February 20, 2014 Meeting of Area Studies

Agenda not yet available.

IAS Staff Meeting

February 20, 2014

 Present:  Jan Adamczyk, Atoma Batoma, Shuyong Jiang, Laila Hussein, Shuyong Jiang, Lisa Renee Kemplin, Joe Lenkart, Larry Miller, Xiaoping Qi, Yoo-Seong Song, Antonio Sotomayor, Mara Thacker, Dmitry Tartakovsky, and Steve Witt 

Announcements:

1. John Jurisic will be presenting a lecture on Thursday, February 27 at 4pm on the impact of the Sarajevo Olympics. There will be a dinner with the Bosnian community following. More details to come.
2. IAS will be having a potluck on Wednesday, February 26 and noon in RM 323c. Please bring a dish to share. Dimitri will supply the paper plates. IAS will have a bowling outing at Orchard Lanes in Savoy on Friday, March 7 at 6pm.
3. Atoma and Laila have been collaborating with Northwestern African Studies on a joint proposal for interesting projects to increase the chances for renewal of Title VI funding. They are also participating in a Skype conference with the Mortenson Center and Northwestern.
4. Mara will be presenting a poster at the Public Engagement event on the Indian Film Festival on March 11 from 3-6pm.
5. Antonio will be participating in the Union Bookstore International Coffee Hours focusing on the history of Puerto Rico on February 26 at 6pm.

Discussion: 

1. IAS training on culture and diversity will be coordinated with Ross Wantland, Director of Social Justice Education. The plan is to hold two three hour sessions. The date for the first session is April 3 from 9-12 in the Heritage Room at ACES. The date for the second session is April 8 from 9-12 in the Heritage Room at ACES. The first session would focus on self-identity, skills building, and communication. Department Heads will be contacted for possible coverage for our library during the training.
2. GREAT customer service initiative was discussed. There will be follow up recommendations for libraries as well as ways to incorporate the ideals into staff training. This was also shared at the Desk Staff Meeting and is slated for further discussion.
3. Atoma presented information on the white paper that was created by the ad hoc committee formed to provide recommendations regarding cataloging language materials. It is unclear if the paper was shared with the Dean. Suggestions were made to share the paper with IAS staff for possible revisions and then forward to Tom Teper with a request to bring it to the Executive Committee.
4. The poster for the bulletin board is almost ready to be sent to the printer. Antonio will forward scans of book covers in Spanish or Portuguese. Staff are encouraged to proof their information to make sure that it is correct.

Reports:

1. Steve will meet with the Executive Committee next week to discuss the prioritization and vision for the proposed IAS positions. Tenured staff are encouraged to volunteer for committees such as the Executive Committee to ensure that IAS is represented.
2. The International Reference Librarian search is now closed and the reviewing of candidates is in process.
3. Staff are encouraged to review the Building Emergency Action Plans in order to familiarize themselves with what to do in emergency situations. Mara suggested bringing this training to the GA Staff Meeting.
4. Reference and User Services-The website redesign survey was extended due to low response. The committee will discuss the IAS statistics report that was completed by Sveta. The charge will be to think about what is most useful and then bring that information to a future staff meeting. Slavic Research Services statistics will need to be added to the report.
5. Upcoming outreach activities include John Jurisic’s lecture at REEEC on February 27, violinist performance in IAS on April 1 from 5-7pm, and the language display.
6. Joe is organizing the Blackboard Collaborate training for moderators. Possible dates include March 13 and 21. This will allow for increased outreach.
7. Dave met with SRS for iWonder training. Multiple web resources have been tested and are working properly. It would be helpful to add any resources frequently used to your profile page for convenience when answering reference inquiries.

Michael Norman will be a guest at our next staff meeting on March 5 at 10 am.