March 12, 2002

by Gerald Doyle

Minutes

of the General Assembly Meeting
of March 12, 2002
Conference Room (Room 106)
Tyler Hall, Tyler School of Art

Presiding: Chairperson Cathy Weng, called the meeting to order at 2:10 p.m.

Present: Judy Robison (University of the Arts graduate student intern and a specialist in Book Arts, was a guest of T. Whitehead, with whom she works one day a week); L. Lane; F. Rowland; A. Goldstein; M. Darby; P. Myers; T. Hoskisson; L. El-Zein; I. Bayard; B. Wright; A. Vara (temporary recorder for T. Whitehead); G. Sneff; C. Brigham; S. Thompson; L. Cotilla; C. Cunningham; C. Lang (also reporting for the University Librarian, Maureen Pastine) and guest Jeanne Pond (University Consultant).

Business Meeting

    1. Minutes of January 2002 meetings (8 Jan. and 14 Jan.) approved as forwarded by the recorder, T. Whitehead.
    2. University Librarian’s Report (Lang for Pastine)
      1. Boris Teske was selected as a participant in the ACRL Information Literacy Immersion, Track II Librarian as Program Developer for the summer 2002 program in Colorado. Only 90 participants were selected.
      2. Carol Lang has oversight for the Libraries’ participation in the Association of Research Libraries’ LibQUAL + (quality service and outcomes assessment of services) program, beginning this semester. Staff at all levels will be involved.
      3. Carol Bell, Head, Acquisitions Department, begins Monday, March 18, 2002.
      4. There will be an all-staff meeting to be held in early June. Planning being done by the Staff Recognition Award Committee.
      5. Contract renewals submitted to the Provost’s Office December 7, 2001; have been approved by the Provost.
      6. The Merit Committee has submitted merit recommendations to me. I have completed a draft response to these. The final copy will be submitted to the Merit Committee and to the Provost’s Office this week or next.
      7. Mary Edsall, Luke Kahlich, and I will submit a Dance Advance (Pew Foundation) grant by March 20, 2002 for the Philadelphia Dance Collection (under the supervision of Mary Edsall as part of the Special Collections Department). The Collection is to be located in Paley Library, second floor. Mary’s office is room 216 Paley.
      8. Mary Edsall, Luke Kahlich (Chair, Dance Department), and I have submitted a proposal to the Delmas Foundation for the Philadelphia Dance Collection.
      9. The science and engineering and architecture librarians, Frank Immler, HSC Librarians and others from HSC, Ken Soprano (Acting vice Provost for Research), and I have met once with a number of Deans and faculty in the sciences regarding science serials. A follow-up is scheduled for this Friday (March 15th), afternoon.
      10. Technology fees for this year have been approved for the Schools and Colleges and the Libraries. The Libraries will be receiving funds for replacement of a number of laptop PC’s.

 

    1. LibQual+ report (Lang)

      2. LibQual+ is a joint research and development project of Texas A&M and ARL whose purpose is to define and measure service quality across research libraries initially and all post-secondary libraries eventually. Paley will be taking part in this project from April 1-April 14th with regard to the use of library by means of user surveys. Three dedicated listservs will be set up for this survey. A series of twenty-four questions will be addressed by three different levels of users: 900 students; 600 faculty; 600 graduate students. The general purpose of the survey is to identify strengths and deficits across the dimensions of library service quality.

 

    1. In addition, the survey is to place a local library’s results in a context with that of other libraries: that is, it will enable administrators to understand the delivery of service quality by a peer perspective. The survey will also allow administrators to identify the best practices among those in the sample, and how similar institutions have more effectively satisfied user expectations.

      Carol Lang will come to departmental meetings to further explain and to get librarians to participate in this crucial survey and evaluate its results before sending them off.

 

    1. Temple Centers and Institutes Research Project (Weng)

      2. This was a measure to identify and obtain information on the many Centers and Institutes at Temple University. There are over fifty such organizations on the various campuses of the University. Carol Harris and Tom Whitehead have gotten together an initial working list of these groups. This list with information on name of the institute/center, its activities, its resources and availability to them, staff, website if any, location, etc. was distributed to the membership for discussion and to determine if the AAL should further work and develop this list of ‘hybrid’ organizations. One important comment by a member (IB) suggested that the Provost at present is reviewing these Centers and Institutes, to evaluate if they are to continue and whether they are to be funded in some manner. Some of the organizations have one person-a faculty member who is the head/director/acting director/etc.-are they worth being under the aegis of Temple University. The Assembly decided to wait until at least the fall (2002) whether to initiate a research project about the Centers/Institutes-until after the Provost’s Office had investigated them.

 

      Sandi Thompson had prepared a sample of the information for the Center for Sustainable Communities (Ambler), filling in Name, Purpose, Address, Staff, Activities, Resources and availability, and Other information of direct interest to the Library.

 

  1. Proposed revision of Process of Contract Renewal, Regular Appointment and Promotion (Weng)

    2. Revised document on Promotion and Regular Appointment Committee-Policies and Procedures, was distributed previously by Mark Darby. Several changes had been made and these are to be ratified at the next Assembly meeting [May]. Revisions are in bold type.

 

Forum

Temple Fine Arts Collection
Jeanne C. Pond, Consultant for Temple University Art Collection, was hired by the University to develop a collection management system for the fine arts examples found (or hidden) throughout the University. She presented an interesting overview of her work in accounting for, and physically locating, pieces of art-paintings, sculpture, and rare materials in Special Collections for example. Thus far, in her six months of searching, one day a week, she has inventoried over 700 items that require a fine arts organized collection scheme. She has digitally photographed representative items of this somewhat renegade collection, and passed around a laminated loose-leaf book of these images. She hopes to list all items eventually in a software package: “PastPerfect.”

Many art items were stored in closets, warehouses of the University, and other ‘fugitive’ locations, such as the Sjostrom Building (10th Street and C.B. Moore Ave.)

Following the inventory, evaluation of the art pieces will ensue. Ms. Pond alerted all of us to let her know, through the Dean of Tyler School of Art, or through the Head, Special Collections Department, of any art items that we come across in storage spaces or any unusual locations. No one in the University Administration seemed to be aware of the present treasures of art we have right here in our own ‘Acres of Diamonds’.

Al Vara recording with revisions by T. Whitehead

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