Guest: Susan Routliffe

Information Services and Resources, Dana Porter Library
Departmental Meeting
June 25, 2010
Dana Porter 428
Minutes

Present: Annie Bélanger, Helena Calogeridis, Nancy Collins, Marian Davies, Jane Forgay, Tim Ireland, Christine Jewell (recorder), Sandra Keys, Judy McTaggart, Leeanne Romane, Carol Steele, Janet Wason, Margaret Yuen, Agnes Zientarska-Kayko

1. Approval of the previous Minutes from June 11 joint ISR meeting
Deferred.

2. Business Arising from the Minutes
Deferred.

3. Additional Agenda
No additional agenda.

4. Personal Property Posters (Annie)
The library has observed an increase in thefts and reports of thefts. In response, an alerting poster has been prepared for the Davis and Porter libraries and is being offered to other locations in the system as well. It is posted already in Davis and will be posted in Porter soon. The language was carefully considered; it must be clear that the library is not liable.

5. Around the table
Tim invited colleagues to consider providing workshops for the Writing Centre. If interested contact him or Katherine MacLean () directly.

Tim reported that he, Annie, Margaret, and Christine have begun to prepare a proposal for an expansion of UWSpace to include undergrad theses and other important papers such as graduate reports.
Action: ISR librarians should contact Tim or another member of the group if they are aware of a potential interest in this proposal among faculty in their areas of responsibility.
Action: Annie will alert Davis librarians.

6. Student Success Office (Susan)
Susan provided a bird’s eye view on the recently announced Office for Student Success. The Office was discussed at a recent meeting of the Student Services/Affairs Working Group, chaired by Bud Walker, who is currently serving as interim Associate Provost, Student Services. The Group, which previously met in February and April, includes senior managers from units across campus. Susan attended the June meeting in Mark’s place.
The Group has been planning a new program, variously called New Student Transition Program, or A First Year Transition Project. The incentive behind the development of this program is strategies to increase student retention, which may be improved if students find a community of friends and faculty in their first year. Ron McCaraville (Rec and Leisure) and Heather Westmoreland (Student Life) will be making recommendations and as they prepare this report they will be meeting with and interviewing various people from across campus. A meeting with liaison librarians will be set up sometime in July. Ron and Heather will be seeking to find out what is working well, what’s not working well, and what we would like to be doing.
The newly formed Office of Student Success (conceived at the Kempenfelt Retreat) is still conceptual. It is felt that a building is needed to consolidate existing and proposed student services. It is proposed that the Office of Student Success consist of 8 units: New Student Transition Office; Learning Support Centre; Career Services Center; Student Development Office; Centre for Entrepreneurship, Student Technology Application Office; International Student Services; Student Success Centre.
Resources are needed to support new staff, e.g. tutors. A new position, Associate Provost, Students, will soon be posted.
The recently formed Retention Committee, chaired by Bruce Mitchel and Geoff McBoyle, includes the Associate Deans for Undergrad Studies. Its aim is to increase retention rates to 90% from 87%.
A newly established Enrolment Management Committee, to be chaired by Feridun, will include Deans, the Director of Institutional Planning, and others. This Committee will also be concerned with student retention.

7. Flextime Departmental Application (Annie, Christine, Jane, Helena)
Annie presented our departmental specific flextime guidelines for discussion. She noted that many particulars are already common practice, and are now formally documented.
In the context of the discussion of critical staffing required during winter and fall terms when back-up shifts are in place, Judy presented the stats from the winter 2010 back-up pilot. Action: on Judy’s recommendation, the pilot will continue into the fall term, in order to gather more indicative statistics. Judy will serve as back-up from 11-12 (on call for the first two weeks) and the pilot will run 12-4.
Annie has her home phone in SharePoint so that she can be contacted when needed, for example, when a librarian is unavailable for a Sunday shift.
The new cycle begins Monday July 5th. We are asked to use the Excel spreadsheet available in SharePoint Dashboard Admin as our timesheet during the Flextime 2010 pilot.

8. Next meeting, July 9th, Agnes records.