Category Archives: Executive Committee

June 18, 25, July 2

No meetings.

July 9

The group discussed possible changes in building hours for the fall semester. To ease Access Services scheduling while maintaining strong customer service, the library will be open to the public Sat. 9-6 and Sun. 12–8 pm. This set of changes is a pilot and we will look at user feedback before setting schedules for the future.

Progress on the library’s portion of the university’s SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) accreditation review was discussed, and updates were given on individual assignments. Late summer/early fall deadlines for various sections were reviewed.

The group also discussed the library’s participation in Rice’s annual internal assessment effort, ROARS (Rice Outcomes Assessment Reporting System), with a midsummer deadline.

July 16, 23, 30, August 6, 13

No meetings.

August 20

Sara Lowman clarified members’ expected preparation for next week’s discussion of documentation to date for the university-wide job review, Careers@Rice.

Lisa Spiro gave an update on the university’s possible transition to a new faculty information system. She also asked for and received feedback from fellow members on a recent report on research data management at Rice, produced by a cross-campus group that includes several Fondren staff. For more information on the Research Data Management Team, please visit: https://libstaff.blogs.rice.edu/2015/08/31/update-from-the-research-data-management-team/.

Sara Lowman gave updates from recent Deans’ Council meetings. The new Quality Enhancement Plan in connection with Rice’s SACS review will target experiential learning.

The Rice Board of Trustees will meet Sept. 9-10, with some meetings taking place in the Kyle Morrow Room.

May 28, 2015

Lowman updated the group on Rice Board of Trustees actions that relate to library goals.

The project to renovate the first floor will move forward. In preparation for renovations, the reference collection is being back-shifted and VHS tapes are being re-located. The aim is to complete all of the noisy work by the end of the summer.

June 4, 2015

No meeting

June 11, 2015

The Executive Committee discussed plans for an upcoming Town Hall Meeting, which will include presentations on CMACS, disaster preparedness, the Rice Digital Scholarship Archive, and Fondren’s web site.

Lowman gave an update on the first floor renovation, saying that Fondren is currently waiting for furniture bids.

The committee divided up responsibilities for writing Fondren’s FY 2014 ROARS report and its contributions to Rice’s SACS report, both of which are needed to reaffirm the university’s accreditation status.

April 23, 2015

Group members shared unavailable dates through the summer and agreed that summer meetings will be roughly bi-weekly.

Sara updated the group on renovation progress and began to build an agenda for the next Fondren town meeting. So far, topics to be covered include the renovation, 3rd and 4th floor shifts & shelf-reading project.

Diane shared that, late this summer, the committee working on reviewing the current market in library systems will be narrowing the field of systems to be considered. Finalists will be brought to meetings with all staff sometime in September.

Sara noted that the university budget review was completed and we are now awaiting word on the library’s funding for FY16.

April 30
No meeting.

May 7
No meeting.

May 14
No meeting.

May 18
The group met to discuss the use of collaborative spaces in the library. Computers temporarily located in B40D during the construction of the new collaborative space will be removed, leaving table seating and a PC instructor’s workstation as planned. The DMC Multipurpose Room (with Apple instructor’s station and connection for PC laptop instructor machine) will be scheduled via Google Calendar as other rooms, allowing scheduling by anyone in the Rice community. The appropriateness of using study rooms 201 and 601 in cases of conflict will be clarified. Instructors should be flexible about use of the rooms, swapping if more seating or other features are needed, thus minimizing conflicts. Good records will be kept and the adequacy of our current arrangements, recommended by the interdepartmental Collaboration Space Working Group, will be reviewed at the end of the fall semester. Any increase in the number of instructional spaces requires demonstrated need and an increase in the IT budget.

May 21
No meeting.

• The Friends of Fondren student research awards were announced.
• Planning for the upcoming renovations of the first floor is underway. A working group led by Kerry Keck worked out a process and a timeline for re-locating materials. The furniture group has reviewed carpet and furniture samples; furniture will be ordered by early May.
• Fondren plans to roll out CORAL as an open source module for electronic resource management. Scott Vieira will coordinate the work with IT and other staff.
• Fondren will be participating in a campus-wide effort to improve accessibility, such as by closed-captioning new library-produced videos and making PDFs searchable.

March 12

No meeting.

March 19

No meeting.

March 26

Lowman shared notes from a meeting with the university Policy & Planning group. An overhaul of many university policies is underway. Policies about minors on campus, weapons, and emergency management planning are among those being revised. Disaster plans throughout the university are being gathered in connection with the emergency management policy review. The national meeting of Chief Financial Officers in Higher Education (COFHE) will take place on the Rice campus the week of March 30. A recent letter to the editor of the Rice Thresher noted there has been a 135% tuition increase at Rice over the past 15 years. The university budget office presented data comparing Rice’s tuition increases to those of peer institutions.

Flannery shared notes from a recent Administrators’ Forum regarding the reorganization of Facilities, Engineering and Planning under new Associate Vice President Jim E. Alty.

The group discussed planning for participation in the university-wide job review known as Careers@Rice.

April 2

No meeting.

April 9

Guests: Joe Hatfield, Janet Thompson

Planning for first floor renovations was discussed. The library group advising on new furniture is now meeting. The renovation, scheduled for this summer, will also include carpet, paint, lighting and both electrical and data outlets. The group explored the need to dispose of old furniture and relocate some first floor collections during the renovations. A small group will be convened to plan, stage and implement such moves. A new color scheme will harmonize with the colors used in the 2008 renovation. Signage will be needed.

The group reviewed initial HR documentation for the university-wide job review, Careers@Rice.

February 26

The Executive Committee discussed the new organizational structure for IT.

The Executive Committee discussed the charge to the Horizon Committee to facilitate strategic planning. The Committee will arrange for leaders of educational and research initiatives across Rice to make brief presentations about their work.  The Horizon Committee will facilitate breakout sessions in which library staff will discuss potential ways that the library might support these initiatives, then synthesize the recommendations.

March 5

The Executive Committee approved a change to the Horizon Committee strategic planning charge that will extend the timeline and hopefully allow more staff to participate.

The Executive Committee discussed with whom Ithaka should meet when they come to Rice to share results of their upcoming survey. Meetings will be set up with the library committee, library staff, and groups interested in particular reports, such as research data.

Lowman gave an update on the budget meeting.

February 5, 2015

RiceWorks upgrade: Jana Callan visited to share plans for upgrading RiceWorks, the university’s hiring management system. The new version should improve reporting and user interface. Job descriptions will be separate from job postings. Training for Fondren supervisors will take place late February or early March.

FY16 Budget preparation: The group discussed each member’s assigned contributions to the budget narrative Sara Lowman must turn in to the university Budget Office, including budget economies taken this year and both projected economies and needs for FY16.

CMACS activities: A plan was shared for posting in each area answers to the question: What are we working on? A CMACS representative will work with each area. The idea is to balance continued emphasis on existing customer service standards with transparency about current projects.

Concur: The group discussed implementation to date of the university’s new expense management system.

February 12, 2015

Dean’s Council: Sara Lowman reported on the Dean’s Council discussion of a proposed program to bring in more research post-doctoral fellows, with the aim of further enhancing Rice’s research profile. Possible roles for the library in supporting such a program were floated.

President Leebron will be asking the university community to help identify Rice’s next Quality Enhancement Program (QEP). QEPs are connected with the university’s periodic accreditation reviews. Ten years ago, the Center for Civic Engagement (now Center for Civic Leadership) came out of the review process. Two years ago, the Center for Written, Oral and Visual Communication (CWVOC) resulted from a mid-term review, and a new QEP could well continue a focus on communication, with possible collaboration between the library and CWVOC.

New manuscript/archival collection : Fondren is working on acquiring an important archive of manuscripts and letters pertaining to French composer Francis Poulenc.

February 19, 2015

No meeting.

January 15, 2015

1)    A new version of RiceWorks will be rolled out this spring. Starting on February 3, most users will be unable to create new actions until the new system is up and running.
2)    Fondren will begin a review of library systems this spring. Input will be sought from throughout the library. More details TBA.

3)    New members of the Horizon Group were selected:

• New Members:  Scott Carlson, Jet Prendeville, Monica Rivero, and Rebecca Russell (two year term, 2015-2016)
• Continuing Members:  Jean Aroom, Mary Brower, Lauren Mueller, and Nyssa Juneau (two year term, 2014-2015)

4)    Given recent experiences with a problem patron, all staff should be vigilant and report any suspicious activity to RUPD.  The police will need an eyewitness report.

To facilitate sharing information about potential patron-related problems in Fondren, Diane Butler set up a new library-only listserv, fonalerts@rice.edu. Libstaff should continue to be used for all other correspondence.

5)  A plan for salary increases was discussed and will be shared with all Fondren supervisors.
January 22, 2015

1)    Rice is discussing the possibility of offering an enriched spring break educational experience in the future. Executive Committee members discussed potential ways that the library could participate in this program, should it come to fruition.
2)     The Executive Committee explored potential topics for future Library Committee meetings.

January 29, 2015

Angela Lipari visited to share information about Human Resources activities.

November 20, 2014

The group discussed agenda items for the next library Town Hall, including a renovation update, staff introductions and updates on open access, room booking and web redesign.

Some future meeting topics were penciled in:

December 4 Library Plan review
(http://library.rice.edu/about/admin_org/mission-goals/mission-goals)

January 15 Updates, Library System Review

January 22 Ithaka survey; Assessment

January 29 Updates

February 19 Information Literacy; CRUP objective and report discussion (http://www.professor.rice.edu/images/professor/facultysenate/crup_report.pdf)

The 2005 report of the Committeee on the Rice Undergraduate Program (CRUP;  http://www.professor.rice.edu/images/professor/facultysenate/crup_report.pdf) is being reviewed in preparation for Rice’s upcoming decennial re-accreditation process. The library has been asked to review the core element of Information Access and Evaluation (#6) to update wording and suggest techniques.

The group also may discuss selected issue briefs from Ithaka S+R (http://www.sr.ithaka.org/issue-briefs).

Completed performance appraisals are due to Lowman by March 13. Each Executive Committee member may set an internal schedule to meet that deadline. Self-evaluations of Executive Committee members are due to Lowman by Jan. 16.

November 27, 2014

No meeting (Thanksgiving Holiday)

December 4, 2014

The group discussed an upcoming power outage connected with the basement construction. All facts are not yet clear; details will be made available when they are.

The closure of the women’s basement restroom will extend 1-2 more weeks, due to unanticipated problems detaching the existing countertop. The DMC move is on schedule for Dec. 19; the service will reopen Jan. 10. The collaborative space should be ready for use by Jan. 19.

The group discussed the existing planning document for the library, public version at: http://bit.ly/1zvd4xr, internal  version (more detailed; login required) at: http://bit.ly/1wFaHul. Most of the document remains relevant; Flannery suggested adding under Outreach a second goal covering the various ways we reach out to the community. She will draft wording for the group to consider. The group also noted how many of the project-level initiatives (clickable in the internal version) have been accomplished. Butler suggested tasking the Horizon group with drafting new project-level initiatives for the coming year, involving other staff as appropriate. Lowman will discuss the possibility with Horizon group co-chairs Shannon Kipphut­-Smith and Amanda Focke.

November 6, 2014

The Executive Committee discussed plans to run the Ithaka S+R Local Faculty and Students survey at Rice. The Library Committee will be invited to provide input on conducting the survey.

In addition, the workflow for the Concur travel and expense system was discussed. The $5 fee for using Christopherson Business Travel through Concur to book travel will be covered by the library.

The Fondren Library Staff News blog will no longer require a login.

For the Friends of Fondren gala, the focus of the “paddles up” fundraiser will be technology for the DMC.

Circulation will hold its study break on December 8.

November 13, 2014

Lisa Spiro updated the Executive Committee on a working group investigating potential replacements for the Faculty Information System.

A four-hour power outage affecting parts of the basement will be scheduled for a date to be announced; it is part of the renovation project.

The DMC will be closed December 18-January 10 to allow time for it to be moved back into Fondren.

The Executive Committee was invited to suggest topics for an upcoming library town hall meeting.