.

Recommendation: Upgrade of .5 FTE position in Catalog Department to full time will partially resolve this need.

 

Within the Government Documents area there is need to provide library users with technical support on the Documents LAN, provide evening services and generally maintain the additional records added to LION for the federal documents collection. An evening staff person in Documents can also provide backup assistance to the Microforms area. With the cutbacks in student employment, we have no way of augmenting ILL staffing with students at this time. The increased workload in verifying user requests and identifying a supplier needs the training and experience full-time staff provide. Recommendations:

1 FTE Library Assistant I to provide extended services within Government Documents, including copy cataloging and database maintenance for documents records on LION;

1 FTE Library Assistant II to assist with Interlibrary Loan and general public services workload for Reference LAN databases.

 

Instructional Multimedia Production (IMM) depends heavily on student support which is often erratic and inconsistently available during breaks and other times when faculty can work more intensively on projects. Dropping sign production will allow better focus on faculty support needs in multimedia production; increasing by one more GA will allow better lab support and free the Media Specialist to help faculty design instructional materials for their classes. Ideally, instructional design would be done by content specialists within the colleges to help professors with the varying needs of their specific disciplines. Additionally, the maintenance of the 4 multimedia rooms and additional backup support for the distance education rooms as they are more fully used will require a second technical support person to work with the Software Technical Specialist and Campus Engineer (CE). As more equipment is deployed to the wired classrooms, maintenance response for repairs of this technology needs to be better than current staffing allows. Recommendations: