Tuesday, September 8, 2009

DEAN’S COUNCIL MINUTES: August 18, 2009

Present: Mara Saule, Jeffrey Marshall, Marianne Burke, Paul Philbin, Selene Colburn, Tina Kussey, Jeanne Light, Nancy Bercaw, Birdie MacLennan

Absent: Peter Blackmer

I. Strategic Planning


The Council closely reviewed the Strategic Planning notes from the All-Staff Meeting. Changes will be made to the document accordingly. Some of the main issues coming out of the All-Staff Meeting included: assessment measures; roll for staff in strategic plan; how to provide greater clarity on customer-service improvement; the need for more staff meeting space; and, the need for more clarity on how the CDI fits into the libraries. The next step is to figure out what the priorities are and who the responsible parties are for enacting them. The goal is to have a template in place by the end of September. Marianne is leading those efforts with the help of Sue Bishop.


II. University News


The Provost Office is holding back 12 tenure position for trans-disciplinary positions. A Deans’ Retreat will be held on Friday, Aug. 28, to identify research opportunities for UVM. There has been no further budget news. Fall enrollment exceeds Admissions’ goal by 22 students.


III. Departmental Updates


Systems: Voyager has been upgraded. For the first two weeks of school, and in conjunction with ETS staff, Bailey/Howe systems will host a “Tech Tune Up” stand on Sundays from 4-7 p.m. and Monday through Thursday from 1-7 p.m.

Dana: Dana Medical Library is about to implement a new online reporting tool that records statistics for desk reference and literary searches, liaisons activities, education, as well as service and scholarly activities. The program can create individual and central reports. The Dana Education team is developing series of classes using Pub Med.

Special Collections: The search is underway for the new director of I&IS: six candidates coming to campus from Aug. 31-Sept. 25. Travis Puller preparing an exhibit on medieval manuscripts and SC is hoping to create on online exhibit or catalog from his work in early in September. Jeff is co-teaching from Letters to Literature with Robert Rodgers this fall. The Special Collections’ speakers’ series will be announced soon.

RD&A: Tech Services is collaborating on workspace re-design. They had a retreat at end of July, and formed a working committee. The Department is working with a cataloging group, as well as Marianne and Sandy, to train for consolidated cataloging functions between B/H and Dana.

Communications: A group to create clear policies around issues such as food, noise and cell phones for B/H has been convened. The signage project is moving forward, but in an effort to make sure everything is accurate, the installation date has been moved back to Thanksgiving or winter break. Selene, Daisy, Laura, and Robin represented the libraries at New Faculty Orientation. An email newsletter to faculty will be generated in the coming year. A pilot program on promoting collections is being developed.

I&IS: Daisy organized a recent session called “Talking about Teaching,” which was well attended and well done. Elizabeth attended the Faculty Honors Seminar. There will be no Saturday reference desk hours this semester as statistics show very little business. The question of how the staff at the circ desk should respond to questions about reference was raised.

CD&A: A lot of labels on book spines are fading, and DYMO has issued a retroactive statement that the labels are not for use in libraries. Albert is contacting colleagues about how they are dealing with it. The libraries’ intranet site now shows database usage statistics.

No comments: