Staff Development Coordinating Committee

Committee members in attendance: Mary Beth Blalock, Rodger Coleman, Gretchen Dodge, Eileen Crawford, Julie Loder, Lisa Shipman (chair), Suellen Stringer-Hye, and Chris Waldrop.

The committee met only once in April, on the 10th. During the March meetings, the Training Coordinators met with the SDCC to discuss the proposed use of Plan B for future training. Due to budget concerns, the committees had ruled out using Plan A. Since these meetings, Lisa had spoken to Paul regarding the proposals and he indicated that some monies might be available for certain training options, so we should not rule out approaching him on these matters. After some discussion of the meeting, the committee agreed that Suellen could go ahead with pursuing Plan B. Suellen explained again that Plan B would involve setting up expert listservs and bulletin boards in order to fuel discussion and interaction on training issues. Lisa will confirm with Paul that it is okay to move forward with this aspect of Plan B as Suellen reported that not much staff time would be involved in setup and could be of immediate value to staff. The committee was also concerned with ensuring that all divisions are represented with a training coordinator.

Web tutorials were also discussed as Paul indicated an interest in this idea. Mary Beth brought up the possibility of a consortia purchase with Information Alliance Libraries in order to reduce the cost. Suellen agreed to investigate prices and options for purchasing such tutorials, with the help of the training coordinators. It was announced that Lisa would serve as an ex-officio member of the Training Coordinators Group in order to facilitate communication between the two groups and provide guidance.

Brown Bag

In June, the Divinity Library will be hosting a librarian from Switzerland. A Brown Bag will be arranged during his stay so he can share information about librarianship and libraries in Switzerland.

Staff Forum

This year, the library Staff Forum will be a panel discussion involving library staff and will be regarding the Library's Strategic Plan. Staff will be able to submit questions beforehand from the Forum's website and they will be answered during the session. Lisa reminded the SF committee that budget items can be submitted to her.

Information Alliance

Mary Beth reported that the Information Alliance Spring meeting would be held on May 30th at Cumberland Falls State Park in Jamestown, Kentucky. One session will be on the topic of Virtual Reference. Another topic is being debated. The organizers are hoping that is will be a topic from the technical services point of view. Agendas will be sent out as more information is available. Attendees are encouraged to set up meetings with counterparts from the other Alliance universities.

Tenneessee Library Association

Lisa announced that she will be speaking at TLA on the topic of staff development.

Submitted by Julie Loder.