Charge: The library and scholarly information environment is expected to be highly fluid for at least the next decade, as the University attempts to meet the challenges of scholarly and scientific communication in the 21st Century. During this critical period, the Systemwide Library and Scholarly Information Committee will advise the University on systemwide library policies and strategic priorities, on systemwide long term planning for the UC libraries including the 9 campus libraries and the California Digital Library (CDL), and on strategies that will enhance and facilitate the transmission of scholarly and scientific communication in a digital environment. The Committee's guidance will be essential to the University as it seeks to:

• Establish an environment that supports continuous planning and innovation for UC's libraries,


• Develop policies and strategic priorities for the newly created California Digital Library, including policies that support the extension of CDL services beyond the University,


• Implement strategies to sustain and develop both campus and shared print and digital collections and identify mechanisms that facilitate sharing resources across campus boundaries, and


• Initiate projects to improve the process of scholarly communication and assist faculty in distributing the results of their research.

The Committee reports to the Provost and Senior Vice President, Academic Affairs and works closely with the University Librarian and Executive Director, California Digital Library, particularly in his systemwide library planning role In 2001, as part of the scheduled evaluationof strategies identified and implemented during the 1997-1998 Library Planning and Action Initiative, the Committee will provide specific advice to the Provost on future organizational and advisory structures as well as governance and location of the California Digital Library.

Membership: Although the primary criteria for appointment are functional, to insure the necessary breadth of input, the Advisory Committee includes individuals from all campuses of the UC System. The Committee is appointed by the Provost and includes:

• 2 Academic Vice Chancellors;


• Academic Council representatives, inconsultation with Academic Council;


• Additional faculty as needed to provide appropriate disciplinary perspectives (as determined by the Provost, in consultation with Academic Council);


• 4 additional campus administrators including two Information Technologists, one Dean, and one budget officer;


• 2 University Librarians;


• A LAUC representative;


• A representative from the UC-managed Department of Energy Laboratories; and


• Liaisons from other appropriate committees, such as the Copyright Task Force.

In addition, the following serve as ex-officio Advisory Committee members:

• Vice Provost, Academic Initiatives;


• Associate Vice President, Information Resources and Communications;


• University Librarian and Executive Director, California Digital Library;


• UC Budget Office Representative.

An Academic Vice Chancellor will serve as Chair.

Appointment Process: All appointed members will serve an initial three-year term to insure consistency and stability during this period of great library change and transition.

Meetings: The Committee meets quarterly. Meeting locations rotate among the nine campuses.

March 18, 1998

Carol Christ
Vice Chancellor & Provost
200 California Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720

Dear Carol:

On February 2, 1998, the Library Planning and Action Initiative (LPAI) Advisory Task Force held its final meeting, and responsibility for oversight of the California Digital Library and ongoing Universitywide library planning is expected to pass to your new Systemwide Library and Scholarly Information Committee. Upon this occasion, the members of the outgoing task force have asked me to convey some thoughts about ongoing issues and possible approaches to tackling them.

I believe that many within and outside UC share my view that the Library Planning and Action Initiative has been a remarkably successful enterprise, leading within about a year of its inception to the development of a seven-point strategy for the libraries and to the implementation of the California Digital Library (CDL). This achievement owes much to the prior efforts of the University Librarians in preparing the planning foundation for the digital library, and to the leadership and hard work of Richard Lucier and his planning team. However, I think that the key to our success liesin two characteristics of the LPAI process itself. First, the breadth of talent and diversity of perspective represented on the Advisory Task Force brought fresh insight and creativity to our deliberations and allowed us to move forward with a high degree of confidence that our direction would be supported by the broad University community. Second, the commitment to simultaneous planning and action made it possible for us to achieve early success, permitted us to test our planning ideas against concreteimplementation proposals, and fostered an ethic of continuous planning that has already been incorporated into the management culture of the CDL. Provost King has bequeathed the benefits of a broad and diverse constituency on your new committee; the opportunity for your committee to sustain the momentum created by the planning/action strategy is in your able hands.

It is important to keep in mind that while the CDL is the most visible action initiative arising from our work, it is but one element of the planning framework that we have developed. The Task Force has identified seven strategies to guide our libraries' transition over the next 3-5 years, as described fully in the enclosed Final Report. They can serve as a point of departure for the initial efforts of the Systemwide Committee. No doubt the committee will be asked to study the comments resulting from the Universitywide review of our final report. This will provide a useful opportunity for your committee to begin the process of refining and extending these strategies.

Planning for the acquisition and delivery of digital content by the CDL has already begun. As implementation proceeds, the University will need leadership and advice from the committee in order to foster and guide the transition from print to digital formats, where appropriate, and reduce duplicative purchase of printed material. To achieve comprehensive access, coordinated efforts will also be required to promote access to the university's shared print collections and to encourage deployment of the necessary information infrastructure.

1. Resource Sharing. The UC Libraries' [strong] print collections will continue to be essential to the teaching and research mission of the University for the foreseeable future, both to provide effective local support for campus academic programs and to create the distributed network of shared specialized collections that will be needed for comprehensive access. As noted in the ATF final report, "Successful adoption of increased reliance on resource sharing as a strategy to meet needs for printed materials will require support from all stakeholders within the University as well as innovative uses of technology and transportation. Strong leadership and consultation with numerous sectors of the University community will be needed to implement this strategy." The Systemwide Committee should establish a planning mechanism to support and expand resource sharing and identify innovative means to enhance meaningful collaborative collection building, and should involve all stakeholders in that planning effort.
2. Information Infrastructure. The need for the "sophisticated and robust technological infrastructure" called for in the ATF report is widely appreciated, and the characteristics and costs of developing and maintaining that infrastructure are becoming increasingly well understood. However, there remain significant unanswered questions about roles and responsibilities for funding and managing various parts of the University's information infrastructure. While the Committee cannot and should not undertake to address all these questions, it can make a significant step by sponsoring the development of a Universitywide strategic plan for library technology. Such a plan would define the roles and responsibilities of the UC library system within the overall infrastructure, thereby providing a point of departure for the wider discussion, as well as facilitating the coordination of campus library technology plans with each other and with the technology strategiesof the campuses.

One of the goals of the LPAI was to "recommend a sustainable model or models for the University Library System to accommodate the changing funding, intellectual, service, collection development and technology environment." The ATF quickly determined that such an effort would have been premature -- indeed, one purpose of the CDL, under the "planning/action" rubric, is to create an environment in which we can progress to a point where the development of such models is possible. This will clearly be a long-term undertaking for the University, but I encourage the new committee to keep this charge in mind, and to pursue it aggressively at the appropriate time.

Collaboration is also an important element of the transitional strategies identified by the ATF. Further discussion is needed on the nature of the partnerships that: (1) should be formed by the CDL with institutions such as universities, industry, libraries and museums; and (2) are critical to a viable long-term resource sharing strategy. The Systemwide Committee should develop principles and guidelines that describe the financial terms for partnerships and delineate the differences between collaborators and customers.

Finally, as noted in the ATF final report, "The discussions and analysis of the Copyright Task Force will likely lead to recommendations for changes in the models the University has used to publish and communicate scholarly information. The role of the CDL should be to provide leadership in the development and implementation of the services and support necessary to build and implement these new models." The Advisory Committee should assist the CDL in building on the report of the Copyright Task Force.

I look forward to working with you on the new committee. These are issues to which credible and creative solutions are fundamental to the ongoing health of the University.

Sincerely

Charles F. Kennel
Director, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Cc: Judson King, Senior Vice President, Academic Affairs
Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, Vice Provost, Academic Initiatives
Richard Lucier, University Librarian & Executive Director, California Digital Library


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University of California Library Planning & Action Initiative

Last updated: 6 April 1998