Library Managers, February 15, 2006
9:30 a.m. , Davis
Present: Susan Saunders Bellingham, Eric Boyd, Betty Graf, Jennifer Haas, Mark Haslett (Chair), Michele Laing, Sharon Lamont, Richard Pinnell, Susan Routliffe, Mary Stanley, Linda Teather, Debbie Tytko, Melanie Watkins, Annette Dandyk (Recorder)
Regrets: Shabiran Rahman
Guests: Wish Leonard, Alex McCulloch
- Reserves Survey
In Spring 2004 a survey on student perspectives on Reserves was carried out to: identify the satisfaction level of student users of Reserves, obtain a better understanding of how and why students use Reserves and why some students do not use Reserves, and to obtain a better understanding of how students would prefer to use Reserves in the future. The subsequent report lists 10 recommendations.
Key points from the survey:
- 50% of students prefer to use Reserves over course packs and of those, 85% prefer eReserves over paper Reserves;
- Reasons for not liking paper reserves can all be dealt with electronically;
- We can’t control copyright; currently we are able to obtain approximately 78% of copyright clearance requests;
- E-reserves use continues to grow;
- Most of the recommendations can be addressed internally and many are already being done. Recommendation 3.4 “Explore with other library departments the feasibility of an expanded package of electronic information to deliver to the campus course management system (UW-ACE)” will require further discussion
No concerns were raised about the report or the recommendations by the Managers. The report will be made available on the web and staff will be informed http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/News/UWLibDocs/
student_perspectives_reserves.html. Mary will prepare a communications package to inform the broader community.
Action: Mary
- Chair’s Remarks
Updates
Annex flood – while the roof at the Annex was undergoing repairs heavy rain caused it to leak, damaging 28 shelves of material. All of the damaged items (books, periodicals and some WLU microform) belong to UW and WLU. Staff at UG acted quickly to move wet material into deep freeze until librarians can make decisions about what needs to be repaired or discarded. Other parts of the collection were covered to protect items, and dehumidifiers were brought in. A list of damaged items has been sent to the appropriate liaison librarians for review.
Health Sciences campus/School of Pharmacy and collaboration with McMaster medical school – the project is still evolving and Mark will pass on information as he learns it. The School of Pharmacy is central to this initiative. The need for support to implement a School of Pharmacy library was highlighted in a budget report submitted to Bruce Mitchell recently.
Alouette Canada Open Digitization Initiative: Update – last fall CARL Directors met to discuss a national digitization strategy, and gave their support of a coordinated and sustained program. A national summit is scheduled for this Fall. CARL Directors have received a survey asking about digitization projects that are in progress or that have been completed that they would be willing to have listed as charter projects. It also asks about planned digitization projects and the funding status of such projects. Mark hopes to learn more at CARL meetings next week.
- Business Arising from January 25
# 1 Progress Report on news @ your library – Rachel Caldwell and Christy Branston will attend a day long session on podcasts to learn how they might be used in an educational setting. Podcasts allow people to download information onto MP3 players to listen to at their convenience. Jennifer suggested that we invite Doug Horne (Academic Liaison Librarian at UG) to repeat his OLA presentation on podcasts for interested UW Library staff.
#3 3M/RFID Project – Equipment continues to arrive and tagging of the Davis collection is proceeding well. We anticipate that the electronic security gates will be installed this summer.
# 3 E-Theses - Susan B and Michele Laing have shared their concerns with Christine. The meeting with the Graduate Students Association went well and no real concerns were raised by GSA. Three grad students will attend the Senate Graduate Research Committee meeting.
Action: Susan
- Sick Leave
In Fall 2005, Library Managers reviewed the Library’s sick leave practices at the request of the Occupational Health Nurse (Linda Brogden) and the Human Resources Disability Advisor (Nellie Gomes). Sharon will send a message to all staff outlining the new practices. Staff with individual concerns may contact Linda Brogden or Nellie Gomes.
Action: Sharon
- Emergency Leave
The Library’s practice has been to allow staff to take up to three family or emergency days (recorded as a Family day) per year to handle occasional unexpected situations that require immediate attention. Days may be used one day at a time and if additional time is needed staff need to use vacation, flextime, or unpaid leave.
In August 2003 the University introduced guidelines for Emergency Leave similar to the Library’s. At that time the Library confirmed that our practice was compatible with UW guidelines and could continue to follow them. Library Executive is now recommending that the Library adopt the UW guidelines which allow for a little more flexibility. Staff may use more than one day of paid leave at a time, and there is a provision to exceed three days paid leave if deemed necessary by the Department Head/Manager. Managers agreed to adopt the UW guidelines retroactive to January 1, 2006. The Emergency Guidelines are available on the web: http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/guidelines/
emergencyleaves.htm
- TUG Circ – Request from Guelph to allow holds to be placed on books by Alumni
Guelph has initiated a request to TUG partners to consider allowing alumni and community borrowers to place holds on materials within TUG but not in their home library. While this could potentially prevent a patron from renewing a book because an external borrower has placed a hold on it, TUG Circulation Services Managers believe this will be unlikely as the active numbers belonging to that group are quite small. Melanie suggested a trial period over the spring and fall terms; at the end of the trial period transaction stats would be reviewed to determine how many times alumni and community borrowers placed holds on books signed out, and a decision would be made about whether to make a permanent change to the lending policy. A few concerns were raised:
- Undergrads with short borrowing periods may be disadvantaged;
- When something is placed on hold the person who has the book does not get notification, but cannot renew the item (unlike a recall, which generates a message to the patron who has the material signed out).
The intent is to find a way of retrieving a book on the shelf at a TUG Library so that the alumni or community borrower does not have to drive there. The Managers were supportive of the intent but questioned the mechanism, and asked that TUG Circ consider all the options and identify the most efficient way of handling this. Action: Melanie
- Campaign Update
Initiatives that we can use to help meet the Kresge challenge:
The Parents program – this program is run by the central Development office. A card is sent to parents of all first year students, parents of 2nd to 4th year students who are not donors, and parents of alumni. Shortly after the cards are sent parents receive a follow-up call from a student caller. The call script begins with a description about the Library and the Kresge challenge; however, if the parents are not interested the callers will talk about other initiatives in the faculties. The Library still needs to raise approximately $1.5M by December 2006.
3M – Mary is working on a gift announcement.
Projects that cannot be used towards the Kresge challenge:
The family of a former staff member, Gladys Srivastiva, has set up an endowment in her honour. The interest from the endowment will be split between the Library and the Faculty of Arts in alternating years. Every other year the Faculty of Arts will receive funds to provide a scholarship, and the Library will receive funds for an internship for a library science student in the other years.
The Library has received a donation from Anna Woerner to be used towards health resources.
- Faculty Council Meeting Reports
Deferred.
- Preservation and Archiving of Survey Data Collected by Library
Deferred.
Next meeting: March 1, Porter
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March 2, 2006
