August 21, 2014 Meeting of Area Studies

Agenda not yet available.

IAS Staff Meeting

August 21, 2014

Present:  Kit Condill, Lisa Renee Kemplin, Urszula Lechtenberg, Joe Lenkart, Xiaoping Qi, Antonio Sotomayor, and Mara Thacker

Announcements:

1. August 25 is the IAS internal deadline for submitting the annual report data to Steve. The template was sent earlier by Steve.
2. The GA/GH/AH/SA Orientation is from 8:50-1:15 tomorrow in 323c. The finding people exercise will be approximately between 10:30-11:00. Please introduce yourself as staff are visiting your areas. Papa Del’s pizza will be around noon in 323c.
3. Mara presented at the International Student Orientation to approximately 200 students. Joe will be also be presenting to this group.
4. The IAS potluck is Saturday, August 30 at 4pm at Atoma’s house. The address is 9 Holly Ct., Savoy and phone is 403-0847. Please bring a side dish to share. Lisa Renee has two names of students who need a ride.

 Discussion:

1. Viewed and discussed the New Library Gateway Prototype. The page is planning to roll out next week. Some suggestions included moving Departmental Libraries to the top of the page, reducing the size of the calendar, and moving Friends of the Library lower in the page—or remove from page. The page with libraries by college seemed very busy. Please send comments to Chris Prom as instructed in the email circulated on LIBNEWS.

Reports:

1. Viewed latest version of new IAS website. The page is planned to roll out next week. The usability study will continue with the second level pages. Please give feedback.
2. The upcoming training sessions for students and staff will again be distributed. Thank you to those who have agreed to be guest speakers.
3. There will be 6 areas represented in the Naming Exhibit. Please turn in any materials you need printed to Lisa Renee by Friday, August 22. Please meet downstairs on September 2 at 1pm to install your exhibit case. Antonio shared a copy of a flier that will be distributed to advertise the exhibit.
4. The TEC committee has not yet met. The first meeting will focus on a new IAS series Chai Wai Salons. These will be a monthly semi-structured conversation organized jointly between iTEC and one of IASL’s subject specialists. For each installment in the series, we would choose a current hot topic and the subject specialist would identify scholars (faculty, AP, or students) who would have an informed opinion on the subject or who would bring a particular important point-of-view. They, or one of the experts, would then have a debate or moderated discussion on the topic, inviting plenty of audience feedback and participation. The subject specialist would also recommend resources relating to that topic which we would have the IASL Outreach GA compile into a reader’s advisory handout of sorts. The final piece would be a blog post with photos summarizing the conversation and sharing the recommended resources. We would also serve tea and cookies. These salons will use volunteer experts to discuss relevant topics. There may not be enough time to schedule a September salon. The month of October is open for someone who is interested. Mara has taken the November salon. Some possible topics include Ebola, climate change, Ukraine, and rise in conservatism in EU.
5. New committee appointments include Social Committee for Lisa Renee and Advisory Committee for AUL’s for Mara and Joe.

Other:

1. Ula attended Information Table Training today. She will be one of the members to help greet and direct new students next week.
2. Mirella is working on binding of the Slavic journals.
3. Xiaoping was acknowledged for his work on a reference request. It was suggested that accolades and accomplishments be a part of each of the staff meetings.