ALA New Orleans 2006
ACRL Personnel Administrators & Staff Development Officers Discussion Group
Meeting Minutes
June 24, 2006
________________________________________________________________________
1. Introductions
2. General announcements
3. Report on the ALA Recruitment Assembly (Julie Brewer):
 http://www.ala.org/ala/hrdr/librarycareerssite/home.htm - new recruitment
website. Send feedback! Poster Session Monday morning showcasing
highlights.
 There is a general shortage of librarians.
 Most difficult to recruit are department heads and AUL level positions.
 ACRL is updating their academic librarian recruitment brochure. Do we have
any feedback?
o Do we use it? Yes!
o What would entice kids to librarianship?
o Make it clear that the brochure summarizes options of being an
academic librarian (i.e. not necessarily a ‘publish or perish’
environment, that there are options for faculty status, etc.)
o Use photos of younger academic librarians
o Brochure needs more pizzazz and graphics. Perhaps run by focus
groups?
o Make sure we all receive plenty of copies of final brochure to forward
to our campus Career Services centers.
o Send more feedback to MaryEllen Davis (mdavis@ala.org) or Mary
Jane Petrowski (mpetrowski@ala.org) at ACRL.
4. Is there a volunteer to moderate and host LIBPER-L? (Sonya Gaither, Georgia
Southern University):
 No volunteers.
 Sonya (sgaither@georgiasouthern.edu) will bring this back to the discussion
list for more follow-up.
5. Are there any specific plans that our library or institutions have communicated
for pandemic flue preparedness as it related to handling employees for reduced
operations, remote operations, or closures? (Dianne Smith, Emory University):
 John Tanno: UC Davis is working on a campus and a library plan. There is an
Avian Pandemic Planning website:
http://safetyservices.ucdavis.edu/emergencymgmt/
 Lila Fredenburg, Princeton (soon to be Florida State): There is a consulting
group (?) from New York City that will help with planning this.

Robert Mitchell, Univ. of Arizona: Arizona’s plan is more focused on a
terrorist incident, but should be ready in September. He’ll have more to offer
at Midwinter.
6. How are other libraries planning for the future in light of our aging and
retiring population? (Susan Markowtiz, Cornell University):
 Are we doing enough to ‘mentor’ folks into more senior positions?
 Shelley Phipps/Robert Mitchell, U. Arizona: There is a 2005 book, Deep
Smarts: How to Cultivate and Transfer Enduring Business Wisdom by
Dorothy Leonard and Walter C. Swap, they are using to develop leaders
internally and give them more opportunities.
 Diane Turner, Yale University: Have we built in incentives for new librarians
to take on these new responsibilities?
 Jerome Offord, ARL: The ARL Career Leadership and Development Program
has 80 alumni, who can help with this. See: http://www.arl.org/diversity/lcdp/
for more information. There will be a program (tonight) at the Courtyard
Marriott from 6:00-8:00 p.m. where we can talk to those alumni.
 Dianne Smith, Emory University: There is a book, FYI: For Your
Improvement, A Guide for Development and Coaching (4th edition) by
Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger that talks about improvement
related to 360 degree evaluations and general competencies.
7. Are there any particular organizational change/support preparations that have
been helpful that we can recommend for hiring (and acclimating) a new library
director? (Dianne Smith, Emory University):
 Laine Stambaugh, Univ. of Oregon: When our new director began in 2002,
she held a series of “Discovery” meetings with various groups (classified
staff, junior faculty, senior faculty, folks interested in human resources and
staff development issues, folks interested in technology issues, and so forth).
This was very successful, and resulted in some major organizational changes
(such as the creation of a new budget officer position).
 Others??
8. Mary Ellen Davis at ACRL recently brought to the attention of this group a
proposal for support staff certification. Is there anything we would like to add
in addition to our (previous) e-mail comments? What would be the value to
academic libraries and to our employees, considering our very different state
and organizational structures? (Laine Stambaugh, Univ. of Oregon):
 Diane Turner, Yale: It could help recruit people into the profession. What are
the stages for comments?
 Shelley Phipps, U. Arizona: Will something different happen in a person’s job
because of this certificate? Or is it just a staff development opportunity? We
want to see something more. Will the person with the certificate have better
skills? It needs to be clearly understood up front what the expectations are
[what this will or will not lead to for the individual].

John Tanno: It’s not like a more focused program such as Microsoft
Certification. Could we narrow the program and give it more meaning?
9. Have any of us been involved in recruitment trips to library schools? (Marilyn,
Univ. of Minnesota):
 Diane Turner, Yale: we’ve done job fairs at University of Maryland and at
Simmons College. So has Deb Sunday (U. Conn.). Very successful.
 Jerome Offord, ARL announced the upcoming Joint Librarians of Color
Conference*
(http://www.ala.org/ala/olos/jointconferenceoflibrariansofcolor/jclc2006.htm),
to be held in Dallas, TX, Oct. 12-15. There will be a section for booths for job
recruiters. They will be sending out more announcements.
10. Are we hiring more non-MLS people, but with the same job expectations?
(Janet Parsch, U. Arkansas):
 Dianne Smith, Emory: some have Ph.D.s, but no MLS, such as subject-related
jobs. Those positions might have other expectations than librarian jobs. The
criteria stays the same, though.
11. What discussions or plans about staffing are occurring in response to reports
on the future of cataloging (e.g. the Calhoun Report)? (Dianne Smith, Emory
University):
 (no responses?)
12. Announcement: The 2006 National Diversity in Libraries Conference* has
been cancelled to prevent competition with the Joint Conference of Librarians
of Color to be held October 12-16, 2006, in Dallas, Texas. The National Diversity
in Libraries Conference will resume its regularly scheduled biennial conference in
2008, when it will be hosted by the Kentucky Library Association and the
Southeastern Library Association and supported by the libraries of the University
of Kentucky and University of Louisville. For more information, see:
http://www.arl.org/arl/pr/diversityconf06.html or contact Jerome Offord
(Jerome@arl.org).
(--minutes by Laine Stambaugh)