Regional Campus Libraries Discussion Group
ALA Midwinter Meeting 2007

1. Attending:

• Kathy Arsenault (University of South Florida, St. Petersburg)
• John Brandt (California State University, Stanislaus)
• Elizabeth Burns (Ohio State University, Mansfield)
• Kathryn Carpenter (Purdue University, Calumet)
• Linda Colding (University of Central Florida)
• Brenda Dingley (University of Missouri, Kansas City)
• Joe Fennewald (Penn State, Hazleton)
• Linda Frederiksen (Washington State University, Vacouver)
• Harvey Gover (Washington State University, Tri-Cities)
• Kate Gronemyer, (Oregon State University, Cascades)
• Loree Hyde (Oregon Institute of Technology)
• Stephanie Karnosh (Virginia Tech, Fall Church)
• Niyati Pandya (University of Maryland, Shady Grove)
• Anna Salyer (University of Washington, Tacoma)
• Tina Schneider (Ohio State University, Lima)
• Darby Syrkin (Florida State University, Panama City)
• Alica White (Penn State, Mont Alto)
• Heather Williamson (Cisco Junior College)

2. Notetaker: Niyati Pandya

3. Regional Campus Libraries Directory:

John Brandt, Linda Frederiksen, and Tina Schneider described the recent draft of the Directory and gave an overview of the project. This Directory includes two- and four-year colleges and universities that are considered branch or regional campuses from a main campus. The directory does not include community colleges, independently accredited branches, subject-specific campuses (such as medicine, law, etc.) or for-profit institutions. Contact names are excluded from the Directory. Darby passed around drafts of the Directory and asked for corrections. The final draft will include all corrections before it is saved as a PDF and placed on the web.

4. Group Leadership:

Anyone interested in assuming leadership responsibilities of the Discussion Group should contact Darby. We should plan on having co-leaders with staggering term dates to allow for some leadership consistency over time.

5. Discussion Topic:

Regional/Branch Campus Libraries & Professional Advancement: Where do we go from here?

Members formed small groups to discuss and exchange ideas on professional progression, job descriptions and duties, salaries and other progression issues that we face both internally as well as when we want to apply for other positions. After about 20 minutes, the entire group reconvened.

Related Comments:

• Advancement opportunities within our institutions may include higher positions, salary increases, and tenure.
• We face many challenges and are in a unique situation.
• Some of us feel we are not appreciated as well as we should be.
• We are more generalist librarians rather than subject specialists. This may harm us/help us when we apply for a different position or want to move up to a management position in our institution.
• We also face difficulty in moving to the main campus and/or proving to the main campus the actual work we do. One solution may be to document everything and reinforce these points in the institution's Annual Report.
• At times, we have to be our own advocate.
• The tenure system can vary between the regional and main campus and sometimes even among the regional campuses.
• No one discussed the future positions elsewhere. Comments indicated a focus on advancement/promotion within the current institution.
• Some solo-librarians and directors have no higher position within the current institution and rely on title promotion and salary increases.
• In some of our positions, we may have little supervisory or team experience and that could work against us when we apply for other positions at other institutions.
• Some of us face “up or out” promotion pressures.
• Opinions about what is most suitable for our next job varied. Some indicated we often have to do so much in our current positions, we should be able to do anything after this!

6. Round Robin:

Attendees mentioned topics/issues happening at their institutions, including:

• Growing number of online courses and the library is not present in these distance learning classes ( Penn State , Mont Alto)
• Freshmen being admitted for the first time and additional instruction positions needed for new cohorts ( Univ. of Washington , Tacoma ; Washington State Univ., Tri-Cities
• New residence halls and other on-campus housing facilities being built at one-time commuter campuses (Ohio State Univ., Lima ; Purdue, Calumet )
• Library moving to larger facilities and supporting many more programs ( Univ. of Maryland , Shady Grove)
• Regional centers being cut from budgets (e.g. National University )
• Separate accreditation/independence from main campus (USF, St. Petersburg )
• New four-year programs (Washington State Univ. Tri-Cities; USF, St. Petersburg )
• Regional campus librarian involved in planning committees parallel to main campus committees (Oregon Institute of Technology)
• Regional campus librarian involved in institution-wide task force ( Penn State , Hazleton )
• New library administrations with greater interest in and support of regional campus operations and staff (Virginia Tech, Florida State )
• Two new librarian positions opening in Cataloging and Collection Development ( University of Missouri at Kansas City )

Miscellaneous Notes:

Darby will look into creating a Discussion Group Online Community through the ALA web site. This will supplement our own Web site and will help us keep group documents, allow for online meetings/chat, etc.

Attendees were encouraged to sign up for the Listserv and ask questions of the group.

We will try to schedule the Annual Meeting for the same day and time. Darby will keep everyone posted via the listserv.

A POSSIBLE topic for the next meeting is:

How are regional campus libraries adapting to campus and community changes? Some community colleges are now offering Bachelor degrees; some 2-year regional campuses are becoming 4-year institutions; other regional campuses are becoming independent; other regional campuses are becoming residential campuses. What impact do these changes have on our libraries and how are we planning on adapting?