March 30, 2023 Meeting of Library Staff Support Committee

Time and Location of Meeting

March 30, 2023

Agenda Details

Agenda

LSSC (LIBRARY STAFF SUPPORT COMMITTEE) Meeting Agenda 3-30-23

  1. Approve Feb Minutes
  2. Liaison & Committee Reports
  • New Dean On-Boarding Outline from Chris Prom
  • Notes to add as LSSC as a whole
  • Feedback needed by 4/4/23- Claire will arrive in May
  1. CHEERS for Peers Library recognition follow up- Melanie Rusk
  2. EC meeting- Monday 3/27/23

Topics to bring to EC for Next meeting- 4/24/23

  1. Next drop in hour?
  • RFS and ALA Scholarships awarded
  1. A follow-up email to libnews
  2. Awarded additional funds so 4 people could attend in-person
  3. HR requirement- notes for next year Mandatory
  4. Any further follow-up with BHRSC?

VII Additional items-

  1. LSSC Guidelines for Membership- KH
  2. Robert Howerton- DV
  3. Elections for LSSC In May

 

Minutes Details

Attendees

Attendees for March 30, 2023 zoom meeting

Kristen Blankenship (CPS)
Julia Cross (Residential Hall Libraries)
Karen Huck (Arts & Humanities)
Kim Hutcherson (Administration)
Tony Hynes (Special Collections)
Jeffrey Loftiss (Physical Sciences)
Lucy Moynihan (Life Sciences)
Melanie Rusk (Tech Services)
Michelle Self-Ballard (CPS)
Dulcie Vermillion (Social Sciences)

Minutes

Approve February Minutes:  Approved

Liaison Reports and Updates:

Administration:  Mandatory Title 9 training deadline is tomorrow, March 31.

Administrative Council: 

  • Continuation of the food/drink and plant policy discussion from last month. There are still some updates needed and will review again.
  • Chris Prom presented the onboarding outline for the incoming Dean and asked for feedback.

Area Studies: 

Arts & Humanities:  Did not meet.  HPNL is doing staff picks of new books and blurbs.  Pop-up display in Orange room.  Co-hosting world poetry and translation, no registration is needed.  It will be held in Room 106 April 13.

Central Public Services:  Did not meet.

CMS:  Cart-brackets going, it’s been fun.

Life Sciences:  Susan Braxton retiring, committee has been set up for her replacement. 

ACES – New employee started nights, Hannah Burnett.  Hybrid panel in April “Solving the world’s challenges”.

Physical Sciences:  Interviews for Math Librarian have concluded.

Res Hall:  Summer Reading Program, GA this summer, annual reading day event (making books), waiting on budget for next year, trivia night coming soon, getting plans for staffing, reading day, finals week.

Social Sciences:  Did not meet.

SSHEL – Interviews for Library and Information Sciences Librarian.

Special Collections:  Guest: Jen, spoke about transition of statistics and instruction.  Building Project is behind a couple months, campus has final plans.

Technical Services: Sam L and Diana E. are interested in joining LSSC.  Guest:  Victor Jones talked about DEIA initiatives and student-specific focus groups.

Other Updates / Comments

  • New Dean On-Boarding Outline from Chris Prom
    • Good ideas were mentioned, will discuss a meet and greet further next month and have feedback ready for Chris Prom by 4/4/23- Claire will arrive in May
  • Next drop in hour? Zoom April 19 2pm-3pm
  • RFS and ALA Scholarships awarded – email sent to libnews

2023 Reaching Forward South https://www.ila.org/events/reaching-forward-south-conference

scholarship recipients:

Jenna Zeidler

Nicolette Coleman

Sam Lechowicz

and Melanie Rusk

2023 ALA https://2023.alaannual.org/:

In Person scholarship recipients:

Elisabeth Paulus

Dirk Ton

Sam Lechowicz

Lisa Renee Kemplin

Exhibits only Recipient:

Johna Von Behrens

Additional items

  1. LSSC Guidelines for Membership
    1. Will add to LSSC website
    2. Robert Howerton Scholarship
    3. Elections for LSSC In May

Victor’s DEIA presentation at the recent TSD meeting:

  1. DEIA update from Victor Jones
  • Findings from DEIA survey and a student-specific spaces focus group:
  • DEIA initiatives not a priority
  • DEIA is currently performative
  • DEIA initiatives are not visible
  • retention is poor because of cultural issues within the library
  • since closing of the Undergrad Library, the only two spaces students felt they belonged were the Reading Room and the Scholarly Commons (focus group was conducted last fall, before the Orange Room was available)
  • What do we feel some threats are to accomplishing DEIA initiatives?
  • “inertia”/hard to break out of routines
  • fear of bad reception of suggestions
  • work has to be community-wide (not only from the top down, but with staff buy-in also)
  • empathy burnout
  • finding the “bandwidth” to make changes
  • fear of speaking up because of the “politeness” culture at work (need psychological safety to talk about issues; fear of HR)
  • neglect of the “A” part of DEIA (accessibility)
  • creation of most DEIA initiatives/positions were spurred on by the George Floyd incident; we were able to find the energy to engage and take action at the beginning; now that the world is opened up again we have much more on our plates to deal with and it is easier to avoid thinking about DEIA issues (33% of DEIA positions have been let go already)
  • Next steps?
  • make sure everyone feels heard in an environment safe to express opinions/ideas
  • remember we are a team
  • vocalize & support
  • change from the top down
  • be deliberate and careful with how we speak to each other and the language we use so we don’t cause harm
  • reignite the diversity committee?
  • find continuous opportunities to educate ourselves; facilitated workshops versus training because work isn’t completed with one training session; Victor plans to offer workshops in April that will include modules such as:
  • library culture and engagement
  • DEIA engagement
  • library teamwork and collaboration
  • personal management
  • communication management

 

Next LSSC Zoom meeting: April 27, 2023