Minutes of Coordinating Committee Meeting for the Jan. 19, 2000 meeting

Present:

Au, Consoli, Dess, R.Gardner, Gaunt, Haynes, Langschied, Li, Olin, P.Page, Weber, Wilson, Womack

Absent:

Beede

The Committee welcomed Ferris Olin, co-chair representing the Planning Committee this semester. (Thanks to Roberta Tipton, co-chair, for serving through the fall.)

Decisions

• Langschied will summarize Coordinating Committee responses to Training and Development Committee’s survey questionnaire and will forward to L. Mullins. Responses focused on broad philosophical issues such as defining our role as faculty, keeping abreast of national issues and trends, and dealing with change management.
• Gaunt and Wilson will summarize issues related to use of vacant faculty lines and will forward these to Planning Committee, Appointments & Promotions Committee, and Personnel Policy & Affirmative Action Committee for discussion and recommendations.
• Date for RUL faculty business meeting rescheduled from May 12 to June 16.
1. Minutes of the 11/17 meeting were approved.
2. No old business.
3. New business
   1. Steering Committee on Training and Development Survey Questionnaire (Wilson):
      The committee reviewed the questionnaire sent out in November by the RUL Steering Committee on Training & Development. They are soliciting responses from system-wide committees on issues regarding professional development. M.Wilson requested that chairs of other committees forward copies of their responses to her. L.Langschied will summarize Coordinating Committee responses and will forward to L.Mullins promptly. Committee members agreed that specific training needs have been addressed by other committees. Coordinating Committee discussion focused on broader philosophical issues such as defining our role as faculty, managing change, improving communication within RUL and with our users, and keeping abreast of important national issues and trends in our profession.
   2. Five year plan for the use of faculty lines (Wilson & Gaunt):
      When a library faculty line becomes vacant, the procedure has been for the unit to forward a position description to the University Librarian, who passes this along to the Faculty Coordinator and the Chair of the Planning Committee for review and advice. Some units lately have used Librarian V positions to gain time to evaluate these positions for regular postings. The large number of current vacancies has raised several issues related to this procedure, including whether we should have/continue some annual appointments (Librarian V’s), whether some lines should be converted to high-level staff positions, whether some positions need to be moved/changed, and who should be involved in these decisions? One serious problem lately has been the failure to attract a sufficient pool of experienced librarians for our open positions. How can we improve this? Should we broaden the pool to include Librarian IV’s, or would entry- level librarians have sufficient time to make tenure in today’s academic climate? Gaunt and Wilson will outline these issues and forward to the Planning Committee, PPAAC, and A & P Committee for review and suggestions.
   3. PPAAC draft for soliciting external letters for promotion to Librarian I: postponed until next meeting.
   4. Date for faculty business meeting (Wilson):
      This item was added to the agenda with committee approval. The final RUL faculty meeting needs to be rescheduled from May 12. The best date appears to be June 16, although the New Brunswick Libraries faculty meeting is currently scheduled for that day. M.Wilson will contact M.Fetzer to ask if NBLF can be changed.
4. Committee reports: to be distributed by email.
5. Report of the University Librarian (Gaunt): deferred until next meeting.

Next meeting, Feb. 16, 9:30 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Penny Page
Secretary