September 8, 2009

by Gerald Doyle

Academic Assembly of Librarians
General Assembly
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Paley Lecture Hall, 2:00 PM

Minutes

Attending: Larry Alford, Derek Badman, Jenifer Baldwin, Carole Bell, Aslaku Berhanu, Carol Brigham (chair), Mark Darby, Sebastian Derry, Kristina DeVoe, Andrea Goldstein, Anne Harlow, Thomas Heverin, Carol Lang, Molly Larkin, Jonathan LeBreton, Jill Luedke, Gregory McKinney (recorder), Penelope Myers, Fred Rowland, Adam Shambaugh, Brian Schoolar, Sandi Thompson, Al Vara

  • Approval of minutes of the 3/10/09 meeting:
    • Approved without changes.
  • New staff introductions:
    • Sarah Sherman  – Sarah, introduced by Brenda Galloway-Wright,  has joined the staff of Urban Archives as Archivist for the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Collection. Her office is 12D
    • Krystal Lewis – Krystal, introduced by Jenifer Baldwin, joined the staff of RIS in early June as Coordinator of Information Literacy and Reference. She received a BA and MSL from the University of Illinois, Urbana. She comes to Temple from the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her office is Paley 122.
    • Jill Luedke – Jill, introduced by Jenifer Baldwin, recently joined the staff of RIS and will serve as the Subject Specialist for art, art history, and art education at the Tyler School of Art. She comes to Temple from the Adam and Sophie Gimbel Design Library at the New School in NYC. She received a dual MS in Library and Information Science, and the History of Art and Design form the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Jill is presently located in Paley 209, but will eventually relocate to Paley 317.
  • Remarks by the Dean of Libraries (L. Alford):
    • Larry welcomed Jill, Krystal and Sarah. He then stated that on the following day, there would be a ceremony in Sullivan Hall at which President Hart and he would accept the collection of the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, described as “amazing, one of the best.”  One hundred and thirty eight invited guests had already expressed their intention to attend.
    • Larry mentioned several other collections which staff in the library have been talking about with others: Tom Whitehead has been working to obtain the papers of William Osler, the founder of modern medicine; Tom and David Murray have been working with a Civil War collection of about 700 items, 50% of which is unique to Paley’s collection; and it is highly likely that the library will be given a collection of documents about the Holocaust.
    • Larry remarked on the great amount of activity in Paley. Even on Labor Day, yesterday, there had been lines in the building.
    • A 250 page draft of the accreditation study is now available. The chapter dealing with the library, distributed to department heads last week, will be put on the library’s website.
    • In regard to the budget, travel and hiring freezes remain in place, although there may be some thawing once a state budget is in place. If the budget does not improve, there may be future cuts.
    • In regard to the library materials budget, we have received no inflation budget; cuts in the budget have amounted to a lost in purchasing power valued at more than one million dollars. We will be able to sustain our budget through the year. We will be able to handle budget increases in serials with resorting to cancellations. If the budget crisis continues, Larry will meet with the Provost in one and one half weeks. As a backup, a contingency plan is in place.  Jonathan will begin to work closely with selectors.
    • In response to a call for questions, Carol Lang asked about Emeritus status for librarians. Larry stated that it had been approved by the Provost, but final approval, in his opinion, has been held up because the administration has been preoccupied throughout the summer by the financial crisis.
  • Update on the strategic planning process (C. Lang):
    • The planning process has been going on for quite awhile. The group, charged in December 2008, is composed of ten members: Steven Bell and Carol Lang (chairpersons), Aslaku Berhanu, Jim Bongiovanni, Brenda Galloway-Wright, Thomas Heverin, Eric Jeitner, Molly Larkin, Fred Rowland, Derik Sawyer, Adam Shambaugh, Sandi Thompson, and Nicole Restaino.
    • The group began by reviewing the previous plan, then moved on. The present plan is very much a work in progress. It was taken to Administrative Council, where Steve and Carol shared comments. Copies of the Temple University Libraries Draft Strategic Plan 2009 – 2012 were distributed at the meeting, with the request that everyone read through the document and share comments with any member of the group, who would then report them back to the group.
  • Report on roaming reference (F. Rowland, A. Shambaugh):
    • Last summer Jenifer put together a committee to create a program, planned for the Fall, in which reference librarians would go into the stacks and assist patrons.
    • The results were disappointing. Over a period of several months, fewer than 100 requests were received. Some recommendations came out of the experience: color coding of the stacks to assist students in locating books and vests for student workers to make them more readily identifiable. Fred and Adam gave a presentation about the project in Vancouver, British Columbia over the summer. Penelope announced that the vests had arrived.
    • Carol Brigham asked about which handheld devices had been used. Fred commented that iTouches had been used, not entirely successfully because wireless reception in the stacks had been intermittent. Fred also commented that he had not noticed very much browsing, which he found surprising, and that there had been quite a lot of students, all studying intensively. Adam mentioned that they were considering having limited roaming reference during finals. Fred finished by observing that students seemed reluctant to ask for assistance.
    • Jonathan commented that because the librarians moved back and forth between the 2nd and 3rd floors, it may have been a problem knowing where they were when needed by a student.
  • Kindle show & tell (S. Derry):
    • Sebastian demonstrated and described the use of two types of Kindles, a smaller model, Kindle 2, and a larger model, Kindle DX. He also discussed some issues regarding content. In response to Penelope’s question as to how they would be used, Sebastian stated that they would probably circulate in house, and that eventually a message would be distributed about their status. Larry commented that some libraries have been experimenting with using Kindles, but there were legal issues to be worked out. They could circulate among the staff in the library, but whether we can lend them to others is a legal question.
  • Old business:
    • There was no old business.
  • New business/announcements:
    • The Request feature in Diamond has been launched and has been a resounding success, although there have been some problems with requesting journal articles.
    • Sebastian asked about the guest computers. They are doing fine and have registered more than 184 users, with no complaints.
    • Larry mentioned the long lines at the printers and questioned why this was happening and whether we needed another printer. He also asked about how the printers were paid for. Jonathan responded that they were paid for from a technology fee paid by students, and that adding another printer was not a technical issue, but an economic issue.
    • Carol Lang announced that the next All Staff Meeting would be at 2:00 PM on September 25th.
  • Adjournment:
    • Meeting was adjoined at 3:10 PM.
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