I work fairly closely with my department on a variety of issues: instruction, collection development, faculty research, etc… We also have a specific task force, made up up of each facet of the department and myself. We meet several times a year when we can get most, if not everybody on board. This used to be a lot easier a couple years ago, but time constraints on everybody has really tapped into this. However, we will be meeting tomorrow to discuss a variety of issues. Here are some of the issues we will be discussing
Budget and fund allocation
- Go over order cards for each area and discuss new online form test (discussed in previous post)
- Material recommendations, such as journal subscriptions and specific books.
My new reference schedule and teaching for the Fall Semester
Issues for students, such as using their university email accounts. As funny as this sound, grad students rarely use these accounts. I would imagine that they have their own personal email and might even have a second work email and don’t feel like using a third. However, official university AND library communication comes through that email. Communication such as late notices and that they have been charged for an overdue book. I always go over this in class, but for some reason it does not sink in for them. The real downside of this, is that our Circulation Supervisor has to waste (yep, I said it) her time dealing with patrons that have been billed for overdue materials.
What’s new at the library
- RSS feed
- Program toolbars
- New databases
- Research Guides that have been wiki-zed
- federated searching
- etc…
Anyway, that is a lot to cover in an hour and a half, but it is always time well spent. Does anybody meet with their departments like this?
I will be going to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area for a week. However, being one of those people who can not seem to leave work behind, I will be reading a few things….or at least “having a go” a them.
