Financial News

Last week we were prepped and ready to go forward with a request for a student fee when the President pulled all new and increase fee requests going to the Board of Trustees. In my meeting last week with the Provost, he made a commitment to work with the Library and the Chief Financial Officer to find financial support in lieu of those fees. During that meeting we also got some great news from the Provost, who reviewed our staffing plan and approved the moving forward of 7 newly created positions which means we can begin the submittal process to have them vetted through Human Resources and the President’s Office. These positions are a blend of work that addresses key areas in our existing services and the promotion of strategic initiatives to keep us moving forward. There were others that were on our staffing plan that were not approved but rather sent back to gather more information. I will provide more information on all of these positions and what our plan is in moving forward soon.

Provost’s Library Advisory Committee

Last week was the yearly annual review from PLAC to the Provost. The review reminded me of the many ways that they have supported the Library this year including weighing in on the Master Plan, advocating for funding collections, approving our collections review, and joining in our work with open educational resources. They have been engaged advocates for the library, asking the Provost the difficult questions about the University’s budget and how he will support the libraries. I would like to thank all the members of PLAC, particularly the chair, Maureen Croteau for all of their work on behalf of the library. Next up in a few weeks will be a condensed version of that presentation to the University Senate on May 2. I will also be hosting a Mashup after the end of the semester in May to show highlights of these presentations as well as a discussion of the challenges we face next year and our goal setting priorities.

UConn Hartford

I am pleased to be joining Michael Howser and our colleagues at the Hartford Campus and Hartford Public Library for an official partnership signing this Thursday. This agreement between the UConn Libraries and the Hartford Public Library is the gateway to a new and exciting chapter in our future. If you did not have a chance to see Michael’s presentation from VPC a few weeks ago, the link is here.

Master Plan

As you all know, the first stages of the Master Plan will start this summer and there are many pieces to coordinate. To help keep things moving we have agreed to temporarily house staff from Planning, Architectural & Engineering Services (PAES) in Francine’s old office to provide better coordination. The staff we expect to be here throughout the summer includes Antoaneta Fedeles who is heading up the project for PAES, and her colleague Jim Libby.

Employee Appreciation/National Library Week

Coincidence that those fell together this year? If you ask me it was perfect. Thanks to those who came to my office last week for some breakfast and to those who attended the brief appreciation ceremony in VPC. I would like to share once again those folks who received longevity awards last week:

10 Years
Valori Banfi
Marsha Lee

15 Years
Stephen Bustamante
Alice Fairfield
Shelley Goldstein
Erika McNeil
Michael Slowik
Suzanne Zack

20 Years
Brian Coleman
Shelley Cudiner
Kim Giard

25 Years
Sandy Gallup
Jane Recchio
Freddie Rick

30 Years
Sheila Lafferty

We also got a surprise visit from the Jonathan’s on Friday, hoping to take a photo with staff to honor National Library Day. We grabbed as many folks as we could in the 5 minutes we had so thanks to those who ran out of their offices for us. It’s nice to know that we are appreciated by students, faculty and dogs alike.