Executive Committee Minutes 05/13/2020 | UC Berkeley Library Staff Web

LAUC-B Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

May 13, 2020, 11:15-1:15

Present: Naomi Shiraishi, Joe Cera, Jim Church, Ramona Collins, Susan McElrath, Jianye He, Stacy Reardon

Guests: Sherry Lochhaas, Jason Miller, Jenny Nelson, Jeremy Ott, Kate Peck, Elliott Smith

Regrets: Jane Rosario

Agenda

I. Announcements

Diversity Committee Is considering opening the critical reading group meeting to all of statewide LAUC staff. Logistical and other complications, especially since the group is just started, vs. the desire to be as inclusive as possible.

II. Reports

a. Treasurer (J. He)

b. Monthly UL meeting (N. Shiraishi)

Jeff is interested seeing the compiled thoughts of LAUC-B members from the Spring Assembly breakout sessions
Ergonomics: people can get assessment remotely and order what they need
Professional development funding: not to be the first thing cut, but there may be a travel freeze.
Discussed reopening procedures with Jeff. Phased approach. Public services likely to go back later, esp. with summer session being online only. More details in the Town Hall meeting.
Hiring freeze: some exceptions; positions normally opening from retirement may not be able to be refilled at this time; temporary positions are subject to the freeze unless the existing staff cannot refill the position and there would be a serious impact on library mission without this position.

c. LIBR meeting (R. Collins)

Met on May 7. Usually this is the last meeting of the semester, but scheduled another one for June 7 to discuss ongoing developments if necessary.
New chair will be Tom Dandelet (History)
Library funding will be high on the agenda. Some discussion of finance reform.
HathiTrust emergency access deal and relationship to libraries being open.
UL articulated the phased approach plan of the library.
Upcoming Fiat Lux will address pandemic planning.
Concern about people who do research with physical materials. UL floated options that are being explored. Different prioritization for users under time constraints.
Late June: budget requests need to be submitted (later than usual)
Elsevier survey: not meant to be shared widely; goals are for internal use to improve library services; 7772 responses; 30% came from Berkeley; Berkeley has highest response rate. Responses mostly supportive of UC's decisions.

d. LAUC statewide conference call (N. Shiraishi)

LAUC online roster has not been updated. Ask the division secretary to check monthly. Suggestion is to update semesterly.
R&PD committee: 7 applications this cycle. All requests will be fully (100%) funded. Request for rollover for remaining funds.
CPG: working on statement of peer review.
Nominating committee: still looking for VP candidates and have 1 candidate for secretary. Considering adjusting some precedents to make volunteering easier.
Assembly planning:DLC: working from issues; students workers,
SLASIAC: one meeting over UC budget, HathiTrust services, data ownership
UC Irvine: developing a spreadsheet of LAUC service roles.
Academic freedom policy: the president will pick this back up.

III. Continuing Business

a. LAUC Statewide Assembly (N. Shiraishi)

b. Distinguished Librarian Award

Nomination is an extensive process, esp. for faculty and student letters. UL suggested modifying requirements. Some thoughts: limiting number of letters to be submitted; asking the nominee or committee to be in charge of getting the letters rather than the nominator. Process won't be changed for this year.
Talk also of what the nature of the award is,; is it a lifetime achievement award or an outstanding librarian award; perhaps might consider some clarification or rebranding. The committee could write some recommendations for the next committee to consider.
Previous chair shared that in her experience there were limited nominations.

IV. New Business

a. Follow up on LAUC-B Spring Assembly breakout discussions (N. Shiraishi)

Compile the responses around topics
Sharing with the leadership group
Share with LAUC-B
Naomi will prepare a Google Doc to begin the topic-based consolidation. ExComm will work on it. Open document up to comments from membership. Names will be removed.

b. COVID-19 impacts on librarian reviews (E. Smith)

Pandemic will have effects on at least the next 2-3 review cycles and longer for career and promotion reviews
- Shutdown and work from home mandate: affects ability to perform primary duties, professional development opportunities, etc.
- Parity and equity issues: childcare, family care responsibilities, different work environments, different technological capabilities
- Preference for a general statement on how these impacts should be taken into account that would be consistently applied across all reviews. .
Chair has been in touch with chairs from other campuses about how they are planning to address these issues.
CAPA meets with UL every year to discuss reviews. These issues will be raised in this year's meeting.
CAPA will draft a document on these issues to share with ExComm

c. LAUC-B virtual Happy Hour (N. Shiraishi)