April 2, 2015 Meeting of Area Studies

Agenda not yet available.

IAS Staff Meeting

April 2, 2015 

Present: Jan Adamczyk, Atoma Batoma, Kit Condill, Lisa Renee Kemplin, Ula Lechtenberg, Joe Lenkart, Xiaoping Qi, Mara Thacker, and Steve Witt

Announcements:

Awards & Accolades:

5. It was noted in the April Library Notes that there are upcoming meeting times for strategic planning sessions that focus on the campus’ strategic plans. The next available times are April 7 from 12-1 and April 9 from 2-3 in RM 428. Attendance is encouraged. Look for a LibNews email from Lisa Hinchliffe in the next few days.
6. Interviews for the Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Librarian will be held April 29, 30, and May 7. Complete schedules will be forthcoming.
7. Congratulations to Joe for being appointed to the IFLA Document Delivery and Interlibrary Lending Committee.
8. Mara is holding a webinar next Friday, April 10 at 12:30 on International Comic Collections.
9. Congratulations to Lynne for being elected to serve on IFLA’s Social Science Librarians Standing Committee.
10. Reminder of the April 10 Embracing Internationalization at the University Library event next Friday. Panel is in RM 106 from 3-4 and reception in RM 321 from 4-5. Lisa Renee will need assistance in coordinating the technical set ups and equipment returns for both rooms on that day.
11. Atoma announced that his proposal for a buying trip was approved. He will be going in mid-June to Togo, Benin, and Ghana. He will be gone for a total of three weeks. Yoo-Seong will be taking a buying trip to China and South Korea to purchase North Korea materials. Antonio will be going to Cuba in the fall to establish relationships with vendors.

Discussion:

1. IAS was approved for 2 25% GA’s for 2015-16. Will need to pursue strategic planning and have contingencies for the reduced staff. In particular the model of GA’s supervising the service desk on evenings and weekends is not doable with only 2 GA’s. May have to look at reduced hours. Steve will be meeting with Sue Searing next week to discuss. Lynne also brought up concerns to the Dean in her last meeting.
2. Steve attended the Senior Leadership Diversity discussion on April 1. The afternoon focused on information received from the study of racial microagressions on the U. of IL campus. The report showed that students experienced both micro and overt agressions in the classroom in regards to race and gender. There were three points explored in Steve’s group: 1) how to handle tough situations that come up in the classrooms/training for faculty 2) how campus leaders can address national incidents that impact campus and 3) where does campus go after the Salaita case
3. IAS diversity/communication training has been moved to early May. More to follow.

Reports:

1. IAS Reference User Services will be meeting soon now that all have returned from spring break. Steve proposes that we move to one staff meeting a month and use the other meeting time for all to attend Reference User Services.
2. iTEC is working on the April 10 event. Some other things in discussion include moving a bulletin board to the hallway for better visibility and electronic signage. Conversations continued about the television that is to be installed in IAS. No further developments on this project.

Other:

1. Lisa Renee responded to a call for assistance in buying exhibit supplies for IAS from Jody Waitzman. These supplies will be used for exhibits in IAS. These supplies are stored in the supply closet. Please return to this location after use.