August 30, 2002

Dear Member of Senate:

I advise you that a meeting of the Senate of Acadia University will occur at 4:00 p.m., Monday, 9 September 2002, in Room 132 of the Beveridge Arts Centre.  The AGENDA follows:

1) Minutes of the meeting of 8 May 2002

2) Announcements and Communications

3) Business Arising from the Minutes
a) 2001-2002 Annual reports from Senate Committees (012-56-REP)
(i) Library *
(ii) Division of Continuing and Distance Education *
b) By-Laws Committee – Notice of Motion (023-01-LAW)

4) New Business
a) Notice of motion re plagiarism and cheating (Ness/Ash) (023-02-PLA) *
b) Research Ethics Board – graduate student representative (023-03-REB) *

5) Other business

Yours sincerely
 
 
 

Jane Cayford
Registrar and Secretary of Senate

* Material Attached
 

SENATE LIBRARY COMMITTEE
ANNUAL REPORT May 2002

Members: Barry Moody, Erin Patterson, George Perry, Glenn Wooden, Jeffrey Britton, Mary MacLeod, Patrick Lahey, Paula Chegwidden, Robert Reaside, Susanne Price, Trevor Jones, Roberto Segado

The Senate Library Committee (SLC) met once during the 2001-2002 academic year.  The meeting was chaired by R. Segado, who agreed to serve as interim spokesperson until a new chairperson is appointed by Senate in accordance to Article VIII (b) (ii) of the Senate By-Laws.

Issues arising from the SLC meeting are summarized below:

1. The SLC expressed concern over the lack of continuity that would result from the one-year rotational term of elected faculty members as per Article VIII (b) (ii) of the Senate By-Laws (see Senate Minutes/9May01/Item 5.a).  This being the case, all six faculty representatives would be replaced every year.  The SLC felt it would be better if faculty members were appointed for two-year terms, staggered so that half of the members are renewed every year.  It was noted that that the one-year wording was not part of the original Report of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on the Mandate of the Senate Library Committee.  Recommendation 4 in this report reads:
“That in addition to the existing composition of the SLC, a chair be appointed from the membership of the Senate; further, that the members from the three faculties be appointed on a rotational basis throughout all academic units, and that before a second member of any unit may sit on the SLC, all other units in the faculty must have served.”

2. The SLC recommended that the new SLC chairperson and committee members be elected as soon as possible (as per Article VIII of the Senate By-Laws) so the committee can resume its normal operation.

3. The SLC commended the excellent job done by the Library Management Team in maintaining the smooth operation of the library in the absence of a University Librarian.  The report form Mary MacLeod, Head of Research Services is attached.

4. The SLC also felt that a University Librarian should be appointed as soon as possible to provide strategic direction.  Members expressed serious concern about the difficulty in filling this position. Remuneration and the level of the library budget would appear to be the main issues.
 

5. Several faculty members noted an increased level of satisfaction on the part of students using the library for course-related work, particularly regarding the increased availability of online resources.  It was also noted that circulation of books has risen after several years of decline.

Respectfully submitted by R. Segado.
 

Library Highlights,  2001/2002
Report to the Senate Library Committee
Tuesday, March 26, 2002

by
Mary MacLeod
Head, Research Services

Administration

• The Search Committee for the University Librarian has been in place since Fall 2000; results from the Committee’s most recent recommendation are still pending.

• The Library Management Committee (Mary MacLeod, Head, Research Services; Mary Munroe, Head, Operations; and Stephen MacNeil, Head, Systems) have shared responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the Library under the direction of the Vice President (Academic) since July 2001.

• Stephen MacNeil has been co-opted half-time since July 2001 to assist with administrative projects and the reorganization of Computing Services.

• Last year the Library was able to fill all librarian positions with continuing appointments.  (Two positions had been filled by only contractual appointments in the immediately preceding years.)

• Two senior librarians (Dr. Nirmal Jain and Andre Guay) will be retiring at the end of June 2002 after long careers of valued service to Acadia.

• Applications are currently being received to fill two librarian positions (effective July 1, 2002) at Librarian 1 or 2.

• In addition to the Library Report included within the Vice President’s Report to Senate, 2000-01, several significant reports were prepared by Library Management over the past year.  These included a response to the Vice President (Academic) re Library Budget Proposals, 2002/2003, and a response to a discussion paper re the University’s Transfer Pricing Policy.

Services

• Use of the Library has been at an all-time high over the past year. There were over 76,000 passes at the Library entrance gates in November alone.  However, spaces to study in the Library are inadequate. The last library review recommended 910 study spaces for a student body our size. We have only 200 carrels wired for laptops; the

remaining 200 carrels are too small to be used comfortably with a laptop and many require repair.  The 9 group study rooms are booked solid almost all the time. At exam periods the Library has arranged to book overflow classrooms in the BAC and has hired students (with the support of funding from the Acadia Student Union) to supervise the rooms. (A security requirement because all classrooms must now be locked when not in use.)

• The Library continues to offer the long hours of opening which students have requested. Most nights we are open to 2 a.m., but we know that students would prefer 24x7.

• Librarians now spend almost half their time working directly with students.  This takes the form of classroom instruction (70 classes in the current semester), group tutorials outside class time, reference service during evenings and weekends (and as back-up support to Reference Assistants during the day), individual office visits, and communication through email.

• Use of Library Reserves, both in paper and online (through ACME) has become even more popular. This year the Library acquired the SIRSI Reserves module to improve service. One consequence of the integrated Reserves System is that all items on reserve are now indicated in the Library Catalogue.

• Interlibrary Loan Service has been made more accessible and efficient with the improvements in ILL-Skills, our interlibrary loan tutorial (required for students to qualify for free interlibrary loan service), together with the availability of online interlibrary loan forms.

• Staff are now using a new system—RELAIS—to place interlibrary loans. This is being piloted by a growing body of university libraries in the Atlantic Provinces under consortial purchase and administration. It was necessary for Acadia  to adopt a new system because the system we have been using for years is no longer being supported and frequent breakdowns have been occurring. The implementation of RELAIS, however, has been fraught with problems and only through much overtime put in by staff have we been able to maintain the high standards for service which faculty and students have come to expect.

• In the past year the Library has been working with the Vice President (Academic) of the Acadia Student Union in order to promote ongoing communication about library services to students.

Collections

• Following the pattern of recent years, funding allocated by Administration for Library Collections has remained stable—with a modest increase. However, rising serial costs

(estimated at an average of 12% for 2001/2002), coupled with the continued devaluation of the Canadian against the American dollar, severely restricted our buying power. Consequences remain to be assessed.

• Consortial purchasing of electronic resources, however, has brought us significant savings—despite being subject to the same market forces as our print collections.  As a result of savings achieved, funds freed up in the Electronic Resources portion of the General Fund were available to commit to consortial acquisition of new resources. These included:

(1) Access to 750 journals from Kluwer Online

Working through a Canada-wide consortium purchase, the Library has now acquired access to 750 Kluwer Academic journals. This is a 3-year agreement and will cost $5000 US annually. (Up till this point, the Library had 8 Kluwer titles which cost us approximately $4000 CDN annually!) Individual records for all of these titles will be added to the Library Catalogue this week and then a general announcement will be made. However, our access to the site is now live. The journals can be browsed at: http://www.kluweronline.com/

(2) Access to the Full Project Muse Database

Working through a North-American consortium, the Library has acquired access to the full Project Muse database. The subscription fee of $7000 US represents a 50% discount off what we would normally have paid as an individual institution. Project Muse provides us with access to over 200 journals (with more coming onstream in 2002) in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Addition of records for individual journals to the Library Catalogue is pending. However, journals can now be browsed at the site: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/

(3) Access to Additional Sections of the JSTOR Archive.

Acadia currently owns the Arts and Science I Collection and the Ecology & Botany Collection. We have been able to  acquire the Arts & Science II Collection and the Business Collection.

These collections cover major American (and some Canadian) scholarly journals and provide an archive from the very first issue (some runs are over 100 years) until a "moving wall" within 2-5 years (depending on the publisher) of current publication dates. The objective of this project is to provide electronic archives but at the same time preserve a market for current print subscriptions.

Pricing for these archives is different from normal subscriptions. We buy the Archives at a one-time up-front charge, and pay a much lower rate for annual additions to the Archive.

Addition of records for individual journals to the Library Catalogue is also still pending for these collections. However, all the titles to which we have access in the JSTOR Archives can be seen at: http://www.jstor.org/about/collection.list.html

• This year the Library was able to commit a significant portion of the General Fund to monographs. While this was at one time a regular practice, the Library has been able to purchase monographs only for Reference and Special Collections in recent years. However, in February the Library received a rebate from ACOA for funds originally committed from the General Fund as a buy-in to the CNSLP initiative. As this was a one-time rebate, Librarians committed this to monographs to support the curriculum. Selections for this collection were made largely from Choice Outstanding Academic Titles for 2001.

• Geographical information, particularly digital geographic information, is becoming increasingly important even within the undergraduate curriculum. University libraries now typically provide access to this information. The Library currently has access to geographical social and economic data from Statistics Canada and from DMTI, a private company. We will soon be acquiring access to provincial digital topographic data. However, the most significant initiative in this area in the past year was the Library’s application (coordinated by Berenica Vejvoda) for restoration of the Library’s full map depository status. (Since 1990 our status was voluntarily reduced to selective depository status.)  Our major incentive for this action was to ensure we would be able to benefit from access to the National Topographic Database from Natural Resources Canada, access to which was being negotiated by the Depository Library Service, together with the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and  the Canadian Association of Research Libraries.

The Library has recently been informed not only that our application for full map depository status has been successful, but also that we now have free (mediated) access to the National Topographic Database for purposes of teaching and research. The geographical data to which we now have access will be promoted this spring and made available initially to those faculty who now have GIS software. Berenica Vejvoda and Tanja Harrison plan to work with faculty from at least 5 departments over the summer to make them aware of the possibilities of using this geographic data within the curriculum.
 
 

 The Building

• A wave of the general stacks has begun on the B-1 Level to spread out the collection over all available stacks, leaving most room in high-growth areas. Calculations are that, assuming the present rate of monograph acquisitions continues, the Library will be full to capacity in three years.  The Archives has already reached a critical state, with no room to accommodate additional University records or Baptist archival records. In response to similar problems in other Atlantic libraries and archives, a study is now being initiated within the Council of Atlantic University Libraries to determine remote storage needs of university libraries and archives within the region. However, a solution is probably a number of years off.

• Air handling in the Vaughan continues to be inadequate. In July and August humidity levels combined with heat make it impossible for students and staff to work in the stacks, particularly on upper levels. Throughout the year students complain about the quality of the air and about heat and cold. A review of all the air handling systems in the Library was undertaken, but solutions all require significant financial commitments from the University.

• Inadequate air conditioning in both the Archives and Special Collections is posing a real threat to collections there. The Archives has been subjected to excess humidity as well as heat and also threatened by flooding from both floors and ceiling. Only close vigilance has prevented mould infestations. Special Collections has been subjected to high humidity during the summer and dryness during the winter as well as a failing heating system. These problems have been addressed with band-aid solutions—the use of portable air conditioners, dehumidifiers and humidifiers.

• Concerns have been raised about the security of the collections in the Kirkconnell Room.  We have experienced an increase in library thefts and know that thefts by “professionals” are on the rise in New England. Before making further modifications to the Kirkconnell Room, however, we will be recommending a professional assessment to arrive at appropriate security solutions.

Regional and National Activities

• Council of Atlantic University Libraries

Regional, national and international cooperation among libraries is becoming increasingly important. Mary MacLeod has represented Acadia within CAUL over the past year.

• Canadian Library Association and Atlantic Provinces Library Association
 

CLA and APLA will host the Canadian Library Association Annual Conference in Halifax this year. Two of our librarians, Jennifer Richard and Tanja Harrison, are coordinating local arrangements. A number of librarians and library staff will be taking advantage of the proximity of the conference this year.  For the first time, entrance to the exhibits is without charge. All are welcome!

• Statistics Canada’s Data Liberation Initiative

Acadia for the second time was chosen by Statistics Canada to host a training session for DLI contact librarians in Atlantic university libraries.  All university libraries were represented, the sessions were excellent, and local support was highly praised.  The web site for the session can be viewed at: http://admin.acadiau.ca/library/DLI2002/index.html
 
• Participation in Associations and Conferences

Librarians, Library Management, and Library staff have been active in national, regional, and provincial associations and conferences. This includes participating on the boards and executives of associations and  delivering presentations at (or attending) conferences and workshops.

Special Initiatives

Librarians, Archivists, and our Systems Staff in particular are currently working on a number of special projects and will be working on even more throughout the summer.  Included among these projects are:

• A redesigned library website! (Coordinated by Erin Patterson working with Mary Lou Conrad, our Web Technician.)
• A database of Acadia Faculty Publications (an initiative requested by Dr. Leiter; to be based upon publications reported within departmental submissions to the Vice President’s Report to Senate each year).  (Coordinated by Stephen MacNeil and Paulette Rushton from Systems and Patricia Townsend, Manager of Special Collections.)
• The Digital Herbarium project. (Coordinated by Jennifer Richard; see the Acadia Research Board on the Main Level.)
• Promotion of Geographic Data. (Coordinated by Berenica Vejvoda and Tanja Harrison.)
• A pilot project (with AITT and the Department of English) to provide direct access from ACME course pages to Library Research Guides. (Coordinated by Erin Patterson.)
•

• Research to evaluate the impact of CNSLP upon primarily undergraduate university libraries. (Jennifer Richard and Berenica Vejvoda).
• A virtual tour of Acadia’s buildings, 1878-1926 (Coordinated by Patricia Townsend working with Mary Lou Conrad.)

BOARD OF CONTINUING AND DISTANCE EDUCATION
REPORT TO SENATE
 
 

Board Members:

Dr.Micheal Leiter, VP – Academic and Chair
Dr. Gary Hepburn, Acting Director of DCDE
Dr. Bruce Matthews, Dean of Arts
Dr.Cy MacLatchy, Dean of Science
Dr.Bill McLeod, Dean of Professional Studies
Ms. Jane Cayford, Registrar
Mr. Gary Draper, Chief Financial Officer
Ms. Jennifer Isaacs, Manager of Division Operations, DCDE
Ms. Holly Gunn, Student Representative

The Board met twice during the 2001-2002 Academic Year:

January 10, 2002
March 13, 2002
 

Items Considered:

• The Board received the 2001-02 Program and Financial Overview which included the year end report, enrolment statistics and projections, as well as program plans and issues.
 

• The Board reviewed the process for DCDE’s integration with the University registration and financial systems and placed a motion for full integration to commence September 2002.

• The Board reviewed EUP/ESL program in detail concentrating on issues such as classroom space and resources, enrolment management, ,and the investment of purchasing laptops for the students.
 
 

Submitted by,

Dr. Gary Hepburn, Acting Director
The Division of Continuing and Distance Education

Notice of Motion

Amendment of these By-Laws may be effected by a majority vote at any regular meeting of Senate, provided that thirty days notice of motion of such amendment has been duly given before that meeting."
 
This wording is consistent with that Bill 108 (Appendix B page 1) and allows senators to provide notice of motion when meetings are cancelled.
 
Malcolm Grieve
Chair, By-Laws Committee
 

May 2002
 

Notice of Motion

Given the apparent changes in some students attitudes about cheating, the perception that there has been a related increase in cheating and plagiarism by students at the university, and the recognition of  the changing nature of cheating, we move that Senate create a Task Force on Academic Integrity to examine the nature and magnitude of the threats to academic integrity at the university and to recommend comprehensive, pan-university policies,  measures, and procedures  to  deal with the issue.

The Task Force shall include a Chairperson appointed by Senate, one member of Senate from each Faculty, one student-Senator, one librarian, and the Registrar.  The Task Force on Academic Integrity will report to Senate at the 2003 February meeting.”

Dr Gary Ness
Dr. Stephen Ash

September 2002

Notice of motion

Whereas Acadia University is required to comply with the Tri-Council Policy Statement 'Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Humans' (1998) and the Senate By-Laws regarding the membership of the Research Ethics Board, be it resolved that Ms. Elizabeth Nilsen, M.Sc. Program, Department of Psychology, is reappointed to the Research Ethics Board, effective immediately, for a second one-year term as Graduate Student Representative (non-voting).

Senate Committee on  Research and Graduate Studies

Michael Leiter
August 2002