Communications Committee February 7, 2006 Minutes
Attended: Suellen Stringer-Hye, Celia Walker, Henry Shipman, Flo Wilson, Ava Wilson, Jim Webb.
News Ticker: The current articles (job seekers, top places to study, Pascal Pia and writing seminars) will continue to run on the library news ticker. A request was made to add a second link on the Vanderbilt Office of Student Employment page to give students another opportunity to seek employment elsewhere on campus. Other topics suggested include: links to IRS tax forms (we had hoped to direct users to print copies, but the government sent so few copies this year that that would not be helpful); new books by faculty (difficult to gather this information, but we might encourage faculty to submit that information when the Faculty News Feed is created); and a tie in with the Lexionary pages from Divinity when that article is published in the Acorn Chronicle in the fall. The Pascal-Pia exhibit will be replaced with Roberta’s new exhibit, Time Magazine’s 100 Best fiction books written in the English Language. Henry will encourage Chris Skinker to send us more information about exhibits as she completes the change out of the current exhibits.
Talking Points: The following staff agreed to serve on the Project Team for Marketing/Public Relations: Flo Wilson, Sharon Weiner, Celia Walker, Paula Covington and Ann Marie Deer Owens, Senior Public Affairs Officer, will contribute. The deadline for this project is June 30.
Staff News feed Assessment: Celia drafted a survey to help the committee assess the Staff News Feed and to see where staff are getting their current information about the library. The Committee agreed to add an explanation to the Watercooler question and create a follow up question asking if this is a useful idea and, if so, how we could improve it. It was suggested to add a section to the Newsfeed for Watercooler Classifieds. Celia will send out the communications survey in the news feed, once these additions are made. Responses to the survey will be reported to the CC to inform a decision on whether to add the Watercooler information to the news feed.
It would be helpful to determine if it is possible to get Sitemason statistics, as another assessment tool for the news feed. The suggestion was also made to add the news feed to the middle of Staffweb page, possibly with graphics. Suellen will have feedback about if this is possible at our next meeting.
Discussion of Strategic Plan Report Wiki: The Strategic Plan Report page has a primary audience of library staff, but its information may be adapted to another format (publication, letter, website or email) to reach other audiences, such as users and donors. The Wiki will list the Strategic Planning goals and report on achievements made toward the completion of the goals. It may also list goals that are in process and those that will be addressed in later years. Paul will be asked to write an introduction to the report. Committee chairs will decide what content they will post about their activities within these guidelines. They will be asked to update their report every 6 months. The first reports will be due by March 2006, to allow staff the time to read them before attending a forum discussion. Updates will be announced in the News feed. The Strategy & Planning Council will discuss the format for the forums at their next meeting.
Request for Location for Conference Reports: A request was made to create a place where staff may share their reports on their conference activities. LITS currently does this on their Wiki, and Peabody reports such information in their monthly report. We will look into the possibility of asking library directors to encourage staff to submit links or summaries of conference activities in their monthly reports. For those who do not submit monthly reports, summaries may be submitted to the news feed for sharing.
Submitted by Henry Shipman and Celia Walker 2/10/2006