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KULSS Exec

Meeting Minutes

Thursday, March 6, 2008
AIC – Anschutz Library, 10:00-11:30am

Present: Jill Becker (Chair), Nishon Hawkins (Vice Chair); Angie Rathmel (Secretary); Denise Swartz (Group 1); Julie Warrick (Group 3); Robert Szabo (Group 4); Nikhat Ghouse (Mentoring Committee), Nancy Hawkins (Mentoring Committee)
Absent:

Approval of 2/7/08 meeting’s minutes.
DONE

Approval of previous meeting’s action items

WHO?	BY WHEN?	WHAT?
1. Jill	2/22/08 - DONE	Ask Holly for LFA rep for SSEYA committee
2. Julie	2/22/08 – DONE	Make flyer for Staff Development Speaker
3. Jill	DONE	Send flyer out to kulib-l
4. Angie	2/25/08 – DONE	Develop Grp 2 rep election ballot
5. Denise	DONE	Check hotel cost for additional guest
6. All Group Reps	NEW ACTION	Add url to KULSS-Exec minutes page in your meeting announcement to your groups
7. Robert	DONE	Check AIC availability for next meeting
8. Jill	NEW ACTION	Send reminder about SSEYA and call for committee volunteers

Group Reports:
Grp 1: Acq/Ser, Reference, Collection Development, Administration, Facilities

HR Director, Mike Broadwell starts March 17th.
Contribute training sessions announced via email. See Gretchen Hoffman.

Grp 2: Cataloging

Group 2 election deadline March 10th.
Kevin Fussell’s position interviews completed.
Annex 1 is complete/closed out.

Grp 3: Access Services, Mail Room, ILL

Krista Howard new hire in ILL.

Grp 4: Anschutz, Annex, Art, Engineering, Music, RCL, Spencer

ANSCHUTZ

ANNEX

ART (submitted by Heather Howard)

We have put in new shelf inserts in order to better display our DVD collection. They are slant shelves with zig-zag inserts that display our DVDs at an angle so some of the covers are visible. This makes the collection more eye-catching and browseable. We are hoping to purchase more as our collection grows.
We have also been very busy and have noticed an increase in business as of late - more patrons, book returns, and ILL requests. We assume this is the result of students finishing up mid-tern projects and getting ready for Spring Break.
I am currently working on inventory of Closed Stacks. There hasn't been an inventory done in quite a few years, but I am finding they are in pretty good shape. Brenda and Geri have been wonderful in helping me clean up some cataloging records.

ENGINEERING

MUSIC (Submitted by Nancy Hawkins)

SPENCER (submitted by Mary Ann Baker)

We finished our preliminary all staff meetings about the different parts of the consultant's report. Sherry asked that we each write up our top five priorities of the recommendations made and that she will write a report of our meetings and priorities for the dean who will then decide what happens next. Lorraine came to our first consultant report meeting and so did Kent and Mary and either Kent or Mary or both were at each of our other meetings. It was good to have them there.
The two task forces to address issues with the Reader Services Department have turned in their reports and recommendations. We might be moving our reference desk into the reading room. That's one of the recommendations as is making the exhibit hall are more welcoming. We also looking to weeding out our reference collection. We'll have a meeting about the task force reports soon.
Seems like we're in a lull for folks using the reading room but there have been lots of classes. Perhaps no assignments are due soon? Some days our group rooms are filled up with classes and committee meetings. The room schedule for Spring Break looks pretty empty, though.
We in Processing still have an interim supervisor although an announcement may be forthcoming on the interim arrangement for the next year. The job description for the position to fill in when Barry leaves is over at KU HREO.

Committee Reports
University Support Staff (USS) Senate (Submitted by Mary Ann Baker)
The Executive Committee met yesterday w/out our president or knowing what's going on with him, and our vice president, who was at a Covey leadership training session for some of our meeting time and joined us afterwards. Later we found out that our president was out sick for the day.

Elections are coming up soon. There are 3 empty Senator Positions and YOU or one of peeps could fill one of those positions. Please do inform your groups and have them call me if they are interested or have any questions. Seriously, there are a lot of folks from Housing and FO on the Senate right now so we need more of our own peeps on the Senate.

Our Communications Committee is getting ready to send out a newsletter -- there will be a nomination form included so encourage your peeps to sign up for University-wide committees and boards.

As you might imagine, most of our meeting was taken up with Kansas House Bill 2916 which deals with the proposed new employee pay plan and oversight. Although it addresses state civil service employees, the university has used whatever the legislature decides as benchmarks to determine our compensation so it behooves us to stay connected, informed and involved in whatever the legislature is doing. Our Legislative Affairs Committee has been in touch with Ola and Lindy and Kathy Damron, Director of State Relations for KU's Government Relations Office, who is researching what's going on with HB 2916 for us. We're hoping to get current info by our full Senate meeting next week. If I find out anything helpful, I will inform you. I haven't had time to read the full bill yet. My understanding is that the proposal is that the longevity increase would be added to state employees’ base pay next year and then there would be no more longevity increases for anyone. I think I remember hearing that Ola had no idea what KU would do in the event that the state changes the longevity increases. I spent over an hour on the KS legislative website trying to figure out current information with little success.

The full Senate March meeting is next Wednesday, 12 March.

University Senate (Submitted by Mary Ann)
I missed a few US meetings over the break and during a recent bout of flu so when the Provost came to our meeting last Thursday and handed out a copy of a webpage http://www2.ku.edu/~oirp/planning/index.shtml and spoke briefly about the latest KU strategic plan initiative which already had committees at work, I felt majorly out-of-the-loop. I'm not sure I was alone in that feeling but one can browse the website to see what's what so far on that initiative. Me, I'd like to have a follow-up report on the last strategic plan!

The only president of a KU senate who had much to report was the student body president who encourage folks to check out the new Multicultural Resource Center and noted that the Student Senate is researching the possibility of a shortened academic calendar (apparently a lot of universities have 15-week semesters and KU has 16-week semesters). Student Senate is also exploring bringing 3.2 beer back to the Union and has sent a proposal to the Chancellor and Provost.

The USS Senate president reported that there's a new union of state employees -- KOSE (Kansas Organization of State Employees) and that it is urging legislators to vote no for Kansas House Bill 2916.

University Committee on Libraries (UCL)

Diversity Committee

IS Development Council (ISDC)
Hope to have an event to announce at IS Awards ceremony. Meeting an extra time before our next scheuduled meeting to make that happen. See Notes on IS Central.

Planning & Resources Committee (PRC)
Discuss charges for website correction.

Mentoring Committee – KULSS input
Members are: Nikhat Ghouse, Nancy Hawkins, John Brandau, HR Officer, Tyra Grant, Lyn Wolz
Charge (aiming to complete end of May 2008)

build a database of mentors (listing their skills, resumes etc.)
update the website
establish interest in "communities of learning" and other facilitating strategies to match mentees and mentors

Associate to full librarian
New USS (less than 3 yrs)
USS career track
MLS students (KULMLS)
Sabbatical
Research and writing group

KULSS feedback:
Needs clearer purpose for point of need for support staff
Possible individualize small group training
Other possible learning communities: emerging technologies, supervisors
See USS being more interested in the communities of learning more than on-on-one mentoring
Idea for invitation to KULSS spring meeting (possible hands-on).

Meeting Updates
Management Council

Dean reported re: safety/security issues was discussed in Provost Council as well as Deans Council, that if anyone is ever in any kind of threatening situation to immediately call 911 and only after that to let the administration know.
Deb Ludwig reported that since no one person is responsible for the library's technology services she is developing a chart showing who is responsible for what service. Chart is just a draft so she did not want it widely circulated at this time.
Mary Roach reported that 119 library staff or shared PCs are out of warranty, and a new shipment of 47 replacements is going to be distributed for installation this summer. (Acq/Ser is to get 8 of these replacements, and just this afternoon she asked me to identify which PCs should be replaced.)
Jen Church reported that Office 2007 will be installed in the library's public computer labs. Administration in looking into installing Office 2007 on staff machines too, so that everything is in sync, but has not yet identified funding. Instructional Svcs will offer Office 2007 workshops for staff this summer specifically for libraries.
Nikhat reported on the mentoring committee's work. (see above).
A welcome reception for new staff will be held March 14 after the all-staff meeting.
Announced USS Staff Development Speaker Event for March 19
Loraine wants to have a retreat for Management Council this summer and to open it up more widely to other interested staff. Possible theme: the role and contribution of managers.
Reviewed library committees chart being worked on for publication on the staff intranet. The intent is to have a central place where folks interested in serving on committees could go for information on charge, membership, time commitment, etc. Lorraine also mentioned her hope that this will help her synchronize the call for volunteers for committees.
Kent reported cost estimate is expected soon for the new 3rd floor service desk that he hopes to install in late May. The east wing of the 3rd floor will be recarpeted at the same time.
Report that Deans Council discussing ways to add more structure and excitement to the student picnic and is considering giving awards. Another idea that emerged in Mgmt Council discussion is drawings for prizes. There seems to be interest in some combination both drawings and awards. Deans Council will consider (see KULSS agenda item for Dean).

Staff Development Speaker - Finalizing Details
KULSS-Exec dinner with speaker 7pm, Tuesday March 18th. Free State Brewery.
See action items below.

Agenda items for next meeting with the Dean. March 6th, 2008.

Student picnic ideas (per Mgmt/Dean’s Council discussion)

Date of event
“drawing” idea more feasible considering how student attend the picnic based on their schedules.

Committee Chart (per Mgmt/Dean’s Council discussion)

HISTORY: In past, a subcommittee of KULSS (CCPC, now adhoc) was charged with keeping accurate information on the library committees. We did away with that committee’s charge only to eliminate the duplication of effort that admin was also keeping this information updated and not because staff were no longer interested in this information. Because staff are still very interested in this, we ask:

How will the chart be used (and communicated to all staff as resource)

What types of committees are included and excluded? Why?
What if people (who aren’t on Mgmt Council) have questions, input? How will they provide that and receive an answer?
Its relation to current lists: http://www.lib.ku.edu/committees.shtml and http://www.lib.ku.edu/staff/committees.shtml

Our understanding is that all information for this chart was/will be taken from existing websites.

Are web authors given the opportunity to review this chart and provide input (directly or via Mgmt Council)? i.e. web authors might have more incentive to review/update their content it if they knew Mgmt Council/Dean was reviewing it and relying on web content for this purpose.

Will the document have links to webpage or will content be in 2 places?
How will committees/groups with no current descriptive information or web presence be represented (Dean’s Council/Management Council)

Action Items for next meeting:

WHO	By WHEN	WHAT
Jill	ASAP	SSEYA Committee call for volunteers
Angie	ASAP	Add Krista Howard to membership
Denise	Friday	Order Continental Breakfast 50 people.
Angie	Today	Email Jill list of issues for speaker
Jill	Upon above	Email KKS
Robert	Friday	Email KKS re: technological needs (refer to Jill’s email)
Angie	March 11th	Count ballots for Grp 2 rep
Angie		John and Holly re: PRC website charge.

Next meeting will be our Guest Speaker Event, Wednesday, March 19thth, 8:30-11:30 in Alderson Auditorium, KU UNION.

PARKING LOT:

Colored Bag Lunch for upcoming election
Grievance Committee

The University of Kansas Libraries

KU Libraries Support Staff

KULSS Exec

Meeting Minutes

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