Vol. 5, No. 1

 Spring 2004

behind the scenes .....

Librarians Meet (and meet and meet)

On December 19, armed with bagels, coffee and chocolate, the Parkland Librarians met for a "marathon meeting."  Since we'd had a fairly extensive turnover in the fall (3 new part-time librarians were hired since early October and a retirement in November), the librarians had not met as a group to discuss issues and concerns for quite awhile.  With an Information Services staff of 2 full-time and 3 part-time librarians covering the 67.5 hours that the Library is open during a week, one librarian is usually leaving as another comes in, and there's little time to share ideas, plans, issues, and other topics.

What do librarians discuss when they get together? The secret is out! The Agenda during the December marathon meeting included:

• Division of duties in Information Services - who's responsible for paperwork (forms, statistics, vertical file, tax forms, etc.), keeping track of runaway reference books, for instance.
• Handling an ever-increasing number of information desk questions and library instruction sessions with the loss of the half-time 9-month position.
• Computer use and priority – how do we help students who need to do research get access to a computer?  There never seem to be enough computers to go around.
• The demise of ORCA - a brief moment of silence was held - and how its replacement would work.
• Closing and safety issues – setting procedures to get everyone out of the Library at closing time - some folks just don’t want to leave.
• A fun part – spending money.  For expensive items, we share the decision of whether something should be purchased.
• Planning for the Spring semester – working with the Academic Development Center and with college prep students.
• Needs for our collection – creating a "Wish list" of electronic resources that we would use if we had the money to purchase them.
• Interlibrary loan issues and procedures.

The Librarians meet regularly to share information and create ideas and services for Parkland students and faculty.  The January meeting included a tour of the D-wing so that the new Librarians could see the Cooperative Learning Center, Writing Center, Peer Tutoring, etc., and meet Connie Macedo’s staff – since we’re frequent users of the Campus Technology's hotline.

So, just like the Energizer Bunny, Parkland's librarians keep going ... and going ... and going ...

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