Executive Committee Minutes 09/13/2023

LAUCB Executive Committee Minutes
Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023, 10am-11:30am.

Present: José Adrián Barragán-Álvarez; Jesse Silva; Christina Velazquez Fidler; Michael Sholinbeck; Jackie Gosselar; Misha Coleman; Jen Brown; Kristie Chamorro; 

Guest: Kate Peck.

 

  • Check in; introductions.
  • Announcements:  None put forth.
  • Reports:
    • Treasurer’s Report (Jackie): Jackie has not yet met with Heidi Hallett, so no update beyond that given at August  ExComm meeting. Plan is to meet with Heidi before next ExComm meeting.
    • LEIC Report (Jackie): Ramona is speaking at 09/14/2023 Library Town Hall.  Jay Lomeli is now in Library Cabinet, thus LEIC now has a 2nd representative on Cabinet. LEIC met with Cabinet on 08-16-2023, where LEIC debriefed its annual report; gave subcommittee and larger initiatives updates; and expressed concerns over change in leadership and funding.  LEIC met with UL Search Advisory Committee: asked how is DEIBJ part of the UL search process; what rubrics will they use; can LEIC members be involved. LEIC Communications Subcommittee created a mockup of campus DEI opportunities for future web page.
    • Affiliated Libraries (Kristie):Nothing official to report; working with Sine and Cyrana on clarifying roles and responsibilities. 
  • LIBR Meeting (Christina): Reminder that LIBR is an academic senate group that advises on the library. Chair of LIBR was asked for official response to the Report of the Work Group on the University Library (pdf); Jeff MacKie-Mason (JMM) presented on the report and focused on budget, space. Campus needs to include spaces in its strategic planning; apparently the Library is thinking about space more than campus as a whole. Some questions from LIBR: campus campaign money: can library access? (but that money is controlled by UCOP). Library campaign: 10 yrs raised $150 million; $60m went to Moffitt project, rest to operations budget. Lots of conversation about how to use the moment, ie, the new chancellor search, to get more resources directed to library. JMM also explained new reality of e-reserves and copyright. JMM left the meeting, and discussion of UL search ensued. Molly shared process and input opportunities. A question asked was, why seek input if job profile out? Molly said there’s still an opportunity for input. More details in LIBR meeting document linked above. Discussion of librarian demoralization and its effects. Innovative spaces: do students actually like these? (Before we move on creating more, let’s assess).
     
  • UL Search updates (Jesse/JA):José Adrián and Jesse are both serving on the Search Advisory Committee and the committee has met a couple times. They will be as transparent as possible, but there are some things they cannot share. See https://evcp.berkeley.edu/university-librarian-2023 for more information about the search, timeline, etc. Also, there’s an email address maintained by the search firm Witt Kieffer (BerkeleyUniversityLibrarian@wittkieffer.com) for anyone to submit names, self nominate, provide feedback, or ask questions.  The page also has the Leadership Profile:  https://www.wittkieffer.com/position/24822-university-librarian/. This is based on all the feedback from the library and other constituents: Chancellor’s Office, students, etc.  Members of the Search Advisory Committee from the Library will also prepare a 2-page “opportunities and challenges” document for the search firm that will be shared with the finalists.  The search closes 10-24-2023; many Search Advisory Committee meetings are scheduled after that to discuss candidates. If you want to nominate someone for the position, send their name to BerkeleyUniversityLibrarian@wittkieffer.com
     
  • Meeting with the UL (José Adrián): JMM said he’d like a meeting to share what we and cabinet are doing; outlined desires for that. Perhaps quarterly meetings with Cabinet and ExComm; this could elp build rapport, rather than just having ad hoc mtg. Will be brought to Cabinet for feedback. Question: Will there be an official library response to report: JMM states the report is the reaction from the library. We are awaiting the response from EVCP. [Note: The EVCP has since published their response on the EVCP website.] Asks from JMM: As we approach the next bargaining sessions, a reminder that these are between UCOP and the Union, not library administration and the Union. Library administration does not determine how contracts play out. And, think about how LAUC-B can become more involved in the strategic planning process. Later we discussed ideas to put on an agenda for this: maybe a lessons learned / “best practices” from library closures discussion..? Also, his takes on EVCP response to Report. 
     
  • LAUC Statewide (JS/José Adrián): Jesse (as outgoing rep): At the first 09/11/2023 meeting (there are two transition statewide LAUC meetings, one in the morning for outgoing members and one in the afternoon for incoming members), a lot of the outgoing groups/committees were turning over, so not many reports were given. One report that may be of interest was a draft acronym document from the Committee on Professional Governance which details how the various CDL and LAUC groups interact was shared and will be finalized soon. . [Note: an older version is here.] José Adrián: there was discussion of the various committees, roles and expectations, etc: mostly informational. Chair of statewide DEI Ctee will be actively sought.
     
  • LibVoices email list (Kate Peck):Kate sought our input on what we might wish to see in a report on this new-ish email list. We agreed that a report on any issues or problems with moderating this list would be good to know.
     
  • Continuing Business
    • Academic Librarian Values Statement (Jesse/José Adrián)
      • Link to listening notes document: (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VMMs2FNoWVOq7cCk-FESzf8eyMvFjLnr5f1YiQX1VtE/edit A Values Statement needs to include the sometimes invisible work some folks do as being valued. Perhaps another listening session is needed, and then during LAUC-B Fall Assembly, discuss ways we can incorporate these values into our everyday work. Will staff be included in this future session? (last one was librarians only). This should be OK but we may need cabinet’s buy-in because this could be seen as directing staff’s work. If it’s not possible we could make statement that we stand in solidarity with all library staff and acknowledge their labor, etc.; depends on the Scope of the document. Can this be incorporated into strategic planning process? We should also present to cabinet as what we think our values are. There will be discussion at another meeting amongst a sub-group of us.
  • New Business:
    • Migration of LAUC-B documentation from Box to Google Drive (Jesse): We have documentation in both; sometimes duplicative.  Statewide says Box used for archiving material, so JS will ask Kathi Neal about this. This may affect such plans. More later.
       
  • Member Rep responsibilities: They are: Jen Brown: mentoring; Misha Coleman: lunch coordinator 
     
  • Dates/ideas for fall assembly: Will be via Zoom. Maybe late November.
     
  • LAUC-B ExComm and Cabinet Meeting planning: ExComm meets at same time as Cabinet, so maybe we will schedule a regular, quarterly meeting during this time. Maybe start in November 2023. 
     
  • Sharing LAUC-B minutes via Lib-Staff:Minutes will be distributed on the Libstaff list from now on. Minutes are also available on the public LAUC-B website.