2002/03 report submitted to the Faculty Senate by Hulya Julie
Yazici, Chair
Committee Members: Hulya Julie Yazici (Chair), Susan Crutchfield (Secretary),
Cristine Prucha, Gwen Achenreiner, Daniel (Tim) Gerber, David
Reineke, Scott Dickmeyer, Chia-Chen Yu, Denis Provencher, Frank
Barmore, Elisabeth Cason, Justin Perrault and Jason Letizia (student
members), Anita Evans (Consultant).
This report summarizes UW-L Library Committee activities during the 2002-03
Academic year. Main activities are:
 Review and provide feedback for the recommendations regarding the integration
of information literacy into the General Education curriculum
 Review and recommend changes to the UW-L Strategic Plan.
Meet with
Committee Chair Billy Clow
 Information Literacy panel presentation at the UW-L Annual Conference on
Teaching and Learning, January 21
 Work together with the Library first-floor space planning committee in the design
of data collection and analysis methods
 Learn about and evaluate new web technologies at the Library
 Review and recommend changes in the Library hours necessitated by budget cuts
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1. Recommendations for the integration of Information Literacy into the GenEd
curriculum.
Building on the efforts of the previous committee, The 2002/03 Committee
continued work on the library’s information literacy initiative for the
General Education Program. The committee members reviewed, offered
suggestions and tracked the progress of this initiative throughout the year.
A subcommittee of Dan Gerber, Chia-Chen Yu and Cris Prucha worked
on several drafts of the recommendations document.

Initial discussion about the document ensued: How might required
information literacy “classes” affect library staffing? Should we
require an information literacy component in only one freshman
course in order to alleviate staffing issues?
How would the
transition into full participation in the plan be handled?
The
subcommittee that was formed to handle the Information Literacy
document (ILD) revised and disseminated the document for
discussion at the committee meetings. As a result of first review by
the committee members, the ILD became shorter, deleting
repetition between the document and Appendix A. Assessment
data for past student sessions in library instruction was added.
Further questioning about competencies to be offered at UW-L 100
and the future of the course were discussed. Revisions to the
current document were recommended:
under 100 level
description, the document should mention other national programs
that require such a course. Perhaps a “targeted course” listing
should be included under each course level section. See Appendix
1 for the initial ILD.

As a second milestone, the revised ILD was distributed online for
review prior to a vote (November 14, 2002), and upon voting, there
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was unanimous approval of the document as revised, with small
edits. See Appendix 2 for the revised ILD.

A cover letter was prepared and sent to the Director of General
Education, Emily Johnson. See Appendix 3 for the cover letter.

The revised ILD was submitted as of December 2002 to the
General Education committee and was praised by Provost Hitch.

Integration of information literacy into the general education
learning outcomes draft.
Central to the discussion was where
should information literacy be placed on the GE outcomes—under
critical thinking or in a separate category. A number of Library
Committee members served on Gen Ed Learning Outcome
subcommittees in response to an invitation by the General
Education Committee, including Cris Prucha, Dan Gerber, ChiaChen Yu. Further progress is to be monitored.
2. Review and recommend changes to the UW-L Strategic Plan
Another major activity the Committee was involved with was the review and
discussion of the UW-L Strategic Plan. After the draft of the Strategic Plan was
distributed to the Faculty Senate Committee chairs for feedback by the Senate
Chair in December 2002, the Library Committee began the discussion on how the
Library Committee should best respond to the Plan. The library staff had created
earlier a memo on issues concerning: 1) technology isn’t well represented; 2)
information literacy needs to be stressed further.

Review of the document including the suggestions made by the
Library staff. The initial memo is in Appendix 4.

Lengthy discussion of how to incorporate library concerns into the
UW-L Strategic Plan. Ideas were gathered from the committee
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members for the integration of information literacy and the role
that library plays for the fulfillment of critical thinking skills.

The library’s response to Steven Senger and Billy Clow regarding
the initial letter sent to Steven Senger and Billy Clow was
reorganized and the Library’s primary concerns were prioritized.
The document was sent to Billy Clow. See Appendix 5. Also
agreed was that it would be useful to schedule a meeting with Billy
Clow regarding the strategic plan review document.

A summary version of the letter outlining key changes was
prepared and was taken to Billy Clow by Evans and Yazici.
Appendix 6 shows the short version of the suggested changes in
the UW-L Strategic plan concerning the Library and information
literacy.

As of April 2003, none of the committee’s suggested changes have
been incorporated into the latest, slightly-revised version of the
UW-L strategic plan. However, General Education Committee‘s
efforts for information literacy and critical thinking are to be
followed up in the coming academic year.
3. Information Literacy panel presentation at the UW-L Annual conference on
Teaching and Learning
A panel on Information Literacy was presented at the 23rd UW-L Annual Conference on
Teaching and Learning on January 21: The panel title was “Integrating Information
Literacy Skills and Concepts into General Education Courses: Two Examples.” See
Appendix 7 for the presentation slides.

Prucha’s initiative regarding the panel presentation was discussed
by the Committee members about how to integrate the Library
Committee and its ILD into the proposal. Yazici agreed to join the
panel and provide introductory remarks about the initiatives of the
Committee regarding information literacy. See Appendix 7 for
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panel presentation.

The panel was well received. The panel was followed by a
discussion about links between proposed changes to Gen Ed and
the Info Lit initiative. The Library Committee reviewed the
document titled “GE Program 2002-3 Work in Progress Tentative
Outcome Areas.”
The Library Committee agreed on the
importance of integrating information literacy skills into the
curriculum even beyond the lower/Gen Ed levels.
4. Working together with the Library first-floor space planning committee in the
design of data collection and analysis methods
Library Committee worked closely with Murphy Library first floor space planning
committee in the design of data collection methodology:

A special committee of library staff has been designated to consider revising the
plan of the first floor. Discussion ensued about the possibility of gathering user
input regarding how the first floor is used by students and faculty and what would
be best to include on the first floor. Possibilities of a survey and/or focus group
that can help with more specific questions/proposals were discussed. Committee
members volunteered to work on the design and distribution of the questionnaire.
See Appendix 8 for the initial survey efforts.

Due to the nature of the questions, a focus group was found appropriate.
Six teams of students from College of Business were planned to conduct
focus group surveys of student opinion on how to reorganize the first-floor
layout. Thirty to forty students across campus were to participate, from a
mix of colleges. Committee members announced focus group efforts in
their classes and asked participants to sign up. The resulting data would be
qualitative, not quantitative. The reports came back at the end of the
semester and will be sent to the committee over the summer.
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
Three of the focus group meetings were videotaped and are on reserve at
the library. The results are given in Appendix 9.
5. Learn about and evaluate new web technologies at the Library
Throughout the year, the Library Committee had the opportunity to learn
about new technology initiatives at the Library implemented by the Library staff. The
Committee Members were some of the first users of the new systems and provided
feedback to the library staff for possible changes.
 ILLIAD, new online interlibrary loan software package.
The new
system will save time and speed up requests. The Library Committee
was encouraged to try out ILLiad in the next few weeks. The language
for screens is provided by the system as a default, and in some cases
could be changed. Committee members suggested that the "Request a
Photocopy" button should be labeled, "Request an Article”. The
Library Committee were encouraged to report other suggestions or
problems to Randy Hoelzen.
 QuestionPoint, a joint Library of Congress and OCLC (library vendor)
project. QP allows for a live reference contact with a librarian, in a
chat-room style format. The users will tap into a consortium of library
staff from various regions in Wisconsin.
Murphy may become
involved in the QP national or global network in the future. This will
help with distance education learners, as well as helping the reference
librarians at Murphy extend their staffing virtually.
 UW Digital Collection (UWDC). The first two projects have been
launched on the UWDC website (“Wisconsin Pioneer Experience,”
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and the “Belgian-American Research Collection”). A project on Aldo
Leopold is upcoming.
Related links are also available, including
“Great Lakes Maritime History Collection.” The site managers are
looking to faculty for help in gathering and creating different thematic
collections for the website.
Such projects must be submitted for
approval and inclusion. Committee members were asked to talk to
their departments about possible projects for the UWDC.
 Library Café. The Committee also discussed the progress made in
planning for a Library Café, a project that was initiated last year.
6. Review and recommend changes in the Library hours
The Committee discussed and approved changes regarding library hour reduction. Due to
budget reductions and loss of a half-time position, the library needed to cut back its
operating hours. Michele Strange summed up the circulation staff’s thoughts on the
matter, and presented the committee various data on past and current library hours, as
well as on circulation and head counts during current library hours.
After much
discussion and consultation of the data, the committee recommended:

Friday and Saturdays: close at 6 pm

Saturday and Sunday: open at noon
If more hours need to be cut, the committee recommended a cut back to 5 pm on Fridays
and Saturdays. However, hours during finals week should not be cut.
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