LMT Meeting Notes and Action Items 7/25/17

Attendees: Jeannette Pierce, Corrie Hutchinson, Deb Ward, Pat Jones, Jacqueline Rash, Shannon Cary, Sheryl Cullina, Kathy Peters, Ann Campion Riley, Anselm Huelsbergen

Next LMT Meeting: August 7, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. 159 Ellis

Agenda Items:

Staff Raises

  • A discussion of salary matters occurred.

Sierra Request: Block Non-Employees

  • Cindy and Burt identified an issue with patrons who are no longer employed, but have library materials.We have a way with Sierra to more easily identify who these patrons are.

     

    • Discussion ensued about the definition of termination and the different statuses an employee can take in that transitional period.
    • Questions were brought forward about what data Peoplesoft reads in determining these expirations.

Action: Corrie will check with Ernest about how Peoplesoft reads this information and to find a way to make it more apparent to Circulation staff when a former employee, without a borrower card, should be denied borrowing privileges.   

  • One difficulty is contacting former employees to notify them that they need to return their materials if they don’t request to keep their MU email address.

     

    • Sheryl can’t give out employee addresses, so we couldn’t contact them to ask them to return their materials.
    • MU PD could get involved by proving addresses.
    • One suggestion was to see if we could request that the Libraries be added to a checklist that terminated/ retired employees see, to remind them to return materials.
    • Sheryl could ask HR if they can provide her with a list of terminations/ retired employees so that she can cross check that with circulation records and then we can notify the members that they will need to return their materials or purchase a borrower card.

Action: Kathy will check with Matt/Jeannette about getting borrower cards at the same status as Friends of the Library memberships. 

New Items:

SCARAB search

  • First round was unsuccessful.
  • The recommendation to reopen and advertise the position again was accepted.

Engineering Librarian

  • Deb has identified Thursdays in September as interview dates.
  • They have two candidates that they would like to interview.

RAIS restructuring

  • Jeannette would like feedback on her RAIS Announcement document by the end of the week.

     

    • Feedback encouraged clarification that the selector’s role has not changed.

Phones

  • Conversion occurs tonight.
  • The telepresence room is included but one room in the subbasement is not included.
  • Two courtesy phones in tech services and the staff lounge will not be converted tonight; they are under a different plan.

Fall hours

  • The question was posed if we want to go 24-7 the three weeks before finals

     

    • Two weeks before finals was preferred, due to the difficulty in obtaining staff

Action: Shannon will ask Grace to poll student group about access during Thanksgiving Saturdays. 

Archives update

  • Archives is fully functional in Lewis Hall.
  • The basement is being abated.
  • We can put Non-exempt salary pay on the insurance reimbursement.

Action: Sheryl will provide Kathy with Michaelle and Edwin’s hours for the Insurance claim. 

Reflector

  • Ann has offered the possibility to circulate equipment and catalogue their materials.

Information About Eclipse Glasses

After watching a segment on KOMU channel 8 weather about the upcoming eclipse I learned that not all glasses made for watching the eclipse are adequate or are recommended by NASA.  Even though the glasses I brought online for viewing the eclipse and giving out at the MULSA picnic said they were 100% safe for the eclipse they are not.

The only glasses with safety guide lines must have “ISO 12312-2” printed on them only 4 companies have been approved as manufacturing safe solar eclipse glasses:  American paper optics, Rainbow symphony, thousand oaks optical, and TSE17.  Our glasses did not have this.  

Free KOMU 8 eclipse glasses can be pick up at local Dollar General Stores or the Mizzou stores is also selling eclipse glasses for $1 with proceeds going to the astronomy dept.

This and more information about the eclipse can be found on the KOMUTV weather web site.

Sorry about the phony eclipse glasses

Karen Eubanks
MULSA social co-chair

Notes from the Director

Hello everyone,

There seem to be a lot of things happening during the supposedly quiet summer this year!  I’m sorry to report that the steam tunnel work on Lowry Mall will be ongoing all year, with the est side to be torn up as soon as the work on the east side is done.  We had heard that was planned, but have confirmed it will be a mess there for a long time.

Most of you know that Ellis Library has new voice-over-IP phones.  See messages from Kathy Peters with all the details.  Change can be annoying, but the phones look shiny and new, and we don’t get things like that too often anymore!

Today I attended a meeting where we heard that the campus is planning a big event on Carnahan Quad (near the Law School and Cornell Hall) for the eclipse on August 21.  Large crowds are expected.  Free water, viewing glasses and pizza will be available.  Staff are invited.  People who can work from home or take vacation that day will want to consider those options to avoid traffic jams and difficult parking. Of course the libraries will remain open, and supervisors are asked to be flexible about allowing people to go out and watch.  The University will livestream the event, so those who wish to watch from their desks may do so.  A memo from the Provost with more details is coming out soon.

Fall semester will be on us soon.  As you all know Ellis will return to 24/5 access after Labor Day weekend.  The schedule for the new fall hours will be out next week probably.

Congratulations to the librarians who have earned promotions this year!  We will make official announcements and have time for applause for their well-deserved achievements at the August 17 all staff meeting.  Two more retirements are coming up—best wishes to Alla Barabtarlo (Aug. 15 or so) and Barb Jones (October) as they transition.

Budget news as usual is not good.  The governor is holding funds back due to lowered revenue projections, and the reallocation funds we hoped for from the Provost to help with our collections cuts will not be coming.  We still have no firm news on salary planning for next year either, but that should be out soon also. I am still committed to trying to address inequities and salary compression as best we can. 

Thanks to you all for patience and flexibility as we try to keep moving forward…

Ann

LMT Meeting Notes and Action Items 7/18/17

Next LMT Meeting Tuesday, July 25 at 1:00 p.m.

 

Attendees: Ann Campion Riley, Deb Ward, Kathy Peters, Ernest Shaw, Corrie Hutchinson, Pat Jones, Jeannette Pierce, Shannon Cary, Jacqueline Rash

Agenda Items:

Link resolver Recommendation – Attachment

  • The review group recommended we not renew 360 Link and implement Full Text Finder within the EDS Discovery Tool:

    • They looked at and tested link resolver options.
    • The one we are using 360 Link, is about $7,000 while others are free.
    • Corrie has contacted other departments on campus that have a stake in implementing this change.
    • After implementation and set up, it is unsure how the other campuses will be affected.
    • If we move MARC records to OCLC, there may be more possibilities for overlap in workflow with the other MERLIN campuses
    • Discussion ensued about how this change could potentially affect internal employees’ job duties.

Action: Ann will contact other campus deans to obtain feedback on how this change may affect their campus. 

Action: Corrie will take it to MQCC and discuss with Abbie.

Eclipse glasses for Engineering & Journalism

Decision: LMT agrees that this is okay if they are using their departmental monies, but library monies will not be used for the purchase of eclipse glasses. 

Chancellor Wallace alternative space.

  • Chancellor Wallace would like to keep a small office space in Ellis.

    • Professor Jack Robert’s old office on 3rd floor and another faculty office was discussed as possibilities.
    • Pete can replace carpet with extra carpet squares we have.

Action: Ann will talk to Vicki and the other faculty member.

Travel Funding

  • Conference registrations are open which stimulated discussion about how to allocate the $25,000 of travel funds.
  • Kathy reported that we might be able to use $35,000 from Special Events fund to supplement travel.

    • However, we will have to use $10,000 of that Special Events money for Library Society.
    • Therefore, we have a total of $50,000 to use for FY18 travel.
  • LMT will need to know the scope of possible travel so that judgement calls can be made for approvals.

    • Conferences, meetings, professional development, trainings and webinars, frequency of travel, presenters vs. attendees and librarian status need to be taken into consideration.
    • We could ask people to submit proposals.

      • Sept 1 is deadline to submit FY18 travel proposals.
    • We need employees to figure expected travel amounts for their proposals so that we follow University guidelines for travel.

      • We can no longer give a blanket amount of funds for any persons to be used for travel.

Action: Corrie will develop a supplemental proposal form with additional questions that will add a narrative to the Request for Travel.

Action: Kathy will send out a list of approved travel for FY17.

Student Budgets

  • GLA positions are 9-month assignments, but some GLA’s are asked to work 12 months. The additional cost per student is $5,500.
  • Noah wants to deduct the cost from the regular student budget now so that FY18 appointments will reflect 12 months of pay, instead of 9 months, to better reflect actual practice.

Decision: Proceed with request. 

Assessment Committee – Attachment

  • The committee recommends that we move from a functionally representative committee to a smaller team.

    • Jeannette plans to chair the team.
    • As a team, they will put out a call when they are working on a project and inquire for input from ExOfficio members.
    • Will want to use News Hub for updates and sharing information.
    • Committee has a Sharepoint site with documents for viewing.

Decision: All are in favor of proposed change to Assessment Committee.

Building, Maintenance & Security

  • Dehumidifier HSL/ rotations

    • Michaelle is requesting a dehumidifier for the special collections area in HSL.

      • Discussion ensued about the size, flooring, and drainage capabilities of this space in order to obtain the most efficient product.
    • The rotating dehumidifiers we have are all being used.
    • Michaelle will need to let Jacqueline know what product she wants.
  • Panic Buttons

    • Testing will occur tomorrow morning.
    • Pat handed out a guidelines:

      • ACC is notified first, they call MUPD, then ACC calls Pat, Pat alerts the security staff.Pat will follow up with library staff about the incident.

Decision: A verbal code was created so that when ACC is calling back and the person who pushed the panic button cannot verbally relay the threat at the time, ACC will know the threat is real. 

Action: Pat will create a schedule for each department to be tested. 

  • Phones are in the building, they will be installed on the 25th.

New item:

Provost office contacted Ann that all promotions went through.

Library Hours

  • The question was brought up whether or not we will close at 5:00 p.m. at Thanksgiving like last year or keep new 7:00 p.m. hours.

Clarification: We will keep new hours, which close at 7:00 p.m. November 20-22.

Action: Jeannette will check with Circulation about the hours they are keeping for the new fall hours. 

  • Shannon emailed with two versions of library hours poster layout.

Decision: The “B” version with regular fall hours at the top was preferred.

Next Meeting:

Recorded Sound spaces

HR Guidelines GRA

Staff Advisory Group 7/13/17

1.) General announcements & introductions: Kevin McFillen

  • Guest Speaker: Dr. Angela Speck, unable to attend due to sickness.

2.) Director’s report: Ann Campion Riley

  • Ann has been working with donors for new digital media commons.
  • James Keyzer-Andre managed the depositories and recently passed.
  • James B. Nutter recently passed; Matt Gaunt represented University Libraries at his funeral in Kansas City yesterday.
  • Ann hopes her new title reflects an understanding on behalf of the campus of the importance of the role that the Libraries provide for campus support.Library director and dean positions are still the titles used for our other system campus libraries.
  • We will be looking at updating titles for LMT members as a result and these title adjustments will be more in line with our ARL status.
  • Ann’s new title allows her to represent the libraries at Vice Provost meetings.
  • We do have a small raise pool to work with salary equities. We are waiting to hear from HR, concerning their salary and wage guidelines, if we are able to give raises.
  • New Chancellor Alexander Cartwright starts August 1st.President Choi’s family is moving to Providence Point this month as well.
  • Thank you to Nöel for being our acting engineering librarian and Cindy for being our acting head of access services.
  • Library Committees hope to be approved at LMT on Friday.
  • Information Commons has new furniture in the Gov. Docs area.Chairs with arms will be replaced with additional chairs with no arms allowing them to slide under the new tables easily.
  • Please feel free to make the following considerations for working on Monday, August 21st, the day of the Eclipse and first day of the fall session: travel to and from work expecting heavier than normal traffic, working from home with the approval of your supervisor or taking personal days, if desired.

3.) Update on Lewis Hall water damage:

  • Anselm explained the water damage, showed pictures of the extent of flooding and answered questions about the situation.A power outage caused the expansion joint to bust when the power came back on.Flooding extended through 8 floors in Lewis Hall.The rooms in the basement remained at 67 degrees and 45% humidity and allowed us to move some items therein.If possible, record boxes were returned to the Records Center. Those boxes with water damage were evaluated and either placed in the Ellis Library 3rd floor freezer or sent for confidential destruction. Those records which were destroyed had been previously appraised and been determined to not be of archival value. The records that were placed in the freezer will be vacuum freeze-dried at a later date.They estimate a 10-14 day drying period so we will look to middle of next week when employees can move back into the building.Thank you to Michaelle Dorsey for her ample assistance to manage and preserve materials.We are currently taking patron requests and reference questions at this time through normal channels.It may take one additional day to retrieve materials for patrons but requests are still being filled.Thank you for everyone across campus who has offered help in dealing with this situation.Risk management came in on Saturday to assess the damage. Freeze drying work will be done with our insurance reserve and the insurance company will reimburse us for those expenditures later in the year.Anselm considers the possibility for moving Archives permanently out of Lewis Hall only if the collection will be housed in a better more secure environment.There is an idea that when the State Historical Society moves out of Ellis, that Archives would get some of that space.Then the question would be if that space meets archival standards and what it would take to bring the space up to these standards.Although Lewis and Clark is on Campus Operations’ list for re-evaluation, despite the flooding, other buildings on campus are in worse shape.

4.) HR Updates, upcoming events: Sheryl Cullina

  • Engineering Librarian phone interviews started yesterday.
  • Library Info Assistant Circulation and Reserves position is accepting applications until 7/21/17.
  • Two evening Library Info Assistant positions are open in HSL.
  • The Staff Development Incentive Program is up and running.If you do professional development activities found on lib guide, staff employee website, please email Sheryl for a raffle ticket.http://libraryguides.missouri.edu/staffincentive
  • Please attend the upcoming HR peoplesoft 9.2 training sessions.Contact Noah if you can’t make the training.

5.) Chair closing remarks: Kevin McFillen

All Staff Meeting: August 17 at 2:00 p.m.

Staff Advisory Group: September 7 at 10:00 a.m.

Kate Wright is new Vice Chair for Staff Advisory Committee.