Library Executive Council
Meeting Minutes
September 12, 2006
10:00 a.m. - 12 noon
Present: Baughman, Lowry (scribe), Ruschoff (timekeeper), Schreibman, Vikor, Williams, Wray (facilitator)
Guests: Carignan, Epps, Hess, Newsome, Koutsky, Todd
Topic: Welcome Desk in McKeldin
Outcome: The role and scope of the WD was reviewed and affirmed to include safety issues related to security, theft, and food; provision of directional information; and presenting a welcoming face to the public. The discussion surfaced key issues that have inhibited the full functioning of the WD over time, including the volunteer staffing model, training of staff and design of the space. The issue of locus of responsibility for the WD was raised and it was agreed that wherever responsibility is assigned, resources would be needed to support the work. It was decided that a comprehensive review of the WD was needed, but that in the short-term $20,672 will be added to the L&A to better staff the WD. Wray, Epps, Todd, Williams and Hess will meet to develop a strategy for using these funds to staff the WD. It was agreed that the physical layout would be reviewed by SPAT consulting with Wray, Epps and Todd and that recommendations would be brought to LEC on a physical reconfiguration that would make better use of staff in fulfilling the WD functions. Wray and Lowry will prepare a charge for SPAT.
Topic: Pop-ups
- Outcome: Williams requested administrative travel for Love to attend the USM Conference on Diversity. n allocation of $75 was approved.
- Outcome: Lowry circulated an announcement of a Data Retention Conference ahead of the meeting. It was agreed that the content did not suggest UM Libraries participation.
- Outcome: Wray asked for initial discussion and advice concerning the Landsat data comprised of over 20,000 CDs received from NASA by the UM Global Land Cover Facility, Institute for Advanced Computing Studies to the UM Libraries. At present we have not formally accepted the gift, but agreed last year to “hold” the collection. Wray will investigate what “acceptance” might mean in terms of obligations to provide access. Wray, Vikor, Todd, Ricker and Van Sant will meet to explore management of the collection and formal acceptance. We will allow UMIACS to proceed with a project to ingest the data from the disks, but will not at this time try to expand the project to develop an access system by means such as extracting the metadata form the CDs. No immediate effort to provide access is needed since there appear to be open websites providing this kind of data.
Topic: Announcements
- Lowry reminded LEC that he would be in NYC with Howell and Henry on Thursday attending the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation Gala, an annual fund raiser.
- Baughman announced the second pilot of the Leadership Practices Inventory is underway. Baughman, Love and Saponaro are working with a group of nine staff to test this assessment tool for possible utility on a wider scale in the Libraries.
Topic: Agenda for September 19 Meeting
Outcome: Topics were identified.
- Review/update on budget w/ guest Denise Wright
- Revisit Big-Ticket requests to make additional decisions on expenditures w/ guest Denise Wright
