Library Office Notes

Tina Chrzastowski, Secretary of the Executive Committee, presiding

1.  Announcements

Lynn Wiley announced the hiring of Cherie Weible, Visiting Assistant Librarian in IRRC.

Caroline Szylowicz announced the upcoming Proust 2000 symposium to be held April 13-16 at the Krannert Art Museum.  The symposium is jointly sponsored by the Kolb-Proust Archive and the French Department.  In addition to a public lecture by Roger Shattuck, plenary sessions by numerous well-known scholars, and round tables, several music and art events will be offered.

Karen Schmidt reminded fund managers of the need to prepare budget contingency plans.   She also indicated that fund managers should wait to prepare the 40% budget request, since the form, as originally written, referred to data that is currently unavailable.  Finally, Schmidt discussed the current work of the joint Library-Senate Library Committee sponsored Committee on Scholarly Communication, which includes Paula Kaufman, Paula Watson, Karen Schmidt, Mitzi Williams, and Anthony Kaufman from the English Department.  The committee will begin campus-wide conversations on the future of scholarly communications by hosting a discussion and information exchange on the issues with members of library advisory committees from throughout the campus.  This meeting will be held some time in late April, and librarians are invited to attend.

2.  The minutes of the January 21, 2000, faculty meeting were approved as read.

3.  Committee Reports

Executive Committee Report

Tina Chrzastowski presented the Executive Committee report.  The EC met once since the January faculty meeting.  Among the topics discussed were the creation of packets for use in recruiting faculty and the creation of a website for each search (accessible by both library faculty and candidates).  They also discussed the workplan suggested by the Strategic Planning Committee, which included holding a retreat in May for faculty and academic professionals.  The EC also approved Acting Geology and Mathematics Librarians and discussed several other staffing issues.  These include changing visiting appointments to permanent tenure-track positions in the Undergraduate Library (approved) and Architecture and Art Library (decision pending, awaiting further information), the search for the Afro-Americana librarian, the Multi-Cultural Librarian position funded by the Provost, and the title for the Preservation Librarian (Head of Preservation).

Bart Clark reminded search committees that their first meeting needed to include the Affirmative Action Officer, the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee, and someone from the Personnel Office.  There is a guidelines document on the staff page at http//www.library.uiuc.edu/~staff/compro.htm.  This will be updated soon.

Faculty Review Committee

Beth Sandore led a review of proposed revisions to the Visiting Committee guidelines document, which had been sent to all faculty prior to the meeting.  Revising this document was the first charge given to the FRC by Paula Kaufman.  The FRC made changes based on questions and concerns raised over the past few years.  The FRC charge was discussed first, with comments centering on the need to make sure that the FRC charge matches the Library By-Laws.

The Visiting Committee guidelines were then discussed.  Sandore mentioned the need to add statements referring to 0Y to lines 21, 111, 179, and 217 for consistency.   The definition of 0Y was clarified.  Other campus promotion and tenure URLs were suggested for addition.  It was agreed that listing the Office of the Provost at http//www.provost.uiuc.edu/ was preferable to listing each communication or policy individually.  Discussion then moved on to the section on Evaluation of Librarianship.  The number and source of additional interviews for the 3Y review was questioned since some librarians, particularly those in Technical Services, do not have strong ties with individual faculty outside of the library.  The desirability of soliciting interviews from library faculty outside of UIUC was discussed as well.  A motion was made to send this section back to FRC for further work, which was seconded but then withdrawn as it became clear that a more general motion for further clarification would be needed.  Discussion moved on to the 3Y review under Evaluation of Research (which will be re-titled Evaluation of Research and Service).  It was generally felt that the evaluation method should be similar for the two sections.  This discussion continued past 4:30, so the FRC was instructed to rewrite those sections of the guidelines document discussed at the faculty meeting and to report back at a later time.

Respectfully submitted,

Diane Schmidt
Faculty Secretary

Present:  Paula Kaufman, Margaret Chaplan, Tim Cole, Marty Friedman, Mary Stuart, Leslie Troutman, Mitzi Williams

Absent:  Tina Chrzastowski, Bill Maher

I.  Approval of the Past Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the February 28, 2000, meeting were approved as corrected.

II.  Announcements

EC will pursue Emeritus status for another retiree.

It has been requested that tenured faculty be appointed to the GSLIS Admissions Committee, since the business of this committee is too time consuming for nontenured faculty.  EC agreed that it would be adequate for one person to represent the Library on the committee.

III.  New Business

A.  Provost’s Communication 10 (Guidelines and Procedures for Notice of Nonreappointment for Nontenured Faculty Members, web site at http//www.provost.uiuc.edu/comm/comm10/index.html)

Notification of nonreappointment was discussed.  Campus recommends earlier notification of nonreappointment, and the UL, as well as EC, agree that early notification (2Y or 3Y) is best for everyone concerned when circumstances warrant.  After visiting committee reports are completed in the spring, nontenured faculty should be warned and counseled by the UL in the fall about a possible notification of termination.   Notification must be made no later than May 20 for contracts ending the following August 20.  The terminal contract provides one year for the person to leave.  If they resign before the official notification date, there is no record kept of a pending termination.  EC recommends that the Human Resources Office be as supportive as possible when these situations occur.

Paula will ask Beth Sandore (FRC) and Frances Jacobson (PTA) to come to the next EC meeting to discuss and solidify the procedures and decide where they should be recorded.

IV.  Old Business

A.  Search Committee Instructional Documentation

Two Search Committee instructional documents were reviewed.  One was a 1997 Campus document, and the other was a 1995 Library document.  It was decided that the following points should be included in the Library search document

· at the beginning of the search process, the EEO should meet with the full search committee, and a special effort should be made to insure a diverse faculty;

· unit heads write job descriptions for positions within the unit; division coordinators, for unit head positions; and the UL, for everyone else;

· once the job description is written, it goes to the search committee for review;

· after the search committee reviews the job description, it goes to the UL for approval; if necessary, she will consult EC;

· there should be guidelines regarding how much can be done electronically;

· password protected, secure web sites for all resumes will be established through CCSO;

· confidentiality needs to be spelled out;

· search committee members, procedures, and job descriptions are open information;

· search committees should have a written report that all members have seen; the chair and the UL should go over it; and the UL should consult EC when appropriate;

· the search committee may require candidates to make an open presentation or to prepare a written piece for the Library faculty and staff;

· if the committee or the UL decide that the candidates are not suitable, the candidates must be notified;

· academic professional and visiting searches are usually local or regional; faculty searches are national or international unless EC approves a local or regional search;

· Human Resources checks for authenticity of credentials and degrees;

· the search committee chair verifies that a check of credentials and degrees is completed;

· it’s the prerogative of the search committee to do phone reference checks with colleagues of the candidate (someone who works with them or for them), if they wish; this should be done with the candidate’s approval.

EC agreed that the new Head of Human Resources should have a packet of procedures for new search committee chairs and should have an informational meeting with the chair before the process begins.

A subcommittee was appointed to revise the Library search document for consideration at the next EC meeting.

B.  Search committee database

Susan Edwards is working on a database of search committees.