January 15, 2015 Meeting of Area Studies

Agenda not yet available.

IAS Staff Meeting

January 15, 2015 

Present: Jan Adamczyk, Atoma Batoma, Kit Condill, Shuyong Jiang, Lisa Renee Kemplin, Ula Lechtenberg, Joe Lenkart, Laila Hussein Moustafa, Xiaoping Qi, Lynne Rudasill, Antonio Sotomayor, Mara Thacker, and Steve Witt

Guest:  Valerie Hotchkiss

Announcements: 

Awards & Accolades:

1. The iTEC Glocal Cultural Marketplace event was a success. 44 people attended throughout the day.
2. Jung-Won’s farewell is Friday afternoon. Feel free to bring snacks and stop by her office to wish her well. She will be returning to Korea and continue her job search.
3. Kit has been appointed as the Chair of the Executive Committee for CRL’s Slavic & East European Materials Project.

News:

1. The pilot project for the Buying Trip Travel Funding needs to be spent by July 1, 2015. Mara has plans for a trip to India and Bangladesh that will use $3,000. Please consider a trip so that the funds do not go unused. RBML is open to cosponsoring a trip. They would also be interested in being notified if you are on a buying trip and see rare books.
2. January 22 at 10:00 am will be a continuation of diversity training for our Unit. This training will focus on communication and be held in RM 323c.
3. Reminder that the SFX migration will affect links that will need to be updated. Recommend contacting centers and researchers of the changes.
4. There will be a new Acquisition position for a Library Specialist who will work with Chinese materials. This position will later be upgraded to a Senior Library Specialist that will be over the students working with Japanese and Korean materials.
5. Meeting with Sue Searing to discuss annual report is February 10 from 1-2.
6. See Laila if you are interested in collaborating on a project for Illinois Library Association. Steve has indicated that he is interested. It will be held in Peoria, IL on October 22-24, 2015.

 Discussion: 

1. Valerie shared RBML’s experience of applying for and receiving a CLIR Grant for Hidden Collections. Encouraged to continue to apply if you are first rejected, obtain letters of support outside of U of I and the Midwest, and make sure that the application writing is succinct and elegant. The next grant cycle may be focusing on digitization. RBML is open to collaboration and consultation.

2. Reviewed the topics discussed at each table at the Strategic Planning Library Retreat. Encouraged to send feedback via evaluation form distributed this week.

Reports:

1. IAS Reference and User Services is meeting today with Jen-Chien to discuss a survey regarding Users and Reference Collection organization.
2. ITEC-Thanked Mara for chairing the committee this past year and welcomed Antonio as the new chair. Committee has been researching the possibility of a marketing grant for pencils, brochures, or Google Ads. The marketing grant is due January 23.. Joe is coordinating the next Chai Wai event which will be held on Friday, February 13. The topic is on Ukraine. The panel will be made up of the Chair of the History Department, Kit, Coordinator of Ukraine Studies, Associate Director of the Center, and Professors from Sociology and Political Science. Other Subject Specialists are encouraged to think about future Chai Wai topics they could coordinate. The next meeting will be scheduled the end of January
3. Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Librarian search will close the beginning of February. All are encouraged to reach out to potential applicants. Joe can provide the job announcement. Names of contacts should be sent to the Chair of the committee, Jenny Johnson.