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Library Managers

University of Waterloo
Library Managers, January 17, 2013
9:30 a.m., DC 1568

Present: Annie Bélanger, Pascal Calarco, Nancy Collins, Betty Graf, Jennifer Haas, Mark Haslett (Chair), Sharon Lamont, Wish Leonard, Susan Mavor, Alex McCulloch, Carl Nagel, Susan Routliffe, Annette Dandyk (Recorder)

Regrets: Michele Laing

1. Chair’s Remarks
• Recognition and Commendation
January Anniversary
January 23 - Jenny Williams, Cataloguing, 35 years

• Updates
For approx. 10 years we have had an institutional membership with CLA, which allows for several non-members to register for conferences at the institutional member rate. Over the past few years CLA has made some changes and membership fees have risen to $5,000. After consultation with LAUW, LibExec decided not to renew the Library’s institutional membership in CLA.

Performance Appraisals: performance appraisal season is underway. There have been no changes to the template. In the past year, much work has been carried out on the library’s and the campus’s strategic directions. Managers were asked to consider how their work ties in with these efforts when completing their performance reviews.

OCUL directors recently received a notice announcing the OCUL URM (Unified Resource Management) summit, to be held late February. Registration will be limited to four people per institution. There will be some discussion about who best to attend.

Indirect costs: the federal government provides funding for indirect research costs, e.g. library resources as research infrastructure to support a healthy research environment. A Baseline Metrics Project has been put in place to assess the health of the research environment at institutions receiving direct research funding from the Tri-Agencies (i.e. CIHR, SSHRC, NSERC). A working group has established indicators and has issued a preliminary report. Institutions have been asked to respond to the report by the end of February. Mark attended an initial working meeting, convened by John Thompson.

2. Budgets and Staffing Update
Mark met with Sallie Keller, Provost, about the Library’s budgets in late November and early December.
• In 2012/13, the Acquisitions shortfall will be met with onetime money.
• In 2013/14, the Acquisitions base budget will be increased.
• The Operating budget will receive onetime money for this year.
• The Provost has approved filling a number of positions using funding from currently vacant positions.

Three positions will be filled immediately: Head, Special Collections & Archives; Associate University Librarian, Information Resources & Academic Excellence; and Library Systems Administrator. It is anticipated that several other positions will be recruited before the end of this fiscal. Further discussion needs to occur about a number of other positions. Mark also provided The Provost with a list of potential positions that would require additional funding and a summary report of acquisitions needs and gaps which was prepared by Jennifer and Annie.

All Ontario universities will receive reduced funding from the province on an ongoing basis. The Provost is looking at ways to handle that shortfall.

3. Head, Special collections & Archives
Managers reviewed the draft of the job description. The job will be posted campus wide on January 23. The interview team will consist of: Pascal, Mark, Sharon, Chris Halonen, Jane Britton, Jane Forgay, Ian Milligan (faculty member from History), and possibly one person from the Managers Group. Pascal invited managers to send their expressions of interest to him.

4. WebOps
The WebOps Committee has been writing proposals for work that can be carried out in small phases. The web redesign will not move forward until the Head, Digital Library Initiatives has been hired. The incumbent will be the project lead. Annie outlined three proposals for the Managers. A fourth proposal has gone to IRMC.
Action: Annie will send the revised documents to the Managers, and send a call for expressions of interest to participate in one of the groups to staff.

a. Personas & User Profiles Working Group Proposal
Overview: Personas are fictitious users developed using information gathered through user research. They offer a practical approach to understanding the needs of key target audiences and keeping user perspectives in mind throughout web development.

Goal: Create personas and user profiles for representative user groups for the campus, and in particular, the Library. This will support the website redesign and CMS implementation projects.

b. User Stories working group proposed mandate
Overview: User stories are one of the primary development documents in an agile project management framework. They actively engage the stakeholders through an iterative process in their creation, their prioritization, their ongoing development, and their success evaluation.
Goal: Create user stories representing the “who, what, and why” for tasks and content on the Library website. This will support the website redesign and CMS implementation projects.

c. “Services” Pages Redesign working Group proposed mandate
Overview: The “Services for” section will need to be transformed into Drupal friendly content. This is a good starting point to provide us with lessons learned to optimize future workflows and gauge Drupal’s abilities. It is also an opportunity to address usability issues in this section of the site.
Goal: Deliver a revised “Services for” section in Drupal formal and optimize future workflows.

5. Update on the University’s Identity Refinement
Nancy provided an update on the work being carried out to refine the campus identity, building on the project that started in 2008.
• The word mark will be retained
• The crest is coming back
• A comprehensive identity review will result in a framework for the entire university and a more cohesive look (currently our identity is quite fragmented)
• This project will result in many changes to the positioning guide.
Action: Nancy will send a recent communications group presentation to Managers

6. Around the Table Updates
Annie
TUG IR: the print monograph RFP project has closed and applications are being reviewed.

OCUL is doing an accessibility review. Annie will attend the January 31 meeting.

Annie will chair the new OCUL Government Information Group.

The TUG IR JSTOR withdrawal project will begin soon.

Carl
Zach Caringi will be working in the Systems department during the Winter term.

Plant Operations is gearing up to work on the CTE flexlab in EV3, so that CTE can vacate the 3rd floor space in the Library. Note: Carl, Pascal, Jennifer, Annie, and Sharon are meeting this week to begin planning for refurbishing the FlexLab in Porter.

A number of small renovation projects are being planned in Special Collections.

Carl is part of an IT asset management committee, created at the request of the auditors. The committee’s work needs to be completed by the end of April.

Michael is following up on the fallout from the move to Nexus.

Alex
Ann Naese will retire July 1, 2013.

The casual staff handbook for supervisors has been completed and is available on the staff web. http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/staff/manuals/casual/CasualStaffPracticesforSupervisors_FINAL.pdf

Relais: our testing has been successful and workarounds have been found for the little issues. We are waiting for University of Guelph to complete their installation and testing before determining a ‘go live’ date.

Sharon
OHD and HR are developing some training about the revisions to Policy 18 (Staff Employment) and will give a presentation for the LibAdminPlus group later in the term. In the meantime, any questions may be directed to Sharon. https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat/sites/ca.secretariat/files/uploads/files/policy18%20-%2020130101.pdf

Pascal
Primo update: a new patch from ExLibris has been installed on the test servers. Charles Woods and the Voyager prototypers are doing some testing, and anticipate that the problems may be solved by next week.

The Library received funds from the Graduate Students Association (GSA) to acquire a ScanPro 2000 digital microfilm reader/scanner. The device has an OCR feature for reading old and poor quality text. The equipment has been installed and is being tested.

Pascal, Carl, and Mark have been invited to participate in the IST internal consultation.

Work on the IST strategic plan is moving forward. They have developed a strategic map, and expect to begin making changes in April

Betty
Cataloguing staff have been have been clearing out the discards, with many of the books going to the used bookstore. Next week a TUG last copy bulletin will be sent out.

Annette
Jon Morgan and Sara Perkins are coordinating a workshop for Library Assistants who work with GIS or in map libraries, May 1-3, 2013. The event will take place on the main campus and at the School of Architecture.

Susan M
Special Collections has received a grant from the Waterloo Centre for German Studies to translate early German documents. Susan hopes to get matching funds from the Waterloo Regional Heritage Foundation.

Next meeting: Jan 23

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February 22, 2013