Present:
Minutes
Library Administrative Council Meeting
October 25, 2005
Ann Denton, Ian Edward, John Evans, Ed Frank, Sylverna Ford, Mary Freilich,
Yolanda Hawkins, Chris Matz, Tom Mendina, Anna Neal, Betsy Park,
James Singleton, Lee Louise Slack, Stacey Smith, Inez Todd, Joycelyn White,
Saundra Williams
Absent: Annelle Huggins
Leave Requests was added to the agenda at the start of the meeting.
1. University Strategic Planning
The University is in the process of redoing its strategic plan. The latest version of the framework for the new strategic plan was distributed to the LAC. The plan identified five major goals that will be the bases for the new University strategic plan. Student Success is at the top of the pyramid. The intent of the plan is that everything that goes on at the University will be related back to one of the five goal areas. As the library revises its own strategic plan, we are to make sure that our goals and objectives relate back to the University’s plan. The University is planning to share the plan with various groups through this semester. Input will be solicited from many groups on campus before the plan is finalized. President Raines has already met with the Faculty Senate and the Staff Senate for input on the process. The LAC was asked to share the information with their department and to start conversations about their own departmental objectives and how they relate to the plan. Items that may not fit in the University’s plan as well as additional items should be forwarded to the dean.
2. Learning Commons Update
Betsy Park gave an update on planning for the Library Learning Commons. She met with the LSSA last week and received quite a bit of interest from staff. Drafts of planning documents outlining issues involved and what needs to happen to make the Learning Commons becomes a reality were emailed to everyone. Everyone is asked to take the time to review the documents and give feedback to any of the committee members. The committee members are Betsy Park, John Evans, Denetria
Butler, Clark Nall, and Kay Cunningham. Betsy and Kay Cunningham attended the meeting of the
Provost’s committee which included the architect and space planners yesterday. The draft planning documents were distributed to the groups and Betsy felt that the information helped out a lot. The committee would like to come up with a plan that is workable and will improve services provided to students.
3. Fall Retreat Follow-up
Dr. Ford had a follow-up meeting a few weeks ago with department heads to talk about the list of ideas from the Fall Retreat. They talked about some of the things that could be done quickly and getting some results without spending much extra money. Some of the things identified in the meeting included: the library being more visible on campus, library liaisons becoming more actively involved with departments in sharing information, and getting people connected to the library is doing by making them aware of the programs and services available to them. Suggestion boxes should be made more visible on all public service desks throughout the library. There were a lot of things discussed that could not be implemented because of the library’ financial limitations. Finding ways to raise money for the library was discussed, along with the need for a Development Director to work on behalf of the library.
Department heads were asked to review the list again and to let the dean know of any additional items that might be easy to implement. The dean is hoping to get some of the things implemented from the list.

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LAC Minutes – Tuesday, October 25, 2005
4. Leave Requests
There had been some recent questions related to leave requests. Accrual of annual leave is automatic, but annual leave can not be taken automatically. Annual Leave must be requested and approved by each person’s supervisor in advance. The general guideline throughout the University Libraries is that requests for annual leave must be submitted at least two weeks in advance. Failure to request leave in a timely manner might result in a request being denied. Decisions to approve annual leave will be based on the department’s needs. Dr. Ford will email everyone the online policy related to sick and annual leave. Employees may not use sick leave for non-sick leave purposes. An employee will go into a leave without pay status when all annual leave has been exhausted.
Everyone should continue to complete the paper requests for leave. As the online leave becomes stabilized the paper requests will not need to be retained. There was a question related to the accuracy of online leave balances. Nancy Massey will be asked to check on the status of online leave balances and give an update.
Requests for Professional Leave that involve no funding do not need to go before the
Staff or Faculty Professional Development Committee. The requests can be signed off by the department head and then forwarded to the dean for final approval.
Announcements
Stacey Smith - Some of circulation staff traveled to Arkansas State and Ole Miss Libraries recently to meet with their staff and tour their facilities. She gave a Powerpoint presentation to show some of the features from each library.
Sharon Tucker has been out sick for a while, but she is back on a modified schedule.
Tom Mendina - Ed Frank will lecture on the Meriweather family, Wednesday, October 26 at noon, on the fourth floor. All are invited to attend.
Ann Denton - Paul Gahn ran a program last week to correct over 13,000 records to improve
MARC records and catalog display for music sound recordings. This week he will change music location codes to be more specific. For example, instead of just music library, catalog records will say “Music Library- Reference”.
SIRSI will provide the second test of Item Records Creation/Purge program this week. Cataloging is working hard on barcoding and linking records.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:35 a.m. The next scheduled LAC meeting is Tuesday,
November 8, 2005. Betsy Park is on schedule to bring the refreshments.