December 13, 2012 Meeting of Library Staff Support Committee

Agenda not yet available.

Jim Cotter (chair), Dani Postula, Sandy Wolf,Julie Watkins,Becky Burner, Laura Poulosky

Follow-Up on Visit from Jim Dohle:

We discussed what we’d learned from Jim (the new head of IT)’s visit to our Nov. meeting and agreed that it was very useful to know what their current goals and projects are.  It was mentioned that it would be nice if IT staff would introduce themselves to us and let us know what they’re working on when they come to departmental libraries to fix things.  It would also be helpful if they’d let us know what they’ve done once they’ve finished.  It was suggested that we invite Jim Dohle to attend another LSSC meeting once the new printing system has been implemented in January, so that we can ask him any questions we may have about it after we’ve tried using it.

All-Library Retreat and Clean-Up on Jan. 4th:

As Sue Searing has announced on Libnews, all UIUC libraries will be closed all day on Friday, January 4th.  There will be an all-Library retreat that morning from 9 a.m. to noon on the 3rd floor of the Levis Center.  The theme of the retreat is “Visioning Future Excellence.”  At the end of the retreat, there will be an update on the search for the new Dean of the University Library.  Following the retreat, pizza will be delivered to staff at the Main and departmental libraries for lunch, and then the afternoon will be spent on clean-up.  It was suggested at our meeting that, in addition to any needed clean-up of physical space, staff might use that time to do digital clean-up of Library web pages, files on the G- and H-drives, etc.

Possible LSSC “field trips”:

We discussed the possibility of visiting the new International Area Studies Library, the Oak St. high-density storage facility (sometime in the spring), and the new SSHEL library once it is ready.

Remaining Spots on LSSC:

There are still open spots on LSSC for one staff member from each of the following units:  Administrative Services, International Area Studies, Central Public Services, and Technical Services.  (The latter two units do each have one representative currently serving, but since they are large units, they are supposed to have two each.)  We will continue to try to seek out staff members who are willing to serve on the committee.  If you’re in one of these divisions and are interested, please let us know!

Supervisory Group Meeting:

Several supervisors who have completed the four-to-five session-, two-to-three month-long supervisory class have been meeting quarterly for follow-up.  So far, four groups have completed this training, and more classes will be offered.  The course is strongly recommended.  We discussed incorporating aspects of the course into future LSSC meetings, such as the “DiSC” training (a personality test which identifies individuals’ tendencies toward the following work styles:  Dominance, influencing, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness), which many course participants have found a useful way of identifying how to better understand and work with colleagues who have differing styles.

Future Visit(s) from Tony Hynes (re UL Search):

Tony, who is serving as the staff representative on the search committee for the new Dean of the University Library, has agreed to visit LSSC to discuss the status of that search and take any questions and input we may have about it.

Committee Reports:

There have been no division meetings for Social Sciences, Technical Services, or Life and Physical Sciences since our last LSSC meeting.  Special Collections did meet, but Jim wasn’t able to attend, since he had to cover the desk at the Maps & Geography Library.

Faculty Meeting—Julie reported that there was discussion of e-resources and data curation.  There was also mention of upcoming implementation the RDA (Research Description and Analysis) cataloging rules, possibly as early as March.  There are helpful webinars on RDA available, such as “RDA for Everyone.”

Central Public Services—Dani reported that Jim Dohle visited the CPS meeting on Nov. 14th.  He mentioned that IT will be using storage at the Digital Computing Lab, in order to separate digitization projects from staff workspace.  Beth Sandore also visited the meeting and asked CPS staff members for input about current and potential problems that they’d like IT to address.  Vicki Trimble from Advancement requested suggestions of items for a wish list to address Library needs.

Arts & Humanities—Laura reported that there was discussion of the $40 collection fee that is now being charged when a lost book fine is not paid on time.  This policy has been in place for about two years now, but seems have been enforced more regularly lately.  There is some concern about potential patron complaints and bad public relations due to this policy.
In regard to upcoming hires, there was a lengthy discussion about the need to ensure that all measures are taken to ensure the greatest possible diversity of candidate pools.  It was brought up that it should be the specific duty of someone in Library Human Resources to systematically publicize job announcements to the relevant caucus list-servs and to follow up to make sure that the announcements were indeed posted by the list-serv mediators.
The committee investigating the possibility of creating a new Humanities Hub intends to publish their report soon.  As part of their recommendation, they plan to support the idea of moving the Classics Library down from the 4th floor to the 2nd floor of the Main Library.
Jim Hahn invited all to the Undergraduate Library’s Open House (on the Lower Level, in Room 149B) on Dec. 19th, which will showcase new library mobile applications and progress that has been made on the Media Commons.
There will be no Arts & Humanities division meeting in January, as it would have fallen on the 2nd.

Next LSSC meeting:   Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, Jan. 10th, from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m., in 225B Main Library.