April 8, 2020 Meeting of Life Sciences

1. Approval of March minutes (taken by Janis)
2. ALMA updates, concerns (all)
3. Update on office building project (Sarah)
4. Head of Scholarly Commons draft description (Susan)
5. Committee assignments and reports – AC, CDC, others
6. Round Table
7. Adjourn

1. Approval of March minutes (taken by Janis)
   • Approved

2. ALMA updates, concerns (all)
   • Lucy: there is a lot of work to be done through next week.
     • There is a lot of training to do.
   • Susan: been trying to attend weekly alma sessions. It’s been helpful to go and see that systems are functional.

4. Update on office building project (Sarah)
   • Our project is on hold for the time being
5. Head of Scholarly Commons draft description (Susan)
   • Background: new description describes the commons as humanities and social sciences focused. Previously SC was neutral. However, some functions of the commons have changed, no longer RDS, no longer IDEALS.
     • While it does state social science/humanities, it lists IDEA Lab as collaborator, which is not social sciences.
     • It does not list other parts of library network.

• • Peg is concerned this disenfranchises our users. And as Susan points out, we use RDS across board. Peg also mentioned GIS support and data visualization that are not exclusive to sciences. Peg points out it feels less than transparent to be changing the nature of scholarly commons in this manner.

1. 1. Committee make up: Kyle Rimkus (chair), Merinda Hensley, Bethany Anderson, and Susan Braxton.

6. Committee assignments and reports – AC, CDC, others

• • LCAP (Susan): There have been 16 AP’s that have self-nominated for promotion this year.
    • The organizational and training committee is putting together a quick survey on meeting and presentation technology.
      • People can weigh in on Skype or Zoom for working.
    • There is a library training channel for library employees:
      • https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/channel/Training+for+Library+Employees/127798621
  • Mindfulness training is here, ALMA training is here.
  • Outreach and Engagement Task Force (Janis):
    • Working on survey that will go out to faculty
  • Assessment Committee (Peg):
    • Went over questionnaire for O&E survey.
    • Discussed support of library workers when everyone is working from home
    • Is there some mechanism to try to mitigate the difficulties of working alone from home, e.g. small groups/buddy system
      • They will discuss this with wellness committee.
    • Some people felt it ought to be mandated, but that may be a more administrative decision.
  • Library Assessment Specialist job had been created and Peg will chair, but nothing will begin until late May.
    • University accreditation (Erin): Lisa Hinchliffe and Jen-chien Yu have been very involved in this. They are stressing that assessment looks different for different colleges and units.
  • Collection Development Committee (Sarah):
    • Deadline passed for firm orders
    • Deadline for approvals is May 8
    • Budget: we still expect inflation coverage for next fiscal year.
  • Unit Heads Group Meeting (Sarah):
    • Discussion of emergency print sharing
  • Eresources Troubleshooting Meeting (Kelli):
    • Web team will try to find a way to notify webpage editors and libguide creators when links go bad due to ALMA shift.
  • PTAC (promotion tenure advisory committee) (Peg):
    • There will be a document coming out with changes to PRC program
    • Morphing into more of mentorship
    • Another related discussion will be discussing the possibility of a pre-tenure process, at faculty meeting April 8.
  • Wellness Committee (Lucy):
    • Mindfulness videos are very well made, so check them out!
  • College of Veterinary Medicine Committee meeting: was able to get committee to vote on and change scope of endowment funds.

7. Round Table

• • Peg Burnette: College of Medicine has been working hard on the curriculum process and we have been discussing moving people online and those challenges for this type of program.
  • Sarah Williams:
    • Shared the ongoing discussion of scanning/sharing print resources. There may be curbside pickup made available through main library, it is still being sorted.
      • Erin: seconds that Cherie is trying to keep librarians off campus. In addition, if insistent they would have to have a good reason to justify.
    • Begins one on one meetings with GAs next week.
    • Mike Dickinson will start May 18 in our employ, hooray!

• • Janis Shearer:
    • Conducts weekly check-ins with GAs in ACDC and give them an opportunity to chat about anything.
    • Donors of Robert and Susan Morris Collection have found another box to share with library.
    • The student assistant at ACDC stopped work last week.

• • Ryan Rafferty:
    • Struggling with getting to things online for students. One of the problems is publishers making things free for now as a marketing tool and will not be added in the future. They have made the choice not to make trials accessible.
    • Been a great deal of discussion about impact on health systems and expecting significant budget issues because of that.
    • UIC was also asked to try to stay open, 17% of students estimated to have no access to online resources. Union has been pushing back which has helped them stay closed for a time.

8. Adjourn