LAUC-B Executive Committee
Thursday, April 16, 2009
10:30 am - 12:30 pm
303 Doe Library
Present: Seyem Petrites, David Eifler, Lisa Ngo, Jennifer Nelson, Corliss Lee (Chair),
Lucia Diamond (ex officio), Armanda Barone, Paul Atwood (recorder), Manuel Erviti (ex
officio), Margaret Phillips
Guests: Rita Evans, Harrison Dekker, Lily Castillo-Speed, Susan Garbarino, Susan Wong
(LHRD), Barbara Kornstein (LHRD)
I. Announcements
a. Affiliated libraries assembly: April 22 Goldberg Room (Boalt Hall)
Laine Farley (CDL)
b. New librarian reception occurred on March 26. New librarians are
encouraged to post self-introductions to the LAUC-B blog and to visit the
nascent New Librarians page: http://blogs.lib.berkeley.edu/laucb.php &
/new.html
c. A brown bag on the use of professional development funding is scheduled
for April 24. Funding cannot be used for hardware/equipment; ok to utilize
for books and professional journals as applicable.
d. The Professional Development Committee is hosting a Web 2.0 event on
April 30.
e. LAUC statewide assembly is scheduled for May 13 in Palm Desert.
LAUC-B representatives to attend are C.Lee, M.Phillips, P.Atwood, and
R.Martinez.
f. LAUC-B spring assembly will be on May 19. EVCP Breslauer will be
speaking. P.Atwood and M.Phillips will arrive early to set up; C.Lee and
S.Petrites will stay late.
g. LAUC statewide confirmed Bylaw updates on March 23.
h. LAUC-B calendar on website is now up to date; see
/calendar.html
i. Due to scheduling conflicts, the next LAUC-B Executive Committee
meeting will be held on May 18, 1:30-3.
II. Reports
a. Treasurers Report (J. Nelson)
i. Balance: $140,004.85
b. Meeting with University Librarian: April 15 (C. Lee and M. Phillips)
i. Discussed UL meeting at UCLA: SRLF 3 not expected to be
funded; libraries are included in an updated version of the
Accountability Framework.
ii. Task Force and training on project management skills coming
soon.
iii. T.Leonard will be at ARL during the LAUC-B spring assembly.
iv. C.Lee asked about Admins value of an MLIS in regards to the
Career compass discussion (see below): UL stated that the Career
Compass classification effort was a top-down decision and is not
an effort to deprofessionalize the librarian series or change the
proportion of Librarians to Library Assistants. Career Compass
was never presented to the Council of Deans. T. Leonard
suggested that we address our concerns to the architects of Career
Compass.
v. Professional development funding concern with two ALA annual
conferences in one fiscal year. C.Lee will discover how many
librarians are affected by this and will discuss with Library
Business Office.
vi. When T. Leonard and E. Woods met with EVCP Breslauer they
asked about the LAUC-B budget and were told there were no
changes contemplated at that time.
vii. Discussion of whether professional development funding might be
used for equipment in the future. In this budget environment there
is not likely to be new funding for anything not previously funded
but the issue of funding for equipment in a time when librarians
need to keep abreast of new technologies might be revisited in the
future.
c. Committee on the Library, Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate (M.
Phillips)
i. T.Leonard provided continuing information about the budget: in
order to meet a likely 8% budget cut in the operating budget the
library is likely to see a cut in FTE. These cuts will come through
attrition, voluntary separation and a 25% cut in student employees.
Also looking to reduce equipment replacement funds by 50%.
ii. T. Leonard also informed the committee that some libraries,
namely BIOS, BUSI and CHEM are cutting print runs of many
journal titles in order to clear up space in their libraries.
iii. B.Dupuis discussed Moffitt renovation project and Mellon grant.
iv. Next meeting the senate will discuss library space and the open
access resolutions adopted by Harvard and MIT.
d. LAUC Statewide Conference Call: April 3
i. C.Lee will share results of LAUC-Bs survey to members
regarding the use of technologies with the head of LTAG. UCI and
UCSD have posted related content on their respective websites.
ii. Some individual campuses are performing elections online.
LAUC-B to observe.
iii. By-Laws edited and passed.
iv. Zero-based budgeting for LAUC Statewide budget.
v. [Note: the following was not covered at the meeting due to the
arrival of our guests, but are included for the minutes:]
Statewide Spring Assembly web site is up, with links for
registration, transportation, etc. Statewide Executive Board has
approved travel grants for newer LAUC members traveling to the
Assembly in Palm Desert (UCR).
vi. Discussion of whether other UC campuses allow the use of
professional development funding to pay for memberships in
professional organizations, and how they have handled having 2
ALA Annual conferences occurring within a single fiscal year.
vii. Discussion of how individual University Librarians have kept their
library staffs informed about the budget crisis as it unfolds.
III. New Business
a. Career Compass
Guests: Susan Wong & Barbara Kornstein (LHRD)
To inform this discussion, see http://careercompass.berkeley.edu/ > Berkeley Job Builder
> Berkeley Job Builder (yellow button) > (CalNet authentication)
Library Services > Library there are 6 job standards available (1-2 pp long each).
Also see current issue of Berkeleyan, April 16, 2009, feature story.
Guest Susan Wong described the Career Compass initiative, a campus-wide program
which has been in a design and development process since 2001. She stated that the
goals were to clarify key responsibilities, align with the job market, connect with
performance evaluations, and to have job standards from which job descriptions are
mapped allowing streamlined, simpler job description forms with pre-filled content and
standardized job descriptions that capture essential tasks.
As S. Wong described it, meetings with LHRD and OHR classifications occurred early
on. The Library Advisory Committee was comprised of representatives from OHR
Compensation and Classification, Library Human Resources, and one AUL, three
Librarians including a librarian from the Affiliated Libraries, and one Library Assistant
IV Supervisor. The names of the members of the advisory group are now
confidential.
So far Job Standards exist only for non-represented jobs. Job Standards have been
written for Library Professional 4 (typically equivalent to a Library Assistant V), Library
Supervisor 1 and 2, Library Manager 1, 2 and 3.
S. Wong further asserted that all new Career Compass Job Standards were put up for
public, campus-wide comment via a Campus Memo from May 21, 2007 through
February 8, 2008. In addition, S. Wong has discussed Career Compass at Roundtable
meetings. Executive Committee members nevertheless commented that communication
about Career Compass has been opaque.
Effective May 1, 2009, the new Career Compass job titles, job classifications, and salary
ranges go into effect and replace former campus job titles, job classifications and salary
ranges for all non-academic, non-represented positions.
Career Compass is limited to UCB campus at this point in time but may eventually be
implemented at other UC campuses.
Barbara Kornstein recommended re-reading LAUC-B Position Paper #5.
LAUC-Bs viewpoint on this matter is that the job standards codify to some degree
existing practices, but there is a concern that future hiring based on these descriptions
may have the effect, however unintended, of de-professionalizing librarianship at UCB
(and UC systemwide). The ratio of professional vs. paraprofessional at UCB is already
very high. This affects national rankings and recruitment and retention, amongst other
factors. A discussion ensued about the differences between Librarian and Library
Assistant work.
The Executive Committee discussed:
. proposing that LAUC-B assist Admin with drafting guidelines for determining when
to fill positions at the professional vs. paraprofessional level. S. Wong commented
that the above planning, strategic and operational practices are within management
rights. The Executive Committee referred to LAUC-Bs by-laws, which state that we
shall serve in an advisory capacity to the Chancellor and Library administration on
professional and governance matters of concern to all librarians.
. vetting Library Assistant job postings through AFT and/or CAPA. S. Wong
commented that the above recruitment activities and HR practices are within
management rights.
. Sending comments to the Career Compass staff about the Library Job Standards, per
University Librarian Tom Leonards suggestion (above).
b. LAUC-B web page redesign, part two: Drupal
Guest: Harrison Dekker, LAUC-B Webmaster
Tabled until next LAUC-B Executive Committee meeting in May.