June 5, 2014 Meeting of Area Studies

Agenda not yet available.

IAS Staff Meeting

June 5, 2014

Present:  Jan Adamczyk, Atoma Batoma, Kit Condill, Lisa Renee Kemplin, Joe Lenkart, Larry Miller, Lynne Rudasill, Antonio Sotomayor, Mara Thacker, and Joe Torchedlo

Announcements:

1. The next staff meeting will be held on June 19 in Room 428.
2. If anyone needs help in adding the new IAS shared calendar in their Outlook, please see Lisa Renee. Also when you enter absences in the new calendar, please select no reminders so that others do not receive daily staff reminders. You can still set reminders in your personal Outlook calendar. Thank you to all have been entering their absences on the new calendar.

Discussion:

1. Joe Torchedlo will be coordinating the “What’s in a Name” exhibit. There are 6 cases available with the possibility of adding 2 more, if needed. The exhibit may be a combination of identified resources, instructional material, and handouts. Antonio will be pursuing possible funding from IAS. From an earlier meeting participants were identified as the following:

Antonio-Spanish & Portuguese

Laila-Arabic & Persian

Atoma-Africa (selected)

Mara- India (selected)

Steve-Japanese

If you are interested in participating, please contact Antonio.

2. Joe and Steve presented to two groups from the Mortenson Center on May 28. Atoma attended the 6 presentations given by the Mortenson Center participants on that same morning. Some of the things mentioned included challenges their libraries face. Some of these challenges include lack of trained staff, government support, natural disasters, violence, attitudes toward library staff, and lack of cooperation between library and users. Atoma encourages all to attend next year.
3. Lisa Renee reviewed the BEAP procedures. In case of a “Get Out” emergency evacuation, IAS staff should exit the building using the south exit and meet at the bus stop across Gregory Drive. Lisa Renee, or Joe in her absence, will be wearing a bright yellow vest. Staff should check in and also give report on any students/staff that may or may not be working on that day. In the case of a “Stay In” emergency, IAS staff should meet at the UG corridor. The red backpack is located in RM 317 on the floor next to the coat rack next to Lisa Renee’s desk. Lisa Renee and Steve also check the bathrooms on the north end of the hall.

Reports:

1. IAS Reference and User Services-Focus group testing of the new website will continue in July with a projected release date of August for the new site. The process has been educational from the users recommendations. Some of these include visible chat box on all pages, easy search in a prominent place, smaller banner, and dynamic web presence.
2. The Slavic Research Lab has 40 accepted participants so far. As mentioned previously, there will be bibliographic and orientation sessions in RM 323c.Emily will lead the tours. There will be a reception held for participants on June 24 from 2-4.  All are invited.
3. Lynne and Maura attended and presented at the QQML conference in Turkey. Mara encouraged others to consider attending in the future as it was an excellent way to partner with other international library specialists. A possible project would be to provide technology training to Iran using Open Blackboard. Next year’s conference will be held in Paris.

4. Antonio presented at two conferences: Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SLALM), and the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). The first in Salt Lake City and the second in Chicago. At SALALM he presented twice, one about the digitization of the Conde de Montemar letters, and the second on the challenges of Caribbean family history in relation to sources and archives. 

Other: 

 Antonio is a contributor of a book that is scheduled to be released in August or September of 2014. The title of the anthology is Diplomatic Games: Sport, Statecraft, and International Relations since 1945 published by the University Press of Kentucky. His chapter is entitled “The Cold War Games of a Colonial Latin American Nation: San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1966.”