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Meeting Minutes February 17, 2003

1 p.m. in L109b

A G E N D A

• Organization Chart and Duties
• Mission Statement
• Distribution and Explanation of Data Tables

Organization Chart and Duties

Mark handed out today’s Agenda, the revised Pyramid (which now includes students), and the library’s organization chart. The organization chart now shows each person’s staff definition, i.e., full time, half time, etc.

Bob Hansen again pointed out that he has a hard time understanding why the library’s organization chart is weighted so heavily towards two people: the Technical Services Librarian and the Circulation Desk Coordinator. It was pointed out that the other librarians do reference and handle a lot of one-on-one teaching.

Pat Philbin explained how the system worked before Mark started in July. Each of the librarians did have a section of Technical Services reporting to them:

• John Anagnostopoulos – Circulation
• Dave Kohut – Periodicals
• Ursula Zyzik – Interlibrary Loan
• Technical Services Librarian – Book Processing and Cataloging
• Library Director - Acquisitions

She said it’s two different schools of thought as to how to run Technical Services.

Anita thought that for the size of our library, it was an advantage to group all Technical Services operations under one unit.

Anita had handouts describing the responsibilities of staff in Technical Services. She briefly went through the descriptions. She said her position requires an MLS degree. The other positions require no degree and could be learned with “on-job training.”

Pat Philbin said someone off the street could not be hired and expected to do the job. Even the terminology is very technical, and there are many systems to learn. Previous library experience is necessary.

Mark pointed out that this past summer the library converted to a new library database. Right now we are learning as “we go along.”

Pat said, actually staff are doing two jobs – their normal job plus learning another system. It’s very stressful.

Mark said we have been looking at outsourcing. We will look at our options and see what is the most cost-efficient way of doing things.

Judy Christie, Circulation Desk Coordinator, handed out a description of how the Circulation Desk operates. She went on to say her position is a very stressful one, and when she is not in the Library, she is on call as long as the library is open. She receives calls at home, and there have been times when she has had to come back to the campus.

Mission Statement

Anita and Dave have been working on the library’s mission statement, and a draft version of the new statement was handed out. In doing this new mission statement, they looked at the University’s strategic initiatives and at mission statements of other schools located across the nation. The mission statement includes six goals. (See draft copy for goals listed.)

Bob Hansen questioned what #3 meant: Provide reference services and a program of instruction that will help empower independent inquiry. Dave answered that referred to Bibliographic Instruction.

Since Bea Julian is the library’s Bibliographic Instruction Coordinator, she continued the discussion regarding the question. She went on to say that the core activity of the program is to provide class-related instruction in the use of information resources. She said that developing competency in evaluating resources varies dependent upon the level of the course and the amount of time available for instruction. She passed out several handouts (draft B.I. for the Library Strategic Plan document, Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, Services for SXU Faculty, Bibliographic Instruction at Saint Xavier University, and a copy of the letter sent to all faculty regarding library instruction) regarding the bibliographic instruction at SXU. Bea’s comments come directly from the draft copy of the B.I. Instruction Program. Please refer to that handout.

John Eber pointed out that it is very difficult for a professor give up an hour of class time for library instruction. Bea said, therefore, several other options are being looked at for the future, i.e., a one-hour credit course in library instruction or maybe an online tutorial that would be integrated with the Blackboard courses. Mark said he thought that the students that need the instruction the most would not do it, and those that don’t need it would take advantage of it.

Bob Hansen pointed out that it is an uphill battle to get faculty to take advantage of services.

It was pointed out that the biggest problem is how to teach the students to use the databases. The librarians discourage having just a tour of the library. Library instruction could be better coordinated if it was part of the classroom syllabus or if there was a dedicated teaching lab. Mark would like to see a teaching lab in the library.

Mark said the Vice President has a copy of all the syllabuses, and he would like to see them. He would like to find out who assigns a research paper. Who uses Bibliographic Instruction?

Anita thought that if a professor assigns a research paper, then there is an urgency to use the library. She used the example of Dr. Rabe’s art classes where use of the library is required.

John Eber said we should be careful assigning the term “research paper” to an assignment. Bea said it depends on the discipline.

Bob Hansen said the most obvious place to have Bibliographic Instruction would be English 102. Bea said it is not required, but most do. The use of the library has dropped dramatically.

Dave mentioned how library instruction used to be a part of the Transitions for transfer students but in the last two years the library component has been made optional.

Mark went on to say that for many students “research” is going to Google and cutting and pasting. However, this is not only our library’s problem. All libraries are having this problem.

Bob felt that #5 on the draft Mission Statement, Provide opportunities for staff development with the aim of improving Library services, should not be part of a Mission statement.

It was agreed that Anita and Dave would make further revisions to the Mission Statement for the next meeting.

Distribution and Explanation of Data Tables

The first handout from Mark was a copy of the Dewey Schedule, which shows the breakdown of the Dewey system.

Mark also complied a handout of 34 tables regarding library usage: the book collection, usage, and users. The demographic usage was based on FY 01-02. These tables strictly refer to SXU student use of our book collection. He will look at other areas at a later date.

He asked if anyone thought other areas should be looked at.

The meeting adjourned at 2:15 p.m.

The next meeting is scheduled for March 17 at 1 p.m. in L109b.

Minutes submitted by Virginia Preuss, Library Coordinator