SCOPA Meeting Minutes

SCOPA Minutes: 05/20/99

Present: Suzanne Eggleston, Erika Heinen, Tom Hyry, Jennifer Kostelnik, Jim Shetler (Chair), Dajin Sun (Recorder), Diane Turner

Absent: Xin Li

I. Announcements

1. Jim extended thanks to Jennifer for her successful effort to organize the May 13 SCOPA forum "EMULATING A LIBRARIAN INTERACTION ONLINE." The forum was well received.

2. Suzanne announced that a forum by past SCOPA grants recipients was scheduled for June 17 from 10:30 to 12:00 in the Lecture Hall of SML.

3. Jim reported that Angela Kane's forum was pushed to the first or second week of June, as she is currently presenting two papers in Geneva and Dresden.

4. Jim announced that the time for Michael Golrick's forum was put off to 1st-2nd week of July.

5. Jim has contacted Joan Swanekamp through email for a possible future forum on the use of PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) core records.

6. Erika announced that she would be out during the 2nd week of June to attend the annual conference of American Institute for Conservation in St. Louis.

II. Preparation for the Focus Group Next Tuesday

• Diane reported that she had talked to LMT about SCOPA's plan on setting up a mentoring program, and the LMT members expressed a keen interest in such program and proposed that some guidelines be established to facilitate the implementation of such men toring program.

• Tom asked about the ideas behind the focus group, as he was not present at the last SCOPA meeting, where the idea of setting up a focus group was proposed. Jim and others explained that the focus group was intended to glean ideas and suggestions from librarian Is and IIs on how SCOPA could help them with their promotion process. Discussion then ensued on the role of SCOPA in the promotion process. It is the majority's opinion that SCOPA has the responsibility to help new LIs and LIIs go through their first promotion process.

• Questions then came up regarding who should be the targeted audience of this focus group. It was warmly discussed whether SCOPA should only invite LIs and LIIs or extend the invitation to librarians in other ranks as well. Two members mentioned that s ome librarian IIIs and IVs conveyed their interest in participating in the mentoring program and were willing to share their experience in professional development and bring different perspectives to the mentoring program.

• Several members expressed the concern that librarian Is and IIs might have anxieties of speaking in front of senior administration staff or their supervisors. There might be some perception issues involved. Diane informed the SCOPA members that she ha d advised the senior library administration and high-level librarians not to attend the focus group meeting considering that their presence would stifle free discussion of ideas among LIs and LIIs. Some alternative ways to solicit questions were also expl ored, such as submitting questions on cards.

• Concerns were also voiced about the possible outcome of the focus group's discussion. It was agreed that the forum should not become a mere venting of problems and SCOPA should guide the discussion towards a positive production of suggestions while en couraging flow of ideas. One opinion was that even if nothing else were happening, the participants could still benefit from sharing each other's experiences among the focus group.

• Some other ideas were also briefly discussed at the meeting concerning sample documentation for Yale librarians' promotion process and learning from those who had already undergone a promotion process.

• Out of this lengthy discussion, it was decided that the focus group would still be limited to LIs and LIIs this time. But more forums on professional promotion will be sponsored and the audience of future forums will accommodate librarians in other ra nks. Jim will send out a second announcement later this week and convey this idea to the Yale Library community.

• SCOPA members were asked to take notes during the focus group's discussion next Tuesday and will follow up with a special meeting to discuss issues solicited from this focus group. It was suggested that SCOPA post the answers to the questions generate d from this focus group on the SCOPA's website.

III. Other Business

Erika asked when the SCOPA grants subcommittee would hold its initial meeting. It was agreed that some issues regarding the use of SCOPA grants needed to be discussed soon by the subcommittee. Suzanne, chair of the subcommittee, will pick up a time and co nvene this meeting with the members of the grants subcommittee.

Next SCOPA meeting will take place June 3 at 11:30 a.m. in Room 410 SML.

Respectfully submitted,

Dajin Sun

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