June 8, 2020 Meeting of Executive Committee

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

AGENDA 

June 8, 2020 

1:30-3:00pm 

428 Library 

 

 

 

1. Approve minutes – May 26, 2020 

1. Question Time 

1. Head, Scholarly Commons job description  

1. Electronic Resources Management Librarian Search – Current for EC Approval 

1. Assistant Dean for Business & Human Resources search – revised job description  

1. 2:15-3:00pm – AULs (Return to On-Site Work planning)  

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

Minutes 

June 8, 2020 

1:30-3:00 pm 

Zoom Conference Call 

 

Attendees: John Wilkin (Chair); David Ward (Vice-Chair); Paula Carns; William Maher; William Mischo; Mara Thacker; Jennifer Teper (Secretary); and Lynne Thomas. Lucretia Williams, Recording 

 

AULs present: Heidi Imker, Tom Teper, and Cherié Weible. Chris Prom emailed in his report. 

 

1. Minutes of the May 26, 2020 EC minutes meeting were approved upon the motion by Mara Thacker and second by Bill Maher. 

 

1. Question time – Dean Wilkin updated EC on the Council of Deans meeting held on Wednesday, June 3, 2020 and discussed the budget and where we stand right now. We will get a preliminary budget very soon. The state budget hasn’t been reduced and things are shaping up a little bit on the enrollment side, which is the bulk of our campus funding. We are expecting to see projected enrollment numbers submitted to the University System Office, but anticipate a modest decline in enrollment. We can also expect to see a significant increase in Financial Aid need.  

 

Provost Andreas Cangellaris said that there are no layoffs or furloughs planned right now. There are no current discussions about retirement incentives. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be any retirement incentives, just not at this moment.  

 

Other discussions from the Council of Deans meeting was around the Online Learning Design Academy. They are trying to help our colleagues who have less experience with online teaching to get up to speed and prepared for the fall.  

 

Dean Wilkin updated EC on the last BTAA Library Directors meeting, which was mostly focused and devoted to the B1G Collection and our “one collection” strategy, moving beyond the committee-driven stage to something that begins to take action. This was Maurice York’s first meeting; he is the new Director of BTAA Center for Library Initiatives. BTAA Library Directors agreed that it was time to shed the committee’s advisory work, and it is time for Maurice to begin more active implementation and funds should be shifted that had previously been allocated and spent on large scale acquisitions strategy BTAA to this enterprise.  

 

 

1. Head, Scholarly Commons job description – EC suggested some verbiage changes to the job description/qualifications section for clarity. Paula Carns will make the updates and then run it by the search committee.  

 

1. Electronic Resources Management Librarian Search – EC suggested that Paula Carns speak with the committee to confirm the reporting line of this position, editorial changes, and also some other concerns and then report back to EC.  

 

1. Assistant Dean for Business & Human Resources search – revised job description – EC suggested that Paula Carns speak with the committee with some changes and then report back to EC.  

 

1. AUL updates – 

 

Heidi Imker–  

Research Data Services –  

• Good meeting with OVCR and Tech Services last week; discussed staffing issues during budget slowdown and additional work to be done for the 5 yr review 

 

Scholarly Communications &Publishing –  

• Digital Publishing Specialist, Mary Borgo Ton, starts July 1; good updates on Experts and ORCID lately, including a community award for ORCID; note that Sara is still point on copyright questions; IDEALS rebuild is moving along 

 

Scholarly Commons –  

• Karen Hogenboom is on vacation, Merinda is on point, and Sara Benson is starting the 16th and has been very engaged already; no news yet on when construction can start on room 220, but purchasing decisions have been made, tech is coming in now and furniture and Orange Box orders are in process. 
• GIS Specialist, Wenjie Wang, starts June 16 

 

Grants and Contracts position 

• Interviews are underway. 

 

Research Support Task Force  

• New name to reflect changing scope 

• Updated committee page coming 

 

Chris Prom –  

Return to work teams are meeting and moving forward to implement the plan submitted to campus.  

• The Fulfillment Plan will place primary emphasis on providing access to electronic materials or locally digitized materials (i.e. books, DVDs), when other electronic access cannot be provided.   

• When this is not possible, we plan to provide pickup service via lockers located in the Marshall Gallery. The pickup service will be piloted in the summer, and will require staffing, during limited hours, to let people in the building and to provide help retrieving items if needed. 
• At this time, we anticipate that electronic-first access (e.g. via HathiTrust ETAS) will continue until Illinois reaches Stage Five under the Governor’s Restore Illinois Plan.   
• A sub-team including people from IT, Preservation, and other areas is working on the digitization services plan, which will likely require staffing help from units, for scanning operations. 

• The Reference, Instruction, and Service Team will meet this week. There are quite a few open questions about potential building openings, appointments, and consultation spaces for Main, UGL, Grainger and ACES. 
• Acquisitions and processing plans are also proceeding and will rely on staged work schedules.   

• Each unit head is being asked to develop a staffing plan, to gradually increase the amount onsite work over the summer.    
• Staff from facilities and IT will be meeting with each unit head this week, to discuss logistics.  

• Overall, we will seek to facilitate social distancing as much as possible by staging on-site work schedules and be rearranging existing furniture.  
• Plexiglass is hard to come by and will be used in the first instance to ensure distancing at reference or service desks. 

• Heather is working on a staged communication plan, both for our own faculty/staff and for Library users. 

• We will hold a meeting with unit heads on Thursday of this week to discuss the transition and cross-unit needs. 

• IT will continue to restart and update staff computers over the next week.  They plan to have 2-4 people on site per day throughout the summer.  The help desk will not be open for walkup service, but people can schedule appointments if help is needed with hardware issues. 
• The Mentoring and Evaluation Task Force received comments from FRC.  We met last week to discuss it and to begin integrating it into our report and recommendation.  Given the ways in which COVID has affected our work and relationships, we are move toward incremental changes to the PRC structure and to define some specific mentoring programs to support a revised process for the annual reviews. This will place more emphasis on the PRC’s mentoring roles and to shift more responsibility for evaluation to FRC and PTAC.  We’ll meet again over summer to integrate the feedback, before bringing it back to FRC and PTAC, then EC and the Faculty, for review in early fall. 

 

Tom Teper –  

• FY20 Materials Budget We’ve closed the materials budget for this fiscal year. Final purchases will be identified in a subsequent email to the library. The roll-over funding that we are carrying forward for FY21 will be < $288,000.  

 

FY21 Materials Budget 

• Presently, we are planning on 100% coverage for price increases. However, we are also modeling various levels of less than 100% coverage in order to be prepared.  
• Tom has been working with David Ward and other subject specialists on disposition of print journal subscriptions from the Undergraduate Library. Titles and funding would likely shift.  

• He has also had several conversations with members of the Humanities Division to start discussion ebook options going forward.  
• Streaming video has emerged as a pressure point for FY21. The Academic Video Online product that the Library acquired as we left for work-from-home has emerged as the biggest growth area for usage in this period. Keeping that will require finding $35,000 in the materials budget. Likewise, there are options for providing more feature film content. However, costs for that are quite high.  

 

BTAA Oxford University Press Ebook Pilot 

• This pilot was initially proposed by our office several years ago. The evaluative report on the pilot was reviewed by the directors, and it was positively received. The BTAA is looking to expand coverage to other schools and more subject areas.  

• The evaluative report suggested looking at options to expand this pilot to Cambridge University Press, and the directors have encouraged the BTAA to move forward.  

 

ACS 

• Kicked off the E-resources Management Librarian Search.  
• There is one staff retirement announced for June 30th.  

 

CAPT 

• The Web content Working Group has two new members: Laila Hussain and Jenny Johnson 

 

Building Project 

• I have been thinking of starting discussions with Lynne Thomas, Bill Maher, and Joanne Kaczmarek about structuring a working group for the next phase of this project.  

 

Cherié Weible –  

Update on ILS migration to Alma 

• No circulation from June 19 through June 23 

• ”Go live” day for Alma is June 24 
• ILDS (statewide shipping) begins on June 15I-Share back on July 6 

• Print delivery will happen on June 19th and then again on July 1st 

• Only Main and Grainger will be pick up locations for the remainder of the summer; through August 15 or longer 

• Working on Fulfillment group with Mary L., Jennifer, and Chris 

• Working on return-to-on-site work plan 
• Planning for pilot of Locker delivery system for print materials starting July 6 

• IAS and Summer Research Lab (Title VIII grant) working on site since June 3 to delivery “virtual” research lab this summer instead of in person