May 26, 2020 Meeting of Executive Committee

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

AGENDA

May 26, 2020

1:30-3:00pm

428 Library

 

1. Approve minutes – May 11
2. Question Time
3. Journal of Library Outreach and Engagement Innovation Fund Report
4. Position Description for Cataloging Coordinator
5. PRC selection
6. Visiting immersive scholarship academic professional position
7. Revised Charge: Library Pre-Tenure Track Program
8. Feedback on Head of Scholarly Commons Position.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

Minutes 

May 26, 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 

 

 

1. Minutes of the May 11, 2020 EC minutes meeting were approved upon the motion by Lynne Thomas and second by Mara Thacker. 

 

1. Question time – Dean Wilkin updated EC on the return to onsite work plan and that it has not been formally approved and is going through the process. The plan has been discussed with Andreas Cangellaris.  

 

Dean Wilkin explained to EC that information will be forthcoming regarding COVID-19 testing onsite as the totality and the plans the teams come to conclusions. Based on input sent to Dean Wilkin collectively, we identified the need for masks for 350 employees (therefore 700 masks). The Steering Committee reported that the masks are now available, and Norris Purdy is aware and will be going to the Fire Institute to pick them up. Tim Newman will be on point for distribution. The masks are washable/reusable and each person will get two.  

 

F&S is now ramping up the cleaning in the Libraries and Tim Newman is involved in that process. 

 

Dean Wilkin continues discussions regarding the strategy for addressing the AUL for User Services’ role, which has an upcoming expiring term.  No conclusions have been reached yet, but he will continue to engage broadly with those discussions and will come back to EC as that strategy begins to take shape.   

 

Dean Wilkin briefed EC on the Fall Semester and that it’s still TBD on how it will be conducted.  There have been some discussions in Council of Deans Task Force meetings.  

 

Dean Wilkin updated EC on the State Budget that was just passed. There are no reports on budget adjustments and what that means for us yet. Enrollment numbers look good and this is a significant majority of our budget. There are lots of variables.  

 

Dean Wilkin advised EC to not plan to travel, or travel as much as in the past. There will soon be travel restrictions because of health reasons as well as reduced budget. We are likely to reduce our travel allocations in the Library partly as a budgetary measure, but also in response to the message from the university that travel should be limited. An EC member raised the concern regarding the travel allocations and reduced travel.  For professional development funds, could we advocate for letting people use some of those funds for some of their professional memberships? These memberships will open access to webinars and some of the virtual meeting places and provides support for these organizations which are also suffering with reduce budget. It might be a good time to discuss different uses of these funds. For now, our policy continues to be that professional development funds may not be used for professional memberships. 

 

 

1. Journal of Library Outreach and Engagement Innovation Fund Report – EC approved and informed Mara Thacker of the approval. 

 

1. Position Description for Cataloging Coordinator – Updates to some of the language were added for clarity to the job description. EC approved the changes and Mara Thacker will contact Library HR to finalize. 

 

1. PRC selection – EC selected a PRC for a new faculty member. Lucretia Williams will reach out to the recommended PRC and report back to EC of their decision.   

 

1. Visiting Immersive Scholarship position (AP) – Dean Wilkin mentioned to EC that this is a new area for the Library and it is important to invest in these positions, however it was not moved forward as a top priority search after review by EC and the AULs. The position has been recrafted as a visiting AP (instead of civil service) and alternative funding was been identified to fund a visiting position. A search committee was recommended. 

 

1. Revised Charge: Library Pre-tenure Track Program – EC approved the amended charge. Comments/suggestions will be taken back to the Task Force regarding the title change of the group. 

 

1. Feedback on Head of Scholarly Commons Position – EC has not received the revised position description from the search committee. This will be discussed with EC upon receipt of the revised position description from the search committee. Paula Carns will follow up with the search committee on the next steps in the process and report back to EC.