Meeting Minutes
Diversity Committee
Meeting, February 27, 2007
Present: Eleanor Block (Chair), Amanda Clark, Eboni Francis, Linda Gonzalez, Deidra Herring, Rebekah Kilzer, Beverly McDonald, Duke Morgan, Cyndi Preston
Absent: Charles Smith
Linda has turned in the information for this year's report and has forwarded the report, entitled "2007/08 University Libraries Cumulative Assessment of Progress Toward Meeting Goals of Diversity," to the Diversity Committee. This year the report covered the last five years instead of asking for an action plan. Someone from the "Goals of Diversity" group, perhaps Mac Stewart, Vice Provost for Minority Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer, will talk to the Libraries' Executive Committee and the Diversity Committee about our report for this year; no date has been set for this meeting.
The committee felt that the report should be posted online as written so that everyone can read it and make comments and suggestions. Linda will talk to Joe Branin and then post the document. We will want to revisit this document when we have an action plan in place.
Absent: Charles Smith
Minutes
The minutes of the January 16, 2007 meeting were approved as written.Diversity Committee web site
We have just completed the project to completely update the contents of our web page and the information about our Resident Librarians program. Eleanor Block will now send a message to liball telling everyone about the changes to our site and asking for their suggestions and comments.
2007/08 University Libraries Cumulative Assessment of Progress Toward Meeting Goals of Diversity
Earlier Rebekah Kilzer sent us an email about the 2005-2006 edition of "Facets of Diversity," the Ohio State University's annual diversity report. She wondered if the Diversity Committee would want to submit something for this year's report. Linda Gonzalez told us that the Libraries submitted a report last year but our information wasn't in the final compilation, perhaps because the editors weren't sure where to put us since the Libraries are neither teaching nor research.
Linda has turned in the information for this year's report and has forwarded the report, entitled "2007/08 University Libraries Cumulative Assessment of Progress Toward Meeting Goals of Diversity," to the Diversity Committee. This year the report covered the last five years instead of asking for an action plan. Someone from the "Goals of Diversity" group, perhaps Mac Stewart, Vice Provost for Minority Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer, will talk to the Libraries' Executive Committee and the Diversity Committee about our report for this year; no date has been set for this meeting.
The committee felt that the report should be posted online as written so that everyone can read it and make comments and suggestions. Linda will talk to Joe Branin and then post the document. We will want to revisit this document when we have an action plan in place.
Diversity Committee membership
Wendy Adcock has resigned her job at University Libraries to accept another job. Therefore, she is no longer a member of the Libraries'
Diversity Committee. After discussion, we agreed that we would not fill her committee position at this time.
Resident Librarians
The Libraries are committed to filling the Resident Librarian position. Linda Gonzalez will write up a job description with input from Eboni Francis and Deidra Herring, our most recent Residents. They have already met, found a good job description from the University of Iowa, and discussed the need to spell out more things in the job (e.g., mentoring, attendance at conferences and publication of papers) and will meet again after today's Diversity Committee meeting. Then department heads will be asked to prepare written proposals asking that the Resident be placed in their area
and giving the reasons why. This time, we will have only one
Resident. There will be an update on this topic at the next committee meeting.
Multicultural Center
Eleanor asked for volunteers to go with her to visit the Multicultural Center and explore how the Diversity Committee and the Multicultural Center can work together to present programs. Amanda Clark, Deidra Herring and Duke Morgan agreed to go with Eleanor. The date for the visit has yet to be determined.
Arabic ReadAloud program
Eleanor Block has found a student who is eager to read an Arabic poem or short story as part of a program. Charles Smith has already talked to Donna Distel, who coordinates the Libraries' weekly ReadAloud presentations, and she is very excited about working with us on a program. Beverly McDonald will talk to Dona Straley, Middle East Studies librarian, and Zaineb Bayahy, Cataloging Department, to get their suggestions about possible readers and then forward these names to Eleanor. Once the readers and their readings are determined, Charles will talk to Donna about the date and location.
Next meeting
The next scheduled meeting will be Tuesday, March 13, 2007, 1:15
p.m.-2:15 p.m. in Room 414, Science and Engineering Library.