February was another busy month as we prepared faculty evaluations and started to prepare for staff evaluations.

We began to address the recommendations (more than 80) in the security audit report prepared by U of L's Department of Public Safety.

The Strategic Planning process based on the Enabling Plans from the Vice Presidents moved into high gear and is moving toward finalization. The latest drafts of the Enabling Plans were received recently and the ACT (Administrative Coordinating Team) is reviewing them. Our completed plan is due to the Provost by March 23. Very soon the plan will be available on the Libraries' intranet. Mark Paul has graciously agreed to set this up for all of us. (See Libraries-Wide Intranet.)

The Libraries' first user survey has been completed and members of the ACT have copies. This document will also be available on the intranet. Summary data from the survey has been shared with the Provost and the Faculty Senate Library Committee. The Assessment Team is working on a survey to be used with faculty and graduating seniors this semester. Findings from the survey will guide us in improving library services and collections.

The SAALCK (State Assisted Academic Library Council of Kentucky) has been hard at work to prepare data and rationale for the Council on Postsecondary Education in order to obtain funding for state-wide database sharing and for initiating the Virtual University Library in Kentucky.

Recently, I attended my first meeting of the Association of South East Research Libraries. It was a very productive meeting with directors and deans of these research libraries. We found that we share many problems and face similar challenges, and we were able to learn from one another in the areas of storage facilities, security, electronic information, service issues, competition and new initiatives for academic libraries.

--Hannelore Rader, University Librarian