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Library Managers • Minutes

Library Managers, December 2, 2004
9:00 a.m. , LIB 407

Present: Lorraine Beattie, Eric Boyd, Betty Graf, Mark Haslett (Chair), Michele Laing, Sharon Lamont, Jim Parrott, Richard Pinnell, Shabiran Rahman, Susan Routliffe, Susan Saunders Bellingham, Mary Stanley, Linda Teather, Debbie Tytko, Annette Dandyk (Recorder)

  1. Planning for the 6th Decade

    Senate and the Board of Governors approved the Sixth-Decade Framework submitted by the Senate Long Range Planning Committee (SLRP). Academic and academic-support units have been asked to begin preparing planning documents to assist with the UW planning process. Units were provided with templates intended to simplify the process and to allow SLRP to review submissions in a consistent manner.

    In working on this Library Managers will want to:

    • review the strategic directions created in 2002 and determine if there is anything missing, or that could be deleted; [see URL below]
    • review the Mission Statement and consider whether is it still relevant, and whether it is a mission statement for a library in general or whether it differentiates the UW library; [see URL below]
    • review the Hill report and the Library’s response; [see URL below]
    • consider what the role of the UW Library is. The university states that “We do things differently” - how do we do things differently?;
    • identify responsibilities/tasks that are core/central to the library.

    http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/News/UWLibDocs/
    strategictable.html

    http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/info/Mission/
    MissionSt.html

    http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/News/UWLibDocs/
    hillreport.pdf

    The December 21 meeting will be devoted to 6 th Decade Planning. Prior to the meeting Managers should read the documents noted above and think about:

    • the Library’s core business, what are we about;
    • what differentiates the UW Library;
    • what is achievable by 2010.

    During the December 21 meeting the Managers group will decide the process to be used to ensure that all staff have opportunities to participate in discussions about planning for the 6th decade.

  2. Applications on Computers in the Davis Information Commons

    A number of issues exist that centre on the workstations in the Information Commons. The joint ISR group discussed some of these issues last week. The biggest issues are monopolization of the workstations: users bring personal belongings to a computer workstation and leave, or a user stays on a computer for hours. Both prevent other people from accessing the workstations. EndItAll software, installed on public computers, closes applications after 30 minutes of non-use. The joint ISR group recommended 15 minutes. The Managers group agreed that this would be appropriate; however, changes will not be made until after exams. The Information Commons workstations are intended for research related tasks but many students use them for tasks that are better suited to the express stations, e.g. sending email, or looking up a call number. Signage may help direct users to the appropriate stations. Jim will pursue this.

    Jim asked about the possibility of obtaining software that allows booking of time slots. This may result in more equitable access for students. Linda will ask Carl to investigate what, if anything is done by the faculties about booking time in labs, if there are time restrictions, and to learn more about authentication similar to what is done in the engineering labs.

    Four of the Information Commons workstations will be designated as express stations to allow people to print (users are unable to print from other express stations).

    Laptops may be available in the Information Commons in the future, which may alleviate some of these issues.

Next meeting December 21 (Porter)

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August 2, 2005