DEAN'S OFFICE

Library Advisory Board
Minutes

1999

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December 20, 1999

1 New Faculty LAB Representatives are David Fagerstrom and Sue Williams

2 No agenda-setting meeting was scheduled for January. 24 January is the first meeting of 2000.

3 Comments about the Dean's Address are in the attachment. Responses to these comments about the meeting:

A Fitzsimmons off-site storage. Possible policies that the Deans and Directors of CU and DU Libraries will discuss prior to further discussion at each campus:

1 Each institution will be permitted one copy of monographs

2 A library of record will be implemented for journals-based on each institution's curriculum, that particular library's file will be completed with the other's materials. Only one copy of each journal will be placed at Fitzsimmons.

B The Libraries would like for librarians to have Norlin classrooms for in-house instruction.

C TLE (Total Learning Environment) and the 'civilizing factor':

- custodial services has cleaned some vent grilles.

- the fire marshall has told us to do an electrical retro-fit to alleviate electrical loads in some areas with a new and expanded supply box. Chinook has its own supply. Present loads are not a hazard and would cause a brown-out, unlikely now.

D Staffing

- campus priority is for new faculty salary lines and hires.

- the Libraries has requested three FTE for Systems, contrary to this policy

 

4 Various chair issues were discussed

5 The archives of the LAB minutes are on the LAB page in the Libraries' Website.

- the secy sends minutes to the Webmaster for loading to this page.

6 Building concerns

A Staff lounge

- the purpose of the magazine subscriptions is to boost morale; we want to have a nice staff lounge

- the Norlin west-side planters are working well

- the directories in Norlin will be given to the Public Relations Task Force to address within the welcome desk issue.

- the self-guided tour issue will be given to the same PR Task Force

7 OCI Survey:

- a new survey will be tagged onto the 2000 Program Review

- no new OCI Committee will be formed as in 1992

- the survey will be advisory to the Dean, the LAB, and the faculty and staff

- this will re-visit and close the issue as the Dean promised

- this time a clearer instrument with better measurement capabilities will be used

8 Student Budget is overspent

- Libraries wants to implement methods that save money in this line

- the largest portion of payroll is between noon and six, p.m.

- cutting service hours will not save money

9 Repercussions for not attending CPP training: None

10 The LAB is an advisory forum to the Dean and is charged with providing leadership opportunities to staff and faculty. Curt Williams fulfilled this duty well as chair, and the Dean and the Committee thanked him for his tireless, hard work.

11 WillMaker

- problem is presently with the vendor

Respectfully submitted, Gregory R. Robl, Interim Secy., LAB

1. Was the day and time of the meeting convenient?

Yes (7)

"Usually 9am is ok. 9:30 would be better, but 9 a.m. is ok"

2. Were your concerns addressed in the meeting?

Yes (2) No (2)

"Although I was disturbed to see that the Welcome Desk is "on hold" -- why isn't this issue SERIOUSLY being discussed?

"I had a conflict & could not attend"

"Like a review of what's going on today for the library"

"I'm a new employee, so I didn't really have any particular concerns. I like knowing what's going

on in the rest of the libraries."

3. If not, what concerns do you have?

"Seeminly unfair hiring practices and promotions"

"Regarding the Fitzsimmons facility - someone at the Program Review meeting commented that we could be using 1/4 of the space if all four libraries were communicating to avoid duplication on what goes into Fitzsimmons."

4. What was the most favorable part of the meeting?

"Running out of coffee definitely wasn't a highlight as was the lack of chocolate.

"Chance to interact with other library employees."

"I enjoyed Jim's section the most. He REALLY understands the BIG picture and is able to communicate it to those who don't know it."

"the information presented, although the sweets were very good."

"nice facilities"

"Only stayed for the Dean's address"

5. What was the least favorable part of the meeting?

"My general response to the Dean's speech was negative in the sense that he has previously discussed getting classrooms out of Norlin. Nor he's done a kneejerk reaction about wanting classrooms in the library. He has also discussed the fact that in heaven people fee each other in previous speaches, and now he's talking about getting rocket books for library patrons. I did not hear him use the word "quality" once in his speech."

"repititive statements"

"none"

"Does it have to be quite so long?"

"I was sorry that Janet was unable to attend, I missed hearing why she was not at the meeting, was she sick?"

6. Additional comments:

"I would encourage you to continue these semester meetings. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Working in technical services, I don't have any contact with public services staff or patrons. I appreciate any opportunities to find out what's happening on the public front."

"It's important to meet"

"I think the big thing wrong with his vision is that although Norlin may be responsible for providing access to materials for patrons, and he may affirm the fact that we want to support the TLE which as far as I know, no one else is taking it seriously, He always seems to ignore the fact that the initial mission of any university is to provide a civilizing factor for the students who go here. I don't see this anywhere in the actions of the President, the Board of Regents or the Dean, when they do things like relegate custodial Services attemptos to regulate bicyclists or skateboarders. Consequently as a small person, every time I try to go out any where on campus. I always almost get repeatedly run over by either a skateboarder or a bicyclist. The way I see it, life is just getting rougher and meaner here every day

To get back to the custodial service, we're lucky if I see a custodial person in the unit once a week, and I come in very early. In addition, I have never, ever seen the ventilation openings cleaned in the almost four years that I've been here. This is something that not even a McDonald's restaurant would tolerate. People in our department especially me have been having problems with book dust in dealing with old books, and I have been told that Shelving Unit no longer vacuums the shelves. In addition, I was told by (name removed, ed.) that he had repeatedly contacted FacMan about getting the washers fixed in our leaky faucet near preservation.

I myself probably do more in Norlin than most people toward alleviating these conditions somewhat in that I try to paint over the graffitti in some of the men's rooms that I can access. I also remove it. I was given approval to do this after years about railing at (name removed, ed.) and (name removed, ed.) about the situation. My training as an anthropologist suggested to me that if the graffitti was removed graffitti then the students would post less graffitti. Secondly, by leaving graffitti, it allows the restrooms to be used as a community forum for generally very crude conversations about how people hat homosexuals or CU. As I expected, I discovered that if graffitti is cleaned up immediately less graffittis is generated if the students know that it will be removed immediately.

My other response to the Dean's speech is that he has mentioned that he wants to hire an electronics information bibliographer ignoring the fact that Preservation has been without ahead for over a year. I also think that departments should be examined in terms of desired workflow and turnover time, when I started at Preservation we were behind but I helped bring down turnover time to a week but since then our load has more than doubled and I think that we could use another fulltime position to alleviate the workload.

Finally, I think that if Science Library is moving out of Norlin in a couple years that we should use some of the vacated space as a student lounge, if the Dean is now insiting that he wants classrooms in thebuilding. In addition, it should have a coffee machine, and other vending machines.

I didn't write the following. It's from the Technical Services Division Meeting survey. It expresses the opinions of many of us who work in either cataloging <"the mine"> or M150 <"the dungeon">

*Regarding, workplace environments, I think health issues should be addressed here as well. Many of us are in areas where dust, dirt, cobwebs, poor lighting, etc. have become permanent states of existence. In the handful of years I've been here, I have only seen the vents, grates and air ducts cleaned once. The thick cobwebs on the non-existent light fixtures are older than many of the books housed in the basement. Technical Services is subjected to the heavy diesel fumes of the traffic on the road and sidewalks constantly driving by the air vents. Smoke from the west entrance is a constant irritant as it is sucked down the air vents into Cataloging and the bathrooms. Preservations suffers air ventilation problems having no windows as a backup. Constant flooding during Colorado's monsoon season, has many walls bowing and drywall rotting. Basic maintenance and upkeep can't be too much to ask for.

*Safety issues spring to mind here. How safe is the electrical system in the TS North? Every time we plug something in, we have to cross our fingers that we aren't going to blow a fuse. If we turn on a fan, the power drain is reflected on our computer screens by causing the screen to jump with the fan rotations. We know when someone comes or goes because when they turn on or off their computers, they drain every one's computer power momentarily. How safe can that sort of electrical system be?"