Public Services Committee Meeting: May 20, 2020

Zoom / Conference Call

Members attending: Caitlin Archer-Helke (Saint Xavier University), Jessica Bastian (Illinois Central College), Krista Bowers Sharpe (Western Illinois University), Aaron Harwig, co-chair (College of DuPage), Chad Kahl (Illinois State University), Cynthia Kremer (Joliet Junior College), Nestor Osorio, co-chair (Northern Illinois University)

Members absent: Elizabeth Sterner (Governors State University), Lesley Wolfgang (Saint John’s College of Nursing)

CARLI Staff attending: Elizabeth Clarage, Denise Green

Decisions

• The April minutes were approved with edits.
• Although the CARLI Board extended the deadline for committee reports until August 15, the committee decided to complete the annual report and its project report by the original deadline of the end of May.

Tasks Assigned

• Minutes taken by Jessica Bastian.
• Creating User Guides subcommittee will write a summary of its work to be included in the committee’s annual report.
• The draft annual report is in Box. All committee members have access and can make edits. Final version to be completed by May 28.
• All committee members will review the final draft on May 29, so that it can be submitted by the end of the month.

Announcements

• Member Announcements:
  • Chad: ISU – Funding for the Student Success Center planned for the renovated first floor has been delayed. Hopefully, it will be addressed at the September Board of Trustees meeting. All searches are still being completed. If Governor Pritzker lifts the stay at home directive, the library building will be re-opened on June 8, 2020. Services expected when they open will include access services and archives and special collections by appointment only. Virtual reference services will continue.  There is the expectation that everyone will be back on campus/in the library on July 1.  The library is still working on what that means for services.
  • Caitlin: SXU - All classes will be online for the summer.
  • Cynthia: JJC – All classes are online for the summer. The institution is evaluating graduation options. For the fall semester, the institution is planning to hold many regular classes online while tech & lab classes will be in person if the JJC location makes it to phase 4 of the State of Illinois re-opening plan.
  • Krista: WIU – All classes are online for summer. The fall is undecided.
  • Aaron: COD - Summer classes are online only. For the fall, the institution is using three classifications for classes which are online, hybrid, or virtual meeting.
  • Jessica: ICC – Summer classes are online only. Plan for fall includes both online & hybrid classes.  
  • Nestor: NIU – Fall classes will be held in a combination of formats. The announcements from members about re-opening and the steps libraries are taking to protect staff brought up the need for cleaning and sanitizing physical materials and spaces. Should the committee explore COVID-19 effects on public services? How do we demonstrate the value of the academic library in these times? The committee had a discussion on these topics (noted in the Discussion section).
• CARLI Announcements:
  • CARLI Board approved a 10% reduction in membership fees for FY21.
  • CARLI Board paused two special initiatives: the Mobile Digitization Lab and the Professional Development Reimbursement Program. They will revisit these in the future.   
  • The CARLI Board funded consortial access for ebooks. Wiley ebooks will be available for all governing members for publication dates of 2017-present. Access is available now. More information will soon be shared with the membership. After the go-live date, CARLI staff will work to have discovery for these titles available in Primo VE.
  • CARLI staff announced vendor discounts for the FY21 Selection Cycle.
  • Alma / Primo VE migration is on schedule. Please keep in touch with Thursdays Open Office sessions. The go live date remains June 24, 2020. Information coming to main Alma Primo VE project.  
  • The CARLI Board extended committee reports deadline to August 15, 2020.

Discussion

• The committee discussed some considerations when library buildings re-open including the safe handling of materials. The CARLI Preservation Committee has developed an informational page on this topic (https://www.carli.illinois.edu/resources-collection-management-response-covid-19) which includes a link the REALM Information Hub (Reopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums) a project from IMLS, OCLC, and Battelle to provide science-based information and recommended practices.  
• The committee discussed the need to demonstrate the value of the academic library during these times including making visible the work and roles that the libraries are doing while library buildings are closed.  The Illinois Library Association project “Bigger than a Building” was mentioned (https://www.ila.org/advocacy/bigger-than-a-building).
• Reports – Project and Activities
  • With the Board extending the deadline until August 15, do we still want to complete the annual report in May?
  • The Creating User Guides subgroup work is not complete.
    • Aaron sent the original annual project proposal for the committee to review. It states that the projects could be continuing projects (more than one next year). Could the Creating User Guides project be carried over into the next year as these projects can be multi-year projects?
    • The committee determined that it is hard to create user guides in the test environment, and it might be better to wait until after go-live for the creation of user guides. The committee will ask the subcommittee to summarize its work and indicate plans for the future for the annual report.
    • Krista will contact to the Creating User Guides subcommittee and ask for a project update to include in the annual report. Krista will send responses to Nestor and Aaron.
  • The committee discussed emphasizing the work that was done to reduce the number of subcommittees from 5 to 3. It was done after much analysis and to improve the work of each group.
  • The goal is to submit the report to the Board for its June meeting. The committee will finish the final draft by Thursday, May 28, 2020. Final comments returned by the committee on May 29, 2020.

Next Meeting Dates and Deadlines

• Wednesday, June 17, 2020, 10:00 – 11:00 AM CDT, by Zoom
• Deadlines: Submit Annual Report by the end of May.