LIBRARY FACULTY ASSEMBLY (LFA) EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING NOTES

August 30, 2019

Present:

• Betsaida Reyes - Chair
• Erin Wolfe - Secretary
• Fran Devlin - Representative (Librarian rank)
• Sarah Goodwin Thiel - Representative (Associate Librarian rank)
• Josh Bolick - Representative (Assistant Librarian rank)
• Carmen Orth-Alfie (via Zoom) - Member at Large Not present
• Brian Rosenblum - Vice-chair/Chair Elect

Opening

Meeting was called to order. Minutes from LFA Exec meeting (7/19/2019) were reviewed, voted, and approved with one amendment. Re: Discussion about the Budig awards: Record the suggestion that annual evaluations might be an opportunity to advance as award nominations

LFA/LSA web presence

Discussion about the LFA/LSA (and committees) web presence, specifically around the need to standardize content (minutes, memberships, etc) and platform (SharePoint vs. Libraries website). Included discussion of what content is required/allowable on a public platform. Matt Torres shared Sharepoint thoughts by email.

LSA Exec committee has noted that may want to separate web presence from LFA. No decisions are made, and discussions will continue.

Regarding standardization and cleanup of web content, proposal to separate into (a) systematic management of new content, and (b) ad-hoc group to review older content and make recommendations on what to do.

Review of responsibility for publishing committee minutes/reports to website and University Archives. The Code is unclear and not consistent in some areas (see lines 138, 399, & 591 for responsibilities of Secretaries.) The Committee on the Code will be asked to review and recommend new wording to amend these sections to clarify.

Discussions will continue, including meeting with University Archives, web platform managers, and library personnel with relevant institutional memory.

LFA/LFSA Committees

LCPT meeting (8/23/2019) (Fran)

• Effective July 2019, librarians teaching for-credit courses will consider these activities as part of Professional Performance in their promotion and tenure files, not as Service. Librarians do not have to fill out the Teaching Statement. Mike Broadwell will be sending info to Libraries staff. Other updates will follow. See Appendix A as documentation of administrative decision.

Code

• Kristin Sederstrom will serve as the final member. No meetings have been called.
• Proposed charges (will need to come from LFSA Exec)
  • Quorum requirements for voting, elections, etc.
  • Codifying responsibilities and requirements for committee minutes and reports Salary & Benefits
• Lars will serve as the final member. No meetings have been called. Nominating
• Sunita will serve as the final member. No meetings have been called. CRSA
• Have had first meeting, but no updates (see LFSA)

Notes from LFSA Exec meeting (7/23/2019)

Updates on changes to the tuition reimbursement process for library faculty and staff, making reimbursement happen at the beginning of the course rather than the end. Discussions will continue.

Other business

• LFA General Meeting in the fall will likely be in November, dependent on the Dean's schedule
• Brief discussion about transfer of membership from from year-to-year for committees. Suggestions to establish a process/procedure for transferring information, etc.

Action items

• Fran will check on Code for 2/3 requirements for voting.
• The 2/3 requirement only applies to votes to amend the Code, which states beginning line 43: “Amendments to the Code are ratified by distributed ballot (paper or electronic). For those members eligible to amend an Article, a two-thirds affirmative vote of those who cast a ballot is required for adoption of any proposed amendment to the Code, provided that a majority of the membership eligible to vote return valid ballots.”
• With respect to voting for elections, line 32 states: “ Nominees are elected by either a majority or plurality of votes cast.”
• Fran will check on previous committee minutes, etc.
• The Secretaries of LFA, LSA, and LFSA Executive Committees are responsible for posting the agenda and minutes of the governance committees. Since the Libraries started using Sharepoint, it has created some confusion and inconsistencies in posting of minutes. When reviewing the LFSA Executive Report from FY 2016-17, I found a recommendation of a potential charge for the next year’s Executive Committee to “Clearly outline the duties of the LFSA Executive Committee Secretary in the Code, especially regarding updating the website.”
• Invite Matt Torres, Scott Hanrath, Letha Johnson to next meeting (or external meeting) to continue discussion about website/SharePoint
• Betsaida will talk with LFSA Exec re: proposed charges for the Committee on the Code

Appendix A

KU Libraries

Faculty Standard for the Evaluation of Teaching

August 26, 2019

The importance of teaching in academic research library settings is becoming more and more apparent in the daily work of many tenure-track and academic librarians.

Librarians commonly provide instruction in the effective use of library resources and often teach in a more formal classroom setting. Consistently reflecting formal classroom teaching in documents has been an ongoing question, particularly when dealing with annual review, promotion and tenure and other personnel actions.

In an attempt to standardize issues around teaching for-credit courses by tenure-track and academic faculty librarians, KU Libraries administration, supported by advice from with KU’s Vice Provost for Faculty Development (see attached email from 6.20.19), sets forth the following standards for representation in annual evaluation materials, as well as through the processes of Promotion/Tenure (P/T), Progress Toward Tenure Review (PTTR) and Post Tenure Review (PTR).

1. Teaching that is part of the faculty member’s position duties.
   1. For those faculty who are engaged in teaching activities but are not the teacher of record, in accordance with the expectations outlined in their Position Description (PD), representation of these activities will take place in the “Professional Performance” category for Annual Evaluations, and P/T, PTTR and PTR documents.
   2. Peer/student evaluations or other teaching performance metrics are not required; if available, though, they may be included in the supplemental files.
   3. The teaching portion of P/T, PTTR and PTR documents shall not be completed.
   4. For those faculty who are significantly engaged in teaching activities and are serving as the instructor of record in a for-credit course, as required by the expectations outlined in their PD, representation of these activities will take place in the “Professional Performance” category for Annual Evaluations, and P/T, PTTR and PTR documents.
   5. Peer/student evaluations or other teaching performance metrics are encouraged as they may be useful for the promotion/tenure processes.
   6. The teaching portion of P/T, PTTR and PTR documents shall not be completed.
   7. Approval and Compensation:
      • In situations where librarians are serving as instructor of record for a for-credit course as defined in their PD, it is expected that the libraries will be monetarily compensated.
      • All agreements for teaching a for-credit course as the instructor of record must be approved by the appropriate associate dean.
2. Teaching that is not part of the faculty member’s position duties.
   1. This work is considered overload. Faculty who are teaching a for-credit course as overload at KU will represent this work in the “Professional Performance” category in Annual evaluations and P/T, PTTR and PTR documents
   2. Peer/student evaluations or other teaching performance metrics are not required; if available, though, they may be included in the supplemental files.
   3. The teaching portion of P/T, PTTR and PTR documents shall not be completed.
   4. Approval and Compensation
      • It is expected that library faculty teaching on an overload basis will be monetarily compensated for this work. Faculty will have a choice to take the overload payment as pay (taxable) or a transfer into professional development funds (not taxable).
      • Teaching on an overload basis at KU must be approved by the appropriate associate dean.

From: Brown, Chris

Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2019 11:22 AM To: Smith, Kevin L <KLSMITH12@KU.EDU> Subject: librarians and teaching

Hi, Kevin, and thanks for coming in yesterday to talk about librarians and teaching.

You shared the issue that teaching (be it 1 on 1 instruction; overloads; instructor of record) is woven tightly into many librarians’ work. Thus, to place a fixed percentage on it and have it reflected as “teaching” (discrete category) is difficult and fails to hold much meaning, and it also doesn’t make sense to put some teaching in one category (professional performance), and some other teaching in another (service). If “teaching” for librarians is best reflected in their overall professional performance (normally 70% of their FTE), then that is where it belongs.

As a University, we must work to ensure the systems in place to evaluate teaching allow for individuals and units to carry out their teaching mission in diverse ways, document that work, and be recognized for their accomplishments.

Thus, we agreed that the expectations and outcomes of work librarians do related to teaching be attributed to the category of professional performance in annual evaluations, PTTR, P&T, and PTR. In addition, the expectations for teaching-related work must be well defined in position descriptions and attributed to professional performance.

Please let me know if this correctly sums up your understanding of the results of our meeting, or if any changes are needed.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Chris

J. Christopher Brown, Ph.D. Professor

Department of Geography and Atmospheric Science Environmental Studies Program

Vice Provost for Faculty Development