LIBRARIES LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
MINUTES
NOVEMBER 14, 2011
Present: Interim Dean Connie Foster, Deana Groves, Brian Coutts, Timothy
Mullin, Haiwang Yuan, Amy Hardin, Jennifer Wilson, Bryan Carson, Kristie
Lowry and Jan Renusch
Minutes: On a motion by Brian Coutts and a second by Haiwang Yuan, the
October 31, 2011, minutes were approved as submitted.
Dean’s Report: Connie distributed articles and items of interest to Deana and
Bryan. Connie stated that on the website under the regional campus hours, no
hours were listed for the Elizabethtown library. Connie distributed copies of
an email and the Policy & Procedure Document from Ashlee Tilford regarding
the University Policy for sole source purchases for their review. She also
distributed copies of an email requesting student leader nominees for the
leadership studies program honoring WKU student leaders at their annual
banquet to be held on Monday, March 19, 2012, at the Knicely Center.
Responses are due by December 1. Connie will be sending an email to all
library staff and faculty seeking nominations for the Margie Helm Awards for
Outstanding Student Assistant, Staff Member and Faculty for WKU Libraries
during 2011, as well as the Team (Collaborative) Award. Connie will be meeting
with Neal Downing on Thursday, November 17 to discuss the Information Commons
concept and how the libraries can change its services to meet this new
challenge.
Web & Emerging Technologies: According to WKU Public Affairs that runs Google
Analytics for WKU Web sites, the Libraries’ Website was one of the top five
most accessed sites from WKU homepage in October, a month after its launch.
Last Friday, Haiwang attended the WKU Web Council meeting where the form
creation on OUCampus became available, but with limited functions at this
point. The libraries’ forms can stay in the original server until sometime
next year. Attendees were told that the Public Affairs Office that runs
WKU’s Web site welcomes photos and event-promoting ads from colleges and
libraries to feature as Spotlight on the WKU homepage and as slides on
Academic and Current Student landing pages. We are encouraged to use on our
Web site Foursquare, a social network app on smart phones utilizing their GPS
functions, and Google+, a new competitor with Facebook. Primo’s EBSCOhost API
requires user login from the Primo homepage and therefore confuses users by
causing them to drill several pages deep. Haiwang suggested that we place
the EZYProxy link of EBSCOhost on our homepage. Connie suggested that WKU
Libraries’ podcasts be published on TopSCHOLAR. Per her request, Haiwang will
submit a list of all the podcasts on our Web site.
Development: Amy met with Jim Johnson who will schedule a lunch with Connie,
Kristie and Amy to discuss SOKY Book Fest 2012. Amy is also working with
Amanda Lich to set up an end of the year meeting with Dollar General to
discuss Book Fest sponsorship. Fruit of the Loom has also been contacted, and
Amy is sending a sponsorship form. Amy and Jennifer are working on numbers
for the annual report. The Advance upgrade has caused a few glitches but
numbers should be to Jennifer by Tuesday. Amy reported on the balances of the
US Bank and Java City Foundation funds. Amy said she will be out of the
office December 7-9 for the CASE KY Conference in Lexington, KY.
Literary Outreach: Kristie attended the Frankfort Kentucky Book Fair over the
weekend. After hearing about the success of SOKY Book Fest’s Children’s Day,
the Book Fair has implemented a Children’s Day at which they had
approximately 500 students and for which they reported around $6,000 in sales
from that day. Overall, the Book Fair made approximately $32,000. Kristie
made a lot of contacts with authors while in Frankfort, and was especially
happy to hear that Silas House will have a new book out in time for Book
Fest. The reception for the Evelyn Thurman award winner will be held on
Thursday, November 17 at 4:30 pm at the ERC, and everyone is encouraged to
attend. The luncheon for the winner will be on Friday at 11:30 am at the
Kentucky Museum for invited guests. Kristie stated that she will be out of
the office from November 28-30.
Marketing: Jennifer met with John Bowers and Carmen Purpus regarding student
surveys. She said they conducted a student survey last spring and received
about 2,500 students’ input for a 65 question survey pertaining to technology
behaviors. Much of the feedback would be relevant information for the
libraries such as the percentage of students using smart phones and what
brings students to a computer lab. The Advance database system that we pull
membership information from has been updated and changed. Sandy McAllister
and Jennifer are working to get our reporting system switched over to receive
accurate new reports on friend members. Jennifer mentioned there may be a
need to meet with Connie, Timothy and Amy regarding changes to the Friends
program and how that will affect promotional efforts. Other programs coming
up with promotional needs are Christmas in Kentucky, US Bank “Celebration of
the Arts,” and newsletter/annual report.
Grants & Projects: The survey committee will meet this Friday afternoon.
Jennifer met with Information Technology to discuss their survey. IT is
getting ready to send out their survey again. After John Gottfried discovered
an article on library surveys from Charles Brown at Sullivan University,
Bryan called Charles. He is sending him a copy of the survey instrument.
Charles noted that they informed the faculty well ahead of time that they
were going to do the online survey, and used incentives. But they also sent
student workers around campus with paper copies to get student results,
leading to a much better response rate.
The first three Lincoln lectures were very successful. On November 3, Carol
Crowe-Carraco and Nancy Baird discussed the background of the Civil War and
the election of 1860. There were 46 attendees. On November 7, there were 38
people (including one young adult) for Patricia Minter’s talk on “Lincoln,
Civil Liberties, and Habeas Corpus.” And it was standing room only (79
people, including 1 young adult and 2 children) for Glenn LaFantasie’s
discussion of “Lincoln and Secession.” There are three Lincoln lectures left.
Cecile Garmon will talk about “Lincoln's Leadership and Communication Style”
on Monday, November 14. Glenn LaFantasie will discuss “Lincoln and the
Emancipation Proclamation” on Wednesday, November 16. And on Tuesday,
December 6, a concluding panel discussion will discuss the legacy of Lincoln
and his constitutional decisions.
Bryan also discussed copyright compliance for reserves. The bookstore is
interested in trying to get a process in place on campus for obtaining
copyright permission. Bryan noted that he asked other libraries on a national
email list. Most of the libraries that responded handle all the copyright
clearances on their campuses for the entire university. Bryan will follow up
by getting more information about what would be involved with handling
copyright rights for WKU.
Department Reports:
DLPS: Far Away Places: Gabon - David Keeling will talk about Gabon, once part
of French Equatorial Africa, in this month’s program at Barnes & Noble
Bookstore on Thursday, November 17 at 7:00 p.m. Keeeling visited the country
most recently in November of 2007.
Lincoln: the Constitution and the Civil War - Sponsored by the American
Library Association, the National Constitution Center and the National
Endowment for the Humanities, this traveling exhibition on display at the
Kentucky Museum from November 3 to December 6 is being complimented by five
public talks. Bryan Carson has served as moderator for the series.
-We’ve Been Everywhere - Elizabethtown Librarian Laura DeLancey gave an up
close and personal look at the recent “Cairo Revolution” on Wednesday,
November 9. On the faculty of the American University in Cairo as the events
transpired she described life in Egypt before and after the revolution.
Kentucky Live: “The Corvette in Literature and Culture” - Author Jerry
Passon, who teaches technical writing at the Hopkinsville Community College,
talked about how the Corvette became a cultural icon through its depiction in
the movies, television and literature. Kath Pennavaria reviewed the book for
the Bowling Green Daily News.
-E-Books Task Force - Hannah Bucholz and Mike Walmsley from YBP (which
recently took over Blackwell’s and is now part of Baker & Taylor) gave a
presentation on Tuesday, November 8. They commented that econtent had
quadrupled in recent years and that 20% of books sold are now ebooks. While
they do not have their own platform they work with EBL, EBSCOhost and Ebrary.
The task force will meet at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday to draw up recommendations.
-DLPS in Owensboro - This month’s faculty meeting on Wednesday, November 16
is the first to be scheduled on the Owensboro campus and will be preceded by
lunch at the Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn. Rob Harbison is coordinating arrangements.
DLSC: Timothy reported that the Lincoln exhibit closes December 6 with the
final lecture. The Chinese Learning Center exhibit of snuff bottles closes
December 17. Timothy is negotiating the next exhibit on loan from China while
at the same time he is negotiating a gift from China – the first
“international” donation. Timothy is working with Michael Ann this week on
West African Art plus a find in the collections of a C.1900 photo album of
French West Africa. The Richardson Quilt Gallery is coming along. It is
scheduled to open January 21, 2012. Timothy is pursuing upgraded security for
the Special Collections reading room.
DLTS: Uma Doraiswamy completed cataloging the 36 websites for WKU Selected
Works authors. Nelda Sims is still working through Primo issues: most
recently facets including location names; the KenCat load and TopSCHOLAR
records. Jeannie Butler completed withdrawing approximately 8,000 items from
the ERC.
Technology Highlights: Provided tech support for KY Live! speaker @ Barnes
and Noble, the “We’ve Been Everywhere” speaker in Helm 100, YBP/EBL vendor ebook presentation in Helm 201, and the NISO ‘New Discovery Tools’ Webinar in
Cravens 212. Connie and David met w/IT regarding upcoming FP computer
replacements for Library faculty; Haiwang, Nelda, Josh, Daniel, and David
each met w/Academic Technology head, John Bowers regarding current jobs and
needs to be addressed in the three new positions that will be created.
DLTS: issue w/Bindery program (ABLE)is a problem on their end; working
through problems w/networked printer in BIB Access unit – IT tech will be
checking on the problem; Josh is working on OCLC Save File cleanup problem.
DLSC: replaced 3 staff computers in Museum and Education units and
reinstalled all software
DLPS: updated IE to newer version on a faculty member’s computer to see if it
would resolve some issues w/linked articles – also encountered other problems
involving virus and malware infections – problems seem to be resolved but
awaiting user to verify.
Systems: Josh ran DLTS dept. stats, monthly Voyager reports, TDNet report,
and KULS updates; David worked w/Nelda on Primo/EZProxy issues
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 11:45 am.
For the Council,
Jan Renusch