June 16, 2020 Meeting of Life Sciences

1. Approval of May minutes (taken by Sarah)
2. ALMA updates, concerns (all)
3. Update on office building project (Sarah)
4. Update on back to work plans (Sarah)
5. Committee assignments and reports – AC, CDC, others
6. Round Table
7. Adjourn

Susan Braxton, Prairie Research Institute Librarian

Peg Burnette, Medical and Biomedicine Librarian; PSED Liaison

Erin Kerby, Veterinary Medicine Librarian

Lucy Moynihan, Staff Liaison

Ryan Rafferty, Regional Health Sciences Librarian, UIC LHS

Janis Shearer, Public Services & Engagement Librarian

Kelli Trei, Biosciences Librarian

Sarah Williams, Head, Funk Library

1. Approval of May minutes (taken by Sarah)
   • Approved
2. ALMA updates, concerns (all)
   • People are attending trainings and trying to get up to speed.
   • Brief discussion of differences in link resolver functionality between SFX and Primo: Probably there won’t be a standalone “Citation Linker” or “Online Journals and Databases” search tools. Searching will just happen in the Primo interface.
   • Kelli reports there is an ongoing discussion of how to handle “tickets” for electronic resources issues, as SFX had a built in ticketing system for keeping track of issues, and Alma/Primo does not.
   • Unknown:  Is there an Ask A Librarian box on every page in the production Primo instance?
   • GAs have been working on elimination of unneeded SFX and VuFind links on LibGuides.
   • Susan will update Funk’s main page and menus in WordPress on June 24, and will share info as soon as she has it; Sarah has planned to have Mady work on the ACES resource page.  For others, a heads up to plan to make necessary changes on your pages in WordPress after the Primo launch June 24.

3. Update on office building project (Sarah)
   • Construction has resumed. New completion date is August 1.  Furniture discussion was postponed, but Sarah and Wendy Wolter have discussed and it is expected the turnaround on orders will be about 6 weeks, so furniture should be arriving soon after the offices are complete.  There are standard options for task chairs, side chairs, and desks that are good quality and reasonably priced.
   • The walls are up, and doors are placed as depicted on blueprints.
4. Update on back to work plans (Sarah)
   • For now unless we need to be in the building, we should work remotely. Reduces risk and problems for everyone.  Proposed Funk schedule allows for up to 2 librarians to come in at a time, and because we have private offices it helps to keep us isolated.  We no longer need to report that we are coming in to the building, but if coming in for longer than a few min. or if you want to come in on a schedule let Sarah know.
   • There is concern about having staff in the building alone, so staff will be present together when they are present.  Sarah and Lucy have sent out a rough schedule for staff plus Sammi.  Staff workstations are pretty spread out and facing walls, so no need to shift workspaces.  Break room will be open, but users are responsible for before and after cleaning and must wear a mask when not eating.  There has been discussion of loosening restrictions around eating at one’s workstation.
   • GAs will continue to work remotely for the most part.  ACDC GAs might come in to work on materials processing.
   • Every full time employee has been issued 2 washable masks.  Sarah has put them in an envelope by staff workstation or in librarians’ mailboxes for Funk employees.  There were very few disposable masks in the PPE station, so we should not count on that as a source of masks for staff.
   • In person consultations in Funk are expected to be infrequent, but if needed in the fall (at the earliest) can be done by appointment.  We are to meet patrons at the main door, escort them upstairs to the designated space (206), and we’ll need to make sure appointments are on the outlook calendar.
     • Main library will use the new consultation rooms by the info desk and 106 (which they are subdividing).  Grainger will have designated spaces.  Arts and Humanities Division will probably identify spaces for Ricker and MPAL to facilitate use of their collections.
   • Campus is pushing back on having libraries being open for study space.  Grainger and UGL have been identified as locations that may be open to patrons in the fall.  Funk has not been mentioned in these discussions.
   • The final campus plan for fall (supposed to be out mid-June) has not yet been released.
5. Committee assignments and reports – AC, CDC, others
   • Kelli: AC did not meet, Research Management Team is working out plans for GA training, and Kelli will share info when known. Senate has had some emergency meetings to discuss fall plans, and there will be an open meeting in August for which Kelli will provide the date
   • Mike: attended first CDC meeting!
   • Susan: New job description for the Head of Scholarly Commons has been drafted by the search committee and sent to EC but not yet approved; generally represents the Scholarly Commons as a discipline-neutral service.  Library Committee of Academic Professionals currently has two surveys out, one on AP investigation time, and one following the 2^nd year implementation of the AP promotion program (for both employees and supervisors).  Organizational Development and Training Committee will give a lightning presentation at the June 28 quarterly Library update
   • Sarah: CDC: close of FY20 was smooth, because of the early ordering cutoff dates.  Some end of year purchases were made and the ProQuest Access and Build program included the environment package after all.  Nothing definitive from campus on the FY21 budget, Library is still expecting inflation coverage, but is looking at under-utilized library funds to shift to cover inflation as needed.
   • Peg: Nothing to report committees haven’t met.
   • Janice: Outreach and Engagement Task Force currently working on report from the recent survey, which had about 1/2 response rate.
   • Erin: Assessment Committee considering a Survey “understanding the experiences and needs of black students” (based on a survey done at Duke).  Erin would like our input whether to pursue it.  The Electronic Resource Librarian job description (faculty position) was approved by EC last week.  Posting date unknown, but the process is moving forward.  Person will report to Wendy, who reports to MJ.
6. Round Table:
   • Peg: The 3^rd class of med students starts July 1, and the college is ramping up for them; Peg will be teaching classes from their 2^nd Class size is 48 which is higher than expected.  MLA will be virtual in August, will be delivering a virtual poster.
   • Ryan: UIC dealing with reopening issues.  Peoria will be having patrons back in the library, and Chicago is getting a lot of pressure to open libraries, so that students can use the space to connect to online classes.  Librarians are being told to stay away if possible.  Budget for collections for LHS has been affected by UofI hospital overtime and PPE costs, which cut into the budget.  There has been an estimated $175million loss, and they are anticipating a 10-25% cut to collections on top of inflation, which may mean massive cuts.  UIC may not be able to contribute to some UIUC-UIC shared resources; Ryan will know by mid-July and will let LSD and Wendy know what is on the chopping block.  There are still M4 (15) and M3 (12) students in the UIC Medical School.  Some students have transferred to Peoria, and that may continue.
   • Sarah: Lucy and Sarah are looking for ideas for improving the call slip processing workflow.  Setting up a schedule for librarians was suggested.   Please let Sarah know if you have ideas for the whole process.
   • Kelli: Illini face masks are available; should ship soon.

7. Adjourn