LFA Executive Committee Minutes - April 28, 2025

LFA Executive Committee Meeting  
 April 28, 2025, 10:30 PM-12:00 PM

 

Attending: Jon Giullian (Chair), Josh Bolick (Vice Chair), Kodjo Atiso (Secretary), Angie Rathmel, Brian Rosenblum, and Adrienne Sanders.

  1. Approve minutes from the 03/24/2025 meeting. 

Minutes were approved as amended.

 

  1. Update from the LFA chairs' meeting with Dean Carol Smith
    1. Reviewed LFA Spring General Assembly Meeting Agenda.
    2. Reviewed draft of the FAculty Service Audit survey.

    3. Faculty Hiring Needs and Update.  The question of subject expertise was raised. What kind of subject expertise is needed? What trends are being seen at the reference desk (Education, psychology, others?) Neal Axton's move to Law Library leaves KU w/o a GovDocs Librarian, which is essential for KUL as an FDLP member library. Greta Valentine's departure underscores the need for a data/assessment librarian. Carol is open to joint subject area hires (e.g., Govdocs/Maps, Data/Assessment). Concern was expressed that dual role library positions are "red flags," for potential candidates because it seems to be requiring double duty or one discipline gets emphasized over another. Edwards campus is growing, hence the need for an Edwards campus librarian. The time to hire is now, before the need becomes acute. There are indications that the hiring of new faculty librarians may proceed at a slower pace.

       

    4. Departmental Reports. Carol used them to inform her State of the Libraries presentation. Carol doesn’t want these reports to be too onerous. How can the process of writing them be streamlined. Potentially hold and in-service on how to manage/prepare reports.

 

  1. Feedback from Carol’s State of the Libraries Presentation. Feedback was positive. Some constructive feedback was provided.

 

  1. Debrief of Evaluation Process for 2024.  It was an experiment. The goal for next year should be simplicity and a clear timeline and Simplicity. There were challenges in moving the evals through the signature process.  Carol’s comments on the forms do not serve the two above goals. The Dean’s comments should not just duplicate a supervisor’s comments. Evaluations can be endorsed by the Dean without much additional comment. Carol wanted people to know that she values faculty contributions and reading through the evaluations helped her develop an appreciation for the work faculty are doing. One concern is seemingly all faculty earned a rating of “exceed expectations.” How would this inform potential merit increases? 

     

    1. Briefly discussed CRSA processes.   There needs to be consistency and agreement on who is the “Chairperson” who signs the form. Carol enjoys reading the GRF applications to be aware of the research projects that are seeking funding.  It’s vital to foster effective communication about funded projects (and their outcomes) to ensure we are recognizing and celebrating funded research.  We also need to consider the amount of unexpended funds.

     

  2. Service Audit update – timeline and duration 

    1. The revised audit survey will be sent to faculty members shortly.
    2. This survey requires an introductory paragraph.

     

  3. Committee reports 

    1. LCPT - Nothing to report
    2. SLPTR  - Nothing to report
    3. Ad hoc Committee for Review of P&T Guidelines.  The committee met several times and identified 44 institutions for review of their P&T procedures. This exercise is expected to end by mid-June.

     

  4. Committee reports 

    1. LCPT - Nothing to report
    2. SLPTR  - Nothing to report
    3. Ad hoc Committee for Review of P&T Guidelines.  The committee met several times and identified 44 institutions for review of their P&T procedures. This exercise is expected to end by mid-June.

     

  5. Debrief of the LFA Spring Assembly. 

The general atmosphere at the Spring General Assembly indicated that the meeting proceeded well enough. The bulk of the meeting was dedicated to a review of the 2024 evaluation process.  The discussion was lively and produced useful feedback for next year’s LFA Executive Committee.

 

  1. Updates from the LSA Chair  
    1. The LSA Chair indicated that a team is working on a bus tour to the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) and the Linda Hall Library in the summer. 

    2. The LFA service audit will be shared with LSA Exec as an example.

       

  2. New Business – none

 

Meeting adjourned at 11.50 am