M&PSA Annual Report, 2002-2003

Submitted by Marsha Garman, Chair, for M&PSA Council 2002-2003

During the 2002-2003 membership year, the M&PSA Council initiated many new events. The Orbis2Fest held in October, 2002 was a celebration of the implementation of Orbis2, our new Library Management System. The event was a great success and boost to staff morale, complete with music and dancing in the nave. Other new events included coordinating the Lewis Walpole Library Tour, Music in the Courtyard, and work toward the Library Field Day that was held in August. In addition to these new events, our council also worked on starting a Weight Watcher group in the library, coordinating a bowling night, and investigating the possibility of buying a block of tickets for a Broadway show that would be available for purchase at a discounted rate for the Library community. Perhaps next year we will see the fruition of these endeavors as well.

The most significant change worked on by our Council this year was changing our organization from one of solely M&P staff members to one that includes both M&Ps and C&Ts. Since our Council's work is principally one of working on events that include the whole library community, it was logical to make this change. However, in order to keep the representatives from each group and the various campus libraries in balance took some discussion and planning. New members will no longer be elected via a ballot. We now solicit volunteers and nominations and members are selected via a lottery. Those who volunteered or were nominated but were not selected will still be asked to serve on sub-committees for our various events.

Due to the change in our Council structure we needed to find a new name. A message was posted to Yulib asking for suggestions. We chose the five favorites from these responses and let the library community vote for their choice. The new name starting with the 2003-2004 membership year is Library Staff Association, acronym LiSA.

In addition to the new events and changes to our Council's structure, we continued to plan and organize the traditional events.

Blood Drives

As in the past M&PSA helped with advertising and soliciting volunteers for the Campus Blood Drives in both October 2002 and February 2003.

Staff Art Exhibit

The Staff Art Exhibit was held from November 2002 through January 2003. M&PSA solicited exhibitors and set up the exhibit. The exhibit was a very successful event this year. We received several compliments and our AUL held a tea for the exhibitors so that the library community could discuss the works of art with the artists.

Canned Food Drive

The canned food drive was held from Nov. 19th through Dec. 22nd. This very successful event resulted in 599 lbs of food being donated to the Connecticut Food Bank.

Library Holiday Party & Raffle

We organized and worked on the Library Holiday Party and Raffle that was held on December 17th in the Beinecke mezzanine. As usual, staff contributed by bringing some wonderful desserts to add to the catered fare and beverages being served. Background music was provided by the Bales-Gitlin Band. We had many wonderful donations from local vendors and staff to our Holiday Raffle and were able to make a significant contribution of $2,164 to a local homeless shelter, Columbus House.

Nooks and Crannies Tours

Nooks and Crannies Tours were held throughout the winter and spring. They included both new and traditional tours.

Lewis Walpole Library Tour
Chaos in the Stacks, a tour of the Sterling stacks
Yale University Art Gallery
Historical Musical Instruments
Ornithology Library and Specimen Collections
Arts of the Book Collection
Grove St. Cemetery

Council Members 2002-2003

Steven Bernstein
Laurel Bliss
Bernadette Cioffi
Stephen Cohen
John Gallagher
Marsha Garman
Todd Gilman
George Ouellette
Lynne Thomas
Jennifer Weintraub