University
Library Committee Minutes
October 26, 1999
Present: Barkman (Chair) Acevedo-Leal; Couch; Koelker; Miteff; Seal; Weis; Woodworth
1) Dennis Odom, Head of the Library’s Acquisitions Department, gave the committee a demonstration of netLibrary.
The Library recently acquired this new service that provides access to more than five thousand electronic books.
The books can be “checked out” electronically and available for individuals to read online. It is even possible
to purchase an electronic copy of a book that would be available to an individual person. (Book is an electronic file).
TCU acquired netLibrary by participating in a purchase agreement with 90 other libraries through Amigos,
a library consortium. Members of the consortium will be meeting to discuss ongoing use of this collection.
Currently, the checkout period is set to 24 hours for TCU and other consortium users. UT-Austin purchased
this service independently from the consortium arrangements used by TCU. They chose to implement a 2-hour
checkout period for their access. Users will note that netLibrary complies with copyright restrictions in that
if one user among the consortium has checked out a book, it is not available to others. This restriction is not
driven by technology but by copyright ownership by the publishers.
Mr. Seal expressed his interest in having members of the committee use netLibrary. The Library is particularly
interested in opinions and experiences from faculty across different disciplines. Faculty needs to set up individual
accounts using personal Peoplesoft ID numbers (use the number on one’s TCU ID card) when logging in the first time.
2) Friends of the TCU Library
Mr. Seal distributed copies of the Friends of the Library brochure and encouraged members of the committee to
consider participating in Friends events and in joining the Friends.
3) General Library Update
Jennifer Duncan is the new Reference Electronic Services Librarian. Lisa Pena is the new library assistant
in Special Collections.
Plans for the Library’s Coffee Café are going forward. Construction of facilities involves upgrading
plumbing and electrical systems in the building. The project may be complete by the end of semester though
actual construction has not started yet.
The Library is in the process of receiving equipment ordered through the $423,000 TIFB (Texas Infrastructure
Fund Board) grant. The Library will shortly be wired for electrical access to laptops in the reference and periodicals
rooms. The Library intends to use a wireless form of connection for data transmission between individual laptops
and the TCU network.
The Library and Information Services have jointly worked on upgrading the Library’s training room on the second
floor. IS provided all of the new computer equipment for the room and the Library provided new furniture for use in
the room. Information Services will use this room for faculty and staff training and the Library will use this room for
library instruction.
There are major changes coming to the Library’s copying facilities. New TCU one-card, smart readers will replace
the current venda-card system. Copiers in the building will have a smart card unit that is operated by swiping a
student’s card through a reader. The unit reads the amount of copies and directly charges the expense against the
student’s account. The transition from the old system to the new system will begin later this semester and is likely
to be complete by January. Faculty access to copying will continue with individual codes on the faculty copiers until
procedures are developed to use the smart card system. Public users will have access to new coin changers that will
accept currency and coin for copying. The Library will also be able to offer color copies later this semester.
Access to the new color copier will be available in November.
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