Final Report, LAUC-D Research Committee, 2005/06

LAUC-D Research Committee, Special Charge for 2005/2006

“Pursuant to the discussion of the LAUC-D General Membership on March 30, 2005, you are charged to conduct a comprehensive review of the allocation of discretionary funds including research and professional development. Assess the processing of the base funding and unallocated funds. Make suggestions for the use of unspent funds for redistribution to librarians. You are charged to take care to conform to the guidelines provided by University policy. You are encouraged to work with the LAUC-D Professional Activities Committee as appropriate.

The Committee may submit recommendations to the LAUC-D Executive Board for review at any of the scheduled Executive Board meetings. The committee is requested to make a brief progress report to the LAUC-D Chair by February 2006. The Committee will submit a report by April 3, 2006 and present this report at the general membership meeting held during Spring Quarter.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or concerns about this message.”

The committee started the academic year organizing an informal workshop for librarians interested in pursuing research activities. We presented the options LAUC-D can offer, successful applicants from the past attended and provided advice on how to find ideas, time and means for research. During the Fall quarter, we also started working with PAC on the special charge issued to us by the LAUC- D chair.

I was invited to attend a PAC meeting in Fall 2005 where we discussed some of the upcoming changes in travel reimbursements. At that point our information about the new system and its implementation timeline were not very detailed. PAC decided to find out more and to contact the Research Committee then for further discussions.

The Research Committee decided to table the issue until we get more details from PAC. Mid January 2006, Daryl Morrison, chair of PAC, shared a conversation she had via e-mail with George Bynon that indicated that the new on line system will not be in place for fiscal year 2005/06. A beta version may be available in 2006/07 which may be the first year we will have to use the new system. The new system will allow each librarian to request reimbursements individually, on line through a campus wide system. It is not clear how much control/ access the library administration will have. It is evident however, that the system currently in place for year-end reimbursements will not be working any more.

In order to get a clear picture on how much money we had to be used for research and development support, I also worked with the accounting department and the impacted librarians to clarify which research projects were still on going and which ones could be closed. This project was completed in December 2005. In February of 2006, the LAUC-D Research Committee chair was informed that all unencumbered funds had been pulled by the administration. Any further discussion of how to assist librarians in their professional development with these monies became a moot point.

During the academic year, the research committee received four requests for travel and presentation grants. All four proposals were funded and we almost spent the allocated budget for 2005/06 ($3,500.00) completely. At the end of the fiscal year there were $570.00 left which rolled back to the administration.

Travel and presentation grants funded in 2005/06:

· Annie Lin: “Comparison of Chinese, Australian and North American reference and public services in academic libraries”, travel to Vancouver, Canada

· Michael Winter: “Theorizing the history of the book: Some uses of classical social theory”, travel to The Hague, Netherlands, conference presentation

· Xiaoli Li: “Pubmed: a librarian’s perspective”, Library Society of China Annual Conference, presentation and travel grant

· Annie Lin: continuation of her research, travel to Australia.

The LAUC-D chair participated in the statewide committee and all Davis committee members reviewed the proposals submitted state wide. The chair took the recommendations to the statewide meeting where 4 proposals were deemed worthy of funding. Based on a request from the statewide committee chair to bring appointments in line with the LAUC bylaws, the Davis committee changed the length of terms for the current chair and vice chair. The chair for 2005/06 will rotate off the statewide committee by the end of the academic year. The vice chair will be the new representative for 06/07 and continue for 07/08. Then the next vice chair will come on. This new schedule will provide continuity and time for the vice chair to see how the statewide committee operates before she/he is actually chair of the Davis committee.

This year’s requests for travel and presentation grants have demonstrated that the research committee made a wise choice in opening up the funds for such possibilities. We hope that the future committee members will continue to encourage librarians to take advantage of all options for funding research that are offered.

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Hegenbart, chair LAUC-D Research 05/06

August 2006