VPC Open Forum

The agenda for Wednesday’s Open Forum can be found here. Please RSVP to Kristen if you are able to join us. The minutes from the March 18th meeting are here.

Plan for Purposeful Action

We will be beginning the work to create our ‘Plan for Purposeful Action’ over the next few weeks. The strategy is straightforward – to set our priorities so that we will have a shared direction and purpose.  I will go into more detail at my Mashup on April 10th but I wanted to give you a quick overview of how we will begin the process. Last week VPC met and laid out 5 broad areas based on both national and local trends to focus on and explore further. Those areas are:

• Scholarly Engine

• Collective Collections

• Innovation Lab

• Operational Excellence

• Learning and Working Spaces

These areas represent the framework for which we will use to have more focused conversations. Each area was assigned discussion leaders made up of VPC directors and unit heads. They will lead conversations with the full library in their respective areas at open meetings and other forums they determine beneficial. The results of those conversations will be used to develop our action plan. It is that action plan, or the ‘Plan for Purposeful Action’ that will guide us over the next few years. This will not be a traditional “strategic” planning process often identified as lengthy and arduous but more focused on defining and refining our organization in today’s academic environment. I do hope you will join me on April 10th so that I can lay out the full plan and provide answers to any questions you may have. I will say that I am excited for the opportunity to vision our future with all of you.

Samuel Charters

Many of you may have seen the news of the passing of Samuel Charters last week. Mr. Charters was a poet, novelist, biographer, translator of contemporary Swedish poets, and likely best known as a scholar of the blues, jazz, and musical culture of the African diaspora. Samuel Charters was a friend and generous donor to Archives & Special Collections. In 2000, Sam and his wife Ann Charters, a retired professor in the English Department, donated the Samuel & Ann Charters Archive of Blues and Vernacular African American Musical Culture and continued to add to it regularly over the years. The archives will pay tribute to Sam Charters through a series of blog posts which began this week.

Digital Commons’ First Online Digital Journal is Live

The Quiet Corner Interdisciplinary Journal is an open-access, bi-annual research forum edited by graduate students of humanities, arts, and social sciences here at UConn. The journal marks the first online digital journal created in our Digital Commons using the Bepress software. In addition to the support they received from Kristin Eshelman as coordinator of the repository, Marisol has also provided support as a member of the editorial board. I also understand that forthcoming in the journal will be some photography submitted by Kathleen Deep.

VPC Open Forum

At last week’s VPC meeting I took some time to clarify the role of Vice Provost Council as well as the meeting structure we have found to work best. The Council is responsible for libraries-wide budgeting and resource allocation, policy development, priority setting, staffing decisions, and advising the Vice Provost on the overall administration of the University of Connecticut Libraries. The Council meets on a regular basis in two forums (1) VPC Planning Meetings are weekly closed meetings to discuss a wide range of current issues and establish agendas for the VPC Open Forum. (2) VPC Open Forums are held biweekly and library staff are encouraged to attend. It is an opportunity to communicate by sharing reports, updates, and discuss decisions and issues with the wider library.  The minutes from the full meeting on March 4th can be found here.

The agenda for next week’s VPC Open Forum on Wednesday, March 18 can be found here. Please RSVP to Kristen if you plan on attending.

Open Source Textbook Committee

The university-wide Open Source Textbook Committee has been busy over the last few weeks. There are two bills currently in the House and Senate that we have been monitoring. House Bill 6117 is titled “An Act Concerning the Use of Digital Open-Source Textbooks in Higher Education.” The bill is to establish an open source textbook consortium to help lower the cost of acquiring a college degree in Connecticut. Members of UConnPIRG testified at the hearing in support of the bill. Senate Bill 931 is titled “An Act Concerning Requirements for College Textbooks.” This proposed bill would prohibit requiring students to use a new edition of a textbook any sooner than three years following the date of the initial publication. In this case I worked with Government Relations to provide written testimony that indicated our support for textbook reform but concerns over the seemingly arbitrary three year requirement.

Here at UConn, members of UConnPIRG have been meeting with faculty members asking them for a commitment to consider open source textbooks. We anticipate reaching out to those faculty members with the offer to provide support and learn more from their experiences. The Undergraduate Student Government passed a resolution this week urging faculty to submit their textbook requests on time as required by the federal Higher Education Opportunity Act. This was also supported by PLAC at our meeting yesterday.

Our internal task force, led by Kathy Labadorf has been busy collecting data, reports and teaching materials from across the country, and internationally. Dawn Cadogan is developing a libguide and today Kathy is attending a conference at UMass Boston focused on Open Educational Resources.

If you are interested in seeing any of the testimony or legislative documents, please let me know and I would be glad to share them.

RFID Tags

For those of you who do not subscribe to the staffchat zlist, Fred Rick sent out a piece of library history last week that I thought I would share. Although we will continue to use our RFID system, the barcode will now be  imprinted directly on the tags so we will no longer need to print labels. As Rick said in his message, it’s an “end of an era.”

The good news on this front is that at long last we are finalizing our agreement with the new vendor and in fact I signed the paperwork yesterday so stay tuned.

Have a great weekend!

Budget Hearing Update

Last week Holly and I presented at the FY15 Budget Hearing. I have mentioned this in other venues including my message, but to remind folks the hearing was an opportunity to present our budget to the Provost and members of his budget committee. The information we provided included our current financial status and how we will manage a 3% permanent budget reduction for FY16, hiring plans, and what specific areas we will focus on for both investment and divestment. We made our case to the panel that we play a significant role in the health of the University and its aspirations. We talked about the kind of essential resources and services we provide, the increased pressures we are seeing from our users, and how we see our ability to continue to manage the expectations of those users with continued cuts to our operating budget. We also shared information on the wider conversation regarding trends in academic libraries and the strategies being employed at a national level as we strive to be the world-class library the University expects. They were appreciative of our role and the information we provided. In a follow up meeting with the Provost’s office this week after the Governor’s proposed budget, we were asked to prepare for more significant cuts. We are awaiting further word on what that means as no final decision has been made.

Staffing Update

AUL for Collections & Discovery Search
It is my pleasure to formally announce that Patrick Carr has accepted our offer to join the University of Connecticut to lead our collection and discovery efforts. As many of you communicated through feedback from his visit, his depth of experience in the stewardship of collections including acquisitions, collection development, and e-resource management will be a significant asset to the Libraries as we look towards the future of collection management. Patrick will be leaving his position as Assistant Director for Acquisitions & Collection Management for the Joyner Library in the much warmer climate at East Carolina University in the next few weeks and will join us officially on March 20th. Please stay tuned for more information regarding a welcome coffee.

Archives & Special Collections
After more than 38 years, Terri Goldich has submitted her intent to retire this June. The members of the archives unit have been working to reassign her primary role as archivist for the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection (NCLC). The NCLC began in the 1960’s with a donation of about 600 volumes and has grown into a nationally recognized resource for researchers and an integral part of Archives & Special Collections. The collection now includes more than 44,000 children’s books as well as the manuscripts of over 125 authors and illustrators. To continue the forward progress, Kristin Eshelman will be taking on the responsibilities for the collection this summer. She will turn the reins of the institution repository over to Betsy Pittman next month.

Music & Dramatic Arts Library

Earlier this week Dean Brid Grant coordinated a public forum for students in the School of Fine Arts to discuss their ideas for what that library might look like in the future. The goal was to learn more specifics about which collections, services, and hours they rely on the most. The forum began with a discussion of the University’s Master Plan with Beverly Wood which included a closer look at a production facility being built for them and a look at how the south side of campus will connect with the north side in the future. We received great feedback from them and the next step is to coordinate a survey to drill further into the details.

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.

Money Message

There were a few budget items discussed in VPC on Wednesday that I would like to share with those who were unable to attend. The first is in regard to operational equipment. As of today, the ticketing system is ready for requests. The process begins with you submitting your needs into the ticketing system (please use the special equipment request category) no later thanWednesday, January 28th. Requests after that time will not be considered in this forum. ITS will route your request to the appropriate person to help determine cost. All requests will eventually end up with the director of each area to determine what will ultimately be submitted for discussion by VPC so please make sure you include your unit heads and directors in conversations along the way. There will be a two week turn around after the 28th for the final vetted spreadsheet for prioritization by VPC and ultimately matched against what is determined as available monies. There are two considerations to keep in mind – the first is that we will be taking note of requests that include recurring costs (like service contracts, etc.) so please indicate that need in your request. Secondly, if the item you are requesting is ergonomic you must have it reviewed by Occupational Health and Safety first.

The second money item is regarding travel requests for the remainder of the year. We have expended close to 75% of our allocated travel budget. Please make sure you review your allocations and if there are any funds you are not going to use, please send a note to Christineso it can go back into the pool. If you are anticipating the need to travel this spring with funds that were not previously approved, please send an email in addition to the standard travel request form indicating what you would like to attend and why it is important.

And finally, I want to thank all of you who took time out of your schedules to come to my drop in meetings and send emails regarding our fiscal future. Many of your ideas will be incorporated into the document we will send to the Provost. If you have any other ideas, specifically on revenue generation and services to evaluate, please feel free to send me a note.

Adverse Weather/Emergency Closing Staffing

There has been a change to our plan to staff Homer Babbidge during adverse weather/emergency closings. The State Labor Board reviewed the designation and plan and ruled the University was within their management rights to designate bargaining unit members as emergency support. The outcome was an agreement by UCPEA and the University identifying the members in the Circulation & Reserve Services Unit as ad hoc emergency support services. The remainder of the plan, which includes utilizing volunteers and students first has remained unchanged. For those of you outside of that unit, we are working with human resources on readjusting your status.

Search Committees

I have been asked to serve on the search committee for the new Director of Health Sciences. Over the next two weeks I will be traveling to Farmington to participate in candidate screening interviews. I look forward to working with the committee to select someone with a history of collaboration and cooperation so we can build a stronger relationship in the years to come.

Internally, we are currently in the process of interviewing for the position of Sciences Librarian. Jill has sent out the resumes for the remaining candidates and I encourage you to attend the presentation and coffee, as well as provide feedback to the committee. Additionally, thank you to those of you who took the time to provide feedback for the candidate for the position of Collections & Discovery.

A Personal Note

“….a crucial measure of our success in life is the way we treat one another every day of our lives.” ― P.M. Forni, Choosing Civility: The Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct

If you remember when I came to UConn, I made a point to meet with every member of the staff to help get a sense of the way things worked and the culture of the organization. It became clear to me there were concerns that not all staff treated each other with respect. I have taken this issue seriously and continue to work to build trust and encourage opportunities for staff to not just work together, but see each other as individuals. While we have made progress in this area, we still have work to do. So as we enter a new year, I challenge you to join me in taking a fresh look at one another and attempt to put aside differences. I believe that for this institution to reach our goal of becoming a world-class library in times of budget constraints and other challenges we will all need to work together, sometimes in ways we didn’t expect. To do that, please remember that we are all individuals with strengths, skills, and weaknesses and show consideration for each other.

VPC Retreat

The Library has been asked to participate in the University’s upcoming budget hearings. The documentation we need to provide is in three main areas – our current financial status, how we will manage permanent budget reductions next fiscal year (FY’16) and our outlook for the following fiscal year (FY ’17) in terms of staff hiring plans and management of operating deficits or surplus’. Based on the short turnaround time we have, the directors will begin a targeted discussion of this tomorrow at an off-site retreat. Our agenda includes discussion of potential revenues, what methodologies we will use to evaluate our current services and resources, and specific short-term budget reductions. After our retreat this week I will open up the conversation to all staff through open meetings.

I believe this process is another opportunity for us to prioritize where our resources should be focused and plan our approach to reach out in new and innovative ways. This will all be the base of our Purposeful Plan of Action so I encourage you to look over the agenda and begin thinking of ways we can continue to move forward. If you would like to see the actual guidelines for the 2015 budget hearing, they can be found here.

VPC – January 7

VPC went on the road this Wednesday to the Trecker Library to visit the campus and attend the afternoon retirement reception for Bill Uricchio. I think everyone that was able to attend will agree that the reception was truly a fun and meaningful event.

We are approximately half way through the fiscal year and are beginning to look at both the equipment and travel budgets. We will be starting the equipment budget process again in a few weeks which will follow the same process as we did this past fall. As we prepare for that we will provide more information and accurate timelines. We will also be reviewing the allocations made in the travel budget. I encourage all supervisors to discuss individual travel allocations and upcoming plans with staff at mid-year reviews to determine if there are any changes that need to be made for spring. Please note the UCPEA allocation has changed from $650 to $350 per person so we will need to adjust our figures based on that change.

Staffing Changes

It is with regret that I announce the resignation of Anna Kijas. Anna has accepted a position at the Boston College Libraries to build their digital programs. It will allow her to follow her passion for digital scholarship and I wish her well. We will be working with the School of Fine Arts on how to address her liaison work. As for her Scholars’ Collaborative responsibilities, we have an opportunity to work with Tom Scheinfeldt in the Digital Media Center on an short term solution. This semester long arrangement includes sharing the supervision and work of one of Tom’s Ph.D students, Susanna Aho. Susanna will work with Anna over the next month to get up to speed on projects currently in the works and continue our own work in digital scholarship.

AUL for Collections & Discovery Candidate

You have all received the announcement for the upcoming candidate Patrick Carr, but I wanted to take a moment to encourage you all to attend the presentation which is scheduled for Monday at 9:00 in the Class of ’47 room.

VPC 

The minutes from the 12-5 meeting can be found here. In honor of Bill Uricchio’s retirement the Hartford Campus Library will be hosting the next VPC on Wednesday, January 7th at 9:30. More details including an agenda will be coming out later. Following VPC is the reception for Bill in which you all have been invited. I encourage you to car pool when possible.

The Close of Another Year 

Please accept my deep gratitude for all of the work you have done in 2014. I was so pleased to see so many current and some former staff together at the Winter Solstice celebration enjoying each other’s company. If it wasn’t for the good sports fighting over the scotch and tequila in the Yankee Swap it would have been perfect (just kidding, especially since I won the scotch…) Congratulations to the staff who entered our contests and won! They included Terry Palacios-Baughman with the most festive outfit (with Joel Atkinson as the close runner up), Nicholas Eshelman with the most unique outfit and Terri Goldich for the ugliest outfit. For those of you who enjoyed the dessert contest, congratulations to Erika McNeil for receiving the staff vote. Photos from the event (minus the dessert, it went far too fast to take a photo) and a few other recent staff activities can be found on the staff news blog. A reminder the login information for that is your windows username and password.

Looking Ahead

As we look ahead to 2015, I hope you will all join me in being agents of inspiration for both our users and ourselves. As I spoke about in my Mashup, our collective inspiration will lead to great things, to give the “what if’s” a shot, and aspire to be the world-class library UConn can be proud of.

VPC

A reminder that VPC will be this Friday at 9:30 and the agenda can be found here. Please RSVP to Kristen if you are able to attend.

24/7 in Effect

We “weathered” our first winter weather incident without incident and have rolled right into 24/7 hours. Monday morning marked the beginning of the run and Babbidge Library will not close again until 6:00 pm on Sunday the 14th. I know I don’t need to remind you that this is the time of year when many students are stressed with significant work ahead of them, finals, job searching, etc. Thank you in advance for not only your patience, but your willingness to help students through this time by providing the services and study space they need. Also, a thank you to those of you who will be doing programming to help provide relief. As for all of those hours, we are still in the process of hiring additional security staff so Brian, Bill, Mike, and Patty are working around the clock over the 320+ hours to keep the building open. Dave Avery will also be pulling in some overnight hours to give them some time off. When you see them, please take a moment to thank them.

Winter Mashup/Solstice Event

The Solstice planning committee met earlier this week to start planning the library wide event scheduled for Friday, December 19th. The start of the program will be a Mashup from 11-12 which will include a much anticipated peek at the newly redesigned website. Lunch will be at 12:00. A formal invitation will follow but I have a little spoiler for you – dig out your best dessert recipe and your best “funky, festive and fugly” attire. There will be amazing prizes for the best in all those categories! There is also plans for a Yankee Swap so get those gift ideas ready.

Help Cheer on the ‘Babbidge Builders’

This Friday a small but determined group of staff members will be participating in UConn’s Gingerbread House Decorating Contest. They have a plan and are serious enough to be putting in some practice time later this week before the event. The ‘Babbidge Builders’ consist of Kristen Jones, Chris McNevins, Tony Molly, Jean Nelson and Terry Palacios. I encourage you all to join me in cheering them on this Friday between 2:30-4:30 (winners announced at 4:15) in the Rome Commons Ballroom. As part of the Winter Holiday Celebration, catering provides a lovely spread of food and beverages during the event. They do ask that you RSVP but it is not required.