Regional Campus Libraries Discussion Group
ALA Annual Meeting
Sunday, June 25
4:00-5:30
New Orleans Marriot, Napoleon Room

Introductions

• Kate Gronemyer, Oregon State University , Cascades
• Maureen Kelly, Oregon State University , Cascades
• Robin Lockerby, National University
• Katalin Mouyal, University of Maryland , Shady Grove Center
• Jennifer Sundheim, University of Washington , Tacoma
• Carole Svensson, University of Washington , Tacoma
• Darby Syrkin, Florida State University , Panama City
• Alica White, Pennsylvania State University , Mont Alto

Identify Note Taker

Katalin Mouyal recorded the notes.

Research Projects & Plans

Darby encouraged the group to collaborate and proceed with research and publications. The need exists! All ideas can be shared on the discussion group listserv! (http://lists.pc.fsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/rcl-dg)

• Project: Directory
  Tentative Timeline: July-October
  For their first research project last year, John Brandt, Linda Frederiksen, Tina Schneider, and Darby Syrkin created a list of over 600 possible regional campus libraries. John, Linda, Tina and Darby will discuss making this list available to this Discussion Group. As is, it should be used only by the Group and not shared with others. John, Linda, Tina and Darby have tentative plans to refine the list over the next four months. Refinement will involve 1) separating community college, for-profit, subject-specific, co-located, and multi-institutional libraries from the main list and 2) confirming the regional status of the institutions on the main list by reviewing their web sites. John, et al, also plan on creating a smaller survey and surveying the institutions on the refined list.
  
• Project: Database/Literature review
  Tentative Timeline: July-January
  Darby has plans to conduct searches in ERIC and Library Literature using a variety of key terms such as, regional, branch, satellite, extension, multi-campus, etc. and comparing the results and use of those terms with relation to campuses and libraries. This project could serve two purposes: 1) add citations to our regional campus bibliographies and 2) help identify the trends in terminology used to describe regional/branch campuses.
  
• Project: Annotated Bibliographies
  Timeline: Ongoing
  See the Regional Campus Libraries Discussion Group web page, Research section at: http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/library/rcl/research.html Discussion Group members are encouraged to pick an article to annotate, post a message to the list indicating which article they plan on annotating (to avoid duplication), and then sending the completed annotation to the list.
  
• Project: ACRL 2007
  Timeline: August 2006
• Katalin Mouyal submitted her Hold Shelf Survey paper as a presentation proposal to ACRL.
• Maureen Kelly also submitted a proposal for an ACRL presentation about her co-located library at Oregon State .
• They should hear back from ACRL in August.
  
• Project: Collection Management publication
  Timeline: ?
  Katalin had a paper accepted for publication in Haworth ’s Collection Management journal.
  
• Project: Multi-institutional library research
  Timeline: ?
  Katalin has tentative plans to research multi-institutional libraries. Multi-institutional libraries can be considered yet another form of the regional campus library.

Group Leadership

Although no formal guidelines exist for Discussion Groups, leadership is generally two years. As of this year, our Group is two years old and Darby has been the leader for both of them! Darby submitted the leadership form for one more year but proposed we transition this year by naming a leader and leader pro tem by Midwinter 2007. Complete transfer of leadership should happen by the next ALA Annual meeting in Seattle . Having a leader and leader pro tem should facilitate more fluid leadership transitions. Darby asked the group if anyone present was interested in becoming the next leader and Maureen Kelly expressed some interest. The listserv will be used to gauge other potential interest.

Midwinter Meeting Schedule

If ALA scheduling software allows, we agreed on keeping the 4:00-5:30 pm time slot for our Midwinter meeting.

Discussion Topic: Tale of Two Bosses

Our discussion further highlighted how varied and challenging our positions as regional campus librarians can be. Following are summaries for reporting lines and related challenges mentioned during the discussion.

Reporting Lines

While some of us have one formal boss and reporting line, nearly everyone mentioned some kind of formal or informal dual reporting structure and related challenges.

These are the various reporting structures:

• Librarians and staff report to the Director of the regional campus library who then reports to the Assistant Dean of the regional campus.
• Librarian reports to the main campus Head of Reference and Instruction. No dual reporting at this time.
• Librarian reports to the Assistant Dean of the regional campus. Same position also had a dotted reporting line to the Associate Director of the main campus Library, but the current status of that relationship is unknown.
• Librarian reports to the main campus library director and a dotted reporting line to the regional campus Dean.
• Librarian reports directly to the regional campus Dean.
• Librarian reports to main campus, regional campus, and to a peer counsel.

Challenges

• Campus tensions
  The tension that can exist between the main and regional campus can hinder the relationship between dual bosses. One librarian reported not knowing which boss was the true advocate for her position. It should also be noted that one institution can have several regional campuses, and each regional campus can have a different reporting and promotion structure for its librarian(s).
• Evaluations
  Librarian evaluations are sometimes performed by people who might not be fully aware of the library operations and/or librarian duties. One librarian reported writing an evaluation for another administrator to sign.
• Promotion and Peer Review
  Some regional campus librarians reported being evaluated by the regional campus administrators but promoted through the main campus. At other institutions, librarians on the regional campus may have different promotion policies and procedures than their peers on the main campus. In addition, the duties of a regional campus librarian often differ from the duties performed by the main campus librarians which can make peer reviews challenging. Another librarian reported asking for a review for promotion and being consistently rescheduled/delayed.

Midwinter Meeting Topic

Darby mentioned her interest in the professional progression of regional campus librarians. Many of us are the first to be in our positions and several of us are considered directors. Where do we go from here? Carole suggested we discuss this at Midwinter. Darby will propose the topic on the listserv.

Get Paid for Writing

We should definitely consider submitting something before our Midwinter meeting as a way of publicizing.

Miscellaneous Notes

Congratulations to Carole Svensson (the Discussion Group’s webmaster) for achieving tenure!