Meeting Minutes
Diversity Committee
Meeting, September 26, 2006
Present: Eleanor Block (Chair), Wendy Adcock, Amanda Clark, Eboni Francis, Deidra Herring, Rebekah Kilzer, Beverly McDonald, Cyndi Preston
Absent: Linda Gonzalez, Duke Morgan, Charles Smith
"In acknowledgement of the rich diversity of The Ohio State University Library employees, the University Libraries Diversity Committee recommends the adoption of a policy to assure that no meetings will be scheduled on any major religious holiday that would preclude some employees from being able to attend. We also suggest that such holidays be noted on the Libraries' calendar in order to avoid conflict when scheduling departmental meetings."
Joe thanked the Committee for their recommendation, said that the Libraries would try to avoid such scheduling in the future and that such holidays would be placed on the Libraries' calendar.
We were all asked to bring our copy of the Resident Librarians web site with our comments, corrections and suggestions to the next committee meeting. A goal for this year will be to revise this web site. We need to examine the links and current information and re-evaluate what is already on the site. Rebekah Kilzer volunteered to work with the web site.
Absent: Linda Gonzalez, Duke Morgan, Charles Smith
Diversity Committee members
Eleanor Block had everyone present introduce themselves, tell where they worked and how long they had served on the committee. Our newest members are Wendy Adcock and Rebekah Kilzer, with Wendy serving until June 30, 2008 (replacing Virginia Reynolds) and Rebekah serving until June 30, 2009. The Resident Librarians, Eboni Francis and Deidra Herring, originally joined our committee as ex-officio members. As of July 6, 2006, Deidra and Eboni are now regular faculty members and have been added as regular members of the committee. As we will need to stagger terms, Eboni has agreed to serve for three years and Deidra for two years.
Diversity Committee meeting dates
We will continue to meet every other Tuesday, 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m., September 2006-August 2007 in the Science and Engineering Library (SEL). The official list of meeting dates and locations is given in an email that Eleanor sent to us on September 11, 2006. The meetings will be held in Room 414, SEL unless the schedule indicates otherwise. If there is not adequate business to discuss, the scheduled meeting will be cancelled. Please be on time, notify Eleanor as soon as possible if you cannot attend a meeting, and bring the agenda to each meeting.
Secretary and Vice Chair
Beverly McDonald agreed to continue as secretary of the Diversity Committee. Since Duke Morgan, who had been appointed Vice Chair, could not be at this meeting, the discussion of the responsibilities of the Vice Chair has been postponed until the next meeting.
Announcements of diversity meetings and workshops
Duke has agreed to be the contact person for announcements of diversity meetings and workshops. Pat Hall, the Assistant Director of the Multicultural Center, who originally raised this question, has been notified.
ARL's Leadership and Career Development Program
Eleanor circulated a handout describing ARL's Leadership and Career Development Program (LCDP). The Association of Research Libraries
(ARL) will offer a redesigned LCDP beginning in January 2007. The program "addresses the need to increase the number of librarians and other professional staff from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups by preparing them for positions of influence and leadership in research libraries" (memo from Karin Trainer, Chair, ARL Diversity Initiatives Working Group, August 9, 2006).
Meetings scheduled during religious holidays
Eleanor told the two new members of the committee about the work that we had done on meetings scheduled during religious
holidays-- The statement on meetings scheduled during religious holidays that the committee members unanimously approved at the February 14, 2006 meeting was sent to Joe Branin. The statement said:
"In acknowledgement of the rich diversity of The Ohio State University Library employees, the University Libraries Diversity Committee recommends the adoption of a policy to assure that no meetings will be scheduled on any major religious holiday that would preclude some employees from being able to attend. We also suggest that such holidays be noted on the Libraries' calendar in order to avoid conflict when scheduling departmental meetings."
Joe thanked the Committee for their recommendation, said that the Libraries would try to avoid such scheduling in the future and that such holidays would be placed on the Libraries' calendar.
Workshop on Diversity
We had a workshop on diversity entitled "Building Community by Welcoming Diversity" on July 6, 2006. The evaluations for the workshop were very positive. Everyone liked the ice breaker at the beginning of the workshop (all participants had to stand in order by month and date of birth) and mentioned the high level of participation. In fact, Pat Hall, who helped to lead the workshop, felt that we were the best at participation of the various groups that he has worked with. It was hoped that more administrators would be able to participate in future editions of this workshop.
Resident Librarians web site
The Diversity Committee web site, especially the part on Resident Librarians, is severely out of date and needs to be updated. The mission statement is long and wordy and needs to be reviewed.
We were all asked to bring our copy of the Resident Librarians web site with our comments, corrections and suggestions to the next committee meeting. A goal for this year will be to revise this web site. We need to examine the links and current information and re-evaluate what is already on the site. Rebekah Kilzer volunteered to work with the web site.
Programs sponsored by the Diversity Committee
Eleanor announced that, because of the move to Ackerman and Sullivant and other activities, the Committee won't be sponsoring any programs this quarter but should plan to do something substantive during Spring Quarter 2007 and have at least one and perhaps two events during the year. One possibility would be to have minority students from various groups speak to us. Eleanor has a list of the various student groups; that list will help us to contact people.
Next meeting
The meeting scheduled for October 10 has been cancelled because several members won't be able to come to the meeting. The next scheduled meeting will be Tuesday, October 24, 2006, 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m. in Room 414, SEL.