February 28, 2001
Minutes

Members Present: Carol Turner, Pam Cenzer, Jan Swanbeck, Carol Whitmer (for Suzanne Brown), Robena Cornwell, LeiLani Freund, Jana Ronan, Alice Primack, HelenJane Armstrong, Colleen Seale, Ann Lindell, Carl VanNess

Members Absent: Robert Singerman, Richard Phillips, Rich Bennett, Gary Cornwell, David Fuller

1) Reports and Announcements

• Pam Cenzer reported on the circulation “town meeting” for all circulation service staff. Staff members discussed concerns and things they would like to change or improve.

Carol Turner said that a lot of the discussion centered around the difficulty of enforcing rules such as the ban on food, drink and cell phones. To help address the issue, a survey was placed on the library’s website asking patrons if they felt cell phones should be totally banned in the library or if there should be certain areas where they could be used. Results so far indicate that most people favor a total ban on cell phones in the library.
• Carol said that College of Pharmacy Dean Riffe recently was named associate provost with responsibility for distance learning and non-traditional programs. Carol is scheduled to meet with Dean Riffe to talk about how the library can support these programs. She encouraged PSC member suggestions
• Plans are being made to move the 900s out of Library West and into Paged to provide more room in Library West. An RFP has gone out to find an outside contractor to take care of the move.
• HelenJane Armstrong reported that a new task force was being formed to begin to digitize the maps collection.

2) RefeXpress Status Report

Jana Ronan reported that a faculty open house was held to promote RefeXpress. It wasn’t well attended, but it brought the service to people’s attention. Barbara Hood is working with the committee to market it. They have had trouble filling all the time slots and there is a concern that all the volunteers may not have reference experience.

3) First Year Florida

First Year Florida is a freshman experience course offered for the first time in the fall for one credit (Jana is on the curriculum committee and Mimi was an instructor). The course is centered around preparing freshmen to have a good college experience. The library will hold tours as their part of the course. Robena Cornwell suggested showing a video of all the libraries and then have a tour of Library West.

4) Library Instruction Update

Alice Primack said they consistently have about 50 people involved in library instruction. There were 749 instruction sessions taught last year for all the libraries, including Law and Medicine. She also said the statistics are posted on the website. https://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ps/Library Instruction2/stats/edustats.html

5) National Library Week

National Library Week is April 1-7. The website will have information on the library, quotes from faculty and students and images of the libraries. A quiz with prizes will be given again with the answers to the questions found in various library resources. Staff will receive emails highlighting interesting websites during the week. The staff picnic will be help April 6.

6) SPARC letter and brochure

SPARC is sending out a letter to editors of scholarly journals along with a brochure. Carol told PSC members to be aware that some UF faculty will be receiving them.

7) Organizational Planning Status

A committee composed of Trudi DiTrolio, Jan Swanbeck, Pam Cenzer, Mimi Pappas, Betsy Simpson and carol Turner has met to begin planning sessions. A number of key UF administrators will be scheduled to discuss areas of importance to them relating to UF at present and in the future. These speeches will be open to all library staff. The intent is to make the staff more aware of what is on the horizon for the library. The talks will be followed up with group discussions about what was learned. Other ideas include having a retreat or holding library-wide workshops to identify issues of concern and to discuss the many changes the future holds for the libraries and library staff.

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