June 4, 2015 Meeting of Area Studies

Agenda not yet available.

IAS Staff Meeting

June 4, 2015

Present: Jan Adamczyk, Atoma Batoma, Kit Condill, Lisa Renee Kemplin, Joe Lenkart, Laila Hussein Moustafa, Xiaoping Qi, Lynne Rudasill, and Mara Thacker

Announcements:

Announcements & Accolades: 

1. Steve passed on his appreciation to his IAS colleagues for their support during his tenure process. Celebratory cake to come.
2. Results of IFLA elections include a fair number of U. of I. librarians. These new appointments include: Lynne Rudasill-Social Science Libraries, Lynn Wiley-Acquisitions and Collection Development, Joe Lenkart- Document Delivery and Interlending Committee, Valerie Hotchkiss-Rare Books and Special Collections, Beth Namachchivaya-Library Theory Research, Susan Schneur– Library Services to Multicultural Populations, Lisa Hinchliffe-Information Literacy, and Mary Laskowski–Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning. Steve Witt is also the editor of the IFLA Journal.
3. Accolades to Jan Adamczyk for his many years of working with a scholar from Taiwain, Mii Ling Yu. Mii Ling just published a book and acknowledged Jan’s work as well as Slavic Reference Services.
4. Kit attended a two day workshop in Bloomington, IN. They have the first course in the nation on international librarianship. There were 6 Area Specialists and 6 students. They are working on making this course nationwide and perhaps international as well.

Discussion:

1. The Summer Slavic Research Lab will begin on June 15. The staff have been working hard on preparing for the researchers and are ready for their arrival. There are approximately 35-40 people registered. The Slavic reception will be held at the YMCA on June 19 from 1-3:30. More information to follow.  Other visitors include Global Studies group, college consortium from community colleges, and Russian librarians from the Mortenson Center program (late June/July). Kit will host a group visit to his family farm in Arthur for the Russian librarians.
2. Discussion on potential budget cut scenarios listed in Sue Searing’s report forwarded to us by Steve on 6/2. Noted that in 5% projection IAS would lose the ACQ position currently held by Kit. If this occurs, we will possibly need to shift some Graduate Hourly allocations to support this work. We currently are still able to have both desk and project hours in most recent scenarios. In current version of the fall schedule, the students are scheduled for 4 hours at the desk which leaves more hours for projects. The schedule is still not finalized due to waiting for budget decisions. The decision was made to have fall evenings and weekends staffed by one undergraduate student. Discussed the projected possible move of the reference desk from current location. Can send comments to Lynne who will forward to Dean.
3. Discussion on possible loss of security staff in library. It was unanimous that it was not a good idea to lose security. These are some of the points made during the discussion. The cost saved would not out way the benefits of security presence, just had 3 Minutes to Live Training does not support the cut of security in the library building, visibility is a deterrent to incidents, if no security, the libraries should close at 5pm, puts staff, patrons, and materials in jeopardy, potential law suits, if one undergrad is going to staff the library, need security, and past incidents shared such as agitated patron, stalking, unlocking doors, and finding people sleeping in library and stacks.
4. Lynne led discussion on Area Service Division bylaws being non-compliant with library bylaws. Rather than name each individual area of staff included in the division meetings, the Dean appoints faculty to tenure units. Voting will take place on this issue at next ASD meeting. The evaluation of the chair of ASD meetings needs to be conducted and sent to the Dean in the next few weeks. Committee formed to work on the survey questions includes Atoma, Steve, Mara, and Kit. Lynne will submit her name to continue as ASD chair and also encourages anyone else who would like to be a candidate to submit their name as well.

Reports:

1. iTEC-At the last meeting potential programs for the 2015-16 Chai Wai Series were suggested. International Comics in late September and Brazil/Olympics in March. We would also have an International event (TBD) in April. Mara suggested a different topic for fall-earthquake in Nepal. Some more funds were used to purchase tea and cookies for the next year.

Other:

1. Reminder of BEAP quiz completion by June 30. Wendy Wolter is now the library contact person for BEAP. Please let Lisa Renee know when you have completed quiz.
2. The emergency back pack is now located at the service desk in the cabinet. There is a label marking location. There is also now a key at the desk that could be used to lock the doors in case of an emergency such as a shooter. Safest room on 321 side is Slavic Reference. Safest rooms on 325 side are Mara’s office and supply closet (remove tape to lock door). A body alarm has also been added to the left hand drawer of the service desk. The flashlight in the emergency kit also has an alarm feature.
3. The Research Publication Committee has monies left for this fiscal year and they would like to exhaust all funds. If you were thinking about applying for grants for future projects, please do so before end of June.