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

Hello everyone,

This afternoon I have a few bits of news to report.

Most of you know that our combination administrative and fiscal staff person in Ellis 104, Jacqueline Rash, is back from her maternity leave. (Her son Anderson was born April 1).  We are delighted to have her back.

With her return, our temporary staffer, Tom Barnes, is moving.  Fortunately, he has accepted the position formerly occupied  by Kathy Peters as the accounting person in Technical Services, so he will be moving to Ellis 56 in June.

In other news,  Freddy Martinez-Garcia has accepted a new position at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, and will be leaving us at the end of June.  I know you all join me in wishing him well in his work there.  Cindy Cotner will be helping out in supervising Access Services for the immediate future.  Thanks to her for her flexibility.

We are getting a new librarian as well.  Joseph Askins, currently of the University of South Carolina, will join us in early August as the new Head of Instruction in RAIS.   Searches are ongoing for the Engineering Librarian and Asst./Assoc. Director for SCaRaB, and I hope to have good news to report on those searches this fall.

Many of us were able to see Michaelle Dorsey receive her Chancellor’s Award for Excellence on Monday.  She spoke well, and made the Libraries look good at the ceremony!  I hope we can have a library staff member nominated every year, and win again, but it will be very difficult to exceed Michaelle’s excellence.  Congratulations to her again, and thanks to all who participated.

You may have seen the invitation to the Friends of the Libraries event on June 16.  It’s a fundraiser of course; all are welcome to buy a ticket and attend.  Contact Sheila Voss with questions.

The Libraries seem to have made it through the budget process, as we have discussed earlier, and I’m still hopeful we’ll get a little increase to offset the huge cuts to collections funds.

In good news, the Health Sciences Library’s new furniture is here, and the new chairs for the Info Commons in Ellis will be coming early June.

Some of you know that I will be on vacation for the next two weeks.  Acting Director will move between Deb Ward and Jeannette Pierce primarily, but in general call the office (2-9161) if there’s a need and Jacqueline will sort it out.

Happy Memorial Day weekend to all as we honor those who have served our country.

Thanks to all for what you do, as usual,

Ann

 

 

 

Hello everyone,

Sunny and 75 degrees—looks like spring is really here.  Graduation isn’t far behind, and we can hope for a peaceful and not-too-hot summer.

Some questions have come my way since our last budget forum, so I thought it would be best to answer them for everyone. The first question is, “why are we going ahead with searches when we are in a budget crunch?”  The answer to that one is that we have to try to maintain our core activities and keep pursuing our first library goal, of being more central to instruction and research, even with a decreased budget.  We are emphasizing outreach and having librarians working with faculty and students. That explains how important it is to fill the Engineering Librarian position and the Head of Instruction positions. 

The Assistant Director for Special Collections, Archives and Rare Books (SCARaB) can be an important position for outreach also, but more importantly that position has been re-designed to also have Digital Services and Preservation responsibilities, as well as having the emphasis of the position shifted from Archives to Special Collections.  Our second library goal is “To assure the quality, diversity and preservation of our library collections for the campus and the wider academic community.”  The Special Collections areas of research libraries are to a great extent what distinguish one library collection from another.  Many libraries have the same general resources we do, all purchased from the same vendors.  What other libraries don’t have is the unique things we have in all the areas of SCARaB.  What we do with those resources, and how we preserve and digitize all of our unique holdings, are essential parts of the mission of a research library.  Some may argue that those functions are less important than serving our science researchers, but I disagree, as would most of our humanities faculty on campus, and most librarians across the academic world.  Rare books tend to attract attention and big donors, two things our libraries need more of, as well as being the icons that excite and attract students to more traditional humanities studies and book arts.  I don’t have to tell you all how important digital projects are to the future of libraries, and how much we need to more forward from the days of microfilm. These are all reasons that the SCARaB position is a high priority to fill in our current situation.  The area has much unrealized potential, and we need a leader to move it forward.  We cannot afford not to develop our rare and special collections, and we cannot afford not to move more aggressively in digitization.

Another question that has come forward is “Why are we not talking about furloughs rather than losing more staff positions?”  That is a harder question; the HR people say furloughs are very expensive to implement, and don’t save enough money to justify all the extra work they create.  Problems arise with leave accrual, bargaining unit contracts, health coverage etc.   One administrator describes them as “morale-destroyers” that are exceptionally rough on employees that are on the lesser end of the pay scales.  Other states also report that furloughs caused more trouble than they were worth. So currently, MU is not looking at them for cost savings.

A comment, rather than a question, that often comes up is “Why is this happening? We need to fire all the administrators!  Or cut everyone’s pay until they ___________ (fill in the blank)”  I think we’ve seen in the last few years that firing administrators can actually cause more confusion and make things worse, and based on their contracts, may not even save money.  So while reducing the number of administrators can work, extreme measures in this area also don’t really fix anything.

We have to keep moving toward our goals and maintaining our collection for future students and researchers whatever our resources.  We’ve had bad times before, and we have to get through this round the best that we can.  The Libraries will still be here in 100 more years and we want them to reflect good decisions on our part.  What will they say about us?  I can just imagine a sentence in the next library history about the “mid-twenty-first century financial struggles.”

Thanks for all your hard work and dedication as we go through yet another round of budget cuts.  Keep your questions coming!

Ann

Warm weather today for February!  Every day without a blizzard is a gift this time of year.

The weather is good but the budget news is bad.  Most of you have heard that the new governor will keep back some funds for MU and other colleges this fiscal year.  He has also proposed a 9% cut to higher education in the new fiscal year.  We knew about the state budget shortfall, so this is not unexpected, and I know we all understand the need to make hard choices, but it is still discouraging.

On the other hand, I learned that the library made about $14,000 from July to December in 2016 from the BookMark Café, and most of you will have noticed its new look and new furniture.  A nice grant from the Student Fee Capital Improvement Committee and a few thousand more from the Libraries’ Admin budget to help with the electrical work made it possible. Tomorrow at 10 am is a grand re-opening celebration in the Café, so stop by for free coffee and doughnuts. 

Also tomorrow is the first meeting of the Library Assembly replacement, the Staff Advisory Group at 2 pm in Ellis 114A.  The new group is sort of a committee-of-the-whole, informal all staff meeting in a town hall style, and I hope many of you will attend.  Noah Hartsfield is the first chair/convener, and I will be there to give a report and take questions. Others will report, too, on many interesting matters.  Open communication is always important, and I think helps us all, especially when budgets are tight.

Most of you know we have several searches to fill vacancies from retirements and changes going on, and we will have an update on those at the meeting as well as in NewsNotes.  My next meeting on selling the Doughty bird collection is Wednesday morning, and I still hope to get them sold in the new few months.

Many people have been out with flu and colds, so I hope you all are staying healthy!

Ann

Hello everyone,

This morning I have lots of changes to announce.  Just as our weather is changing from summer to fall finally, we are having to do some organizational changes– re-assignment of responsibility– as a result of Mike Holland’s retirement.  Mike’s last day is Nov. 23, the day before Thanksgiving.  Starting that day,  Special Collections and Rare Books will report to Jeannette Pierce, as will Digital Services.  Archives will report directly to me, and Anselm Huelsbergen will be the acting University Archivist and supervisor of Archives.  To make responsibilities more equitable across the Library Management Team (LMT) members,  most of the specialized libraries (Geology, Engineering, Journalism, along with Vet Med) will report to Deb Ward. Judy Maseles will also report to Deb for Judy’s web role.  The Missourian will continue to report to Dorothy Carner, and Math will continue to report to Engineering.  Org charts with the new structure will go out soon and updated online after the Thanksgiving break.

These changes will probably be in effect for nine months or so as we hope to search for a new position to replace Mike soon.  LMT continues to discuss the best library structure for the future, as libraries everywhere continue to change, and we at MU face budget challenges that are expected to continue for at least a few more years.  Filling crucial positions and maintaining funding for them must be a priority.  Note that we will soon be advertising for a Technical Services Librarian, to address crucial vacancies in ACTS. ( Also, for everyone, I have no news about the future of my interim role or any title change for the head of libraries but am hopeful those issues will be addressed next semester if not before.)

Another change, that will be invisible to most of you, is that the MERLIN libraries are going to be a standalone cluster of MOBIUS, just as St. Louis U and Washington U. in St. Louis have been.  This has been under discussion for a long time. The new structure of that will start July 1, 2017.  I’ll give more details on that as they occur.  Corrie Hutchinson and Ernest Shaw are on the task force working on transition.

Improved communication inside the libraries and a higher profile for the libraries on campus continue to be my highest priorities.  We must have no communication silos within the libraries; reporting relationships should never impede communication.  Rather, we all have to communicate freely with people for work questions and ideas, being careful to include all those involved. Sometime mistakes occur in communications, and we cannot take them personally.  (Many of you have heard one of my favorite sayings, “Never mistake for malevolence that which can be attributed to incompetence.” In our environment, I’d add “overwork” as we all as have too much to do at times.)  Team work and open communication are essential.  All are encouraged to come to meetings of our new staff council group and ask questions if you have them.  Lots of conversations are ongoing about space and renovations, and I’ll share news as I have it.

As ever,
Ann

 

Hello everyone,

This week, the week after Labor Day, seems like the time students decide, “OK, now it’s REALLY fall,” and get back to work.  It’s great to see the students fill the libraries all over campus again.  Of course, someone pointed out that we’ve had a lot of rainy weather this week, which makes them come inside, so maybe it’s not just a renewed urge to study.

Thanks to all who participated in interviews for our new fiscal officer.  I’m delighted to announce that Kathy Peters has accepted the position.  Since she is in the acting role already, we hope for a smooth transition.  Kathy’s degree in Business, many years of financial and supervisory experience, and her cheerful personality combined to make her a great choice, and I hope you all will join me in congratulating her on her new role. She’s a positive addition to the Library Management Team.

Work on renovation of Ellis 202 and 114 is almost complete.  I hope you can take a look and see how much those rooms have improved.  Changes continue at the Health Sciences Library also, and they have front row seats for the new construction of the School of Medicine’s new facility.

Sheryl reports that voting closes today on the future of Library Assembly.  If you haven’t voted, please do.  Currently option 2 on the ballot appears to be in the lead.  That’s the one suggesting open staff meetings quarterly or as needed with only a few officers being elected, and all welcome to attend.  Sheryl also has sent out some revised library policies.  Since we don’t have a group to look these over at the moment besides LMT, that seemed like the best way to let you all know about them.

Next week Grace A. will convene the first University Library Student Advisory Council meeting of this year, and I am working with the new chair, Todd Ruppar, a faculty member in Nursing, to set up the first campus Library Committee meeting of the year for that predominantly faculty group.  Work continues on our big journal cut, which I know will interest everyone.  Reaching out to our campus community continues to be a high priority.  Gaining additional funding depends a lot on having more people understand the value of what we do.

Other than that, I think I’ve already mentioned that over Thanksgiving Break the BookMark Café will get a bit of a makeover, funded by Student Fee Capital Improvement Committee funds.

As always, feel free to email me with questions or concerns.

Thanks for all you do to serve our users, and for getting the fall off to a good start.

Ann

Hello everyone,

Despite the hot weather and vacations, all of us are carrying on this summer, getting ready for the fall semester to begin as we finish up the current session next week.  It does seem to me like Columbia is getting emptier by the day now,  but of course we know it will soon start filling up again.

LMT has been meeting and making some progress on decisions related to our budget situation.  Most of you know that Ellis Library will be closing most days at midnight starting in the fall semester.   I know students will not be happy, but we have to cut back.  Ellis will also be imposing a food and drink policy again, banning open containers and all but dry snack food throughout the building.  Details will be shared more widely soon, along with copies of the new policy. Thanks to all who worked on it.

Thanks also to all who worked on moving materials out of Ellis 304 due to humidity issues. Alla, Tim, Kelly, Suzy, Dan and others all get kudos for their quick work.

Committees also change over the summer, and Sheryl is working on finishing volunteer and other committee assignments.  These should be finalized by the first week of August. One committee undergoing change is the CSC, Collection Steering Committee.  Deb Ward and Mike Holland are coming on the committee, and Anne Barker and Dianne Johnson are going off.  The current Library Assembly structure has been under discussion and may well be going away, with possibly another communication and advisory group in its place.  Watch for your chance to have input on the options in the next few weeks.  The library administration established the group some years ago now, and most people wanted to end it last year. The communications audit indicated it be abolished then, too. Last July  I asked the elected leaders to try for one more year, but I will not do that again.

Our handyman Al is also leaving the Libraries next week.  LMT will be discussing how to handle the work he did. I hear the temporary reference librarian search is ongoing, and the search for the new library business officer closes Aug. 8.  Ellen Blair’s last day is July 27.

The MERLIN Libraries now have a task force on issues related to moving to being a stand-alone customer for our ILS.  Ernest and Corrie are on from MU.  No word yet from MOBIUS on what their plans are but we continue to stay in touch with them on it.  Once again, we do not anticipate this being a significant change for most functions as we will still be on Sierra.

In more cheerful news, Campus Facilities will be putting a new white ceiling, new paint on the walls, and new window blinds in Ellis 114, along with new paint and new blinds in Ellis 202.  We are not sure of the timing of the work yet but will of course avoid busy study times.  The Bookmark Café will be getting new, replaced chairs and additional outlets probably over Thanksgiving Break, funded from the Student Fee Capital Improvement Committee.

I hope you all have your calendars marked for 2 pm on Thursday August 18 for the all staff meeting in Ellis Auditorium.  We will have several guest speakers, a budget report, and discussion of the revised mission, goals and objectives.  I’ve asked the division heads to submit objectives developed with discussions by the week before.  I hope all of you will participate in the objective formation.  Thanks to all who came to the open forums!  Don’t forget to email me if you have additional comments.

Ann

Hello everyone,

We have lots of news today, starting with an update on openings and searches.

First of all, most of you know we are and have been having some retirements.  Trenton Boyd, Goodie Bhullar, Jim Cogswell, Nina Johnson and Shelley Worden are all moving on to that stage this summer, along with Ellen Blair and Steve Hammer.  Esther Schnase moved to Texas, and we have had some other staff move on previously this year.  Most of you know we have to be very cautious with our funds and fill only essential positions.  Currently we have some searches open or just closed, for a temporary reference librarian, a fiscal officer, a senior library specialist/circulation supervisor, and another senior library specialist in cataloging, our new UMLD supervisor Kevin McFillen (who has been here a week or so) as well as a library specialist for Journalism. You will see new names announced soon, and we will have quite a few introductions at the all staff meeting in August.  We have a temporary assistant in Ellis 104 named Whitney Sevy, and she has been with us since summer school began.  That position won’t be filled until we hire the new fiscal officer, as it will be combined with the fiscal assistant position.  Sandy Schiefer has been working part-time in the Missourian Library. Some of these have been announced previously, but having them all together is helpful.  I hope I haven’t left anyone out.

In other exciting news, we have ordered a self-checkout machine that I hope will be in before fall semester.  Final location is not yet determined. (Tell Jeannette or Freddy if you have a suggestion.)

This week the Library Assembly met, and discussed its future.  Watch for some open meetings to talk about that, probably by the end of July.  As a reminder to all, attendance at meetings like these are important, and I know supervisors understand that and will encourage employees to participate as scheduling allows.

In early July I have scheduled two open forums to talk about the Libraries’ mission, vision, goals and objectives.  They will be Wednesday, July 13, 10-11am and Thursday July 14, 2:30-3:30 pm in 114A. You will see invitations to them soon; as usual you only need to attend one of them.  Attached to the invitation will be the draft documents LMT has produced.  I hope you will take a look at them so we can have good discussion about the Libraries’ future directions.

In my last two messages I have talked a bit about the MERLIN-MOBIUS situation.  Note that if we do become a stand-alone cluster of MERLIN, almost nothing will change as far as working with the system.  Most people will not be affected at all. We will plan to re-fill a professional cataloger position to address loading records and related tasks as needed. The big change is in the contracts and finances. We will still have the MERLIN cluster and catalog, Sierra, Inn-reach, etc. and the changes would be after July 2017.  The decision should be made by Nov. 1, 2016, but until then there is little to discuss at the operational level.  We stand to save several hundred thousand dollars by making a change in our contract and MOBIUS bills; we are not doing this lightly, and we are mindful of our state-wide mission.  It’s been under discussion for years, as I’ve said before, and negotiations are currently underway, so please don’t share this beyond the UM/MU Libraries.  Nothing is certain yet but our need to save money.

Our wonderful Campus Library Committee Chair, Assoc. Professor of Religious Studies Rabia Gregory, will not be continuing as Chair next year. She has many pressing research and writing projects, and needs to concentrate on them.  We all look forward to learning who the new Chair will be, as that person will be leading the group through our major cuts in collections spending taking effect this fall. 

Next week I will be gone to the annual ALA conference, and then I am taking vacation the week of July 4.  Mike Holland will be acting director most of the time, ably backed up by Corrie Hutchinson.  Jeannette and Deb will also be gone much of that time for vacations and family obligations.  I hope it is a quiet two weeks!

I know you all join me in mourning the tragedies in Orlando in the last weeks.  Chancellor Foley sent out a message to the University community, and I think he did pretty well.

Thanking you all for your hard work, as always,

Ann

 

 

 

Hello everyone,

At yesterday’s  MOBIUS membership meeting, the MERLIN cluster (the four UM campus libraries, at Columbia, Kansas City, St. Louis and Rolla) made an important announcement in regards to our approach to MOBIUS.  We made a strong statement of support for MOBIUS, and we affirmed our intention to participate in this important consortium.   However, we also stated that our ability to pay more than market rate for an ILS has ended.    A final decision regarding the transition of MERLIN to a stand-alone cluster has not been made.  We will be working closely with MOBIUS in order to determine how best to move forward.  A few months ago, I sent out a message to all of you about this, telling you that MERLIN was going to be renegotiating with MOBIUS, as you probably remember, as a response to our financial issues and to be good stewards of university funds.

I have heard through the MOBIUS rumor mill that an announcement was made yesterday that MERLIN will be withdrawing from MOBIUS.  This, of course, was not what was said, but I predicted some people might jump to that incorrect conclusion.  So please help stop this rumor if someone repeats it to you.  MERLIN remains committed to state-wide cooperation and fully participation in MOBIUS.  MOBIUS may have to change and update itself a bit more, just as all its members do.

Thankfully summer appears to be starting peacefully otherwise.  So far our Collections Steering Committee (CSC) has been working hard on plans for our big cuts in acquisitions of both serials and monographs in this coming fiscal year that starts in July.  We owe the CSC a big round of thanks for the very difficult work they have undertaken.  This work will help us avoid further staff reductions, so thank them  (Jeannette, Corrie, Rhonda, Anne B., Diane J. and Alla) if you get a chance.  They are also working to communicate with faculty and get as much input as possible to help us make decisions.

In exciting news, renovations to the Bookmark Café and painting (not behind the books) in Room 202 should be starting soon.  Also, some replacement carpet has been laid on the third floor walkway overlooking 201, and few more spots may get some sprucing up, too.

LMT meets for part 2 of our retreat soon, and Library Assembly meets next week to ponder its future and consider how best to keep trying to improve the Libraries’ internal communication. One way to improve communication is of course to communicate with others around you, and people whose work may be affected by yours.  We can all work together to improve communication, and really, that’s the only thing that works in the long run.

Ann

Hello everyone,

Congratulations to Pat Jones, PT Martin and all the ESFAC members on the success of their proposal to the Student Fee Capital Improvements Committee for expanded seating and other improvement to the BookMark Café!   The café will receive $50,000 in improvements due to their efforts!  Students will really benefit.

The other budget news is still not good, with a 5% cut overall. We still hope the state legislators will reconsider their cuts to MU by the end of their session in early May.  Please try to come to one of the open forums on the Libraries’ budget; details went out this week.  There are two sessions, so we accommodate most schedules, I hope.

The other bad news is the Chancellor’s announcement of a hiring freeze.  I’ve reported on that to Library Assembly and MULAC.  Watch NewsNotes for a summary, and bring questions to the open forums.  You will see an ad out soon for the supervisor of the offsite depositories. This position has been vacant since Brian Cain left, and we need to fill it for health and safety reasons. It has been re-classed to a non-library title, to better suit the warehouse aspect of the work.

LMT will be working on goals for the Libraries later this spring, and we will be sharing them will all staff.

Campus Facilities will be working in Room 202 over Spring Break to take down the temporary offices (that have been in the south end of the room for years) and painting in 202 in planned for this summer.  Room 114 is scheduled to get some new blinds.  These are needed improvements, and I know we all welcome them.

I’m off to talk to the Illinois ACRL meeting tomorrow, but will be here next week.  See you soon,

Ann