CSUL

At its November 1, 2007 teleconference, the medical school deans, university presidents, and other representatives met for a second time to continue their discussion of potential collaborative efficiencies that might be explored in State University System (SUS) medical schools. The purpose of this memorandum is to provide information to interested parties with regard to one area of the group’s exploration: the sharing of library materials.

It was suggested that a committee might be established to explore the purchasing of sets of data or other health-related library resources. To that end, it was reported that the SUS Collection Planning Committee (CPC), a subcommittee of the SUS Council of State University Libraries, met in September and supported a recommendation that the Council create a Medical/Health Library Task Force under the direction of the CPC and consisting of the autonomous medical/health libraries at UF, USF, FSU, FIU, UCF, FAU-Miami, and, as a facilitator, the Florida Center for Library Automation. It is my understanding that the Council, chaired by UCF representation, will meet in December to consider this recommendation.
It is my intention to report out to the Board of Governors in January 2008 on the progress made by the Medical School Efficiencies Project. As the Council of State Libraries will have met, I hope to be able to report that a Medical / Health Library Task Force is being created and that, in turn, the Task Force will be in a position to report out at the May 2008 meeting of the Board of Governors. I would appreciate being provided with updates from the Council, the CPC, and/or the Task Force in the likely event that it is created so that I can continue to provide status reports to the Chancellor and to members of the Board of Governors interested in this project. Thank you in advance for notifying me as to Council and Task Force points of contact in the near future.