Spectrum Scholar Mentor Committee Meeting
June 28, 2014, 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Bally’s, Bronze Room 1
Attending: Linda Golian-Lui (chair), David Connolly, Ashley Rayner, Harriett Green (minutes),
Kathy Magarrell (guest), Gwendolyn Prellwitz
MINUTES:
The committee reviewed next year’s committee roster: John Culshaw will be the new Board liaison;
Linda and Will aren’t staying on as originally planned because of max terms, and the committee
discussed if their absences would be a problem for continuity. David will confirm with ACRL
office.
Linda noted that the committee needs to write and post 1-page history of Dr. E.J. Josey—who he
was and why the committee is named after him. Will was going to do it, but didn’t complete it, so
another committee member should take it over. The Introductory paragraph about him on the
Origins section of committee page can be used as the starting point for it. Ashley volunteered to
write the Josey biography.
ACRL conference Scholarships:
For 2013 applications, they didn’t distribute criteria to the applicants or the committee. It later
occurred to the committee that they needed criteria to distinguish application strength, but it was too
late by then to make decisions on criteria.
The committee discussed what should be the strongest criteria.David noted that the committee needs
act fast because the announcement about the scholarship is already posted, though it hasn’t been
promoted.
In 2013, the committee awarded six scholarships out of 13 applicants. David has spoken with the
ACRL Board to clarify the number of scholarships: ACRL supports three people as Spectrum
Scholars and they automatically get support for the conference. The remaining four are competitive
scholarships.
What would be the ideal profile of a candidate?:
1) Financial Need
a. Explain the criteria
b. Have them explicitly say what their current/anticipated funding will be
2) Activity with ACRL
a. Prefer people who take initiative—they submit conference proposals, applications to
ACRL committees and programs
3) MLIS student vs. practicing librarians?
- Funding is tough for beginning librarians
- What about active students who need to get started
- 2 scholarships for students and 2 scholarships for current librarians?
Harriett agreed to take these suggestions to draft a rubric that the committee could use in the next
year. David noted that Tori Ondrola set up the application in the same evaluation system being
used for the ACRL conference paper proposals –this system allows the committee to collaborate on
the application evaluation.
Assessment
Harriett explained the assessment forms, and welcomed any additional comments. The committee
decided that the surveys could be sent out soon: The year-end assessment in late summer/early fall,
and the 3-6 mo. assessment in late fall?
Wendy Prellwitz suggested that the assessment forms be sent to Emerging Leaders/Spectrum
Scholars to have them look over it, and Harriett said she’d send the links to Wendy.
Next Steps:
-
Linda will revise the 2014-15 work plan and send to Harriett by July 15th
Harriett will submit the work plan by July 25th deadline
Harriett will draft a scholarship evaluation rubric and send to the committee for revision
and then to David to post in the system
Ashley will draft a short introduction/bio of Dr. E. J. Josey
The committee will prepare to launch assessment surveys in the fall