The University of Kansas Libraries

KU Libraries Support Staff

KULSS Executive Meeting
Thursday, October 22, 2011, 10:00-11:30
Anschutz 305

Present: Jill Becker (Chair), Kristin Zachrel (Secretary), Adam Reilly (Group 1), Julie Woodrick (Group 2), Sharon Riley (Group 3)

Absent: Robert Szabo (Vice-Chair)

Previous Meeting's Action Items

Group Reports

Group 1 (Adam):

• Cataloging had a pizza party yesterday to celebrate the completion of re-carpeting and painting in cataloging. They painted everything except a big orange pillar that sits in front of the heaters, which was left this as is due to safety concerns.
• Desks are being moved around in Cataloging room 240.
  
  

Group 2 (Julie):

• A search is process for the new Head of Access Services and the application deadline has been extended.
• Having a potluck in room 210 on October 26th.
• Jessica Bergin (formerly Gish) moved into a new workspace next to Rachel's office.
  
  

Group 3 (Sharon):

• Spencer
  • Looks like the construction folks are getting near the end of the Spencer Library 3rd floor renovation project – perhaps less than a month’s work to do. They are working on the new Reading Room entryway from the Lobby through the Lounge as well as the new entrance to the locker room. The DIRTT walls are almost done. They might polyurethane the new reading room floor this weekend, which will take a few days to set. Once they are finished, it will be a mad scurry to move furniture, etc. into the space to be ready for the Open House party on November 29, the Tuesday evening after the Thanksgiving weekend. I’m sure you’ll see invites as the renovation get closer to completion, which will be around mid-November, so it could get a little crazy around here at Thanksgiving. Meredith has been taking photos of the progress and sharing them with Sarah Kanning, who is posting them to the Libraries Flickr page. If anyone is interested, she has them on Hawk Drive and will give provide access to the folder if you’d like to see them.
  • Working with Preservation to conduct a review of the O’Hegarty collection (part of the Irish collection) currently shelved in the upper perimeter of the North Gallery, former area where the old roof leaked.  Elspeth and Whitney had found mold in some of the materials.  The mold found doesn’t appear to be active and they aren’t sure if it was from the roof leak or had previously been there.  Meredith has a student working on reviewing and flagging materials that need preservation attention. They’ll be shifting some books out of the perimeter so they can space the perimeter books out a bit, to increase air flow.  Some are currently shelved tightly.
  • The Gould digital project is getting underway and the scanning has begun or is about to. The Sanborn maps, the last big digital project, has been completed and you can view the Sanborn maps online.
  • With the renovation changes, Reader Services staff are restructuring job descriptions. Toni Bressler will be the primary face at reception,  putting a more consistent and professional appearance to our patrons and visitors. Toni is also handling Spencer office supply orders.  She has transferred copy services back to Kathy Lafferty. Kathy has been the digital liaison for Spencer and the various projects for LUNA.  She was copy manager before Toni was hired so it shouldn’t be too much of a transition for her.  Meredith is getting less time on the reception desk, which is giving her more time to devote to stacks projects. She's also expanding her Operations Manager role to include all building issues, tracking keys, Omni locks, to building maintenance, and coordinating with Kent.
  • They have the exhibit of Naismith up so go check out the originals they have on display. The curators are working on new exhibits to be in place for the Open House.
  • They are entering month two of Aeon.  They’ve already begun running reports and viewing various statistics that the program has. They are still adjusting to the change and finding out new tricks all the time.
• Anschutz
  • Contractors are doing a refit on the high intensity lights that are in the tall ceilings in the atrium area.
  • KU Dining started visiting on Wednesday morning to make omelets.
  • They had a potluck with an Italian theme this week.
  • The new Teknion workstations had the work surfaces replaced during Fall Break.
  • The check-out/check-in sign at the Service Desk is now complete.
• Art & Architecture
  • FO cut a hole in the wall over fall break to get to a clogged roof drain. It took them 3 days to clean it out. They’re still waiting for them to finish fixing the wall where they tore it up.
• Administration
  • Doing testing on the new version of Stromberg.

Committee Reports

Support Staff Senate:

• Notes from September-October 2011
  • UPDATE: The date for the upcoming Huron Town Hall meeting has been changed to Monday, November 7, from 9-11 in the Kansas Union. Individual rooms at the Kansas Union will be reserved for each of the business cases that will be pursued as part of Changing for Excellence. An announcement of which business cases have been selected will be made on Monday, November 7. Sessions will last for 30 minutes, with a 5-10 minute break between sessions to allow individuals to visit additional rooms.
    
    

University Committee on Libraries:

• Committee Notes
• FY12 Charges
• Return on Investment Survey
  
  

Mentoring Committee:

• Met 3 times and are reviewing how to best extend opportunities to USS and Unclassified staff. Issues may include mentoring models, selecting mentors, expectations and roles, and outcomes.
• They had a lunch and will have another soon.
• John Stratton will give a report at the next Management Council meeting about these activities.
• Give Sharon Riley ideas about getting USS involved in this.
  
  

LOSDC: Nothing to report.

Meeting Updates

Management Council (Next Mtg: 11/16/11):

• Lars talked about Libraries Assessment Council (LAC). The committee is working on a basic proposal to submit to OIRP for a blanket report for assessment efforts the Libraries do. If we want to look at data such as the correlation between the number of library sessions a student has and their grades, they will need to go through OIRP. The Dean has said we need to do evidence-based decision making so LAC is reviewing this. The draft of an assessment plan for the libraries is waiting until the Strategic Plan gets going since they will go hand in hand. Assessment should be part of the Strategic Plan for the libraries.
• Management Council membership overview: reviewed a list of different people to be on Management Council in an attempt to streamline it into a group that can make decisions instead of share information. They expect organizational change within 1 year. They propose a representative for functionality instead of facility, so there would be fewer people on the committee. Scott and Erin are reviewing it further and will discuss it with Dean's Exec. The bottom line is that Management Council needs to be more productive.
• Discussed the potential process and timeline for strategic planning when the Libraries portion of the Huron work is done. The business case plans will come out soon. Part of the strategic plan will include where we’re headed. Our new strategic plan will be in place in July 1st, 2012.
• The First Year Experience position should be posted by the end of the week.


Dean's KULSS (Next Mtg: 11/1/11): Last meeting was cancelled.

Concerns to Bring up with the Dean:

• Budget for the half-day staff development event.
• Staff profiles

Miscellaneous

PRC:

• We discussed that having knowledge of the history of governance groups and these committees helps to understand the charges better. When it was first formed it had a really important role. They strongly believe there should be group to hold the administration accountable.
• We need to find 3 Support Staff members to serve on it. Rebecca submitted some suggestions of people to serve: Jim Richey, Molly Altman, and Kristin Zachrel. Jill will contact Jim and Molly. We could also consider Andy from Art and Lois from Acq/Ser. Group reps should send out a call for members to their groups emphasizing the importance of having USS representation on this committee. Jill will forward the special charges to Exec.

Staff Development Event (ideas):

• Sharon sent a link about a speaker who gives talks about Everyday Creativity.
• Strengths related session. After some discussion we think we should probably do something other than strength since LOSCD is focusing so heavily on it.
• Some other possible suggestions from the last staff development survey:
  • Project/time management
  • Tips for getting organized
  • Improving staff morale
  • Supervisor/staff relationships
  • Surviving in lean economic times
  • Personality assessment
  • Team building
• Given the recent Huron Report, possibly a session on coping with change or life skills for managing change.
• Try to find somebody internal for financial reasons. Find someone and meet with them. Try to figure out how our group could be in charge of facilitating. It should be a shorter workshop geared toward the needs of support staff, possibly with a split format for lecture and discussion.
• If we have a better idea of what we want to do we could present a budget to Lorraine.
• Let's review the HREO page for possible sessions.

Action Items for Next Meeting

Parking Lot
(Items to be aware of for the future, not necessarily discussed in current meeting)

• EEO Job categories

Next Meeting: November 3rd, 10:00-11:30 in Milton's (Kansas Union).