Public Services Committee Meeting: October 20, 2021

Zoom / Conference Call

Members attending: Caitlin Archer-Helke (Saint Xavier University), Jessica Bastian (Illinois Central College), Krista Bowers Sharpe (Western Illinois University), Cynthia Kremer, co-chair (Joliet Junior College), Ashley McMullin (DePaul University), Arlie Sims (Columbia College Chicago), Lesley Wolfgang (Saint John's College of Nursing)

Members absent: Chad Kahl, co-chair (Illinois State University), Nestor Osorio, (Northern Illinois University)

CARLI Staff attending: Elizabeth Clarage, Denise Green

Board Liaison: Spencer Brayton (Waubonsee Community College)

Decisions

• September minutes were approved.
• We have two main strategies for pursuing Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) as a topic: (1) we send an email to gauge involvement and/or interest among CARLI members and/or (2) we do research on the topic to work towards an event, a guide, or even a publication.

Tasks Assigned

• Minutes taken by Krista Bowers Sharpe.
• By November 10, 2021, contribute to the draft email (Box note) or to the CDL research folder (either put ideas in Box note or upload documents to Box folder)

Announcements

• Member Announcements:
  • Krista Bowers Sharpe (WIU): WIU vaccination rate is at about 65% students, 88% of staff/faculty. Nonvaccinated must test weekly and enforcement has begun for noncompliance of both students and employees. The library remains busy. The main challenge is enforcing the mask mandate.
  • Cynthia Kremer (JJC): JJC is using the Cleared4 system for submitting vaccination cards. A pilot flex work option has begun. Library usage is going up but still lower than pre-COVID.
  • Ashley McMullin (DePaul University): Although the Loop branch remains quieter, library traffic is back up overall. Service desks are busy. Instruction numbers are high. Vaccination numbers are near 100% for students and employees; subsequently the resistance to mask wearing has grown and has been hard for staff to manage.
  • Caitlin Archer-Helke (SXU): Enforcing mask wearing remains a challenge. Structural changes in administration have yet to be outlined.
  • Lesley Wolfgang (St. John’s College of Nursing): At St. John’s College of Nursing, the vaccination rate is good for students but the rate for staff needs improvement. The campus is focused on the upcoming Joint Commission visit.  
  • Arlie Sims (Columbia College Chicago):  Mask wearing has been pretty consistent.  Students who are unwilling, which is not common, are asked to leave the Library. Arlie is interested in whether there would be interest in a CARLI-wide effort to support faculty in networking between institutions in support of their research and publication efforts.  At CC, they are calling this the Faculty Research Initiative” but would like the discussion to include other schools.
  • Jessica Bastian (ICC): Requirements to be vaccinated or get tested will soon have consequence for those not in compliance. Traffic is not yet back up to pre-COVID levels, although virtual reference service usage is robust. Both in-person and virtual instruction is ongoing. The campus will soon migrate from Blackboard to Canvas LMS.
• CARLI Announcements:
  • Elizabeth has been working with ebook vendors Wiley and Oxford to talk about Year 3 (July 2022-June 2023). She hopes to get information out to libraries earlier this year: this fall rather than next March. She is still waiting on confirmation from vendors on Year 1 purchases. Some titles are holding up the entire process. She hopes to get an accurate list soon. They are working to add Oxford titles into the catalog; Wiley are already added.
  • Denise: CARLI Events Calendar
    • Next discussion: Two Libraries’ Different Approaches to Lost and Billed Materials Processes. Friday, October 29, 2021 - 11:00am to 12:00pm
    • She is looking for other libraries who would like to report their experiences with Alma for future discussions.
  • Denise is working on lists of electronic collections for the titles reduction project. Things that can be deleted: various duplications or unneeded records.

Discussion

• Cynthia has drafted a slideshow to present last year’s committee work at the Annual Meeting. She will be using it to record a video and would be happy for input and involvement.
• Choose Fall Project or Program: We discussed CDL as a project topic for 2021-22. Ideas suggested were:
  • Do a survey to see what CDL practices were either already in use or were of interest at CARLI libraries. Questions raised were:
    • Would the survey be answered by individuals or member libraries?
    • Would it be anonymous so that people felt comfortable owning up to CDL efforts?
    • Could it offer the chance to participate in a follow-up interview and possibly participate in a discussion event?
    • How would terms be defined so that results could be compared?
    • Would we look at past practice or future?
    • Would we ask about perceived sustainability?
    • Are we interested in policy or actual practice?
    • CARLI would need to okay the contents of the survey, so our tentative timeline of being done by December seemed unlikely. If provided with the Word document, Elizabeth or Denise could create a SurveyMonkey.
  • Host a discussion event about CDL.
    • What questions do librarians/libraries have about CDL?
    • What problems have they experienced with CDL?
    • How do we identify people to participate? We decided that an email to the listservs would work.
  • Create a guide or even a published article based on what we find out from a survey or discussion event or a literature review.
• We decided to pursue crafting an email (involving good definitions and possible questions) and doing background research (links or whole documents) and gathering it all in Box. Member should contribute to either effort by November 10, 2021, to give time to organize the contributions before our next meeting.

Next Meeting Dates and Deadlines

The Public Services Committee’s next meeting is on November 17, 2021, from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m.

Future Committee Meetings:
December 15, 2021
January 19, 2022
February 16, 2022
March 16, 2022
April 20, 2022
May 18, 2022
June 15, 2022

Deadlines: By November 10, 2021: Contribute to the draft email (Box note) and/or contribute background research (Box folder) regarding CDL.