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Library Managers

University of Waterloo
Library Managers, November 3, 2010
9:30 a.m., LIB 428

Present: Mark Haslett (Chair), Michele Laing, Sharon Lamont, Susan Mavor, Alex McCulloch, Carl Nagel, Richard Pinnell, Susan Routliffe, Mary Stanley, Annette Dandyk (Recorder)

Regrets: Annie Bélanger, Eric Boyd, Betty Graf, Jennifer Haas, Debbie Tytko

1. Chair’s Remarks
• Updates
The OCUL fall meeting is scheduled for next week in Toronto. The report of the OCUL Strategic Planning group will be presented.

The CARL Board and CARL AGM meetings will take place in Ottawa the following week.

Access Copyright: still waiting for information from AUCC (licence expiry, and tariffs). Mark expects to hear by mid November. A meeting of the Provost, University Secretary, Bud Walker, May Yan, Bruce Mitchell, and Mark is scheduled for November 23 to review the decision and decide on a campus strategy on how to approach.

Thanks were expressed to the Managers for making the new staff feel welcome at the October 20th new staff luncheon.

2. Business Arising from October 6
#2 Upcoming Renovation Activities, Terms of Reference: in process.

September 16 meeting, #2 Watcard proposal: the Watcard self serve terminals were set up this morning. Patrons will still have the option of topping up their Watcards at the Circ desks this term.

3. Remembrance Day
Managers were reminded that Geoff McBoyle’s October 7 memo asks that everyone take time at 11:00 am on November 11 to observe one minute’s silence. All Library service desks will comply with the request. Circulation Services has created a sign announcing what will occur. Other areas can use it as a template, or do something similar. [Note: it has been decided that Library service points will observe two minutes of silence]
Action: Sharon will send to Managers

4. Workplace Violence and Harassment Awareness Training
Managers engaged in a brief discussion about the session for supervisors. Annette will send a reminder to all staff about the mandatory online Workplace Violence Employee Training. Staff are asked to complete it by the end of November. During the next performance appraisal period Managers should ensure that everyone has completed this and other mandatory training.

The training session prompted a revisit of the idea to agree on a code word to alerting other staff members if you are in an uncomfortable situation with another person or if there is a potential safety issue. Library Managers agreed that this initiative should be library wide. Alex will consult with campus police and provide leadership for this initiative within the library.
Action: Annette, Sharon, Alex

WHIMS training – typically for lab workers or people who handle chemicals. Only Facilities staff in the Library would need to take it, although anyone wishing to take it may.

It was noted that there are currently three mandatory training sessions for all uWaterloo employees, including contract and casual staff:
• AODA customer services; https://cas.uwaterloo.ca/cas/login?service=http://www.aoda.uwaterloo.ca/
• Health and Safety new employee training;
Health, Safety and Environment Orientation for Employees
• Workplace Violence and Harassment Awareness;
Workplace Violence and Harassment Awareness

5. Online Staff Recruitment
Some managers attended the online recruitment for hiring managers session. For the time being, nothing will change for managers in the Library in regards to how positions are posted, i.e. Annette will continue to do the initial work of creating the online posting etc. The hiring manager will take over once the applications begin to come in.

6. Casual Staff Practices
Circulation Services hires on average approximately 80 casual staff a year. To ensure that all Circulation Supervisors are handling things the same way a document detailing casual staff practices is being developed. The first draft was brought to the Library Managers meeting to see if it would be applicable for other departments and if there was interest in making it a library wide reference manual for shared practices.

There was agreement that initially Alex, Richard and Michele would work on the content together. Alex will forward the draft to Richard and Michele. It is hoped that most of the work will be completed by Christmas. The final document will eventually be placed on the staff web.
Action: Alex, Richard, Michele

7. Around the Table Updates
Carl
Facilities: there is still no word on when the window will be repaired or when the Adaptive technology issue will be resolved.

Because of dust generated by construction this past summer, shelves on the main floor of Porter will be cleaned. Someone has already been hired.

The carpeting will be replaced in the Systems department soon.

Carl is waiting for plans for the next phase of the patio renovation.

Systems: the campus plan to tighten passwords may be delayed.

Campus Public Printing charges will formally change effective January 1, 2011. The Library will try to get as close as possible to what is being charged across campus.

Systems staff will begin deploying the new staff workstations after Christmas. Carl was authorized to hire someone casually to help with the task.

The move to exchange calendar is still scheduled for December 10th. IST will provide a lot of training opportunities beginning November 17. Because everyone in the Library is on the Exchange calendar, everyone will have the calendar regardless of whether they currently use Bookit or not. Concerns were expressed that people who have not previously been using a calendaring system could now be booked into meetings. Carl will contact IST to inquire about some training sessions for Library staff:
• A session for the core users who currently use Bookit to show how the new system will work. He’ll try to get it as close to December 10th as possible.
• A brief overview for everyone to introduce the Exchange Calendar.
• Another session in January to iron out the problems/issues or opportunities that staff may not be familiar with yet.
It was suggested that it would be helpful to have a few staff familiar with Exchange Calendar before it is introduced who could serve as a resource for those learning to use it.
Action: Carl

Michele
Musagetes Library held its annual open house on October 28 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Musagetes students really like the buttons from the ‘your library’ campaign.

Alex
Circ Managers will be interviewing today and tomorrow for the one year contract for the Evening Supervisor and Technical Support position.

On November 25th staff from UW Counselling and Police Services will offer an updated version of the session that was run for DC last year, to teach Library how to handle disruptive situations. It will be offered twice for all interested public services staff – once in Davis and once in Porter.

Mary
The first phase of the ‘your library’ button campaign began on October 20th. Students have shown a lot of interest in the buttons and have offered positive feedback. Buttons were created for Porter, Davis, Map Library, Musagetes Architecture Library, Witer Learning Resource Centre, and School of Pharmacy. Additional designs have been created for additional phases. Esther has created two videos to be shown on some monitors around campus to promote the campaign.

The Communications Group is starting to look at the whole communications strategy for various campus groups, and will focus on grad students first. A survey for grads and faculty is planned for a future issue of news@yourlibrary. We hope to learn how people access it, who the readers are, and if they find it effective. A similar survey is planned for staff.

Mary is going to prepare a document outlining the types of requests the Communications Group receives from various groups on campus for prizes, in order to develop some guidelines. Currently the Library doesn’t have any giveaways except the buttons and bookmarks. Mary will bring proposed guidelines to a future Managers meeting for discussion.
Action: Mary

Next meeting: November 17


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

 

 


 


 


 


 


 




 




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November 23, 2010