Library Staff Support Committee Meeting Minutes—Friday, Feb. 12, 2015
In Attendance:
Skye Arseneau (Administrative Services)
Julie Bumpus (Technical Services)
Becky Burner (Physical Sciences & Engineering)
Jim Cotter (Special Collections)
Lisa Renee Kemplin (Area Studies)
Lucy Moynihan (Life Sciences)
Debora Pfeiffer (Technical Services)
Dani Postula (Central Access Services)
Laura Poulosky (Residence Hall Libraries)
Shoshana Vegh-Gaynor (Arts & Humanities)
Sandy Wolf (Social Sciences)
ClimateQUAL survey: The ClimateQUAL survey will begin on Feb. 23rd and continue through
Mar. 14th. Library employees (including faculty, staff, Academic Professionals, Graduate
Assistants, and grad hourlies) are strongly encouraged to take this survey anonymously about
your perceptions of working in the University Library. The survey must be completed in one
sitting, every question is optional, and it takes about 35-50 minutes to complete the survey.
The time spent on the survey is approved as work time and supervisors are asked to encourage
all employees to take the survey. Computers will be set up in the Main Library Room 314, in
Grainger, and in ACES for employees who would like to complete the survey there, in order to
avoid interruptions. Those who complete the survey will be eligible to enter a drawing for Illini
Union Bookstore gift cards! The survey committee hopes to get lots of responses from
different groups of Library employees, so that your opinions can be taken into consideration to
improve the Library work environment.
LSSC and Staff Communications: We had a productive discussion of how we can best
encourage all Library Staff to communicate any concerns or suggestions they have about the
Library to LSSC, so that we can raise these issues with the Library Administration and promote
action on them. We decided to draft an email for LIBnews and LIBstaff reminding Staff of who
their Division Liaisons are; providing links to LSSC, Committee, and Division minutes on the
Library Staff webpages; and requesting Staff suggestions of how to improve two-way
communication between the committee and Staff at large. We discussed putting out a
comment box at an easily accessible location in the Main Library for anyone who prefers to
make suggestions anonymous, as well as the possibility of holding monthly forums for Staff
discussion. Stay tuned for more developments!
Meeting reports:
Social Sciences Division: At their Feb. 4th meeting, Social Sciences Division members discussed
the recent updates to the Library Gateway. It was suggested that there be a way to sort
information on Library hours by date and time periods—for example, so that employees and
patrons could look ahead to see what Library hours will be over Spring Break or over the
summer.
Diversity Committee: The Diversity Committee, which met on Jan. 13th, will be reviewing other
libraries’ strategic plans in regards to diversity, in order to glean ideas for the U of I Library’s
strategic plan. The committee has scheduled a public showing of the film In Whose Honor?,
about the Chief Illiniwek controversy, for Mar. 13th from 3-5 pm in Room 66 of the Main
Library. A panel discussion will follow the screening.
Library Faculty Meeting: The Library Faculty met on Feb. 11th, where John Wilkin encouraged
everyone to complete the ClimateQUAL survey. The majority of the meeting was devoted to a
discussion about the potential use of the category of Specialized Faculty within the Library. See
more about this at: http://www.library.illinois.edu/committee/exec/supplement/20142015/task_force_possible_use_specialized_faculty.html
Life Sciences Division: At the Division’s December meeting, members discussed the mechanics
of closing the Prairie Research Institute. Content Management Services have been doing a
great job of smoothly transferring materials from the Prairie Research Institute to other
locations within the University Library.
Physical Sciences Division: Discussion centered around the ClimateQUAL survey and on the
proposal of a new medical school at UIUC. This school would be separate from the UIC medical
school. The UIUC med school would specialize in bioengineering. In other news, Grainger is
getting a new Espresso Royale, scheduled to be open by the fall.
Staff Development Committee: The first session of the “3 Minutes to Live” training for Library
staff is scheduled for Feb. 26th. This is an 8-hour training, in which employees learn how to best
protect themselves and others in the case of an active shooter in the building. The first group
to go through this training will be employees working at public service points as well as
supervisors. Several future sessions will be offered, with the goal of training as many
employees as possible.
Area Studies and Special Collections Divisions: Both of these Divisions had visits from the
ClimateQUAL survey committee, who explained the format and goals of the survey and invited
questions from division members.
Central Public Services: The OTRS ticket pages have been updated by IT. Phones have been
installed in Main Library Room 314 with phone numbers for IT, in case anyone giving
presentations there needs tech assistance. A new list of patrons banned from the U of I
campus was given to the Main Library. Dani would like to know if Staff members have
questions or concerns about this list. The Division members discussed how to best phrase
requests for new positions in order to have them approved as Faculty positions.
Residence Hall Libraries: The Residence Hall Libraries are conducting a short online survey of all
U of I students, whether or not they live in the Residence Hall Libraries or use these Libraries.
The survey opened on Jan. 16th and will close on Feb. 27th. The survey can be found at
studentvoice.com/uiuc/reshalllibraries . Please encourage any U of I students you know to take
the survey! Residence Hall Librarian Gretchen Webb and Graduate Assistant Gail Murray will
be giving a poster presentation of the survey results at the ACRL conference in Portland,
Oregon, in March.
Next LSSC Meeting: Since Chair Jim Cotter and Vice-Chair Becky Burner will both be on
vacation on Thursday, March 12th, we plan to reschedule our March meeting—possibly to
March 5th, pending room availability.