SCOPA Minutes (14 November 1997)

Present: Nicole Bouche (chair), Diane Goldenberg-Hart, Manon Theroux (recorder), Diane Turner, Chris Weideman. Absent: Bill Fray, Gillian Goldsmith, Andrea Lamb, Fred Musto.

I. PAST PROGRAMS

Promotion Review Forum

Diane T. reported that Gloria Huckaby has completed the minutes from the forum held 11/10. Diane T. is reviewing them for accuracy and compiling the statistics needed to answer the deferred questions. Once she has completed her review, she will forward the draft to Nicole/SCOPA for review. We hope to be able to distribute the final version via email to all Librarians within the coming week. SCOPA members reported that they had received little feedback on the forum. Discussion ensued on some of the points raised during the forum (whether the Promotion Review Committee should be selected in a different way, whether new staff should be fast-tracked onto the committee) and on some points raised by SCOPA members (whether the process is truly a "peer review" process, whether SCOPA should be more involved in revising the promotion review guidelines, whether the UL is unfairly perceived as the one responsible for decisions not to promote when the Promotion Review Committee may make the same recommendations, staff training issues).

New Staff Orientation

Nicole reported that the presentation had been a success. She distributed two documents that had been prepared for the orientation (an agenda and a list of Yale Library email lists) and asked SCOPA members to provide any corrections and/or feedback for improvements for next year's orientation. She will be distributing the list of email lists on YULIB-L.

II. FUTURE PROGRAMS

Editorial Projects Forum

Manon T. reported that the forum is set for 11/19, from 3-5 pm in the SML Lecture Hall. Participants will include representatives from the Boswell Papers, the Franklin Papers, and the Edwards Papers. The director of the Parliamentary Papers had to cancel with regrets but offered to write a brief statement to be read in her absence. Manon T. reported that she accepted the offer, but other SCOPA members advised that the Parliamentary Papers should simply be dropped from the program if not too late. If the proposed paper has already been written, however, it was agreed that it should be read.

National Digital Library Federation

Nicole B. reported that Don Waters is supposed to be coming to Yale to do a site visit for NDLF. He agreed to do a SCOPA forum around the time of his official NDLF site visit, but nothing firm is in place yet. She will contact him in the coming week for an update.

Finding Aids Project

Nicole B. reported that a tentative date has been set for the last week in January.

Yale University Provos

Nicole B. reported that the Provost's busy schedule prevents her from being able to give a talk to Library staff.

Special Collections Fair

Chris W. reported that a date has been set for Friday, 12 December, from 2-4 p in the SML Lecture Hall. Representatives from over a dozen collections have agreed to participate. Cookies, coffee, and tea will be available (for an estimated 100 people). Some tables will need to be rented. Chris W. will prepare a publicity announcement and a hand-out. RSC will send announcements to faculty. A related Special Collections Forum will take place on Friday, 23 January, 1998. SCOPA members are invited to dine with Abby Smith, preservation officer for the Council on Library and Information Resources, who will participate in the forum.

III. GRANTS SUBCOMMITTEE

Manon T. reported that seven grant proposals had been received. The Subcommittee will meet the first week in December to do the judging. Award letters and public announcement will go out by December 15.

IV. WEB PAGE

Diane G.-H. reported that she had completed a revised banner for the SCOPA Web page. Comments from SCOPA members who had viewed the banner were positive.

V. LMC MEETING

Nicole B. reported that she and Chris W. will meet with LMC on 11/19 to discuss the committee survey results and plans for a mentoring program. SCOPA will present LMC with the Web pages that contain the committee survey results and LMC will decide where the pages are to reside permanently. SCOPA will also present the results of the mentoring query sent over YULIB-L. Only eight responses from potential mentors and mentees were received, mostly from staff in non-SML libraries. Only four staff members volunteered to serve as mentors. SCOPA will suggest that new staff members be paired with mentoring "buddies" and that the pool of "buddies" should consist of SCOPA and M&PSA members, in addition to those staff members who have officially volunteered their services. Both new Ps and Ms would be matched with appropriate mentors. Mentors should meet quarterly as a group to discuss issues that have arisen. Discussion ensued on the extent to which there was a need for a mentoring program.

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Last updated: December 9, 1997
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