Staff Association meeting and Staff Lounge updates

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The general meeting for the Staff Association was held on Tuesday, May 9, 2017. On the agenda for the meeting were updates from the subcommittees: Staff Relations, Work Environment, and Arts & Entertainment. Minutes for the meeting are available on the Fondren Library wiki.

Under new business, Staff Association Executive Committee (SAEC) Chair Davian Smith discussed the proposed changes to the Staff Lounge. Several staff members have commented on the outdated furniture and a desire for a fresh, more welcoming lounge.

Proposed layout

SAEC propose to replace the dining chairs and the arm chairs in the staff lounge.

Replacement chairs

The two Herman Miller Eames sofas can be reupholstered. The SAEC also suggest replacing the wall art with large full-color photographs of campus views depicting the natural beauty and architectural details of the campus. A discussion of the quiet space which includes a bed and screen was conducted. After the meeting several concerns were raised about the removal of the bed so it has been decided to keep the bed which is frequently used by staff for breaks.

The SAEC appreciates everyone who has expressed their concerns and suggestions regarding the Staff lounge makeover. To gather input regarding the wall art, Jeff Koffler has kindly created a selection of non-Rice images. Options for the staff lounge photos are in a low resolution contact sheet here: http://library.rice.edu/sites/default/files/staff_photos/StaffLounge.pdf. We have the full resolution files for printing which show much more detail. Staff can choose their top 12 photos on this form: https://goo.gl/forms/jERZdlW6pj3WlKvE3

Any original artwork that was in the lounge will find a permanent home as there is personal significance to many of the pieces.

The SAEC’s plans are to provide a relaxing and enjoyable space for everyone to enjoy. We continue to welcome your input and suggestions to create a welcoming space.

Davian Smith

Rebecca Russell

Francine Arizmendez

Mauricio Prado

Updates from Digital Scholarship Services

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The Digital Scholarship Services (DSS) team is striving to raise campus-wide awareness of our expertise and services, and we invite the help of fellow Fondren staff.  Read on to learn about our revamped home page, summer office hours and upcoming train the trainer session on data management. Please contact Lisa Spiro with any questions or suggestions.

Revised DSS home page

To promote the expertise and services provided by DSS, we worked with Jeff Koffler to revamp our home page: https://library.rice.edu/dss. We are using an eye-catching set of icons with captions to highlight service areas such as “Manage and Visualize Data” and “Get help planning and implementing projects.” In addition, we have added brief biographies and photos to staff profiles (under “People” on the right sidebar) to emphasize our expertise and approachability.

DSS/ Data Management Office Hours

During the summer, Fondren staff will be on hand to answer questions related to digital scholarship or data management, discuss project ideas, review grant proposals, demonstrate tools, and more. Let faculty, staff and students know that they can drop by the DMC Multi Purpose Room (basement of Fondren) on Thursdays from 11 a.m.- noon– or, of course, stop by yourself.  If Thursdays won’t work, email lspiro@rice.edu to schedule an alternate time.

Train the Trainer Session:  Research Data Management

Monday, July 17, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Fondren Collaboration Space
Join members of Rice’s Research Data Management team for an interactive session exploring data management services. Learn how to talk with faculty, grad students and staff about data management and where to point them for assistance. Explore principles of data management that you can apply to your own work, such as file naming and organization. Provide your input to help shape Fondren’s data management services. All Fondren staff are welcome.

Trial Airfare Reimbursement Continues

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In order to gain additional information on the impact of full reimbursement of transportation costs for staff professional and scholarly activities, the trial period of reimbursing full transportation costs will be extended for an additional six months, to the end of calendar year 2017.

Fondren Library encourages all library staff to attend professional and scholarly activities which enhance skills and knowledge. To facilitate maximum staff participation in scholarly activity, the Library will continue the trial period in which the FULL cost of a reasonable airfare will be covered for reimbursement. (Currently, the Travel and Development Guidelines for both participants and attendees provide reimbursement for half of a reasonable airfare.)

The definition of a reasonable airfare€ remains unchanged:

“The most economical and direct form of transportation should be used  Economy class airfare should be used.”
€ (https://professor.rice.edu/uploadedFiles/Professor/Finance/Controllers_Office/ACF78.pdf)

This trial does not change the maximum fiscal year limit of $2,100 for active participation (or the $850 limit for non-participation attendance). As usual, these limitations will be applied when requests for travel funds are submitted to the Library Travel, Training, and Development Committee.

After the trial period ends, a decision will be made on whether to make this trial change permanent.

Executive Committee Meeting Summaries, March 23-April 6, 2017

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March 23, 2017

1)   The group discussed the Careers@Rice career profiles and timeline.

2)   The group selected pitches to be given at Fondren’s strategic planning meeting with the president on April 10.

3)   The group decided that the agenda for the Library Committee meeting on April 11 would focus on reviewing the draft strategic plan.

4)   The organizational culture strategic planning group was tasked with coming up with a proposal for addressing identified issues.

March 30, 2017

The Executive Committee and those giving pitches met to discuss the plan for the upcoming meeting with the president.

April 6, 2017

The pitch group practiced their presentations and received feedback from Jennifer Shade Wilson and Kyung-Hee Bae of the Center for Written, Oral, and Visual Communication, as well as members of Exec.

IRB and Cayuse (Update from the UX Office)

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When the UX Office was created at Fondren Library in December 2010, some of the departmental goals were to do ethnographic and observational studies, and conduct usability studies on our digital tools. The UX Office submits paperwork, including the study design, through an online system in collaboration with the Rice Office of Institutional Effectiveness that is submitted to the Institutional Review Board “IRB”  at Rice. Research involving human subjects, including usability testing, generally needs to go through the IRB process, unless one is not going to publish or write about the results. If the results are only used to improve the business process, it generally doesn’t need IRB. When approval is granted, then the research can start!

We have mentored multiple staff members on various aspects of the research process at Rice, including CITI training (a required online IRB training course), and designing effective research protocols. Please let us know if we can be of assistance to you!

Rice rolled out a new online system last Fall, named Cayuse, that helps store and manage the many IRB’s maintained by departments on campus. Currently the UX Office has approved IRB’s for the following studies:

  • Institutional Repository Usability and Ethnographic Study (Stakeholder: Digital Scholarship Services)(ongoing study from 2012-current)
  • Understanding Researcher Needs for Finding Aids and Testing Usability of ArchivesSpace (Collaboration with University of Houston and Amanda Focke)
  • Fondren Library Website Usability Testing (ongoing study from 2011-current)
  • Research Support Services for the Field of Religious Studies (Amanda Thomas and Elka Tenner)

Past studies include:  Ithaka S+R Survey for Fondren Library, Understanding Desired Usage of BRC Library Space, Understanding Research Flow: An Ethnographic Study of Humanities Researchers, Discovering Discovery: How Rice Researchers Find the Sources They Need, and  Survey and Usability Studies on Fondren Library’s Mobile Website.

Executive Committee Meeting Summaries Feb. 2- March 2, 2017

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Feb. 2, 2017

1) The group planned the agenda for the University Committee on the Library meeting February 14 at noon. A discussion, with presentations, of the Fondren Fellows was planned, along with a guided discussion of the ways the library can improve its support for research and experiential learning.

2) Lisa and Melinda updated the group on the strategic planning process and the agenda for the Town Hall planning update on February 10.

3) The group agreed with Denis’s proposal that we retain in the system user information only for the current and one previous checkout. There will be a spring purge of the database.

4) Visitor privileges, such as checking out books and accessing electronic resources, were discussed. In general, off-campus access to electronic resources requires some official status as current faculty, staff or student. Some electronic resources are available to Rice alumni via the Alumni Association website.

Feb. 16, 2017

The group discussed salary administration for FY18.

Mar. 2, 2017

1) The group discussed proposed library hours for the academic year 2017-2018. Announcing early closure on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the day before the Winter Recess continues not to be advisable before the President has confirmed early closure for the university. In recent years, this confirmation has been issued in plenty of time to announce a change in library hours. Gate data for days classes are not in session was reviewed and found not to support eliminating evening hours on those days.

2) The Library Service Platform review group submitted its recommendations on Feb. 28. The Executive Committee will discuss the report at a meeting later in March, as the March 16 meeting has been cancelled.

3) Lisa and Melinda updated the group on the strategic planning process. There was discussion of how the “pitches” solicited from the staff will be evaluated by Sara and those she asks to help. The deadline for these pitches has been extended to Mar. 17.

4) Denis suggested that all members encourage their staff members to complete the university IT online security training.

C-MACS: Who Are Our Customers?

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February C-MACS

It is a great thing to watch a committee work out solutions to big questions. The C-MACS committee is doing that now as we study Fondren Library’s customer service.  In the last month members looked at the customers served by their departments.  The committee has members covering almost every aspect of Fondren.

They analyzed the Customer Persona: Who are they?  What do they want?  What do they need?  What are the challenges?  What is unique about them?

At the February meeting the committee analyzed the Undergraduate and Graduate Persona. The committee will next build a Fondren-wide persona from the findings.  It is a time consuming process that requires C-MAC to hold a special two-hour session this month to finish with persona such as Faculty, Staff and others.

This analysis will then be used to determine what customer service training the staff can use to do an even greater job that we already do.

We so appreciate the guidance from Melinda English of Rice HR.

Last month I missed writing about the good work Joe Goetz and Debra Kolah did finding stories of great customer service. Sometimes we may have doubts about our customer service but the 2017 Survey of All Students gave us high marks.  Every department has stories to tell from customers at all levels.  I especially enjoy the words used over and over to describe us:  tenacity, focused, knowledge of job, getting things done, proficiency, dedication, optimism, enthusiasm, flexible and responsive.

It is important to keep gathering these stories of success. The DMC and Kelly Center gather feedback from their sessions.  Fondren 101 includes a feedback survey.  Did you know we even have reviews on Yelp?

Keep sharing stories of good work by the staff.

—-Bill Coxsey

 

Executive Committee Meeting Summaries, January 5 and 19, 2017

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Executive Committee Meeting Summary, January 19, 2017

  • The committee divided up responsibilities for writing the narrative section of library’s budget document.
  • The committee discussed how to handle time off during the recent flood.
  • Lowman informed the committee that a potential donor has approached Fondren about donating a sports history collection to the Woodson Research Center.
  • Lowman updated the committee on campus strategic planning efforts.
  • Lowman reported that the university’s salary raise pool will be 2%.
    Salary information:
    o   0% Non-performing
    o   1.5% Meets requirements
    o   2.0% Exceeds expectations
    o   2.5+% Above and beyond expectations/outstanding performanceThere will be two categories of bonuses:
    o   $750 Meritorious
    o   $1500 Extraordinary

Executive Committee Meeting Summary, January 5, 2017

  • Lowman asked for input on potential agenda items for the Executive Committee. Diversity will be one of the agenda items discussed at a future meeting.
  • Performance reviews will be due to Lowman by March 17; supervisors will set their own deadlines for their staff.
  • 16 undergrads and 9 grad students applied for the Fondren research awards.

New Staff Travel Request Form

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As announced at the Fondren Library Town Hall, there is a new staff travel request form.

You can find the form by going to the Fondren wiki (in wiki.rice.edu) and searching for “travel form” in the search box in the top right of your screen. (You don’t have to log in.)

The search landing page has a link to the updated form, as well as links to Texas tax exemption forms and the administrative travel request form.

The Library Travel, Training and Development Committee also wishes to remind staff that there may be funds for administrative travel available from the office of the Vice Provost/University Librarian. Administrative travel is defined as travel that is necessary to the basic functioning of Fondren Library. (The policy for administrative travel is documented in the Fondren wiki.) Final approval for administrative travel rests with the VP/UL; requests should be made well in advance, and eligible travel may not be approved if budgeted funds are not available.

Web Team Update

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Accessibility Links on the Web Page

In December, the UX Office and the web team tested the location of the link to Accessibility Services (http://library.rice.edu/accessibility) on Fondren Library’s webpage after a suggestion from Linda Spiro, chair of the Fondren Accessibility Committee. On the old web page, Accessibility was linked on the main home page, but after the redesign, had been placed under Visitor Information. Users could also search for it in the bento box with positive results, but due to the importance and use of the services, web team wanted to investigate the usability of adding the link to a more prominent place on the website.

Driven by the testing response, the web team recommended that the link to Accessibility Services be added to the top menu bar as the first link under Services, as well as, the top option under the Get Assistance Orange Action Button. This change should be implemented this week.


​
(original image provided by Jet Prendeville)
Testing by UX Office Graduate Student: 
6 graduate students preferred the “Get Assistance” on the right, and 2 preferred “Service” on the left.Testing by Library Ambassadors:
3 ambassadors were tested. 1  expected the link to be found at the top of the list under Services, 1 expected the link to be in both places, and 1 expected the link to be the first option under the “Get Assistance” button. Student Quotes: 
“I think that moving the link to Accessibility Services to the first option under the “Get Assistance” tab would be helpful!”
“I really like the suggestions because it enables Accessibility Services to be more prominent.”

The web team will be working on the increased usability of the Services web page (http://library.rice.edu/services), as well as, simplifying the Subject drop down menu under Contact Us (http://library.rice.edu/contact.) Please reach out to a member of the web team if there is something that you would like us to take a look at, gather user research, or make easier to navigate!

In addition, you may find the minutes of committee meetings in the Fondren wiki: http://ow.ly/E9gR308uH9n

Web Team meets monthly, on the 4th Thursday of the month. Members include:

  • Debra Kolah (Co-Chair)
  • Jiun Kuo (Co-Chair)
  • Sid Byrd
  • Amanda Focke
  • Sue Garrison
  • Jeff Koffler
  • Jet Prendeville
  • Scott Vieira