Public Services Committee Meeting: February 8, 2023

Zoom / Conference Call

Members attending: Steve Brantley (Eastern Illinois University), Chad Kahl, co-chair (Illinois State University), Jennifer Lau-Bond (Harper College), Ashley McMullin (DePaul University), Anne Shelley (Illinois State University), Arlie Sims (Columbia College Chicago), Lesley Wolfgang, co-chair (Saint John's College of Nursing)

Members absent: Katie Maier-O’Shea (North Park University), Simone Williams (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville)

CARLI Staff attending: Denise Green, Elizabeth Clarage

Decisions

• Committee revised & then approved January minutes.
• The Committee decided to Extended survey collection to February 20, 2023.

Tasks Assigned

• Minutes taken by Denise Green.
• CARLI staff will send a survey extended message to email lists on February 13.
• CARLI staff will share survey results with the Committee on February 21.
• All committee members will review the survey results prior to the March committee meeting.

Announcements

• Member Announcements:
  • Ashley McMullin (DePaul University): Library has a new Associate University Librarian for Collections and Discovery Services, John Leeker. The library is hiring two full time Access Services staff.
  • Chad Kahl (Illinois State University): The Library is studying combining Circulation and Reference into single desk. They will be taking site visits and conducting focus groups and a campus survey.
  • Arlie Sims (Columbia College Chicago): Their library gate count way up, demand has grown for both in-person & asynchronous instruction both.
  • Steve Brantley (Eastern Illinois University): The Library’s Dean search has concluded, and hopefully will have an appointment announced soon. The library is looking for a fulltime library operations assistant.
  • Lesley Wolfgang (St. John’s College of Nursing): The College has a new Dean. Their Chancellor has announced her retirement.
• CARLI Announcements:
  • Shared the CARLI events calendar and highlighted the upcoming CARLI Resource Sharing Committee for a 2-part series of discussions on Training and Supervising Student Workers on February 22 and March 1).
  • OER programming from other organizations can be found on the CARLI website.

Discussion

• Committee members reviewed the 36 survey responses received to date. Some themes noted including changes in academic library public services such as staff cuts, cutting physical course reserves, new spaces with “Learning Commons”, virtual reference, fax on demand, etc.
  • The Committee decided to extend deadline one week to February 20, send reminder email Feb. 13 and to send to Governing Directors email list. A note to be added to the message to ask those Deans/Directors to forward to appropriate librarians.
  • Do a panel discussion event, if yes when and length of program?
    • 5 so far volunteer their contact information.
  • Next steps after survey end:
    • Review the surveys for those willing to be contacted.
    • Committee will try to get variety of college/university types & sizes represented if possible for a program.
    • Include institutions that have both added and cut public services.
    • Wait to structure panel and plan details after the survey concludes.
    • Include survey results summary in program.
  • After the survey closes, CARLI staff will send results to committee members on February 21. Both the website link with results and downloaded results to Excel shared in the Committee’s Box folder.  All will look over before our next meeting March 8.

Next Meeting Dates and Deadlines

The Public Services Committee will next meet on March 8, 2023, 10-11 a.m.

Committee Meetings:
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