Communications Committee February 21, 2006 Agenda

Attending: Suellen Stringer-Hye, Angel Bruner, Celia Walker, Henry Shipman, Ava Wilson, Flo Wilson, Paula Covington, and George Anglin.

1. Web Ticker

There are four items on the news ticker: an exhibit, student jobs, training sessions and places to study. After brief discussion, no new items were added.

2. Review of Communications Survey to Date

Fifty-seven responses have been received to the Communications Survey. Flo submitted a compilation of the results so far. These can be found through a link from our committee Wiki or at the following URL: http://wiki.library.vanderbilt.edu/committees/pmwiki.php/Comm/StaffCommunicationSurveySelectedResults

The actual survey can be found here: http://survey.library.vanderbilt.edu:8080/survey/entry.jsp?id=1138892403683

In response to these results, the layout, content and placement of the news feed was discussed. The content might be divided into sections (a top section for the critical updates and a second section for entertainment/optional items, with the Watercooler added at the end). If the news feed is added to the Staffweb, much scrolling will need to be done. Adding it as a recognizable link with a photo is also feasible. We might consider holding focus groups of staff to see what is preferred. There was a question as to whose umbrella the Staffweb comes under. More discussion of these questions will be held after we get more responses to the survey. It is probably too early to make any major changes as the staff are still getting used to the new format and delivery system. Once all of the survey responses are in, we can assess what is not working and identify ways to improve those areas.

3. Report on Forum Discussion

The committees are charged to present a progress report to the library staff every 6 months. Oral presentations by each committee could get very long. The Strategy and Planning Council decided to ask each committee to write a report on their activities to be circulated by mid-March and offer a question and answer session for staff at the end of March. The SDC Committee felt that not everyone would read the reports and that perhaps each chairman could present a very short synopsis of progress and goals at that time. This suggestion will be forwarded to the Strategy and Planning Committee.

4. Review Prioritized Goals and Projects

Deb has submitted some information about identifying communications vehicles in the libraries and Celia will circulate that. We may choose to ask each CC member to contact the libraries and brainstorm with them to find all the communications vehicles available throughout the library. At our next meeting we will define our internal and external audiences. All committee members are asked to review our goals and projects list for next time and make any rearrangement suggestions.

Submitted by Angel Bruner; Feb 21, 2007