October 7, 2020 Meeting of Social Science

Agenda not yet available.

Minute taker: Jessica Hagman

Present: Cindy Ingold, Nancy O’Brien, JJ Pionke, Lisa Romero, Yoo-Seong Song, Jessica Hagman

Guest: Mary Laskowski

1. Approval of March 4 minutes (see G:/Social Sciences Division/MINUTES/DRAFT Minutes).

• Approved as amended.

 

2. Announcements and Discussion Items:

• Mary Laskowski attended to talk about issues related to fulfillment
  • Mary’s position as Director of Library Fulfillment is new to the library, not just to her and wants to discuss what divisions are struggling.
  • Nancy noted that SSHEL does the most fulfillment after Main Stacks and Oak Street. Notes ongoing challenge of patron communication about how they will receive requested books after we mark them for fulfillment.
    • Items that are to be provided in print, patron should be contacted by CAS within a day of it moving on from the owning library.
    • Currently not a way to indicate that item is in the scanning queue and is potentially problematic given that item could eventually be fulfilled in print.
    • Mary asked what the preferred message would be? Something that says we intend to digitize, would give the people the option to push back and that they need the print version ASAP.
    • JJ mentions that library policy right now indicates that books may not be available for 14 days and sending messages may create more work and discontent.
    • Lisa notes that faculty are overwhelmed and appreciate “handholding” that comes with sharing information about items in process. People are generally not aware of the intricacies of the process and how long it takes to get materials.
    • Mary recognizes that contact may be too much and contributing to email fatigue.
    • Staff in preservation did not work in Voyager before and are now learning Alma in addition to developing processes for fulfillment.
      • Book Eye scanner does not have enough memory to scan an entire book, so those in preservation have to stop and save materials, which slows down the process (among other things).
    • Nancy asks about prioritization of materials for course reserves. Some reserves materials have been waiting for weeks.
      • Mary says that process of getting these digitized is slower than expected because of issues like the Book Eye scanner.
      • Cindy asks whether we can get more updates on issues like this so we know what’s going on and can better communicate with patrons.
    • Lisa asks whether capacity is limited by staff time or equipment?
      • Mostly equipment right now. May be getting another camera set up.
      • JJ: are there staff who could be assigned to work in preservation dealing with the email, for example?
      • Mary: something to look into, but currently they are doing the work full time with the equipment they have.

 

3. Reports

• Area Studies Division rep to SSD
  • No report
• Collection Development Committee (Ingold)
  • CDC meeting every month.
  • FY21 close to finalized.
    • Received 100% coverage for inflation.
  • Beginning discussion of what we need to be prepared for the next year given possibility of flat budget, requiring cuts. Share ideas to Tom, with a cc to Cindy.
  • Katie Clayton retired.
• Data Interest Group (Phillips)
  • No report
• Diversity Committee (Ingold)
  • Continuing to meet regularly, working on a grant project.
  • New members
  • Working on planning programs for grant, including trans-inclusive library programing.
• Faculty Review Committee (Ingold)
  • Co-chaired by Cindy and Merinda again this year
  • Reviewing annual report documents.
  • Meeting next week to discuss two tenure cases.
• Reference Management Team (Hagman)
  • Send feedback on reference/chat service plan for this semester so we can plan for next semester.
  • Remember to let RMT know when GAs and staff are no longer working on chat so we can deactivate their account.
• SSD rep to Central Public Services Division (Ingold)
  • Is Teaching & Learning Librarian position close to being filled?
    • In final stages, but no announcement
  • Is it essential for us to have a representative?
  • Lisa will put out a call for a new rep. Meetings are 9am on Wednesdays.
• Organizational Development & Training (Ingold)
  • Looking at better ways to provide training for supervisors and managers.

 

4. Round Robin

• Cindy:
  • Busy with committee work, instruction, fund management
  • Lots of Zoom research consultations.
  • Working with political science.
• Nancy:
  • Mostly finished instruction for the fall
  • Lots of research consultations with graduate students
  • Keeping up with reports, etc.
• JJ:
  • Lots of committee work.
  • Teaching mostly done.
• Yoo-Seong:
  • Doing more instruction than usual.
  • More research consultations, especially with international students.
  • Instruction needs to be more thorough.
• Jess:
  • Continuing to develop qualitative methods-related instruction
• Lisa:
  • Developing video tour for classes because instructors still want students to see the library and meet the staff.
  • Worked with Kate Lambaria on Comm library chat and running that this semester.

 

5. Other announcements

• As of October 16, Yali’s position is no longer visiting but tenure-track and will be 12-month instead of 9-month.