VPC Minutes

There was no VPC last week but the minutes from January 21st can be found here.

Thank You to Last Week’s Winter Weather Crew!

It’s another Monday storm today but please help me thank the winter weather crew for getting the library open shortly after the storm last Monday. I have been told that there were students waiting to get in and were extremely appreciative of our efforts. Thank you to David Avery, Bill Haalck, Mike Slowik, and Aaron Albee. They were joined by student employees Ethan Avery, Jaylen Williams, Abby Cheng, Tyler Washington, and Katie Riddell.

Music & Dramatic Arts Library

As many of you may have seen in the Daily Campus or on social media, there has been rumors that the Music & Dramatic Arts Library is closing. While we have been in discussions with the School of Fine Arts and the Provost’s Office, there has been no outcome as of yet and these are still in fact rumors. If you recall from my message on October 10, as part of our ongoing commitment to review our services Dean Grant and I charged an ad hoc committee that included representatives from the School of Fine Arts and the Library to analyze the services and collections and their feedback was shared with the Provost’s Office last week. This is still an active conversation and we have certainly taken note of the student feedback. The next steps include some focus groups in which our primary concern is determining collection usage and where the materials are best housed.

The positive side of this is that much like when we altered the hours in Homer Babbidge, the potential changes have reiterated the importance of the library to our students. Here is one of my favorite comments found online:

“Library funding should be the last of any budget list to be cut. They are the symbol of education, the ideal that anyone can find the knowledge they seek if they have the drive to search for it. I understand that money is hard to come by nowadays, and sometimes this requires sacrifice, but there must be some route to compromise.”

Open Textbook Committee

In October the Undergraduate Student Government voted unanimously to formally explore the use of open source textbooks as a means of dealing with textbook affordability. One result of their vote is that the Provost’s Office has asked me to chair a university-wide committee to look at this further. This is a wonderful opportunity for the library to show leadership in an area that affects both students and faculty. To help begin the process, I have appointed an internal task force to set out the resources and strategies for helping to move this initiative forward. The members of our task force include Dawn Cadogan, Kate Fuller, Kathy Labadorf (chair), and Carolyn Mills. There will be much more information coming so stay tuned.

Welcome Kristen Jones

Thank you to the members of the search committee for the position of Assistant to the Vice Provost – Khara Leon (chair), Christine Aniello, Kate Fuller, and Betsy Pittman for their excellent work in bringing forward highly qualified candidates. As you know from Francine’s announcement last week, we are pleased that Kristen Jones has accepted the position. Kristen has been serving in this capacity since January, 2014 and because of that many of you have had the opportunity to work with her as myself and other members of the Vice Provost Council have. Her effective support skills make her a valuable asset to the Office of the Vice Provost staff.