Minnesota Library Association
Academic and Research Libraries Division
Minutes of the Meeting of June 16, 2006
Present: Victoria Peters, Karen Docherty, Kim Clarke, Melissa Prescott, Lynne Weber, Kate McCready, Stephanie McConnell (via ITV), Jim Newsome
Victoria Peters began the meeting at 2:00pm. Minutes of the April meeting were approved with a minor correction and will be posted to the ARLD Web page.
Old Business:
A. MLA Membership Committee (McCready) :
Kate reported that a large group met as the membership committee, representing all types of libraries and regions. ARLD is the test bed for a personal one-on-one membership drive campaign. An e-mail recruiting message will be sent out to members soon after the conference registration. Barb Vaughan of MLA and Kate drafted this message. It lists some benefits for members who recruit new members. Kim suggested the form also mention ARLD Dialogues, and the Board agreed. Kate will add this, create a final draft, and get it to Stephanie for distribution.
The membership committee is also looking at the MLA dues structure which has been in place for many years.
Lynne distributed her draft for a brochure aimed at inducing library school students to join MLA. The Board liked it. We need to add some short quotes from members. Stephanie and Karen volunteered to find quotes from North and Metro Minnesota. Lynne W. and Victoria will get one from the South. Lynne W. spoke with Lynn Beck, and Beck will help distribute to U of North Texas program. Jim Newsome will distribute to St. Kates, and Lynne W. to the Wisconsin schools. Lynne W. will draft a letter to the administrator of each library school, to accompany the brochures, explaining their purpose. She will also look at the ALA Master list of library schools to attempt to identify any that have distance programs Minnesota students might be attending, and send each a letter and brochure as well. Jim and Lynne W. will continue to discuss this process as it moves forward.
2. MLA 2006 Conference Planning (Newsome)
A. Program- Peters distributed a copy of the conference program which is currently at the printers. The program is set. Members should be getting copies in the next few weeks. Programs originally designated as pre-conferences have been set for Wednesday morning from 9am-11am.
B. Moderators- Newsome asked for volunteers to be moderators for the 5 ARLD primary-sponsored sessions. Volunteers were found for 4 of the sessions: 1) Gen Y: Jim and Kate, 2) Folksonomies: Melissa and Lynne W., 3) Serials Surveying: Karen and Victoria, 4) Podcasting: Stephanie and Kim. The first name will introduce the speaker, the second will handle room issues and distribute/gather evaluations. Newsome will contact Robin, Linda, Carla and Deb to see if any can moderate the Research competencies in the humanities session on Friday at 8:30am.
C. Evaluations- Newsome will contact Barb Vaughan to find out if there are going to be standard evaluations for all sessions, or if ARLD needs to create our own. He will also make sure MLA will tabulate results.
D. New Board Members- New board members will attend an orientation session at the conference, sponsored by MLA (see #4 below for more information on election of new board members).
E. Annual ARLD Business Meeting – We will set the agenda for this meeting at one of our next two Board meetings. It was noted that the meeting runs from 5pm to 6:30. but that dine-arounds begin at 6. We discussed having our own dine-around for ARLD members who wish to attend the business meeting. [Minute-taker’s note: last year’s business meeting took far less than 90 minutes, so it may be possible for this year’s to be finished by 6pm also]. Discussion was to continue on this at our next meeting.
F. Academic Librarian of the Year Award – Linda Eells and Melissa Prescott are the task force charged with creating criteria and a process for doing this. There was brief discussion, and it was decided to continue this discussion at our next meeting on July 26th.
3. Legislative Forum and other legislative issues –
A. The forum is July 11th at Como Park. The Board discussed the event. Very few Board members were planning to attend at the time of the June Board meeting. Members were encouraged to attend if possible. Victoria mentioned that she received a communication from ACRL asking us to designate a member in Minnesota to be the Chapter Legislative Coordinator as part of the ACRL Legislative Network, which will keep people around the U.S. informed of legislative issues of interest. Victoria will ask our current Legislative representative, Robin Ewing, if she would be interested in this position for the remainder of 2006. The Board discussed whether ARLD should sponsor an ARLD Dialog on political persuasion. The consensus was that this would be a great topic. Kim Clarke will begin to explore the logistics.
B. ACRL platform- no action was taken.
4. Election of New Board Members- Karen Docherty reported that a slate of candidates is set for the three open positions. A ballot will go out August 28th with a deadline of September 15th. The Board asked Karen if the librarian of the year award could be mentioned as part of that ballot. She agreed to do this, when the criteria and process are in place.
5. Leadership Institute- Kim Clarke reported on the first planning meeting for the March, 2007 Leadership Institute. Wendy Wendt is the liaison to the MLA Board from the planning group. The group has money to work with, and is busy seeking a location, as well as planning activities at the MLA Annual Conference. Kim will keep the ARLD Board informed, and solicit our help as needed.
6. Web Page Design- tabled until next meeting
7. ARLD Day Wrap-Up –Karen Docherty reported on this April’s ARLD Day. It was a success as indicated by positive evaluations from attendees, and by its having generated income for MLA. Karen shared evaluation results with the Board. The Board agreed that we should do another ARLD Day next year. Evaluations indicated that April is the preferred month by the large majority of folks who attended this April. There are at least four events that may impinge on which date to stage the event: 1) ACRL, set for early April, 2) the MINITEX collection development event [minute taker’s note: date has been set for mid-May], 3) the MINITEX ILL conference, and 4) the Spring MNPALS event. Planning will continue, and Victoria and the Board will work to find an appropriate date.
Next Meeting: July 26, 2006, 1-3:30pm, MLA conference room.
Respectfully submitted, Jim Newsome- ARLD Chair elect.