Agenda
- Announcements
- Update on Achievements List Project (Celia)
- Diversity Statistics (Lisa)
- Research on Digital Preservation (Jody)
Minutes
(Regrets: Tracy, Holling, Beth, Frances)
1. Announcements:
- Divinity hosted the visits of 2 European librarians earlier this week.
- Dean Dowell reported some fundraising activities and recent gifts.
- Directors were asked to encourage their staff to attend the All-Staff Meeting with the Provost on July 22.
- Dean Dowell reported to Council on her meetings with small groups of staff. She is enjoying these meetings, which will continue. The groups are diverse mixes of staff from across the system; she is receiving lots of comments and questions on topics such as salaries, faculty status, equities among the libraries, etc. In more than one meeting an interest was expressed in having an online photo directory of library staff so staff could learn the names of colleagues. Listings would include job titles and photos, and access would be restricted to library staff only. Council discussed the feasibility of this type of directory and how to proceed if a decision is made to create this. Council was asked to get feedback from their staff to see if they are interested in this, and the topic will be discussed further at a future Council meeting.
2. Achievements List Project: Celia brought a recommendation from Staff Development for the Staff Achievements List, as a follow up to a previous request by Council. SDC developed a form for tracking professional staff achievements such as articles, book reviews, awards, professional presentations, grants, teaching, and other service or outreach activities. The recommendation was made for staff to submit this form at the same time annual performance evaluations are submitted, and directors would then forward the form to Library Administrative Services who would enter and maintain the information in an electronic HR database. Council discussed how such information could be used (to celebrate staff accomplishments; to support a different status for librarians if we decided to make such a proposal), which staff would be encouraged to complete the form (exempt and/or non-exempt), and how and when to request staff to complete the form. A decision was made to table the topic and devote a future Council meeting entirely to further discussion of professional development and the issues mentioned above. Dean Dowell and others will present models of how other institutions collect and use this type of information. Council was asked to send suggestions for models to her within the next few days for consideration. Council thanked SDC for their work on this project and will continue to consider their recommendation as other models are reviewed. Council was reminded to send any staff recognition items to Robyn for inclusion in the Staff News.
3. Diversity Statistics: Lisa distributed a handout comparing diversity statistics from our library versus our peer institutions (Emory, Duke, Washington University at St. Louis). These statistics will be useful to have for consideration in future hiring/recruiting efforts as we make efforts to recruit top candidates for any open positions. These charts are available at http://staffweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/admin/peer.xls.
4. Research on Digital Preservation: this item was postponed.