Executive Committee Minutes
Monday, 27 August 2001
1:30-3:00
****DRAFT-REVISED 9/5/01****
Present: Paula Kaufman, chair, Dick Griscom, Janis Johnston, Beth Sandore, Sue
Searing, Leslie Troutman, Beth Woodard, Greg Youngen
Absent: Bill Maher
1. Approve minutes of the 13 August 2001 meeting.
The minutes of the August 13, 2001 meeting were approved as revised. Additional revisions will
be made to the August 17, 2001 minutes and they will be presented at the next meeting for
approval.
2. Question time.
Where are we with the Endeavor negotiations? The negotiations are ongoing, and Paula is
receiving regular reports on their progress.
3. Elect officers for AY2001/02.
Vice-Chair; Beth Sandore
Secretary: fall semester, Dick Griscom; spring semester, Sue Searing
4. Internship opportunity
The Mortenson Center and the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) are developing
an internship program at the Mortenson Center for a mid-career North American librarian. This
librarian will be working closely with the Mortenson Center on the South African project. The goal
of the project is to develop leadership capabilities in South African librarians. The internship
will last a total of ten weeks, eight weeks here and two weeks in South Africa.
The Executive Committee discussed a proposal for a similar internship for a UIUC librarian.
Searing and Johnston will work with the Mortenson Center librarians to delineate the desired
outcomes and activities for such an internship.
5. The upcoming year's work
- Discussion of EC priorities for 2001-02 centered on several broad themes:
- Archives: There was discussion about the record keeping by the EC of all the items that come up
at the meetings, including agendas and minutes. The committee will ask Bill Maher to look into the
requirements for archiving committee documents.
- Communication: Are there better ways for the EC to communicate with faculty?
It was decided that at the end of each meeting the EC would determine which items they would
like more input on and send them out to the faculty for comments before the next meeting. Also, EC
will occasionally present some issues for further discussion at faculty meetings.
- Staffing decisions: Some EC members feel the need for a true survey of staffing needs (rather
than just an inventory). The EC should develop a framework or guidelines for approving new or
renewed positions, so when EC receives requests to fill these positions they will have something to
test them against. Ideas included appointing a subcommittee to look at this or hiring someone
outside the library to help us think about how to develop this framework.
- Professional development: The Library needs to shape a philosophy about the shared
responsibility between the library and the individual faculty members for career development. Such
a philosophy might include developing faculty for leadership/management positions or for research
positions depending on their capabilities and preferences. Expectations regarding professional
development and support for it need to be clarified for visiting appointments.
- Common understandings among visiting committees: When Paula meets with tenured faculty on
September 12, this will be on the agenda. With so many new untenured colleagues, it is important to
be consistent about expectations for research, publication ,and service.
- Peer evaluation: work on improving the evaluation of librarianship must continue
- Budget process: The EC wishes to sustain the momentum in its work on improving how the Library
budget is developed, recognizing the need to compile, share and refine a lot of information within
a short period of time.
- Campus engagement: The EC would like to know more about the activity of individual library
faculty on committees outside the library. It would be helpful, for example, for EC to be able to
take outside committee work into consideration when making library committee assignments.
At the next meeting the focus will be on specific projects and priorities within these broad
themes.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 3:00pm.
