Minutes May 6, 1999

SCOPA Meeting Minutes

Present: Suzanne Eggleston, Erika Heinen, Jennifer Kostelnik, Xin Li (recorder), Jim Shetler (chair), Dajin Sun, Diane Turner, Audrey Novak (guest)

Absent: Tom Hyry

Audrey reported that the Executive Director of the Southern Connecticut Library Council and the President Elect of the Connecticut Library Association, Michael Golrick, is willing to come to speak at the library. He plans to invite the new CT State Librarian, Kendall F. Wiggin, to join him for the talk. The talk is tentatively planned for the 3rd w eek of June. Confirmation is needed (Jim? Audrey?). Audrey commented that this would be a good opportunity for Yale library staff to learn about state libraries’ activities.

Audrey learned from Diane that the mentoring system was in discussion 2 or 3 years ago. It originated from a survey on the needs for such a system. Mentors were enthusiastic. But very few staff signed on as mentees.
SCOPA members brainstormed about the mechanisms that would make the new attempt successful. Diane suggested that Library Human Resources and SCOPA recruit mentors. SCOPA will take the lead to set the system up. Diane will bring this topic up in the next LMT meeting.
SCOPA members also discussed at length about the logistics, such as how to bring the news to yulib-l, how to solicit interested mentees, how to coordinate pairing, and possible workshops etc. Audrey recommended a focus group approach. A call will go out o n yulib-l to invite interested L-Is and L-IIs to come to meet with SCOPA. From this focus group, SCOPA will solicit ideas and inputs. Jim will draft the announcement of the meeting and will send to SCOPA members for review. The meeting is aimed to take p lace in the last week of May.

Erika reported to the group about her progress with the website in development and distributed copies of her draft announcement to yulib-l. SCOPA revised the draft and shared further thoughts on usefulness and scope of the website.

Jennifer reported that David Stern’s talk on Expert System is scheduled for 5/13, 10:30-12:00. Jennifer is making final arrangements for the talk and will send out a confirmation message.
Suzanne reported that the forum featuring recipients of SCOPA grants for the 1998 will be pushed to June.
Jim reported that Angela Kane of the United Nations Department of Public Information is still in Germany. He will follow up with Ms. Kane about forum details. Jim will aim for July and will confirm the date. He is also in correspondence with Jean Hirons of the CONSER program at the Library of Congress and will keep SCOPA members posted of his progress.
Xin reported that she sent an e-mail invitation to John Ryden, Director of Yale University Press but has not received response from him. She will send a formal invitation letter to Mr. Ryden shortly.

Next SCOPA meeting will take place on 5/20, at 11:30 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Xin Li