Academic Commons Planning Committee Meeting Minutes

Monday, April 3, 2006

Present: Jane Boomer, Albert Borroni, Alan Boyd, John Bucher, Ray English, Jessica Grim, Shozo Kawaguchi, Fred Zwegat

1. Announcements.

   Alan announced that he’s been contacted by a practicum student at Kent State who has a technology background and is also interested in library planning. It may be possible to involve him in the commons project. The student will be available late summer and in the fall.

   Ray announced that Kalamazoo College will be dedicating their “Library Commons” on Saturday April 22. He’s hoping he will be able to be there for the event.

2. Update on Academic Commons process.

   Ray reported on various matters related to the process of planning the Academic Commons. He has a meeting scheduled with Ron Watts to discuss the architectural planning consultant and also a representative from the finance division to the café subcommittee. He also has a meeting scheduled with Mike Will to discuss the process for planning Mudd renovations, including when it would be advisable to engage the architectural planning consultant. He noted that he had briefed Laurie McMillin on the project and that she had agreed to serve on the services and management subcommittee, attending meetings whenever it would be needed. Kathyrn Stuart has also agreed to serve on the same subcommittee. Jessica will discuss with Kathryn whether it makes sense for her to attend all meetings – or just those that relate to peer advising. The process of establishing student members of the main committee and the constituent input subcommittee is continuing. Ann Sherif will be the General Faculty Library Committee representative to the main planning committee. Ray hopes to meet with both the campus community and curricular support strategic planning implementation subcommittees. Shozo pointed out that the next meeting of the campus community committee will be Thursday morning. Ray will email Linda Gates and Michael Henle to see if he can get on the agenda. Provost MacKay has continued to express strong support for Academic Commons and is working to integrate it into this strategic planning implementation process.

   John asked whether or not changes related to Mudd Room 052 would be accomplished this summer. After discussion it was agreed that we would hold off on that for now. John emphasized that the Registrar’s Office needs a room like 052 for new student registration during orientation. That need will have to be accommodated in planning for the Academic Commons and changes on the A-level of Mudd.

3. Progress with subcommittees.

   The services/management/staffing subcommittee has not yet met. Jessica will be coordinating it with Cindy. Jessica will go ahead and schedule the first meeting.

   Mudd space subcommittee. Alan will begin initial discussions with Allison Gallaher on what would be needed to consolidate circulation, reserve, and interlibrary loan in renovated space where the Circulation Department is currently located and in the area currently occupied by the Dewey catalog. One question that will need to be resolved soon will be how to involve the planning architect, including whether he/she will meet with the main planning committee or the space subcommittee or both. Alan and Ray will continue to work with the groups that are carrying out projects that need to be completed in order to create space for the commons. These include the Dewey catalog, deaccessioning and storing JStor volumes, moving the government documents collection, and weeding the reference collection. The current goal is to make significant progress on all of these projects by the end this summer.

   Café subcommittee. The committee will meet as soon a representative from the finance division is named. That should happen soon after Ray’s meeting with Ron Watts.

   Constituent input subcommittee. The subcommittee has held two meetings and is developing both a survey and plans for focus groups. The subcommittee needs to get input this semester, if it all possible. The survey will combine Scott Bennett’s survey methodology with specific questions that relate to services. The group hopes to get the survey out next week. Ami Vice, a student who works in the CIT, has agreed to work on the subcommittee. Ray will try to facilitate an official Student Senate appointment.

4. Communication.

   Albert Borroni has created a Blackboard site for information related to the commons. There are separate sections for the main planning committee and for each of the subcommittees. It was agreed that general planning materials as well as the minutes of the planning committee and each of the subcommittees will be openly available and that we’ll also post periodic updates on progress. It will be possible to link to the Blackboard site from various other locations, such as the library staff news pages. Specific working documents for each of the subcommittees will be passworded. It will also be desirable to have a public website that summarizes the purpose of the project and the progress of the planning process.

   The planning committee will also need to focus on communication with various constituent groups. These include the student senate, students generally, and the faculty.

   John and Ray will develop plans for further briefing CIT and library staff, perhaps in a joint meeting of library and CIT public services staff. This might happen in the late summer or early fall.

5. Future meetings.

   The next meetings of the planning committee were scheduled as follows:

   Monday, April 24, 8:30 a.m.
   Monday, May 8, 8:30 a.m.
   Monday, May 22, 8:30 a.m.
   

   All meetings will be in the Thornton Room in Mudd

Minutes by Ray English