Area Director’s notes, June 6, 2013

Present:  Mary Backus, Terry Simpkins, Rebekah Irwin, Chris Norris, Jim Stuart, David Ludwig,  Mike Roy and Doreen Bernier

Brief updates:

  • Proposed Joy Pile and Kellam Ayres, respectively, as writers for the Language Schools and Bread Loaf end-of-summer reports, pending confirmation with them.  Terry will confirm with Joy and Mary will confirm with Kellam.
  • Mike proposed that the ADs hold the 9:00-10:00 on Thursdays to create a space in the calendar to hold additional ad hoc directors’ meetings.  Doreen will send a calendar invite.
  • Mary asked Mike to speak with the Michael Geisler about closing the library on July 4th.
  • Jim asked if the Service Request Workgroup could assist with testing Eduroam.  Eduroam began in Europe, and allows visiting scholars, etc., to log in at participating institutions world-wide using only their local credentials.  Currently Eduroam is enabled in Voter and in Lib125 for testing purposes.  Jim will touch base with Lisa Terrier to request her workgroups assistance.  Chris requested more information about security issues.  Terry suggested that Joy Pile could help identify Language School faculty who might be interested in participating.

We discussed planning for the Middfiles production cutover. Jim and his group proposed cutover dates of June 15-16, which would mean limited access to Middfiles for approximately 4 hours (during which Middfiles would be read-only).  Because of the aggressive timeframe for this project, the directors requested that Jim distribute a draft change management document for their review.  There are concerns about how this will affect Language Schools and certain Banner processes that write to Middfiles automatically.  David and Jim will discuss further, and the directors also thought this should be discussed with John Stokes (Operations Director for LS).  This would also have an impact on lab setups.  There was strong sentiment that this timetable may be too aggressive and that it might be better to wait until after LS to  implement.  [6/17 update: The cutover is now likely to occur at the end of the summer after Language Schools].

The ADs discussed some of the more pressing office space recommendations prepared by the Space Team.  In the Space Team proposal, the new hire for Media Services would be temporarily located at the desk behind the circulation desk in front of Doreen’s office.  This is approved as a short term solution, but it would be preferred if all media staff worked in the same area.  Joseph will place necessary requests with Facilities Services to better prepare the area as a workspace.  Additionally:

  • approved a move of Joseph from his current location in the 135 suite to Special Collections;
  • approved new librarian hire going to DFL 207.

In addition to preferring to keep Media Services staff together if possible, we also expressed a desire to keep the Information Security staff in proximity to one another.  The Directors agreed to provide the Space Team with a list of desiderata regarding staff locations (these would be general requirements or wish lists, not specific room assignments; e.g., workgroup A needs quiet space to work, staff members B & C could double up in offices if necessary, etc.).  We will invite Joseph to meet with the ADs on June 20th for more discussion.

All area, workgroup and team goals are due at the beginning of July.  Mike has asked the directors to draft goals for themselves.  They are listed below with the AD who will act as lead.

Policy – (Chris Norris)
Internal Communication (Terry Simpkins)
Prioritization (Mike Roy)
Team Reassessment (Mike Roy)
Professional Development (Mike Roy)

Next week’s Directors’ meeting is canceled since several members will be traveling.  We have an retreat scheduled for June 21.  We will also try to reschedule that since several members will be out.

Agenda for June 20th

  • Goals preview
  • Budget
  • Cloud Strategy
  • Office Space
  • Communications TF recommendations

Thanks for reading,
Terry & Doreen

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