NJLA College and University Section

ACRL/NJ Chapter

Executive Board Meeting

Minutes

March 12, 2004

Alexander Library, Rutgers University, New Brunswick

 

Present:  Nicole Cooke, Ruth Hamann, Frances Kaufmann, Mary Mallery, Leslie Murtha, Penny Page, Steve Shapiro

Call to order:  The meeting was called to order at 10:08 a.m.

Minutes:  Minutes of the Feb. 6 meeting were approved.  There was discussion regarding the Distinguished Service Award and the section bylaws (as mentioned in the Feb. minutes).  We need to clarify procedures and criteria for the award.  The latest version of the bylaws is from 1998.  Mary will get a copy of these from the NJLA archives and bring to the May 7 meeting for review and updating.

 

President’s report – Fran Kaufmann (for Julie Still)

Our pilot project to get sponsorship for minority student attendance at the NJLA conference is going forward. The NJLA Professional Development Committee likes this idea; they want to take it over for next year and expand it to cover those interested in any type of library.  For this year we have a donor to sponsor two lunches, and NJLA will waive registration for the participants that day.  Fran has recruited one participant, Damian Kelley, from Seton Hall (graduated last May and may be applying to SCILS).  Our lunch speaker, Tyrone Cannon, has agreed to participate in an informal networking session to be held in the general breakfast area at 8:30 Apr. 20.  Members of the Black Librarians Network of NJ will be attending, and the meeting is open to other interested persons. 

 

Julie and Fran will be setting up the agenda for the conference luncheon. We will be presenting three awards:  Technology, Research, and Distinguished Service.  Committee chairs should let Fran know right away if they need award certificates.  Let Julie know if you have any special equipment needs for your programs.

 

Budget request to NJLA – Fran Kaufmann

Julie forwarded email to Fran regarding our budget request for 2005 fiscal year.  Last year we received $725; so far we have spent $245 for printing and mailing the fall issue of the newsletter.  NJLA has indicated that they don’t want to continue paying postage for these activities, and they are urging sections to move to electronic publication on the website.  The board discussed the implications of this for our newsletter; it would be difficult to limit to section members if it is posted on our website.  Also, would members be notified via email when an issue was posted?  NJLA now has all member email addresses for electronic notification, but we also have ACRL members that aren’t in NJLA.  In addition, the newsletter functions as a good recruiting tool; we need print copies to take to conferences and other programs.  For these reasons the board agreed that we should request money for printing and mailing our newsletter for next year (two issues per year).  The board also agreed we should request money for printing a professional version of our chapter brochure.  This serves as a good communications and publicity tool.  Fran will ask the print shop at Seton Hall for estimates, and she will contact Pat Fazio for estimates also.  Our total budget request is due to the NJLA Finance Committee by March 17.

 

Meeting locations for next year – Fran Kaufmann

The board discussed possible meeting locations for the next year.  The ongoing road work on Rt. 18 in New Brunswick is due to escalate (starting probably this summer).  Major construction will affect Rt. 18 between Rt. 1 and the New Brunswick campus, and traffic is expected to worsen.  This may cause problems for board members travelling to meetings at Alexander Library.  Technical problems prevented the proposed teleconferencing between Alexander and Montclair for the March meeting; however, we can hopefully resolve these problems by the summer.  The proposed meeting locations for next academic year are Rutgers-Camden, Rutgers-New Brunswick, and Montclair State.  Fran will preside from Montclair, and other board members will go to their most convenient location.  Penny Page will follow-up with Alexander Library staff to ensure that the teleconferencing will happen.  Several board members also suggested that we meet once or twice during the year in one location face-to-face. 

 

Committee reports:

 

Nominations – Steve Shapiro

Our slate of candidates for next year was submitted, and the ballots have gone out.  Marc Meoa from TCNJ is running for Vice President/President Elect; Penny Page will run again for secretary and Ruth Hamann for Member-at-Large.

 

NJLA Liaison – Mary Mallery

The last NJLA Executive Board meeting was Feb. 17 at SCILS.  Several SCILS students attended, and the Dean of SCILS along with the chair of the Library Studies Department talked about their programs.  This was well-received by the board members and will probably be repeated next year.  The proposed strategic plan was presented; it should be finalized at the next meeting.  The ALA Councilor talked about happenings at Midwinter and upcoming events for the annual ALA conference.  The next meeting is March 16 at Piscataway Public Library.  The budget will be finalized in April.

 

Newsletter – Nicole Cooke

The spring issue is now at the printer and should be out to members well before the conference.  This issue includes highlights of upcoming conference programs.  Pat Fazio will bring some copies to the conference for handouts.

 

User Education – Leslie Murtha

The committee has made more progress on their website (still under construction).  They are exploring the possibility of doing a program around mid-June on opening lines of communication with school librarians regarding information literacy.  This might be a collaborative program with the Central Jersey Library Coop (they are looking into this issue also), or there might be separate complementary programs.  The committee is sponsoring two programs at the NJLA conference—one on the “Immersion Experience” from last summer (Beth Bloom and Nicole Cooke) and a panel on programming for first-year students (Ruth Hamann, Carol Nurse, and Eileen Stec).

 

Technology Committee – Mary Mallery (for Belicose and Deng)

The presentations by the candidates for the Technology Innovation Award were held at Monmouth University on March 5 [candidates listed in Feb. 6 minutes].  Two winners were selected and will be announced at the conference luncheon.

 

Research Committee – Karen Hartman (report submitted by email)

The committee selected a winner for the annual Research Award (to be announced at the conference luncheon).  Along with the award winner, four additional presentations were selected for the Research Forum on Tuesday afternoon, Apr. 20.

 

Old Business:

 

There is no new update on the Libraries 2012 program, which is currently scheduled for May 26 at Fairleigh Dickinson in Madison.

 

Distinguished Service Award – Fran Kaufmann

Fran will send out the letters to the winner and other nominees this week.  At the May meeting we will clarify criteria and define procedures for selecting award winners.

 

New Business:

Send any program descriptions (including pictures) to Mary Mallery to post on our website.

 

Upcoming meetings:  May 7 and June 4.

 

Meeting adjourned  11:15 a.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Penny Page

Secretary