UCLA University Librarian

As you know, demolition has begun on “A” level within YRL.  At times it feels as if I am sitting right in the middle of it as it is happening directly under my office.  And we are preparing for this to go on over the next couple of years as we move forward.  That project has been approved at the campus level and is underway.  Susan Parker briefed you all earlier on this phase of the proejct.

This morning we received word that the President and Chairman of the Board, Committee on  Grounds and Buildings of the UC Regents has approved an amendment to the Budget for Capital Improvements and the Campital Improvement Program for the YRL First Floor Renovation Project.

To summarize, “the project will renovate 31,695 asf on the first floor providing improvements and acessibility upgrades for the improved functionality of lbirary users of teh Young Research Lbirary (YRL).  The project will construct a new reading room for frequently-used print reference matrials; a research commons that  includes workstations and instructional spaces for collaborative projects and individual study; group study rooms; a secure and climate controlled exhibit gallery for the display of rare books, manuscripts and artwork from the libraries collections; a 110-person meeting room for seiminars, symposia and films, and a cafe with seating area and service counter.”

The total project cost of $12,950,000 is funded from gift funds.  The library now moves into the fund raising phase of the project as we still need to raise part of these funds to complete the project.

I am very excited that this begins to move us forward on our plans to upgrade our library spaces across campus.  The renovations at the Management Library will be completed the first part of September and the plans for renovation of the Performing Arts Special Collections are soon to begin.

In October I had the honor of presenting the annual Coulter Lecture at the California Library Association Annual Conference in Long Beach.  The lecture has now been published in the California State Library Foundation Bulletin.  You can access it at http://www.cslfdn.org/pdf/bulletin_90.pdf.  The Coulter Lecture is presented each year by the library school alumni association at UC Berkeley.

We’ve just announced that the UCLA Library received a $750,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to catalog some 55,000 rare books.  Needless to say, we’re thrilled, and I hope the students and scholars who will soon have access to the records of these rare and unique volumes will be as well.  Details are in the press release in the UCLA Newsroom.

 While in Northern Idaho in July, there was time for some contemplation with my grandson, Mason. We walked, talked, and he filled me in on next generation thinking from his point of view.What fun.

Sunday’s opening session was pretty neat.  Lots of music and speeches and I left to catch an appointment arranged ahead when they said that it would be over at 11:30 (actually they went on much, much longer, I am told.)  Most interesting speaker for me was the Governor General of Canada, a Haitian immigrant to Canada.  She was most interesting and her background and experiences were so much of what I hear from leaders around the world.  It was interesting that all of the government officials from Canada who spoke were women, from the Governor General and Minister of Culture to the Mayor of Quebec.Good meetings yesterday.  Very good session on copyright and data protection and individual privacy.  It is so interesting getting a worldwide perspective.  The speaker from Canada and Australia who spoke about Crown copyright were particularly interesting.  The Danish speaker talked about how they are capturing danish web sites and archiving them and the problems surrounding the protection of individual’s information and their rights.  Makes you realize just how vulnerable we all are as government captures more and more about who and what we are and do.  It was interesting to note that each of them in one way or another spoke about how publishing in print means you control how it is distributed, seen, and preserved.  The digital world allows for anyone, anywhere, anytime to use and misuse information and the “stuff” that is out there.  The almost instantaneous access, often without forethought or editing, poses real challenges.  This is interesting background as I continue on UCLA’s Committee on Privacy and Data Protection.

The afternoon session on the World Digital Library was interesting and I was able to get a copy of the draft UNESCO manifesto on the World Digital Library.  I helped get that whole effort off the ground within IFLA when I was on the Governing Board.  While it isn’t exactly what I would have done, it has moved forward and it is now before UNESCO to make some decisions about.  I hope it is finalized.  Now to figure out how UCLA participates in all of that activity.

The Hollywood Librarian movie last night was a disappointment.  As I mentioned, it was mostly the film maker talking and not good examples of the movies that have librarian images within them.  The panel was more interesting.  Our friend, Howard Besser from NYU was actually the highlight of the whole thing.  Should have just done the panel.

Today’s highlight session was on personal privacy protection sponsored by the Genealogy Section with FAIFE.  Very interesting thoughts about personal privacy and the desire for broad open access to personal information.

For more information check out the IFLA website

I arrrived last night to attend the IFLA Congress here in Quebec.  The setting is special because it brings IFLA back to North America (I co-chaired the IFLA Boston conference in 2001), and it is Quebec’s 400th anniversary.

The theme is “Libraries without borders: Navigating Towards Global Understanding.”  The congress promises to be a full program.  Today was registration and meeting up with friends and colleagues from around the world.  As I entered the registration hall, I immediately reunited with several Russian colleagues including the National Librarian and learned that my old friend Irina Lynden is now the Deputy Director General for International Activities.  The director of the public library in Oslo, Norway was next along my trek to the reigstration table.  And many US colleagues as well.  That is perhaps one of the best aspects of this international meeting.  Not only do you catch up with colleagues but you see library issues from a much broader perspective.

Tonight is the US Caucus meeting where we get a chance to discuss some of the important issues as they affect US libraries.  Weather today is pretty nice after rain during arrival last night.

I spent this morning in a meeting of the UCLA Advisory Board on Privacy and Data Protection of which I am a member.  The Board has been working for sometime on a “Campus Statement on Privacy.”  While the document is not ready for prime time yet, I thought a couple of statements of values might be of interest, and I would welcome your feedback.

“Privacy — ‘the state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people’  (From Apple Dictionary, version 2.0.2) is a value strongly supported by UCLA.”

“Privacy is a fundamental human right and plays an important role in human dignity, put by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis as ‘the right to be left alone … the right most valued by civilized men.’ ” (Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis, “The Right to Privacy,” Harvard Law Review IV, no. 5 December 1890.)

I thought both of these were important thoughts to share.  The full document is still under review and will come forward during the rest of the summer and into the fall.

More later on that.

I have been thinking about this for some time and feel that it is time to begin to work on putting some thoughts out there for folks to ponder.  I welcome and hope for comments and feedback, but we will see.

I would hope that I might include announcements of interest including new staff appointments, news and observations of meetings and my travels on behalf of the UCLA Library, budget updates and how the state budget is impacting our resources, thoughts on planning and directions, new acquisitons of note, updates on our building projects, and some personal stuff too.

So let me know what you think about it all and we will go from there.  If this isn’t useful and informative, it wastes all of our time.