The University of Kansas Libraries

KU Libraries Support Staff

KULSS Executive Meeting
Thursday, February 23, 2012, 10:00-11:30
Anschutz Room 438

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

Absent: None

Previous Meeting's Action Items

Group Reports

Group 1 (Adam):

• Cataloging had a meeting last Tuesday where IT gave a presentation on how the drives are changing over. The G drive is staying the same; the U drive will change to V. We can clean up things we don’t need from the drives before the migration.
• They got a round of new computers.
• They had a Valentine's Day potluck last Wednesday. 
• They are working on approving and advertising for Laura Kitzmiller's old position.

Group 2 (Julie):

• Acq/Ser has been approved to hire a replacement for Jon Allen's position. They are currently discussing what the responsibilities of that position should be.
• Acq/Ser and ILL had an introductory session to PRIMO to review how it will impact technical services operations.

Group 3 (Sharon):

• Administration:
  • Alex Leland, who had been working as the receptionist through Project Search, had her last day on Friday, February 17th. Admin threw a a party for her.
• Anschutz:
  • The new rooms are available for scheduling.
  • Printing is getting much better. IT gave each library its own server and doubled the memory, which alleviated some of the problems.
    •  Anschutz had a good meeting with IT about the printing. They are trying to utilize webprint so students can print from their laptop, but won’t make it available for use it if they’re not confident it will function properly.
    • They are going to work hard to get a card swipe on the MFD’s by next semester so students won't need to use a login.

Committee Reports

Support Staff Senate: Meeting Minutes

• University Senate:
  • The University Senate is forming a Task Force to look into tuition assistance for faculty and staff and possibly their dependents.  The Kansas Board of Regents determined that having a statewide program would be financially prohibitive but did say that each institution could form their own policies on this matter.
• USS Senate:
  • The USS Senate is preparing for elections and filling university committee positions for the next calendar year.  Please let Mary Ann know if you’re interested in serving on the USS Senate or any of the university committees.  It can be a very rewarding experience to participate in university governance. Dennis Constance, who has served as USS Senate President and helped guide us from classified to support staff status, has announced that he will not be running for President for next year (starting in May).  We all owe a great debt of gratitude for Dennis’ untiring commitment to the betterment of the work lives of support staff at KU.
  • The as-yet-to-be-approved Code, yes, the one you voted on last March, has finally come out of the Provost's Office 10 months after being submitted.  The Senate is reviewing changes requested by the Provost’s Office.
  • Members of the Senate have travelled to the State Capitol twice, once in support of Classified and Support Staff and once in support of higher education in general.
  • There will be a special meeting of the Senate on April 25th to host Vice Provost Diane Goddard, who will update us on activities regarding the Campaign for Excellence (Huron recommendations).
  • The USS Work Group (formed when we became support staff) has been trying to be more attentive about posting the minutes of their meetings.  You can view all the minutes posted in the last 6 years at http://www.uss.ku.edu/WorkGroup.shtml.

University Committee on Libraries:

• The electricity went out in the middle of the University Senate Committee on Libraries meeting yesterday afternoon in Watson, right in the middle of Ada Emmett’s update on open access activities.  The Dean said that she would send an e-mail to members to give up her update on library matters.

Mentoring Committee:

• Since the New Year, the Mentoring Committee has:
  • Sent a mentoring-related survey between Jan 9-13, 2012, to 111 USS and UPS staff seeking input about the program.  They received 23 responses (a 21% return rate) and identified 14 individuals who stated they are interested in more engagement with mentoring.  The Mentoring Committee is following up with these individuals.
  • Sponsored a presentation on Feb. 2, 2012  by Marilu Goodyear, entitled “Mentoring:  The Value of Reaching Out for Professional Development.”  It was held in Watson 455 and about 35 individuals attended.  This is one of a few similar events the Committee hopes to plan and present each year.
  • Responded to a request by the Strategic Planning Working Group 3 (Charged specifically with “Strengthening KU Libraries’ Position as an Agile. Responsive Organization Capable of Continual Improvement and Change”) by sending the Chair, John Stratton, to meet with them on Feb 12, 2012.  I presented an overview of our current work, aspirations for the future, and commented on action and support that would be needed to help achieve our goals.
• In the near future, the Mentoring Committee will convene to review all of the above activities and discuss next steps.

LOSDC:

• LOSDC rolled out its Libraries Development Calendar, which right now follows the same procedure for viewing and reserving as the Libraries’ Administrative (aka MASTER) calendar.  We will begin to hold some sessions this Spring to go over the use of Outlook calendars and gather feedback. We also recently published to the intranet a chart of all KU Libraries’ Reservable rooms that includes the room capacity, furniture and technology accommodations, and how the rooms are reserved.
• LOSDC Strengths Action team will be using information gathered in Todd Wilson's visit, the Staff Leadership Summit, and conversations with KU Med Library's Strength Team to develop action plans for the spring/summer. We are also interested in how Strengths can help with the KU Libraries Strategic Planning Goal #3 efforts on developing staff. Don't forget that we also have a standing offer to help fund anyone that would like to take the 3 hour Strengths class at KU HREO.
• LOSDC sponsored a MALA/KCMLIN Safe Workplace webinar (Th 1/26/12) that was well received by staff who attended.
• How can LOSDC best help KULSS-Exec as you plan for your annual development event this Spring?

Meeting Updates

Dean's KULSS:

• Discussed the staff profiles. Although it would be nice to have a centralized place for staff to access the profiles, we have decided not to publicly post them to the KULSS website, which is not password protected, due to privacy concerns. Instead Kristin will look into adding them to a shared folder on the G drive.
• Most staff in the University don’t have any idea they can use the libraries. Sharon advised Jen about this issue and she created a pamphlet geared toward Support Staff, which Sharon displayed on a table at a booth at the Staff Leadership Summit.
  • Robert asked Mary Ann if people know they can use libraries and she suggested we write an article to put in the Support Staff Senate newsletter. Robert wrote a simple article for it, which he sent to Rebecca so they can add to it.
• Half-day Staff Development Event: Lorraine suggested having the event at the Design Business Center, which has a living plant wall. If we held the event here we would need to coordinate transportation. She also suggested the Kansas Union or the North Gallery at Spencer, which would be convenient for staff who haven't seen the new reading room yet.
  • Since it’s during spring break we could probably book one of the KS Union rooms (Kansas room, Big 12, Centennial). Robert will check with the Union about availability. Kristin will send a follow up email to Kathleen Ames-Oliver to confirm her availability so we can reserve a space in the Union. Robert will also try to call. Julie is available Tuesday for the workshop but not Wednesday or Thursday.

Concerns to Bring up with the Dean: Nothing yet.

Miscellaneous

• Robert will check on the availability of funds for a member of Exec to go to ALA.

Action Items for Next Meeting

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

• HREO EEO Categories
• Work with LFPA to change the language for the Dean's 5 Year Review Committee to include a Support Staff member.

Next Meeting: March 8th, 10:00-11:30 in Watson 503B.