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KULSS Exec

Meeting Minutes

Thursday Apr. 5th  , 2007
Art Library - 10-11:30am

Present: Monica Claassen-Wilson (FY07 Chair), Jill Becker (FY07 Vice-Chair), Kevin Fussell (Group 2), Nishon Hawkins (Group 3), Denise Swartz (Group 1); Robert Szabo (Group 4)

Absent: Angie Rathmel (Secretary)

Approval of previous meeting’s Feb. 22nd meeting minutes
DONE

Approval of previous meeting’s action items

WHO? BY WHEN? WHAT?

1. Kevin

4/5/07

Check on first meeting of SSEYA

  • Interviews are in progress.
  • Voting will take place by the end of this month.
  • Recommendation will be sent to the Admin office in the first week in May.

2. ALL

3/21/07

Final details for workshop

  • All details handled and the workshop ran smoothly.

Group Reports:
Grp 1:  Acq/Ser, Reference, Collection Development, Administration, Facilities

  • Rita Wilson’s office moved to the former copy area.
  • Two student assistants have been hired for Admin.
  • The two AD jobs have been advertised.

Grp 2: Cataloging

  • N/A

Grp 3: Access Services, Mail Room, ILL

  • Trip Saver service has started. There is a problem with non-faculty/staff making requests.  So this is just a faculty/staff service.

Grp 4: Anschutz, Annex, Art, Engineering, Music, RCL, Spencer

  • ANSCHUTZ
    • New student t assistants have been hired for the Service Desk and the Cataloging office.
  • ANNEX
  • ART
  • ENGINEERING
    • Here at Spahr, we continue to exist - possibly in the greatest golden age of library service ever known by human beings.  I've still got a team of researchers confirming this as they pour over archives of the great libraries in every society.  Ever.  Obviously this is a lengthy process, one which may not be finished in our, or any, lifetime.  However, based on their limited findings so far, I am ready to commit to the idea that we are indeed culmination of library greatness.  Come see for yourself, and get a shiny penny to boot!  But remember, you have to ask… -- Jeff
  • MUSIC
    • Please announce that the M&D Library has a new exhibit regarding the Fourth Annual Interdisciplinary Jazz Studies Colloquium's topic of avant-garde jazz. Our exhibit illustrates the resources available from our library and highlights the works of the two key speakers, Fred Ho and Kevin Whitehead (KU lecturer and NPR commentator). Thanks!  --Nancy
  • RCL
  • SPENCER
    • As for Spencer Library, you all heard that Bill Crowe is leaving Spencer in October to work with Lorraine during his phased retirement.  We know nothing further at this time except that the new "scholarly" asst/assoc dean will be in charge of Spencer Library overall.  I did see that the Spencer Library leadership group is meeting to consider their meetings with the candidates.  Last weekend we held a reception for the Lawrence/Douglas County Girl Scout donors.  This time of the semester our reading room is usually packed, there are waiting lines for our microfilm readers (to see old UDKs mostly), our classrooms are full and the most popular item requested is still the KU Budget! – Mary Ann

Committee Reports
University Support Staff (USS) Senate (submitted by Mary Ann Baker):

  • As for the USS Senate, the Executive committee met today and prepared the agenda for the full Senate meeting next week.  We won't be having an election this year as we had as many nominations as we had openings.  We'll be having our organizational meeting for the new year which starts in May and  we will choose our treasurer and secretary, standing committee chairpersons, EEO reps, etc.  We'll also start planning our retreat.
  • From the USS Work Group we found out that Lindy Eakin, Vice Provost for Admin and Finance & member of the Group, strongly advocates that HREO provide lots more communication about the merit decision process and provide the information about who one should talk with about the merit decision and what were the determining factors in the decision and that this communication needs to start this very cycle, not next year.  Yah, Lindy!
  • The USS Senate task force on evaluations for supervisors is having a hard time getting its members to meet.  I'm on the task force and we've about decided we may have to get going without a full membership.  The other task force members are Dennis Constance, President of the USS Senate; Lindsey Hoover, Renee Wiggins and Maxine Younes.
  • I pass Ann Snow's "news" onto the senators which no doubt helps folks be somewhat knowledgeable (as much as possible with the LJWorld as the source) about what the Legislature has been doing about civil service wage increases.  There was some discussion how the presence of the flat dollar bonus in the state compensation package might make it difficult for KU to compute an equal if not better package for the support staff.  Still we think it will work out OK.  There's a PowerPoint presentation from a consulting group, Hay Group, that shows above and below market value salaries paid to state employees: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/ksleg/KLRD/Publications/2007KS_SalarySurveyReport.pdf.  Library folks are doing well compared to some classes of employees (library, archivists, museum folks being paid 1-4% less than market value compared to some classes at 30%-40% below market value).  The information I got is that it is those classes that are being paid at least 25% less than the market value who will get the state extra 5% raise -- this information has not been confirmed.  It is unknown whether the university will follow the state with extra monies for those classes at KU.  Just fyi for now.
  • Hearing the report from the University Senate's Planning and Resource Committee, there was some discussion in the Exec Committee that we think KU needs to provide more evening and weekend classes, as well as online classes.
  • The Exec Committee agreed with my suggestion that we ask our USS reps on all University committees to submit brief written reports to the full Senate once a month about the activities of their committees.  They will also be invited to attend the Senate meeting if they feel discourse is needed.  I further suggested the Vice President send a reminder memo out every month to remind all the reps to submit a report.  Sound familiar?  Slowly, ever so slowly, I'm trying to get the Senate to emulate the good organizational set-up of the KULSS!!!!

Senate Committee on Libraries (SDL)
Notes from University Committee on Libraries (UCL) meeting 3 April 2007

  • Dean Haricombe reported on the two new library initiatives, TripSaver and IM Ref.  Then she presented “Compact 2008”, the budget request she just turned into the Provost.  She’ll be meeting with the Provost April 9th to review the document (let me know if you want a paper copy – I don’t have an electronic one). Highest budgetary priorities are going to the collections including coverage of price increases in serials and annual fees for our online resources.  There is also a provision to reinstate some of the serial titles cut in the most recent cancellation round.  There are also requests for funding various digital initiatives and for transforming some physical spaces (mostly Watson – new circ/ref desk, 5th floor international focus area, and Anschutz -- bringing more technological initiatives to the 4th floor).
  • The UCL was asked to vote on whether we supported the Task Force on Research Computing’s idea that the Libraries be split off from IT.  The UCL unanimously agreed that it was a good idea and voted to support it and send notice of our support to the University Senate’s Executive Committee and the Provost.
  • Our chairperson, Barry Newton, led us in a quick review of the charges to the committee and we spent a short amount of time talking about the use of faculty studies and access to them.  It was suggested that there be a time limit placed on the length of time one could occupy a study. 
  • This was our last meeting.  Barry will write our final report and send it out for the committee’s review.

Unviersity Senate
Meeting, 29 March 2007, notes
Rachel Barnes, KU student and US Vice President presided over the meeting as President Rick Hale and his wife are expecting the birth of their child soon,.

  • Ruth Ann Atchley, President of the Faculty Senate gave a combined presidents’ report for both University Senate and Faculty Senate:
    • The Senate Executive Committee has been watching Senate Bill 180 in the KS legislature which deals with retirement account lump sum rollovers not being taxed by the state because the State Board of Regents’ Retirement Plan has been removed from the list of plans affected by this bill.  [KPERS is still on the list.]  No one knows why the Regents’ plan was removed.  [Perhaps Doug or Dennis can explain this better]
    • Kudos on the good media coverage of the work of the textbook task force.  This task force garnered all of us a good reputation for working together to get something positive done.
    • The task force on teaching and student learning held some meetings but they were held during Spring Break and thus poorly attended so a request was made for more time to comment on its findings.
    • Unbeknownst to some, the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) does have a policy on teaching evaluations but it needs to be more visible, perhaps on the KBOR’s website.
    • The retirees’ handbook is ready to be disseminated from the Provost’s Office
    • The University Senate’s Organization & Administration Committee (O&A) is rewording the membership description of Governance’s Athletic Committee to include the addition of support staff and unclassified members (1 each) and that faculty members on the committee will be appointed rather than elected.
  • Rachel Barnes noted that the Student Senate business is winding down with the approach of the end of the semester and that soon the transition to the new officers, senators, etc., will take place.
  • Jason O’Connor, President of Unclassified Senate, described the mini wheat state tour they planned (All I remember is that they are going to the Hays House in Council Grove for lunch – YUM! –  just kidding – they’ll go in that general area to Cottonwood Falls and the Z Bar ranch, too) and noted that they had hoped to have some space to offer support staff but that the response from their own group was overwhelming and they have no space remaining.
  • For the University Support Staff Senate, I noted that we had formed a task force to investigate evaluations for supervisors, that we were moving to have our newsletter be distributed electronically, that we discussed how we might be of help to the university with the Kansas legislature, and that we are keeping an eye out on KS Senate Bill 21 which enables Regents’ schools to determine their own leave policies.
  • The consideration of  the “Recommendation from the Academic Policies & Procedures Committee (AP&P) on USRR 2.2.9 - Course Repeat Policy).  (Paul Atchley, chair, AP&P)” was postponed.
  • Susan Twombly, chairperson of O&A, reviewed the committee’s study of the Faculty and Unclassified Handbook and recommendations for its future.  In general, there will be links to relevant policies but the policies themselves will reside elsewhere, such as in the Faculty Rules and Regulations or the University Senate Code and the Provost’s policy website.
  • Susan also reviewed the governance changes made last year and asked the Senate body how things were going under the new set-up.  The only comment made was that the timeframes for responding to initiatives were initially set when we were all paper-based and that possibly, with e-mail, etc., we wouldn’t need to set such long timeframes for response.
  • The Chancellor and, mostly, Barbara Atkinson, Executive Vice Chancellor for the KU Medical Center (KUMC) talked with us about the hospital affiliation issues.   They brought some supporting documentation:
    • A PowerPoint presentation on paper, “Partnerships for Progress”, put together by Dr. Atkinson [let me know if you’d like me to make you a copy]

Here are some things I learned from their comments:

    • St. Luke’s is a Kansas organization and we’re already been affiliating with them on a small level for many years.  We’ve also had affiliations with the Veteran’s Administration and other entities for years as well.
    • The affiliation is about education and research not about clinical care where a healthy competition exists.  Physicians are OK with the affiliation and talks have been held with the KU Hospital board with the result that the hospital is assured of mitigation of risks.
    • The KUMC wants to add at least 200 more residencies – a huge increase.
    • Why are we doing this?  To become a nationally recognized medical center, there needs to be more than 1 program.  The vision is not for us to compete on a local level but on a more regional basis.  We look to emulate University of Iowa. 
    • And the bottom line is a “Healthier Kansas and a Healthier Kansas Economy”.
  • Nothing was brought up under old or new business.

 

Diversity Committee (DC)
     No Report
Staff Development (SDC)
     No report
Planning and Resources (PRC)
     No report

Agenda Items for Meeting with the Dean and HR Officer

  • Supervisor Evaluation/training
  • Staff evaluation feedback requests
  • Updated Merit information  

 
Staff Development Workshop Follow-Up

  • Thank-you notes – Monica will develop
  • Compile evaluation results – preliminary results of evaluation forms has been compiled.
  • Final report for our records and to submit to administration – Denise will work on final budget figures.

Action Items for next meeting:


WHO?

BY WHEN?

WHAT?

1.Robert

Future

Develop Workshop tie-ins

2.Monica

Soon

Workshop Thank you notes

3.

 

 

4.

 

 

Next meeting will be 10-11:30am on Thursday, April 19th, 2007 in Watson Conference Rm B.