Academic Assembly Meeting Minutes

Thursday March 4th, 2004

Clark Hall Auditorium 700

 

Introductions:

University Librarian Sarah Thomas began the meeting by introducing new

members of the Cornell University Library staff.  Camille Andrews is the

2004 Cornell University Library Fellow.  She received her MLS from Simmons

Graduate School of Library and Information Science and her BA in Literary

and Cultural Studies (focusing on Francophone African and Caribbean

Literature) from the College of William and Mary.  Camille will begin her

Fellowship in Mann Library working in Public Services doing reference and

instruction, and in Collection Development where she will be creating

training and tutorial materials for AGORA, including Francophone materials

for Africa.  Gail Steinhart started February 23rd as a Reference

Specialist in Mann Library.  She will be working 20 hours/week doing

reference, instruction and special projects in the Public Services

Department.  Gail has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin

in Geology and Geophysics, and a Masters from Cornell in Ecology and

Evolutionary Biology.  Her most recent position was as the Research

Coordinator for the Lake Ontario Biocomplexity Project in the Center for

the Environment.  She is currently working towards an MLS at Syracuse

University and expects to graduate in December 2004.

 

Announcements:

Sarah Thomas announced that she would be giving the presentation at the

upcoming Academic Assembly meeting on April 1st entitled “Information @

the Point of Thought: The Future of Library Services”.

 

Presentations—CUL 2002 Internal Grant Recipients:

Sarah Thomas introduced the speakers and recipients of the 2002 CUL

Internal Grant award.  The first group consisted of Korelia Tancheva, Tony

Cosgrave and Virginia Cole.  Greg Lawrence, Pat Viele and Phil Dankert

were members of the second group.

 

Kornelia took the stage giving the presentation for her group entitled

"CUL Instruction Services Survey: A User Assessment".  During her talk

Kornelia described the results of a study conducted by members of an

Instruction Working Group subcommittee to evaluate instructional services

and resources across CUL.  Using focus groups and surveys the group

collected responses from 54 student and faculty participants addressing

question such as what do patrons recognize as library instruction and how

do patrons find out about library instruction.  Kornelia discussed a

variety of the questions and responses and offered general observations

from the research team.  Among the observations were that no unified

vision of library instruction existed among those surveyed and that

information conveyed through syllabi and advertisements were among popular

methods of communication.  Overall patrons were generally satisfied with

the instruction provided by the library.  New methods of promotion such as

a recently designed postcard to be mailed to faculty are currently in the

works.

 

Greg Lawrence gave the presentation for his group entitled "Mining Grey

Literature" in which he summarized the results of their study to survey

the expanse of “grey literature” being produced by Cornell University

academic units.  As part of their presentation Greg defined “grey

literature”, explaining its many incarnations and various characteristics.

 For the purposes of their study, members of the research team divided up

certain classes of publications for review.  Greg researched the 27

departments and 5 centers of Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life

Sciences, while Phil Dankert and Pat Viele reviewed publications in the

social sciences (ILR) and physical sciences respectively.  Greg offered a

number of observations during his presentation, noting that research

faculty (outside of physics) rarely produce grey literature while

extension faculty produce quite a bit.  He also noted that certain types

of departments tend to produce specific types of grey literature, such as

Working papers and Policy briefs.  Greg also addressed a number of the

obstacles facing libraries in collecting grey literature materials.  Among

those he cited that many faculty members have little interest in the

long-term management of the grey literature they produce and that many

units prefer to stick with their established methods of distribution.  He

also noted that many do not see use of the library as a repository as

directly serving their needs or those of their constituents.

 

Lee LaFleur, Secretary for the Academic Assembly Steering Committee

Zoe Stewart-Marshall, Chair

David Banush

Xin Li

Linda Miller