October 6, 2015 Meeting of User Services Advisory Committee (USAC)

Time and Location of Meeting

October 6, 20159:00 am - 10:00 am 230B Main Library

Agenda Details

Agenda

Agenda not yet available.

Minutes Details

Attendees

Elisandro Cabada, Suzie Duncan, Joe Lenkart, Susan Schnuer, Beth Sheehan (minutes), JoAnn Jacoby

Minutes

  1. Committee Member Introductions
    1. Members present at the meeting introduced themselves, and stated their interest and involvement with user services.
    2. Review projects in process or recently completed
      1. GREAT Customer Service Guidelines are one of this committee’s most recent accomplishments.  Took one year to write and develop, and is now in the hands of the Staff Development and Training committee (Susan Schnuer is also on this committee). Staff Development and Training wrote up a blueprint for going to division meetings and units, and asking if anyone wants additional training. Promotional materials are available to show people how to start implementing the guidelines. The group had agreed to evaluate effectiveness after one year to see how well it is entrenched. Recent examples of inclusion of the guidelines in existing activities are: several trainers mentioned it in GA training sessions at the start of the fall semester. RIS created online training materials. They should be added to the general library orientation for new employees of all levels, and new employee orientation checklist. This group should continue to be aware of other things we are working on that intersect with Staff Development and Training. When developing the guidelines, a small USAC subcommittee came up with framework, then distributed pieces of it (GREAT letters) to different members of the committee to develop. This approach worked well.
      2. Sue Searing asked members of the committee to go to the Deep Dives. They attended the session that applied to Customer Service (Teaching and Learning).

 

  1. Brainstorm projects and priorities for us to work on this year
    1. Disaster Response Plan: What happens when there is an emergency in the Library? We close everything down, but how do we bring things back up again?  Communicate with users?  In the past, CPS has come up with scenarios (GA strike; flu), but the Library doesn’t have anything general enough to apply to the range of situations we should be prepared for. Administrative Council (AC) is talking about active shooter building assessments and building-wide plans. In the past, there have been hesitations to write up a plan because of flexible situations and security concerns. USAC should be concerned because if something happens in the building, it becomes a crime scene, which closes down services.

Action Item:  USAC will look at the November 14, 2014 meeting minutes for a discussion to pick up where we left off on the Disaster Plan.

  1. Review most recent USAC meeting minutes. The last meeting minutes available are from May 18, 2015. Joe (the minute taker) will also will track down minutes from June 2015.
  2. Budget- Discussion of this year’s reduction of Main Library service hours, and a potential survey of the user community to get their input about service reductions. USAC should assess the existing cuts, in order to plan for the next round. The committee could pose potential future budget cut scenarios to users to get feedback. The Executive Committee has noted that there have been no formal complaints about the hours reduction. Some units have reported difficulties with coverage after cuts to student worker budget. USAC would need to determine who to survey, and what to ask them. The University Librarian has a student advisory committee, they are a good sounding board for input and to inform planning. USAC could ask them about how it has affected them and their peers.

i.      A note about budget planning: JoAnn noted that in the past, central administration absorbed most of the cuts, but the next round of cuts will need to come out of staff lines.

  1. Encouraging innovative user services: There was discussion of a potential grant program encouraging applications for seed money to support an innovative user services idea. Units and divisions would be encouraged to collaborate on cross-unit/cross-divisions initiatives, to develop scalable and replicable projects. The library does have seed/innovation fund grants, but the program is not necessarily focused on user services. One suggestion might be to gather feedback that the library has already received (i.e.,. from Inclusive Illinois Diversity board- Beth Sheehan will talk to Cindy Ingold to ask if they would be willing to share some ideas that came from this board), and add them to new ideas for user services needs solicited by this committee. Then USAC could challenge library employees to develop creative solutions. The Undergraduate Library collects feedback well, soliciting ideas and suggestions via white boards, questions, post-its. This committee could do something similar, asking broad questions about what would improve spaces and user experience. If this is pursued, a roll-out plan would need to be in place, to ensure that action can be taken and there would be an impactful outcome (rather than collecting data which never receives action or follow-up).