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Managers Sept 16 2010

Library Managers

University of Waterloo
Library Managers, September 16, 2010
10:00 a.m., DC 1568

Present: Betty Graf, Jennifer Haas, Mark Haslett (Chair), Michele Laing, Sharon Lamont, Susan Mavor, Alex McCulloch, Richard Pinnell, Susan Routliffe, Mary Stanley, Debbie Tytko, Annette Dandyk (Recorder)

Regrets: Annie Bélanger, Eric Boyd,

1. Chair’s Remarks
• Recognition and Commendation
September anniversaries:
Sept. 1 - Betty Graf, Cataloguing, 40 years
Sept. 1 - Wish Leonard, Circulation, 20 years
Sept. 8 - Judy McTaggart, Porter ISR, 40 years
Sept. 24 - Bev Hubbard, Circulation, 20 years

• Updates
A big thank-you to this year’s orientation volunteers Eva Dodsworth, Vicki Houley Siegel, Rebecca Hutchinson, Cheryl Kieswetter, Esther Millar, Ann Naese, Al Smith, Larisa Smyk, Gail Sperling, Joe Szalai, Cornelia Tiba, Liz Wehner, Amy Zhao, Heather Bender and especially to Laurie Strome for her efforts in organizing the Library’s participation.

Thanks also to Nancy Collins, Eva Dodsworth, and Tim Ireland for Jumpstart Friday, a one hour session for students that they presented four times.

Mark assisted with the “Residence Move-in Engagement Project” on the Labour Day weekend. Along with teams of students, faculty and senior uWaterloo administration were on hand to meet students and their parents, help them move in, and welcome them.

This is the 3rd year of a new initiative, coordinated by Nancy Collins, where new faculty members (approximately 60 this year) receive a welcome letter from Mark. It welcomes them to the Library and introduces them to their liaison librarians. Already there has been positive feedback.

A question about the scheduling of eating periods (i.e. an unpaid meal break) during the work day has been raised. Sharon consulted with our Staff Relations Coordinator Rochelle Davies, who consulted with staff at Employment Standards. Sharon will send a message to all staff, and the following Q & A will be added to the Flextime FAQ:
Q: If I haven’t already done so, must I take a 30-minute unpaid eating period immediately upon reaching the five hour mark?
A: Yes, you must. Employment Standards states that an employee must not work for more than five hours in a row without getting a 30-minute eating period (meal break) free from work. Therefore, you need to plan your day such that you do not work for longer than five hours at a stretch without taking an unpaid break.
Action: Sharon

2. Business Arising from August 30
#4 Proposal to Reduce Watcard support at Circulation: May Yan does not foresee any issues for Retail Services. The Watcard office does not yet have the online debit function working, but expects to have it resolved soon.

There may be an issue re keyboard click and capture and privacy. Alex and Carl Nagel will discuss this issue.
Action: Alex, Carl

3. Interim Measures following Allan Bell’s Departure
There was discussion about interim measures and reporting relationships that have been put into place. The Provost has approved a mission critical request to fill Allan’s position; however, filling the Systems Head position will be deferred for the time being. Mark has begun working on the position description and posting.
Action: Mark
• Send a message to all Library staff, TUG Exec, and Bruce Mitchell
• Continue discussions with Bruce Mitchell and Feridun Hamdullahpur, on developing and initiating a ‘Library review’.

4. Around the Table Updates
Jennifer
LINC has been involved in a number of initiatives over the summer and into the fall.
• Develop outcomes for sessions. Librarians describe what they want students to get out of a workshop. A number of librarians may teach the same session, and while they are all presenting the same information, they may tailor the way they deliver it.
• Assessment to see what students get out of workshops, using a tool called Fluid Survey. It’s currently in trial to see how well it works.
• The time of classes has been lengthened to do some of this assessment activity.
• Trying to determine where workshops for more subject specific areas are needed, e.g. government information, conference proceedings etc.

The web version of LibQuest, a system intended to automate the recording of desk statistics, has moved into production and is being rolled out for staff use at Information and Circulation desks across the Library. LibQuest is also being used to record consultations and will be used to record chat and e-mail reference interactions. Through LibQuest we will be able to gather detailed information about our public service interactions that we can then use to make evidence-based decisions about library services, identify training needs, etc. LibQuest is the result of a lot of hard work by a number of Library staff members including the Ad Hoc Reference Statistics group made up of Laura Howell, Martha Lauzon, Jonathan Sutherland, Kathy MacDonald, Judy McTaggart, and Zsuzsanna Lancsak. A significant programming effort was required to develop the web version of LibQuest and Adrian Kemp provided this support.

There is another art installation on the glass of the silent study room in Davis. The life-sized drawings by two fine arts students depict what students experience when they first come to campus.

Susan R
Susan attended the CRKN annual meeting on September 14 and 15 in Edmonton. A key topic of discussion was the 3 year “sustainability period” for the Digital Content Infrastructure (DCI) project. Through this project, CRKN had obtained CFI funding in 2007 to help pay for humanities and social sciences e-resources for 3 years, with the understanding that participating libraries must commit to paying for those resources for an additional 3 years, without the extraordinary funding. We are now entering the sustainability period. Because we had budgeted for the additional 3 years, we will have no problem maintaining our commitment. At the end of the 3 years, we will be able to assess resources obtained through the DCI project to determine whether we want to continue our subscriptions.

Mary
This year’s Friends of the Library event will be held on September 21st, 4:00 pm in the Humanities Theatre. http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/ Beckie Scott will give a talk title “Visions of Excellence … How the Strength of a Dream and the Power of a Team Took on the World.” As well, the works of 39 individuals will be showcased at the event.

Library staff have been involved in a variety of outreach activities: Student Life 101; the Dons event; a student services fair in SLC; Jumpstart Friday; and, the new faculty lunch.

Annette
This year’s new staff luncheon is planned for Wednesday, October 20th, immediately following the Library Managers meeting.

Betty
This weekend Charles Woods will load 38,000 records into the TUG libraries catalogue for the OCUL Patron Driven Acquisitions Pilot Program that begins on September 20. The records will be available in both Primo and Trellis.

Richard
The map deletion project is well underway. He will be reviewing the lists and making weeding decisions.

Eva Dodsworth has been granted a study leave alternating every other week, from November 1, 2010 to July 31, 2011 to research, write, and revise a handbook for ALA’s Library and Information Technology Association’s (LITA) guide series. The working title of the handbook is How Every Library Can Use Geographical Information Systems (GIS): a LITA Guide, and is designed to bring GIS to the non-GIS literate. Map Library Information Desk staff will meet to discuss their needs for staffing the Information desk during this period.

Alex
The LibWork software went live to the public on Friday. It is being used by people wanting to apply for work and by Circ Services staff involved in hiring.

Circ Services staff are going to use LibQuest to collect stats on the kind of transactions done at the Circulation desk that cannot be collected from Voyager. Gail Sperling is investigating the possibility of creating a cube that will pull Voyager and LibQuest information together. These stats will inform how Circ trains for the desk, and how they schedule for it.

Alex and Michele have been discussing about the one year pilot begun last year (UW students may not have more than 25 Musagetes books at one time, and may not renew them more than twice). The TUG Circulation group will prepare a recommendation for Mark to take to TUG Exec.

Susan M
Special Collections will be part of Waterloo Region’s Door’s Open event on September 18th http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/newsatlib/100916/doorsopen.html. The department is showcasing a virtual and an on-site exhibit to highlight the history of some of the manufacturing companies in the region that are no longer in business and that have closed their doors permanently.

Next meeting: October 6, LIB 428 (Susan R to chair)


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

 

 


 


 


 


 


 




 




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November 23, 2010