Day 2: January
9,1998
The group got together at 8:30 a.m. and
socialized over breakfast. T. Fu convened the group at 9:10 a.m. She urged the
group to 1) speak after recognition by the facilitator or group leader who is
doing the report; 2) listen to the recognized speaker; and 3) be brief, to-the-point,
and courteous. After discussion, several new goals were added to the ones discussed
on January 8th (incorporated into the pages on 1998/99 goals). On January 8,
five Focus Groups reported (Emergency Planning, Room Assignment, Mail Room,
Maintenance Staffing, and Public Relations). Three more groups reported in the
morning of January 9th (Interlibrary Loan, Library Systems, and Accessibility
[Adaptive Technology]). All Focus Groups reports are appended, to these minutes:
the following is a summary of report presentations and group discussions:
Emergency Planning
Focus Group
Rich Kokoska (chairperson) reported.
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Room Assignment Focus
Group
Tina Fu (chairperson) reported.
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Mail Focus Group
Lois Wolf (chairperson) reported.
Ken Moorhead remarked that the work of
this Focus Group would certainly "eliminate" the confusion in mail
sorting, and not "elevate" the confusion, which is the word used in Lois' report!!!
The group wholeheartedly agreed with Ken.
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Maintenance Focus Group
Erna Luering (chairperson) reported.
Discussion focused on the cleanliness
of book stacks. If custodial staff were to clean the new building, guidelines
should be followed which would prevent damage to the material. Concerns were
also expressed re: hazards of cleaning compounds and the Focus Group would pay
special attention to this concern. Also, if other on and off campus groups would
be using the facilities, communciations should be clear so that after-the-event
cleanup would be done on time and properly. Mike Johnson should be on the mailing
list of room assignment so that he would schedule cleaning accordingly.
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Public Relations Focus
Group
Mike Berlin and Jim Hendricks (members)
reported.
Discussion focused on timelines and budget.
Tina said she would like to know approximate dollar amount and would factor
it in the budget proposal. Both Mike and Jim felt that this publication is needed
for orientation and publicity purposes, and that it does not conflict with what
DuBose would do for opening day, nor what the vendor would do for the electronic
kiosk.
Discussion also pointed out the need for
a telephone message system so that when users call the information line, messages
such as library hours would automatically be turned on.
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Interlibrary Loan Focus
Group
Jody Newmyer (chairperson) reported.
The group concluded by saying that the
new librarian should be consulted by Tina regarding space needs.
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Library Systems Focus
Group
Mary Anne Doyle (chairperson) reported.
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Accessibility Focus
Group
Pat Mulhall (chairperson) reported.
Pat felt that this Focus Group would be
very much like collection development: it is an "ongoing, responsive, constantly
interactive" project.
During the Focus Group reports, the group
broke for a break and assumed reporting and discussion. Then, T. Fu went over
the organization chart and timelines and answered questions regarding staffing.
The group felt that it was very important that we obtain new positions as outlined
in the staffing plan so that we could operate smoothly. The group also felt
that existing staff could have opportunities for possible transfer. There have
been several transfers within the library. The process is as follows: the worker
would indicate his/her desire to the department head/supervisor and Tina. Tina
would work with the department heads the worker is transferring from and to,
and if both agree with the transfer application, then Tina would report to Dr.
Battle and work with Personnel to implement it. If staff is interested in a
transfer, please indicate his/her intentions by March to both the department
head/supervisor and Tina. When we recruit, we would know what positions to advertise
for.
All present felt that the new and larger
organization would indeed be a challenge for us to work in, plus the fact that
the building would be so large that we should really try hard to facilitate
communications and nurture esprit de corp.
The fact that we would be staffing four
service points (reference/government documents, circulation/reserves/interlibrary
loan, curriculum center/serials, and archives/Connecticut Studies) instead of
the present two would require careful planning and additional staffing. Curriculum
Center/Serials would be staffed by the proposed 5.5 people. Serials would experience
a "mission change" in that in addition to technical tasks, staff would also
be helping with the Curriculum/Serials service desk, possibly involving night
duty. We should consider levels of service for service points. If we do not
have adequate staffing, we should staff high demand hours with expertise and
the rest with lower level of expertise. One thing we would be doing in the new
building-eliminate the practice of closing the library with two students. In
the staffing plan, there is a night supervisor's position. Discussion followed
as to whether we could find a person working four nights a week. Concern was
indicated by Access Services staff that the night supervisor might not feel
to be part of the library organization because s/he would not be able to participate
in most staff and committee meetings. A suggestion was made that perhaps we
could consider having two night supervisors, each staffing two nights a week
instead of four.
A question was raised regarding who would
be staffing reference/government documents. Tina felt that there were several
"working groups" (in the old staffing plan, stick figures were drawn to depict
these working groups) such as the Reference Desk, collection development, User
Education, etc., that she needed to discuss with the librarians pretty soon.
Perhaps she could report to the group in the Interim Library Retreat (Summer,
1998) how these functional areas would be staffed.
The group continued to discuss issues concerning
the new library building and organization: they identified three operational
issues that so far we had not dealt with in our eight Focus Groups and other
discussions:
- Technical Processing Issues (Acquisitions, Cataloging,
Serials, etc.) (Group members: Lois Wolf, Deb Campbell, Kris Jacobi, Barbara
Nelson, Erna Luering, Rick Kokoska, Pat Mulhall)
- Public Service Issues (night, weekend, service hours,
etc.) (Group members: Jody Newmyer, Astrid Terman, Leanna Loomer, Nick Welchman,
Jim Hendricks, Anka Stanley)
- Supplies (office supplies, special library supplies,
etc.) (Group members: Karen Collins, Mike Berlin, Tina Fu)
Mary Anne Doyle did not wish to join any group and wanted
to "float."
Tina reminded everyone that they could
take any time they wanted for lunch, but that they should take big writing sheets
and at least two big markers. They should also elect a leader and/or recorder,
and that they should report in with outlines on the big sheets at 2:15 p.m.
sharp. Karen reminded the group that we would eat in President's Dining Room,
but that we had to clear out at 2:00 p.m. We should re-convene to hear the issues
groups to report in the big dining room. The group raised the issue of exactly
how many positions would be in Access Services, and Tina needed to clarify that
when we reconvene. There may have been an error in calculations.
The group broke for lunch and afterwards
the three issues group huddled and discussed the issues as charged. The following
are their reports:
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1. Technical Processing
Lois Wolf reported, with Kris Jacobi as
recorder.
SERIALS:
MAIL:
GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS:
CATALOGING:
-
Areas that would be "processed" through
Cataloging: Special Collections, Reference, Connecticut Studies, Curriculum
Center, all titles and formats that go on the "stacks." ARCHIVES:
CAREER INFORMATION:
GIFTS:
BINDERY/REPAIR/PRESERVATION:
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2. Public Services
Issues
Leanna Loomer recorded and reported.
She said that the group discussed night work and how staffing could be;
weekend work; night supervisor's work and his/her backup (an important issue);
staffing of various service points; the importance of backup for library
systems; library hours including 24-hour study room; staff coverage problems
if we have to go beyond the present 85 hour/per week schedule; and third
floor non-coverage.
The group recommends the following:
-
Access Services needs staffing
support of adding a daytime person to alleviate pressure.
-
Night-time supervisor should be
hired as soon as the new library is open.
-
The head of Access Services should
not be covering the Circulation/Reserves Desk.
-
Each department should cover their
own service points (e.g., Circ/Reserves/Ill).
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3. Supplies
Karen Collins reported, as recorded
by Tina Fu. The group examined "storage" spaces for various departments/areas
and addressed three issues: Requisitions and budget; General office supplies;
and specialized supplies. They recommended the following:
- The following store their supplies in the respective
storage rooms:
Administrative Office: Storage for general office supplies, media
supplies, and library systems supplies.
Circulation/Reserves: Storage for specialized supplies needed
to serve and for dept. use.
Curriculum Center: Storage for specialized supplies.
Serials: Storage for specialized supplies.
Technical Services: Storage for Acquisitions, Cataloging, Collection
Development specialized supplies.
Connecticut Studies/Archives: Storage for specialized supplies.
- Requisitions and Budget: Centralized in the
Director's office and managed by the Administrative Assistant. Each
department/unit (8 areas) should designate a "contact person" for Administrative
Services to work with so that operations can be efficient. The contact
person would also be charged to do the area inventorying.
- General Office Supplies: Ordered and controlled
by the Administrative Assistant and inventoried by her each year.
- Specialized Supplies: Each area (8: Circulation/Reserves/Ill,
Gov. Docs., Reference, Library Systems, Media, Acquisitions, Cataloging,
Serials, and Collection Development) designates a contact person who
will initiate requests and receive items ordered from the Administrative
Assistant. These contacts will also inventory stock each year. So do
not over-order!
At 4:17 p.m., Tina concluded the Third Library Retreat.
The group felt very good about the work accomplished in the last two days
and felt that the Third Retreat was a successful effort.
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