INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY

INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY

Library Faculty Assembly Minutes

LFA 10/05-12 Approved:

July 20, 2006

Room 028

Present: Susan Frey, Betsy Hine, Mike Jarrell, Anthony Kaiser, Juliet Kerico, Chris Mehrens, Marsha Miller.

Ex-Officio: Myrna McCallister

Guests: Barb Austin, Kathy Black, Michelle Boyd, Debbie Considine, Sheila Gregg, Carol Jinbo, Cinda May, Margaret Pearman, Deb Robinson

I. Call to order and approval of agenda

C. Mehrens called the meeting to order at 2:01 pm. M. Miller moved and B. Hine seconded approval of the agenda. The agenda were approved.

II. Approval of minutes LFA 10/05-12 (June 22, 2006)

B. Hine moved and M. Jarrell seconded approval of the minutes. The minutes were approved.

III. Recognition Awards

B. Austin thanked those who helped out with the library table at Sycamore Advantage and thanked the Dean for her support. Barb announced that 1,125 brochures were handed out. Those presented with appreciation certificates were: Kathy Black, Debbie Considine, Sheila Gregg, Betsy Hine, Marsha Miller, and Margaret Pearman. Barb also announced the names of those not present who will be given appreciation certificates: Steve Hardin, Chris Robinson-Nkongola, Alissa Tipton, and Wilma Turetzky.

IV. Chair’s announcements/reports

C. Mehrens announced that M. Slebodnik officially resigned as vice char of LFA and that August 15 is the deadline for nominations to LFA. Mehrens asked faculty to submit their names for election to him by August 14. Elections will be held two weeks later (August 28 at 2 pm in 230). Mehrens said that LFA has to comprise of 8 faculty. Since we have 4 people returning (Frey, Hardin, Kaiser, and Kerico), we need to elect 4 more faculty to serve.

C. Mehrens announced that he received a communiqué from the Provost stating that the university has moved up the due date for faculty P&T appraisals / promotions to January 8^th. Because of this the LFA will have to set up new internal due dates for review of P&T. Karen Evans will be the first person affected by this since she is coming up for P&T shortly.

V. 15-minute open discussion

None.

VI. Remarks of the Dean of Library Services

Dean McCallister announced that she had two items:

Head of Reference

The Dean announced that Ralph Gabbard has resigned and that the Provost has given us the go ahead to start an immediate national search for a new Head of Reference. The Dean would like to have someone in this position by January 2007. This position will be a split salary (i.e. a separate stipend for management duties in addition to regular salary) and would require management experience. A subject (liaison) specialty will not be a requirement. The Dean asked LFA for a slate of 5 to 7 names of faculty members for the Search & Screen Committee and said that she would like these names to include reference faculty as well as faculty from other departments. B. Hine asked about the composition of the committee. The Dean said that she would like there to be 3 faculty and 2 support staff. The Dean said that she will be asking support staff if they wish to serve on this committee. M. Miller asked if the committee should have someone from outside the library. B Hine said that since we would not be requiring a specific subject specialty for this position, having faculty from another academic unit may not be necessary. The Dean concurred. C. Mehrens asked if we should include someone from the Friends of the Library and C. May said that many on this board have ended their term. C. Mehrens said that he would send out requests for volunteers and the names will be voted on electronically by LFA and sent to the Dean.

Evaluation of the Dean

The Dean announced that she had quite a few points to address with the faculty about her evaluation but wasn’t sure what would be the correct forum in which to do this. She said that there was one point that she wished to address immediately: The Dean read aloud from a summary of her evaluation on the library's programming initiatives and its relation to the university missions of community engagement and experiential learning. The Dean said that her evaluation indicates that the library is divided among the staff on programming and that the majority of faculty are against these sorts of activities. The Dean said that it is apparent from comments in her evaluation that she has not made it clear to the faculty that community engagement is one of the university's three strategic initiatives and that all colleges and units are supposed to be active in this endeavor. The Dean reviewed the university's three strategic initiatives of distinctive programs, community engagement, and experiential learning. She said that the library can play a role in all of these, and does, but that she feels that community engagement has been the most natural fit. The programs and initiatives that we have put on, such as WV3, Disability Awareness Month, Human Rights Day, etc., have been visible and lauded as excellence in library work and that all deans were asked in the budget presentations to outline their activity in this area. She said that in her budget presentation she described what the library had done to support the three strategic initiatives. The Dean stated that this was also the subject of the President's Retreat in June, so accountability in this regard is expected from the library. The Dean reminded LFA of web-based information on these initiatives, and announced that she will put copies of selected documents in the administration small conference room for all to consult. The Dean stated that the North Central Association now requires assessment of community engagement and that the university is part of a pilot group of universities trying to gain an elective classification for community engagement. The library will have to document its efforts in this for the accrediting process with a deadline of August 15. The Dean stated that she considers community engagement activities a part of everyone's job and added that she isn’t aware of anyone who has worked on programming who hasn’t made excellent contributions in their everyday work duties and stressed that the minutes reflect that she made this statement. The Dean asked the LFA if she should ask university administration if the library be exempt from community engagement activities. There was consensus that the library should not be exempt from community engagement. Discussion ensued on program prioritization, program planning. C. Mehrens said that we all needed to think about the issues and revisit them at a later date.

VII. Remarks from Library Support Staff

None.

VIII. Committee Reports

A. Library Administrative Affairs
None.

B. Library Faculty Affairs Committee

None.

C. Personnel Committee

None.

IX. Old Business

None.