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Notes from Midwinter meeting 2016

  • 1.  Notes from Midwinter meeting 2016

    Posted May 11, 2016 09:16 AM
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    ACRL ULS Current Topics Discussion Group | Notes


    January 9, 2016


    2:30-4 pm


                                                                                                                                                          


    Present:  CONVENOR: Lisa Nickel (College of William & Mary),Diane Brown (Tufts University), Nadia Layla (Arkansas Medical), Emily Horning (Yale), Martin Gomes (USC), Jen Hunter, Nancy Adams (Penn State University Hershey), Elise Wallace (Citadel), Hector Escobar (University of Dayton), Lee Sanslet(?) (Texas State University), Michael Babinec, (Northwestern), Mary Galin (Oregon),Megan,  Dory Klein (student)


                       


     


    Agenda


     


    I.  Announcements


    a.  ULS Social at Salvatore's Restaurant. 5:30 pm 225 Northern Ave


    b. Volunteer opportunities:


    The volunteer form for ALA/ACRL committees will be open until 15 February. This is your opportunity to get involved in ULS. To volunteer Visit http://www.ala.org/acrl/membership/volunteer/volunteer. You will be asked to login using your ALA member ID and the password you created. The form should be completed by February 15, 2016. Be sure that you are a current ALA/ACRL member before attempting to login.


     


    II. Welcome and introductions around the table


     


    III. Round robin on topics: what topics are on your mind?


    a. New roles for library liaisons


    Discussed changes at multiple colleges/universities



    • Texas State: split into learning commons and research desk.  Hired lib assistants, then focus on upper level undergrads, and grads. 

    • Univ. Dayton

    • William &Mary  liaisons off the desk, more consultations, data management, scholarly conversations, 

    • Univ Pen. Libs continue to staff the reference desk.

    • Northwestern: liaison trading cards



    b.   Question: What drives the changes for liaisons? 



    • Looks bad to be sitting at desk, just waiting, too much time on your hands,

    • Environmental scans of departments, some liaisons in tech services, things felt inequitable.

    • Reconfigured liaison model. All are in public services, took on additional departments 

    • Suggested reading: University of Houston and Claremont Colleges  recent ALA/ACRL presentations on environmental scans and curriculum mapping for liaisons


    c.  From a newbie: what were you doing before? What are things changing?



    • Much more focused on our liaison areas and helping with emerging  issues in scholarship and scholarly communication.

    • Roles are changing based on new open access rules

    • What unmet needs are there that we can meet? 

    • Are any schools mature enough in our changes to assess or create best practices?

    • Texas developed a satisfaction survey  they are in lib guides surveys. Results go to librarians and managers for evaluations


     


    IV. Academic partners in library spaces: best practices, assessing relationships, creating partnerships . 


    a.  Who do you share space with? 



    • Writing centers,

    • tutoring,

    • GIS,

    • digital design,

    • title ix,

    • presentation skills,

    • testing space,

    • disabilities coordinator,

    • center for digital humanities,

    • center for teaching and learning,

    • IT: academic tech commons,

    • center for language studies,

    •  media check out,

    • center for teaching and learning which will entail some library staff moving off site,

    • tutoring,

    • graduate teaching center,

    • student learning peer tutors,

    • communivations lab,

    • academic technology support,

    • language lab,

    • cinema studies,

    • registrar owns 50% of classrooms,

    • classroom technology,

    • Oregon folklife

    • astronomy database systems, 


     


    b.  Some are simply “taking up space”,  some are true partnerships



    • Biggest concern: can be threatening, we think of the library as a building, and feel taken over. 

    • Opportunities to collaborate:   (Librarians as advisors at W&M),   Career services partnerships on graduate commons events: what else can you do with a Ph.D.?

    • When you bring in partners, and set up some guidelines, you control the relationship. 

    • Libraries are cost centers, and have some of the best spaces. We need to be strategic about who we invite in.

    • Can help the library by saying we are helping retention and recruitment. 

    • Moving books out and making space for people.  

    • Donors also like to spend money to give student spaces

    • Moving away from collections allows you to focus more on service. 

    • Can we use technology to let students interact with our hidden gems? Touch screens with primary sources.Don't need to have physical books...


    V.   Questions for discussion from the group:



    • New staffing lines what can u get your provost to commit to?

    • When campus facilities say waste of space to store books on campus?


     VI. Discussion of ideas for a session at annual?



    • Maybe have the authors of the ARL Spec Kit on new roles for liaisons talk at our session.

    • What have people, stopped doing? In order to do new things? 

    • Special collections

    • Scholarly communications increasing knowledge on those topics

    • How do we get new librarians or retrain current liaisons with the new skills: data management, digital services,