Staffing
I would like to offer some further information regarding the recent staffing changes and subsequent emails and discussions. As mentioned in the Union Wire and in Alice’s letter, a number of UCPEA staff were affected by the recent layoffs. I would like to stress the layoffs are part of a University-wide effort to manage several years of past, current, and future deficits. The library was not a target, in fact most, if not all, academic units faced the same percentage of budget cuts. The library was able to minimize the cuts to staff by negotiating with the Provost to allow for more than half of the 9% budget deficit in FY 16 & 17 to come from the collections budget. While it has been past practice to absorb much smaller budget cuts by giving back open positions, this is not an effective way to plan for the future of our organization.

In the coming months we will be working across the organization to focus on job duties and responsibilities. We will look at what we can stop doing, how we can do things differently and more efficiently, and reallocating some tasks to help in balancing workloads. As Alice suggested in her note, this is the time to evaluate our positions and duties in light of the changing nature of academic libraries.

As with UCPEA, we have left the announcement up to each individual affected, honoring their wishes for privacy when desired. I realize this is difficult with such a small staff and most of you know the members, but I do hope that you will also respect their privacy.  I also expect that during difficult times such as these, we continue to remain professional with each other and other members of the community.

Open Educational Resources Update
With the help of the UConn Foundation, we have been in conversations with the Davis Educational Foundation regarding the possibility of grant support for Open Educational Resources here at UConn and Connecticut. We have pulled together a grant writing team that consists of Kate Fuller, Kathy Labadorf, Christ Petkovich (Foundation) and Daniel Byrd (USG) and will be meeting with the Davis Foundation today to further discuss their interest.

I have also mentioned in a previous message, the passage of House Bill 6117 which includes the development of an open-source textbook pilot program throughout CT. The President’s office is currently working to appoint members of the UConn community to that project.

And finally, as a member of BLC we have signed on with more than 90 organizations to support the call to the White House to take administrative action to ensure federally funded educational materials are made available as Open Educational Resources that are free to use, share and improve. A copy of the full letter, which was sent on Tuesday, can be found here.

Martha’s Master Plan Mashup
Keep an eye out for an early September date for my next Mashup, which will focus on the progress to date for the Babbidge Library Master Plan and the next steps in the process.