Agenda

March 11, 2009

Meet in Goldberg Conference Room

• Announcements
• Report from Dean's Meeting
• Follow-up Discussion of All-Staff Meeting
• LibQUAL Update
• Library Staff in MLS Programs and Practicum Opportunities
• Workstation Access Issues
• Library Council Communications
• Discussion of Professional Development for Staff

Minutes

(Regrets: Beth)

1. Announcements:

• The Dean of the Law School has announced that he will be stepping down from the Dean position effective June 30, 2009. The Provost will meet with Law faculty tomorrow to discuss.
• Lou Outlaw will speak at Peabody on March 16 from 5-7pm. This event will include an exhibit of his photography and a reception and lecture. See http://staffnews.library.vanderbilt.edu/2009/03/10/artist-talk-and-opening-reception-at-peabody-library/ for more details.
• The Library is in the process of changing titles for AULs. New titles will fall along the lines of Assistant/Associate Dean and similar titles. Beth Boord will be included in this as well.
• Dean Dowell encouraged LC members to continue to communicate information effectively with their staff.

2. Dean’s Meeting Report: Dean Dowell updated Library Council on her meeting earlier this week with the Dean’s Council. A decrease in endowment numbers has been reported since the end of the calendar year’s numbers showed the endowment down 16%; graduate admissions are up for the 09/10 academic year – Engineering reports a 13% increase and Peabody 8%; university counseling staff report a 20% increase in visits over the past several weeks. Dean Dowell asked for support from the Dean’s Council in promoting LibQUAL.

3. All-Staff Meeting: Positive comments were reported from staff on last week’s first all-staff meeting. Council members received comments that some staff appreciated the openness and forthrightness with which the budget was presented; handouts were also found to be helpful. The social component afterward was a good way to interact and meet staff from other divisions. Another comment was that staff reported seeing people in attendance that they did not recognize; maybe introductions of new staff could be added. The group discussed the format of the meeting: future meetings will continue to include a couple of presentations, comments by the dean, recognition of groups and/or individuals, and refreshments (any costs related to these meetings will continue to be funded from donations made using a staff development and recognition fund created by library administration). Please send any ideas for future recognition or presentations to Dean Dowell.

4. LibQUAL+ Update: Dean Dowell expressed her appreciation and gratitude for the hard work the LibQUAL teams have put into preparations for the survey. As of today, 666 survey responses have been made, and over 270 comments received – a very positive start. Council members were asked to continue to encourage staff, faculty and students to take the survey, and were reminded of the importance of a high response rate to the future of our capital campaign. Sue and Dean Dowell visited the University Staff Advisory Council for support and will continue to meet with other groups to promote survey participation. Council members discussed how often the survey reminders should be sent out – the original plan of the LibQUAL group was to send two reminders after the initial message from the Provost. The frequency of reminders will be decided soon. If any members contact faculty, staff or students via email please report that information to Sue to avoid those groups being contacted too often; additionally, Sue asked that any libraries planning to place Second Harvest donation boxes in their library please let her know.

5. MLS Programs and Practicum Opportunities: The group discussed a policy issue surrounding practicum opportunities for staff enrolled in MLS/MLIS distance programs. University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK), do not allow their MLIS students to do their practicum at the same library where they are employed. We have agreed with their philosophy and several of our staff members, who were UTK MLIS students, sought their practicum elsewhere. However, other graduate programs might allow library staff to do their practicum at their place of employment. The Council advised that staff should be encouraged to gain broad experience during their practicum and consider other institutions and areas of research outside their interest. This would not only provide good experience but would also result in valuable references for jobs. Council will offer encouragement and advice to mentor staff interested in joining an MLS program as well as those currently enrolled. We do not plan to set a strict policy on practicum locations since each library school has their own policies for placement.

6. Workstation Access Issues: There have been several recurring issues recently involving computer access and use in the libraries. A project team is currently reviewing library use and access policies and will be reporting back to the Council in April. In the meantime, Bill (working with LITS in conjunction with the Novell-to-Windows migration scheduled for the summer) has proposed a test project for the public workstations in Divinity. He distributed a draft document outlining details of the project, which will require login with a VUNET ID and password on some public workstations. This test project will proceed soon.

7. Library Council Communications: Dean Dowell announced a small change to the review of LC minutes. Previously, Robyn took minutes and then presented them to the chair for review before posting to the web. Now after initial review by the chair, LC members will also review the minutes before they are posted. The group will receive an email with a draft of the minutes and should submit any comments or revisions within 24 hours, at which time they will be posted.

8. Professional Development for Staff: The group discussed how to provide continued professional development opportunities for staff in light of the constraints to our travel budget. Webinars are one way to provide development opportunities, as are other lower-cost options such as CD-ROMs for certain areas. We will also continue to look for opportunities to invite visiting speakers. Some staff are self-funding travel for conferences and seminars, being given release time from their supervisor. While most travel is not currently being supported by the university, the Provost will continue to review travel requests and consider funding some opportunities. Dean Dowell asked LC members to compile a list of their staff’s professional development requests from July through December (including ALA in late June), providing details and justification for the request, and send to Dean Dowell, Flo and Lisa for further review. All levels of staff should be considered regarding development opportunities, and we will work to determine an equitable way to address this issue.