The University of Kansas Libraries

KU Libraries Support Staff

KULSS Executive Meeting
Thursday, September 22, 2011, 10:00-11:00
Watson 302

Present: Jill Becker (Chair), Robert Szabo (Vice-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 Welcome Back to School party for the students last Wednesday.
• The Cataloging offices will be painted and re-carpeted soon. The recycling is overflowing because Cataloging is doing so much cleaning up for this project.
• Kyle Sederstrom and Roberta Woodrick went to a photo preservation workshop in Des Moines and visited the preservation lab at Iowa State.

Group 2 (Julie):

• A new Watson stacks map is available. The catalog advises patrons what floor to go to locate items.
  

Group 3 (Sharon):

• Music & Dance: They are forging ahead with their barcoding project.
• Art & Architecture: Their water fountain was replaced after going without one for 3 weeks.
• Anschutz:
  • The walls for the new group study rooms are being delivered today but they won't be constructed until winter break.
  • They got 4 public computers, 8 new plants, a new kiosk, and are transitioning some of the public computers to be search computers.
  • Had their food day last week with a Middle Eastern/Indian theme.

Committee Reports

Support Staff Senate: Nothing to report.

University Committee on Libraries: Nothing to report.

Mentoring Committee: Nothing to report.

LOSDC: Nothing to report.

Meeting Updates

Management Council:

• LOSCD gave an update:
  • The interactive theatre group will come to the libraries on October 6th from 2-3:30.
  • There was a discussion about strengths. How has it or has it not helped you be clearer about what you do? Helped build relationships? Be more agile with change? Your strengths are your anchor and will help you deal with the surrounding change in the libraries.
• Lorraine gave an update:
  • She praised and supports our Huron work group. In the last work group meeting they discussed the staff time survey and how it may not have been the best tool to measure what people are doing. The data from the survey will be helpful internally for managers. They will look at other ways of addressing the overstaffing point.
  • They made a breakthrough with the Huron consultants explaining what the libraries do.
  • They will do a Strategic Plan for the libraries that will tie in with Changing for Excellence.
  • We can control the timeline somewhat over when things happen and when to get the business plan under way. The timeline for Huron has been pushed back to October 20th at which time the working groups have to submit the business case plans to the executive group. Included in the business case plan will be several scenarios to address overstaffing, such as early retirement packages, gaining things out of attrition (e.g. if someone quits), and current vacancies.
  • Lea and Deb are working on a message to send to concerned faculty regarding the Purchase on Demand plan. 
• Old business topic: Scott and Erin have been discussing the draft charge and will discuss it at the next meeting.
• Sarah Goodwin-Theil reported that LFPA is taking PRC off hiatus. Jill brought up that this is a joint committee between LFPA and KULSS and KULSS were never consulted about this. 4 KULSS members will need to serve on the committee (3 outside Exec and 1 on Exec as a liason.) We need to go back and see who was on it before it went on hiatus because their term may still be active.
  • Salaries and Benefits Committee for LFPA is also back.

Dean's KULSS (Next Mtg: 10/4): Not met yet.

Concerns to Bring up with the Dean:

• Budget for the half-day staff development event.
• Staff profiles

Miscellaneous

Staff Profiles:

• Robert started an intro email for the profiles. Robert will figure out how to get pictures on there. Everyone who’s filled it out will need to submit a photo.
• Debate over whether the profiles should be sent to kulib or kulss-l. If sent to kulib everyone will get to know people across silos. Robert will write it for KULSS members and if faculty want to participate, then they can. Robert will send profiles to kulib and invite people to tell Robert to fill out a profile if they’re interested. 

Action Items for Next Meeting

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

• Staff Development Event

Next Meeting: October 20th, 10:00-11:30 in Anschutz 305.