November 8, 2012 Meeting of Library Staff Support Committee

Agenda not yet available.

Jim Cotter(chair), Danielle Postula, Julie Watkins, Barb Trumpinski, Becky Burner, Laura Poulosky

Visit from New Director of IT Production Services:

We had a visit from Jim Dohle, the new coordinator of IT production services, including the Help Desk, Workstation Network Support (Lee Galaway’s group); and Infrastructure Management and Support (Jason Strutz’s group).  Jim is charged with improving communications between IT and the rest of the Library.  He reports to Beth Woodard.  Jim and Beth have been meeting with all Library divisions to discuss projects and goals.  They will then meet with unit heads.  The current IT Library-wide survey is open through Nov. 21st.  Library employees are encouraged to complete the survey in order to inform IT of what support we need to perform our jobs optimally.  The IMS (Infrastructure Management and Support) team is working on improving the Library-wide file storage system.  The updated system should be running in January.  They are also working to coordinate Library-wide digitization projects (including audio, video, and slides) to make these processes as efficient as possible.   The new public printing system (Paper Cut) will inform service desks automatically of any printer problems, such as paper jams or lack of paper or toner.  Starting in January, new print release stations on public access printers will enable patrons to perform print jobs from any computer (including laptops) to the printers of their choice.  IT is working on printing problems that arise with Moodle and PDFs.  Some of these problems may relate to very large PDF sizes.     The Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (MSCCM), which is currently being tested, will be implemented in early 2013, allowing for centralized system-wide updates of commonly used services such as Adobe and Firefox.  Library employees will be informed of these updates. For any miscellaneous questions related to IT, the Help Desk, headed by Michael Fleming, is our go-to contact.  Barb reminded us that it’s helpful to check out the IT help page and blog for updates on their staff and current projects, systems, etc.

Division & Committee Reports:

There were no meetings for Special Collections, Technical Services, Life Sciences, or Physical Sciences since our last LSSC meeting.

Faculty Meeting—Julie reported that Michael Norman presented information on Primo.  There was a report on the development of advanced online communication tools between the U of I Library at Grainger and Kyushu University.  The goal of this project, called I2CNER, is to contribute to the creation of a sustainable and environmentally friendly society by advancing fundamental science to reduce CO2 emissions and establish a non-fossil based energy carrier system.  Bill Mischo and Mary Schlembach are the librarians involved.  In relation to Hathi Trust, Paula Kaufman mentioned the necessity of equal information access for visually-impaired patrons and some ways in which that access is implemented.

Central Access Services—CAS discussed plans for the physical card catalog in the Main Library.  The general catalog will be recycled.  The thesis file, serials record, and shelf list will all be retained, but moved to the basement.  In relation to this topic, Laura noted strong concerns within the Arts & Humanities division about losing the physical cards for items which do not have complete records in the OPAC.  Julie noted her idea of sorting OPAC records by font in order to determine which are OCLC records and which have only Marquette (or other??) incomplete records, so that we can identify the physical cards that will need to be retained or scanned.  Bill Mischo is looking into this idea.

Arts & Humanities—Laura reported the Division’s discussion about how to retain information from the physical card catalog that is not complete in the OPAC.  The idea of scanning the physical cards of items with incomplete OPAC records was mentioned, as was the idea of requesting funding to have these items catalogued.  John Wagstaff will raise these concerns in EC.  New signage might be implemented in the Main Library, clarifying the location of the Main Stacks, because patrons often do not understand that they are included in “Central Access Services.”  Only 3 Library G.A.’s are eligible to belong to the Graduate Employee Organization, so a potential GEO strike is not likely to have a large impact on Library staffing.  Springer is developing a database for all of their e-books.  There are currently negotiations for UIUC access, in exchange for our loan to Springer of some of their older items for scanning. The Google project is likely to be completed within one to two more years, and the Internet Archives scanning at Oak Street is also nearing completion, so the digitization unit there may be taking on new projects soon.  The search committee for a new History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Librarian is writing the official position description, based on the Division’s request.  The closing date for applications is expected to be late January, with on-campus interviews in the spring.  There was continued discussion of a potential Humanities Hub.  Committee head John Wagstaff reported that there is general agreement that the Classics Library should be moved down from the 4th floor to the 2nd floor of the Main Library.  It has also been suggested that the Classics collection might be re-classed to LC prior to a possible merger with Literatures & Languages.  The committee’s report is due on Dec. 14th.  Input from people outside of the committee is very welcome.

Next LSSC meeting:

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, Dec. 13th, from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m., in 225B Main Library.