1.
Approval of July 9, 2001 minutes
Christina Woo moved to have the minutes approved, Dawn Anderson seconded, and they were approved.
LAUC-I Ad Hoc Letter to Gerry Munoff 8-8-01
Gavel was passed informally to Steve MacLeod to start the discussion. MacLeod gave some background information, and added that the Ad Hoc Committee had met 3 times and came up with suggestions for improvements and brought concerns and issues that were reflected at the General Membership meeting of July 9th. Page 4 of the attached letter from the Ad Hoc committee makes suggestions for improvements; the motivation was to have a constructive outcome and an invitation was extended for the membership to give their comments at this meeting or to send comments to the incoming Executive Board.
The University Librarian, Gerry Munoff, made the following general observations and commented on the recommendations made in the AdHoc Committee's Letter.
LAUC as essential to the success of the Library. Good track record of working together with LAUC on the personnel manual, factual resume guidelines, annual plans, and position profiles. He shares the issues raised in the memo; many of them would have been the responsibilities of the AULs, without them we have been handicapped. There will be a new administrative group or senior management involved with planning There will also be a a new position for planning and assessment.
Library Council. Difference between being an advocate and being a representative. Members there represent their units, they are not advocates of their units at the expense of the Library, but have to understand the needs and best interests of the Library. Screening rather than search committee for research librarians. This was proposed by the 2 co-heads, supported by the AUL for Administrative Services, and approved by the UL. Head of Collections Department and Head of Education & Outreach Department. This happened after a long consultative process. There was an Evaluation Committee, there were several discussions at Library Council. Priority of instruction was emphasized at a Forum session. In addition these were not new appointments. We had people in place who had those responsibilities. This was an expansion of their responsibilities, in commitment of time and level of responsibility. Establishing a new position we haven't had, and having responsibilities that have not been discharged by an existing librarian, is very different from expanding the responsibilities of those who already have the assignments. There should have been more consultation and discussion within R & I; I thought it had, but apparently it hadn't, and I regret that.
Focusing now on page 4 of the Ad Hoc Letter: Suggestions for improvements. Point 1 and 2 are about LAUC functions. Met with Executive Board once this year and expressed an interest in meeting more regularly. A model of good interaction is LRC. Point 3: favor a LAUC-I role in strategic planning but how do you define a different role for LAUC-I from librarians being involved in planning? This merits further discussion. 4th point: met with MacLeod 2 or 3 weeks ago and suggested quarterly meetings. 5th point is fine, we can have whatever interactions we need. 6th point is important. There are some things that LAUC-I has more a stake in than others; we need a common understanding of what the key things are. Point 8 I will take up with Library Council. There are 27 or 28 members, all but 2 are not members of LAUC. We need to discuss what we are trying to accomplish, maybe there are other ways to do it. Point 8 and 9: articulate and long-term goals should come out of the planning process. Point 10: there will be documents clarifying the role of Library Council and the senior management group. Last point: Agree with it. They normally have been open. Only for very specific reasons arising out of circumstances of a specific position have we not done that.
3. Welcoming new librarian to LAUC-I
John Sisson welcomed a new librarian to the UCI Library and LAUC-I: Carol Kiehl, the AUL for Technical Services.
Judy Kaufman, the AUL administration responded to the sections of the AD Hoc Letter on MLS issues, with background information from Mid-Winter ALA meetings on the difficulties in recruitment or retention due to a lack of librarians or young librarians, and changes in the profession leading to alternatives being sought to traditional ways. One of the issues discussed was the accredited MLS requirement. A number of libraries are not requiring this as their sole requirement anymore. A BA in Information Science and giving more people an education while they were working is becoming acceptable. The norm, however, is to hire people with an accredited MLS even though they advertise otherwise.
This was followed by several comments and discussion. Some places chose to say that an MLS is preferred. Some degrees are in Archives and Records Management, rather than an MLS. The complaint was that the ad for Research Librarians came out of the blue with no adequate discussion before the ads went out. The search at the UCI Library calls the positions "Research Librarians," not subject specialists or research assistants, that we are in fact looking for librarians. On the other hand, the ad says you could have library experience and an advanced degree rather than a library degree to apply--that we are willing to consider, say, people who just got into a Library school.
5. September LAUC-I meeting