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Library Managers

University of Waterloo
Library Managers, June 17, 2009
9:30 a.m., Davis

Present: Allan Bell, Eric Boyd, Betty Graf, Jennifer Haas, Christine Jewell, Michele Laing, Sharon Lamont, Susan Mavor, Ann Naese, Bill Oldfield, Susan Routliffe (Chair), Mary Stanley, Debbie Tytko, Annette Dandyk (Recorder)

Regrets: Mark Haslett, Richard Pinnell

1. Chair’s Remarks
• Recognition and Commendation
Ingrid Parent has been elected as President of IFLA for 2009/2010. Ingrid is currently Assistant Deputy Minister, Library and Archives Canada and has been appointed University Librarian at UBC effective July 1, 2009.

• Updates
Mark attended the Canada 3.0: Defining Canada’s Digital Future conference in Stratford June 8-9. A summary of the conference appeared in the June 12 Daily Bulletin http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/2009/jun/12fr.html

The Campus IT review has been released and will be discussed at an upcoming UCIST meeting. A summary of the review appeared in the June 17 Daily Bulletin http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/2009/jun/17we.html

Mark recently attended directors meetings of OCUL, CARL, and ARL.
A recurring theme was the impact of the world wide and economic downturn and collaboration as one way of dealing with reduced funding. An example mentioned at the ARL meeting is a recent partnership between Columbia and Cornell. The partnership is referred to as the “2Cool Initiative” – the intent is to share approximately 30% of their services. There were discussions about the Google Books settlement (GBS) which will be an issue for Canadian libraries although the implications are still unknown. The Scholars Portal Annual Report was distributed at the OCUL meeting and Mark has distributed it to managers and librarians here.

2. Business Arising from June 3
#6 Pandemic Plan Update – Susan has made the revisions and will give it to Mark to forward to Bruce Mitchell and the campus pandemic planning committee.

#7 Working from Home: the notes should be clarified to indicate that the proposal currently being developed would allow a staff member to work from home for 1-2 days per week on a regular basis, which was the intention all along but the point was not clear in the original notes. The first case of having a staff member work from home will be a pilot. Sharon has sent Rochelle Davies a draft of our template.

3. Extended Hours – Study Hall Pilot
During the Winter 2009 exam period Porter and Davis Libraries operated as study halls with a reduction in services but not in building hours. Circ Desks were closed but two attendants were on duty in each site. This resulted in a decrease in full time staff workload and a significant reduction in training time. There were no negative comments by students to full time staff or attendants.

Circulation Services Managers are recommending continuing with the Study Hall plan for all future extended hours’ periods. They are also proposing that the Spring extended hours period begin one week later than the current guideline. Classes end July 28 and exams begin August 4. The proposal is to begin extended hours on July 26 instead of the 19th. This would still provide students with eight days of extended hours before exams begin. Statistics from last year show that use was very low during that week. Circ Managers also proposed no extended hours in Porter. People wanting extended hours could be accommodated at Davis. The proposals were approved.

4. Flextime
Following discussion about the process for moving forward with a review of flextime (dubbed Flex 2.0) the decision was made to strike an ad hoc group, comprised of Sharon, two managers and three staff members. Staff will be asked to submit their expressions of interest. The Library Staff Relations Coordinator, Rochelle Davies, will be invited to be a member of the group – at minimum she will be consulted. The ad hoc group will develop recommendations for LibExec and the Managers group.

Action: Sharon

5. Workplace Violence Prevention Program
Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act all employers must take reasonable caution to protect the health and safety of their workers in the workplace. This includes protecting workers against the risk of workplace violence. UW is rolling out a workplace violence prevention program with three elements: risk assessment, training and prevention, and reporting. http://www.safetyoffice.uwaterloo.ca/hse/workplace_violence/violence_index.htm. Each campus department is being asked to complete a violence risk assessment survey to identify potential for violence in the workplace and ensure that we’re doing all that we can to prevent it.

Managers were asked to invite staff in their units to contribute to the survey and to forward the completed surveys to Annette by the end of August. Sharon will decide whether to submit the surveys from each unit or to consolidate the responses and include a cover letter. Sharon will review the surveys in September and submit the Library’s response to the Safety Office by the end of September.

Action: all Managers, Sharon

6. Around the Table Updates
Allan
Systems staff have been working on virtualizing their servers; all of the servers that were targeted for virtualizing have been done.

Sharon
Six staff will celebrate their 35th anniversaries in the Library this year. After contacting the six, it was decided that instead of six individual events there would be two library wide events to recognize the anniversaries, one in the summer and one in the fall. In keeping with the request to curtail discretionary spending there will not be another summer event this year (i.e. picnic, BBQ or ice cream social).

Betty
Cataloguing staff have processed all of the firm order and approval books that were backlogged and are keeping up with the new books that have started coming in.

Betty will send out a TUG Withdrawal Bulletin on Monday.

Jennifer
The Student Life Centre has agreed to take all of the tables that have been targeted for removal from Davis. They will be used for a variety of purposes including group study and quiet study rooms. Mary noted that a communications plan is being developed and will be distributed widely to explain why the tables needed to be removed from Davis.

Eric
Cleaners have been hired for the annual shelf cleaning project. They will begin in Porter.

Plant Operations is still considering repairs to the walk-around/balcony on the main floor of Porter. If work were to proceed it would require that the main entrance be closed. No dates have been given and it may not occur this year, but we would be given ample notice.

Facilities is obtaining cost estimates for a revised plan for renovating the Library patio to determine if there is a less costly way to proceed and if it could be completed in phases.

Ann
The annual meeting of UW circulation managers is scheduled for tomorrow in the newly renovated WLRC in Optometry.

Susan M
Interviews will be taking place in July for the Archivist University Records position.

Susan R
The bookstore purchased a machine for on-demand printing of books – the Espresso Book Machine. Susan has arranged with May Yan for Library staff to receive a demo, possibly in August. Susan will inform Managers once a date (or dates) has been selected. During the demo, May will also talk about copyright licence arrangements with publishers.
Action: Susan

Susan gave an update on the UAE/Dubai project. A final decision about whether courses will be offered this September is expected by the end of June.

Next meeting: July 8


 


 


 


 

 

 


 


 


 


 


 




 




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July 31, 2009