The University of Kansas Libraries

KU Libraries Support Staff

KULSS Executive Meeting
Thursday, November 18, 10:00-11:30
Anschutz 305

Present: Jill Becker (Chair), Kristin Zachrel (Secretary), Adam Reilly (Group 1), Julie Warrick (Group 2), Robert Szabo (Group 3)

Absent: Meredith Huff (Vice-Chair)

Previous Meeting's Action Items

• Brochure: Kristin updated the brochure for the KULSS website but there is a blank area on the front that needs to be filled, perhaps with a collage of photos and quotes from our events.
• Code changes have been made.
• Jill needs to check with Shannon about the travel funds.

Group Reports

Group 1 (Adam):

• John Brandau is retiring in December. Aileen Ball will supervise the annex after his retirement.
• There will be a cross training of annex staff to work in Adam Reilly's unit of Cataloging.

Group 2 (Julie):

• Jules went to the winter conference in Atlanta and learned a lot from the sessions offered.
• There will be a potluck today for staff in Room 210.
• A banned patron returned to Watson thinking his ban had ended. The cops were called and when they tried to remove the patron he punched the cop.

Group 3 (Robert):

• Jim Smith will serve as the media/reserve coordinator in Music & Dance until someone fills Nancy's position.
• Channette Alexander has received 8 new laptops for Spahr and the old ones have been removed.
• Snapshot Day was done at Watson, Anschutz, and Art & Architecture. In Anschutz 1941 surveys were handed out in 13 hours; 883 surveys were returned. The comments are now being recorded.
• Food day today in Anschutz.

Committee Reports

Support Staff Senate:

• SenEx Notes 16 Nov 2010
• USS Senate Fall Semester 2010
• The Student Service Center sounds a lot like what is supposed to be happening in the Libraries. Do they know that multiple groups are talking about this? Jill will forward this to her supervisor.
• Requesting a 3.5% Cost of Living adjustment to staff salaries. An article in the LJ World described that the Regents have reported to the Legislature that they are seeing more departures of faculty to comparable sized/status institutions for better pay.

University Committee on Libraries: Nothing to report.

Libraries Organizational Staff Development Council (LOSDC): Nothing to report.

Mentoring Committee: Nothing to report.

Meeting Updates:

Dean's Council (next mtg: 11/19): Nothing to report.

Management Council (next mtg: 12/15):

• Minutes from the 11/17 meeting: http://lib.ku.edu/staff/docs/Notes/indexMC.shtml
• Kent reports the survey for the Watson break room will come out very soon.
• Kent is pricing refrigerators and microwaves for the Watson break room.
• Jen Church-Duran, Deb Ludwig, and Susan Craig are on three work groups for KU's Strategic Planning process. They will send out reports as they meet.
• The Huron report has been released but it isn't certain when it will be available for staff to review.
• CIO position in the Provost's office has been launched.
• Keith Russell reported on the summary for the Connecting to KU discussion groups. This prompted discussion about the need for change and Lorraine stated that we will continuously change to remain relevant. Lorraine will send recommendations for the future of the report to the University Committee on Libraries for feedback.
• Consultants are coming in March or April.
• Supply distribution process: to maximize efficiency there is a new form for ordering. There have been concerns about this because you must document the page number and item number for everything, including items such as pens and other standard equipment. The cheapest version of these items will be ordered regardless of the item number provided from the catalog. No list of standards exists for these items but a drop-down list will be developed for items like pens.
• Replacing Denise Swartz's position with someone on a 2-year term.
• Inclement weather policy: Kent reports that nobody who works for the libraries are considered essential staff, so when KU offices are closed the libraries are closed. However, if classes are canceled the libraries remain open. Kent is contacting FO about shoveling snow on the weekends because last year it was left to the students to shovel snow.
• Libraries Assessment Council has formed. There will be a meeting at the first of the year. Beth Warner is leaving so there is a question about who will lead this group.
• Rebecca provided an update on events and reported that an announcement will be made soon about large donations that will be coming in.
  
  

Dean's KULSS (next mtg: 12/7): Nothing to report.

Concerns to Bring up with the Dean:

• Need to bring preliminary conference budget.

Workshop Planning:

• Jill will create a shell of a form for the staff questionnaire.
• We could work with Terry Proctor to customize something for a work-style assessment session.
• We could break up the day to start off with a longer session and follow up with shorter sessions.
• Jill came up with a brainstorming activity. We were each given a document from previous brainstorming sessions and attendee feedback. We had 5 minutes to highlight what ideas we liked and note our comments before passing the sheets around to the next person. Jill will compile our comments from this activity and possibly develop a list from these ideas to send to members to gauge their interest.

Action Items for Next Meeting

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

Next Meeting: December 2, 10:00-11:30 at Watson 503A