Public Services Committee Meeting: December 14, 2022

Zoom / Conference Call

Members attending: Steve Brantley (Eastern Illinois University), Chad Kahl, co-chair (Illinois State University), Jennifer Lau-Bond (Harper College), Katie Maier-O’Shea (North Park University), Anne Shelley (Illinois State University), Arlie Sims (Columbia College Chicago), Lesley Wolfgang, co-chair (Saint John's College of Nursing)

Members absent: Ashley McMullin (DePaul University), Simone Williams (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville)

CARLI Staff attending: Elizabeth Clarage, Denise Green

Decisions

• No modifications to the agenda.
• November 2022 meeting minutes were approved with some modifications requested by committee members.
• Finalized survey to send to CARLI for approval and (if approved) to send to members in January 2023.

Tasks Assigned

• Minutes taken by Jennifer Lau-Bond.
• Chad share the finalized questions with CARLI.

Announcements

• Member Announcements:
  • Steve Brantley (Eastern Illinois University): Library Dean search ongoing. Started offering retro games via an emulator that has been popular with students.
  • Chad Kahl (Illinois State University): Hiring for 5 positions at the Library. Invited to participate in discussions with NIH.
• CARLI Announcements:
  • Lots of events in January on CARLI calendar. Several events will be dealing with HR and Communications in libraries as well as DEI issues. One highlight is about de-escalation tools for libraries which is a two-part series, including handling book banning/challenges.
  • CARLI has announced registration support for members to do the Creative Commons Certificate Program. Information will be in the recent CARLI newsletter. It brings cost down to $225 for members. CARLI will be supporting up to 30 people, first come first serve. 10-week courses begin in January and June.
  • Round 3 and final round of the Illinois SCOERS program. CARLI talked to members about why they did not receive many proposals, reasons cited were time and 3D printing assignment requirement. Submission was moved to help with time, and CARLI can create those 3D printing assignments for participants to help with that requirement. Participants can also get money for OER ancillary materials (test banks, quizzes, flash cards, etc.). Due date for applications is February 28, 2023. CARLI can offer support to talk to your faculty about this opportunity. They are also offering the chance to apply for more money for groups from Round 1 and 2.
  • CARLI Counts application deadline has been extended to 12/16/22, and they can be flexible about the deadline. Let CARLI know if anyone is interested from your institution.
  • CARLI OER Committee is offering 3 opportunities for faculty to attend workshops: Jan 26, Feb 1, Feb 23. Registration is on CARLI Calendar.

Discussion

• Reviewed draft survey questions; updates were made as we discussed so that we ended up with a finalized version of all the questions.
  • Suggestion to change second part of question to “What were the benefits if any? What were the costs if any?”
    • There’s often a lot of emphasis on negative, so leading people to think about both positive and negative prompts them to think more broadly.
    • It will be interesting to see what people consider “public services.” Might vary based on how big institution is (is instruction part of public services? Is ILL? Etc.) We’re going to get kinds of answers and attitudes based on what individuals value.
    • What were people just doing because they were always doing it that they have now stopped because of changes they were forced to make?
    • What are you going to “throw in the lifeboat?” What do you really need?
    • Question was brought up, should we also ask about new activities in public services? If they’ve let go of something does that mean they’ve added something? Should we be collecting that data?
    • Are we including instruction in “public services?” Group agreed that would be included too.
    • Suggestion was made to use conditional logic on the survey so that people can answer “yes” or “no” to questions 2 and 3.
      • Are we looking for quantitatively simple analysis, or are we just creating a broader conversation? Yes or no questions are simpler but we lose broader context.
      • We could ask the question in a way that indicates we’re asking about permanent changes not just temporary COVID changes (but we don’t want to mention COVID).
      • Is the “what” important to ask people? What they let go of/added?
      • Would an open-ended holistic question be better, to let people give their thoughts and let them decide what is important to share?
        • We looked at the CARLI CDL survey results from last year and many of those questions were also open ended, along with some quantitative responses. Many members agreed and commented it would give people more freedom, although it will be harder to analyze.
      • Group decided to remove conditional logic and go back to the original revision to the question.
    • Suggestion to change question about feelings to “what are you afraid of and what are you excited about?”
      • We want people to think about gains we made by making changes and what we might lose by going back to an older model. If we look at things in the binary, we’re leading the question.
        • Another perspective: You will always get people sharing “the pain” because we need to share with colleagues, but we might need to lead into the positive to help us move forward and help people feel more energized or hopeful.
    • For question about future of reference, suggestion was made to give this question more context because it’s maybe too open ended. It was suggested to make it the last question. Question about what we let go can be the first question to help people start thinking creatively.
    • Question about size of staff, suggestion was made to move it right before the final question.
    • Someone asked if we wanted to seek out interesting survey responses and contact those people to possibly be on a panel in March. On the CDL survey, a question was asked if people would be open to be contacted and speak more, and then the committee decided who might be most engaging from that group. A question at the end asked for name and contact information; otherwise participants will be anonymous. Last year, the survey got 6 or so participants who were interested in more contact, and the committee picked 3 from that group to be on a panel.
      • Group decided to make the contact info optional at the end, just as it was on the CDL survey. We will adapt the CDL survey wording.
    • Suggestion was made to tweak the grammar of the wording in question about adding to public services.
    • Should the question about excited and afraid be moved down since it feels more summative? It was suggested to move it down to the second to last question, right before the “future” question.
    • For the question about changes, a suggestion was made to change it to “plan” instead of “hope” to make it more definitive.
• Logistics about releasing it
  • We need to create a draft survey email. A suggestion was made to adapt the CDL email from last year.
    • Our survey will not be as brief as the CDL survey so we will change the wording from the email to remove “brief.” A suggestion was made for committee members to time themselves taking the survey so we can add an estimate.
    • The email was also reworded to indicate that we’ll be using the survey to help us plan a panel for Spring 2023.
    • The group discussed if we want just one person from each institution or as many participants as want to complete the survey. The group decided we want as many people as possible and will state that in the email.
  • Question was asked about when we want to release it. We do need to run the finalized survey past CARLI.
    • Should we release it right away in early January or wait a few weeks? Suggestion was made to release it on Monday January 9, 2023.
    • What about a deadline? It was suggested a tighter turnaround time might be more effective, so the group decided on Monday January 30, 2023 for closing the survey.

Next Meeting Dates and Deadlines

The Public Services Committee will next meet on January 11, 2023 at 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

Remaining Committee Meetings:
February 8, 2023, 10-11 a.m., Minutes: Katie Maier-O'Shea
March 8, 2023, 10-11 a.m., Minutes: Arlie Sims
April 12, 2023, 10-11 a.m., Minutes: Simone Williams
May 10, 2023, 10-11 a.m., Minutes: Chad Kahl
June 14, 2023, 10-11 a.m., Minutes: to be determined

Deadlines: