June 28, 2018 Meeting of Library Staff Support Committee

New Employee Brownbag Luncheon: Kim very helpfully provided a list of new civil service staff since the last new employee luncheon. I would like to do this at some point in July, perhaps later on in the month as a new person will start in Mid July. We will need to coordinate schedules, and send out some invites.

ALA Brownbag Lunch: ALA is currently going on, so we will need to book a room to hear people talk about their experiences at the event. I think sometime in early July would be helpful.

Elections: We will have to vote for Tech Services Division, and Central Publics Services as well.

New Furniture for Staff Lounge: Skye gave me some very helpful suggestions on where to start with this, and we can go from there.

Jim Cotter (Special Collections)
Kim Hutcherson (Administrative Services)
Kyle McCafferty (Central Access Services)
Debora Pfeiffer (Technical Services)
Dani Postula (Central Access Services)
Laura Poulosky (Residence Hall Libraries)
Shoshana Vegh-Gaynor (Arts & Humanities)

LSSC Elections:

New Employee Brownbag: LSSC will meet with new Library civil service employees to answer their questions about working at the Library, living in Champaign-Urbana, and the role of LSSC. We plan to schedule this brownbag for late July, after the last of 17 new employees will have started (on July 16th). We plan to ask Cherie Weiblé if we might be able to get funds for drinks and tableware. We plan to request Main Library Room 106 for this event.

ALA Brownbag Discussion: Kyle will find out from Angie Gruendl and Kristen Blankenship, the winners of the Library’s two staff scholarships to attend ALA, when they are available to meet for a brownbag lunch to share with any interested staff what they learned at ALA, especially any information or ideas that especially pertain to Library staff. We would like to host this event in mid- to late July, and we thought Room 106 of the Main Library would work well as the venue.

Update on Request for Break Room Furniture Upgrade: Following the anonymous web form suggestion for an upgrade to the worn furniture in the Main Library’s fourth floor staff break room, Kyle asked Skye Arseneau in the Business Services & Human Resources Center about how we should proceed to have this request considered. She sent him an email with useful information about this, which Kyle will forward to LSSC. Skye said that the request should be submitted to Greg Knott. The main factors to look for in new furniture would be comfort, cost, cleanliness, and the ease of long-term care. Dani mentioned that Wendy Wolter might be a good person to consult for advice, since she has experience in interior design.

Committee Reports:

Central Public Services: Dani reported that John Wilkin visited the June 20th Central Public Services meeting and assured the division that their input will be an important part of the process of determining how to reconfigure the Main and Undergraduate Libraries. The timeline for the building renovations is to begin the construction work in 2019 and complete it in 2024. John said there would be many task forces to plan the renovations, and that there would be lots of consultation with Library faculty and staff. The design is meant to be interdisciplinary, with the three main hubs of Library service on campus being the Main Library, the ACES Library, and Grainger Engineering Library. The Main Library will house new labs and common areas. The rehousing of Special Collections will be on a different timeline, with a special consultant brought in to help plan this project.

Arts and Humanities: Shoshona reported that John Wilkin also visited the Arts and Humanities meeting in early June, and that there was no new information given other than what Dani reported from the CPS meeting (see above). There is some concern among the Arts and Humanities Division about Tom Teper having to head the Main Library restructuring project in addition to his many other job responsibilities.

Special Collections: Jim reported that Jen-chien Yu visited the June 19th Special Collections meeting to talk about assessment and accreditation. David Ward also visited the meeting to give his perspective, as the head of the Undergraduate Library, on the potential upcoming changes to the configurations of the Main and Undergraduate Libraries.

Faculty Meeting: Kyle and Angie attended the Faculty meeting on June 13th. Angie shared the following notes–
*Main Library Building Plan – very little is predetermined and Dean Wilkin wants it to be an inclusive process with not only campus stakeholders but also Library faculty. The recent budget signed by Governor Rauner did include capital project support.
*Greg Knott and the Associate University Librarians (AULs) met with Elyne Cole, Associate Provost for Human Resources, to talk about the State Universities Civil Service System audit process. There was encouraging feedback and the Library has well defined professional positions. More to come later.
*Tom Teper and Cherié Weible discussed the responsibilities of the Associate University Librarians.
*Tom Teper discussed the building project. He discussed the need to develop terminology to encompass the scope of what is going on and how needs will be documented. Facilities and Services has assigned a project coordinator. Tom said that collections are important. He also discussed that there may be an organizational shift in Special Collections because the various areas will be in closer proximity. He mentioned that there may be prolonged periods of uncertainty. There will be the need to figure how to be supportive and be constructive and not transfer stress to other relationships.

Kyle also shared the following information from the Faculty Meeting—
The administration is creating a Communications Team to address how to talk with patrons about the upcoming Library restructuring. Tom Teper mentioned that the University of Virginia has been working on a similar project. UVA’s web pages about their Library renovation project can be found here: https://www.library.virginia.edu/renovation/ John Wilkin mentioned that the University of Texas at Austin is also working on a similar renovation project.

Residence Hall Libraries: The Urbana Residence Hall Libraries are closed for summer break, but staff is still retrieving call slip-requested items from these locations three times a week throughout the summer. Ikenberry Library’s summer hours are Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm. The Associate Vice Chancellor for Auxiliaries, Health & Wellness has decided to approve the search for a new Residence Hall Librarian and that position announcement should be posted soon. The new Librarian will take on some added responsibilities in support of Student Affairs. The Associate Vice Chancellor has also decided to consolidate the four current Residence Hall Libraries (Allen, FAR, Ikenberry, and ISR) to two locations by the fall of 2020 (Ikenberry and ISR). The Residence Hall Libraries will be holding an Open House at Ikenberry Library on Thursday, July 12th, from 11am to 2pm. Light refreshments will be served. Come check out our new materials for your summer entertainment, and participate in our Summer Reading Challenge!

Human Resources: Kim reported that the new online staff performance evaluation system is working well. Human Resources have not received many questions about it. Employees have the option to meet in person with their supervisors after receiving the online evaluations. Supervisors can also decide to go over the evaluations in person with the people they supervise, if desired. Job descriptions are attached to the evaluations, which has been helpful. Jake MacGregor started on June 18th as the new Organizational Development and Training Coordinator.