It seems like once again the timing of the newsletter is coinciding with dramatic and fraught political events that have both direct and indirect impacts on our work. I want to take this space to acknowledge the difficulty that many of us in libraries have been experiencing as a result of the national focus on the Kavanaugh hearings and testimony by Dr. Ford. I see you, and recognize how hard it may have been to even just show up and do the work. As a female-dominated profession, this has had a significant impact on many of us.
At this moment, I want to focus on something to center and rejuvenate us, because we are the supports that so many students depend on. I’m proud of that and hope that you are, too. However, although we support, partner, and serve our patrons and institutions, we are never subservient. It’s vital that we pay attention to how we frame our work in our evaluations, talk to faculty on our campuses, market our services, conduct and write about our research and experiences in libraries, and more. Questioning traditional and culturally-learned ways of approaching our work is difficult, but can be nothing short of revolutionary (although perhaps in a quiet way).
Here are some examples of words/phrases/concepts I’ve come across in my work that I have specifically tried to change or am currently questioning how best to approach them (although I certainly recognize that we work across a diversity of institutions, so these might not be relevant or useful to you in your context):
Trying to replace the word serve with partner, collaborate, or work with.
Instead of spending time asking what is my value (especially in the quantitative sense), doing something meaningful.
Responding with something different than So busy! when someone asks how my semester is going. I do not want to contribute to the use of busy-ness as to perform productivity/importance.
As a faculty librarian, breaking myself of the habit of saying Librarians are like other faculty… and replacing it with Library faculty.... (fill in the blanks with almost anything).
Questioning the idea of marketing “fun and relaxing” library services and events -- if students are in the library because they’re in a liminal space and having trouble with their research, what (if any) cognitive dissonance does this cause for them?
What are some words or phrases you’ve been trying to change in your vocabulary?
As a large state with almost 400 institutes of higher education, we play a large role in shaping the discourse surrounding libraries and library work. I realize that some people may roll their eyes at the idea of spending so much time agonizing over language choice. However, using words that demonstrate confidence and do not diminish the important roles we play in our institutions is one step we can all take. We may not all arrive at the same words, but I hope we are all able to speak about our work in ways that feel authentic and affirming.
This is my last newsletter to you as CARL president. I’m pleased with our accomplishments this year, including the CARL conference and what we’re learning from the membership survey we sent out last month. Keep your eye out for news from your incoming chapter leadership (congrats to the new officers!) for what we’ll be doing next.
As always, please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns you may have.
Reading: Good and mad: The revolutionary power of women’s anger by Rebecca Traister
Following: @theunapologeticallybrownseries on instagram
CARL Member Survey
To kick off our fall work, the CARL Board wants to know how we can work best for our members. Please take this short survey (5-10 mins) to let us know what you like and don’t like about CARL and what sorts of activities you hope to see in the future.
DIAL(Diversity in Academic Libraries)
On July 30, the Leatherby Libraries welcomed members of CARL-DIAL to discuss diversity issues and explore some of the library’s exhibits and displays. The morning started with a presentation by Erin Pullin, the Director of Diversity & Inclusion at Chapman University, who spoke about Chapman’s Diversity Project and its goal of fostering meaningful dialogue centered on developing strategic priorities and recommendations for diversity and inclusion. Library Development Coordinator, Essraa Nawar, introduced the Leatherby Libraries and gave some examples of how the library is working with Chapman’s Diversity Project to make its services and resources more accessible and inclusive.
After the meeting, Essraa took the CARL-DIAL members on a tour of the library where they were able to explore the diversity of its programs, art, displays, and treasures. Some stops on the tour included Evelyn LaLanne’s Collection of Russian Icons (4th Floor), the Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library (4th Floor), the Italian Heritage Archive Room (Study Room, 3rd Floor), and the Sikhs and Sikhism in America Room (Study Room, 2nd Floor). Following the tour, the CARL-DIAL members were invited to lunch in the Center for American War Letters.
Publications, Presentations & Awards Nicole Branch (Santa Clara University) gave a presentation on August 10, 2018, at the Colloquium on Libraries and Service Learning in Washington, D.C. The title of her presentation was "Critical Convergence: Social Justice Pedagogy, Information Literacy, and Value-Focused Assessment of Service Learning."
Rebecca Halpern (The Claremont Colleges Library) co-presented at the Library Instruction West conference in Grand Junction, CO, with Carolyn Caffrey Gardner (California State University Dominguez Hills). Their presentation was titled “Venture through the assessment machine with critical pedagogy”.
Rebecca Halpern (The Claremont Colleges Library) co-presented at the Qualitative and Quantitative Methodologies in Libraries International Conference in Chania, Crete, with Hilary Bussell (The Ohio State University) and Tatiana Bryant (Adelphi University). Their presentation was titled “Gender performance in librarianship: A qualitative study.”
The Claremont Colleges Library Special Collections announces the opening of The David Boulé California Orange Collection. Ranging from colorful citrus advertisements to photographs of the farmworkers who harvested the crops, this vital collection covers both the dream and the reality of California through its citrus growing industry. This collection contains materials relating to the citrus growing industry of Southern California from 1882 to 2016. The majority of these items were created for the marketing and sale of oranges and lemons, including advertisements, recipe booklets, signs and sales guides for vendors, posters, and magazines. Audio and visual materials include sheet music, vinyl records, DVDs, and a large collection of photographs. Notable photographs include rare candid images of laborers of Asian and Mexican descent. The collection was donated by David Boulé, author of The Orange and Dream of California, (Angel City Press, 2014) FMI: spcoll@cuc.claremont.edu.
The “Digitizing Southern California Water Resources” grant project reached its halfway mark this fall. As part of this “CLIRWater” project, students from The Claremont Colleges Library, the Oviatt Library at California State University, Northridge, and the Water Resources Institute at California State University, San Bernardino, have been digitizing and describing reports, maps, blueprints, photographs, and other materials found in water-related archival collections. You can find us on social media using the hashtag #CLIRWater, as well as the project web page: https://library.claremont.edu/scl/clirwater-project/.
Appointments Jennifer Beamer joined The Claremont Colleges Library as the Scholarly Communications Coordinator in May 2018. Jennifer will work collaboratively with librarians, students and faculty across the 7 Claremont Colleges to support Copyright, Authors Rights, Fair Use, Peer Review Publishing, Research Impact, Open Access, and Open Educational Resources. Jennifer has an MLIS and MS and mostly recently joins Claremont from University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she was the Digital Initiatives Librarian, for the past three years.
Jeanine Finn was hired as the Data Science and Digital Scholarship Coordinator in August. She first came to The Claremont Colleges Library through the CLIR postdoctoral fellow program after receiving her PhD from the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin.
Yeisi Ileczko was hired as the Digital Technologies Coordinator in the new Digital Technologies and Scholarship division at The Claremont Colleges Library. She started on August 06, 2018 and previously worked as the Education and Technology Librarian at Marshall B. Ketchum University.
Charissa Jefferson, Business and Data Librarian at California State University, Northridge since 2013, was promoted to Associate Librarian.
Stacy Martinez joined The Claremont Colleges Library as the Learning Spaces and Technologies Coordinator in September 2018. This new position focuses on integrating a user-centered focus into public spaces and technology support. Stacy comes to us from Pomona College where she’s spent the last 10 years providing technical and troubleshooting support to the faculty, staff, and students as a Desktop Support Specialist.
Lev Rickards has joined the staff at Santa Clara University as Associate University Librarian for Collections and Scholarly Communication. He was previously Collection Manager at the Department of Library and Archives at the Bahá’í World Centre in Israel.
Melanie Sellar has recently joined the staff at Santa Clara University as Head of Instruction and Assessment. She was previously Senior Instructional Designer at Loyola Marymount University, and before that the Education Services and Reference Librarian at Marymount California University.
Dr. Michele A. L. Villagran has accepted a position at San Jose State University School of Information as a tenure-track Assistant Professor starting fall 2018 where her position will focus on cultural diversity.
Tessa Withorn was hired as the Online Learning Librarian and Liaison to Health Sciences and Nursing at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Tessa graduated from IU Bloomington in 2017 and previously worked at Spalding University in Louisville, KY.
Executive Board Meeting Notes
Friday, September 13, 2018 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Teleconference
Attendees:
Maryann Hight (CSU-DAL)
Jenny Yap (Secretary)
Talitha Matlin (President)
Crystal Goldman (UC-DAL)
Cynthia Mari Orozco (ACRL Chapters Council Delegate)
Yen Tran (Treasurer)
Ethan Annis (Mentorship Committee Co-Chair)
Lee Adams (VP-North)
Lindsey Shively (Newsletter Editor)
Kelly Janousek (VP-South)
Joseph Aubele (Membership Director)
Absent:
Liz Galoozis (Private-DAL)
Pearl Ly (Past President)
Mario Macías (CC-DAL)
Melissa Cardenas-Dow (IG Coordinator)
Nicole Branch (Advocacy Liaison)
Dave Drexler (Webmaster)
Welcome
Amend/Approve Minutes
Introduce new officers
President Updates (Talitha)
December 7 meeting at Berkeley City College. 10am.
Membership survey: most participants were instruction librarians, many people have been involved with CARL for a long time, most are satisfied with CARL membership. Interest groups, conference, and listserv were most important to members. Improvement areas: more engagement in Northern California. Surprises: mainly instruction librarians responded. Talitha expected more diversity in roles
ACRL Webinars: http://www.ala.org/acrl/conferences/elearning/webcasts
Online Teaching and Copyright and Open Access webinars might be of interest to people. Spring webinars were mainly attended by people at the host institutions with the exception of Berkeley City College who had 4-5 outside people attend.
Action items: Talitha resend member survey to CARLALL and through IGs in October or November. Lindsey include member survey in newsletter. Talitha and Melissa will work on offering webinars to the IG leaders to host (6 hosts). Board members can host if there are spots left
CARL Board restructuring project (Pearl) - w/Maryanne, Kelly, Crystal, Liz
- New standing rules and bylaws will be ready by the end of the year (not in time for the upcoming election)
- Changes: Past President’s term shouldn’t be optional. VP South is often difficult to find because of the huge conference responsibility
- Philosophical change in the new Bylaws: the 4 Directors at Large will take on a larger role by each chairing a committee.
- Discussion about work load for certain positions and amount of travel for the ACRL Chapter Delegate which requires attendance at ALA Midwinter and ALA Annual for 3 years. We will change rule to only require attendance at Annual
- add to standing rules that we will review our rules and bylaws every other year (possibly add this to the DAL duties)
- Discussion of whether or not an IG Coordinator (or other board roles) should or should not be able to serve as chair of an IG because of conflicts of interest
- in the Bylaws the President or VP or membership can call a regional meeting. Discussion of what the purpose of these meetings are
- Standing Rules recommended changes: DALs will take on chairing committees, Archivist position, eliminate regional VPs, Past President will chair the elections committee, conference planning committee has more conference planning duties rather than VP South taking on a lot of that
Action items: Talitha will update the working group about the changes we discussed and will note the changes.
Elections Update (Lee)
- There is at least 1 person running for every open position
- Ballots will be going out next week
- Candidates:
VP-North/President-Elect: Rachel Jaffe/UCSC
CSU DAL: Margot Hanson/CSU Maritime & Tiffanie Ford-Baker/CSU LA
UC DAL: Ken Lyons/UCSC, Gayatri Singh/UCSD, Michael Yonezawa/UCR
ACRL rep: Lucy Bellamy/Gnomon
Membership Report (Joseph)
- 444 confirmed members, but 226 have not renewed
- Emails have been sent out re: renewals, esp. to those who have lapsed memberships
- How do we want to manage mid-year renewals or memberships since everyone is on the same schedule (memberships expire end of August and start in September)? Should we go to a 2-year membership and have renewals happen before conference proposals go out?
Action items: Everyone send feedback re: renewals to Joseph
Treasurer Report (Yen)
- Deposits of checks
- Still working on adding bank account signatories with CitiBank
Action items: Yen continue updating signatories
Outstanding Appointed Board Positions (Talitha)
- Archivist, Rockman Scholarhip Committee Chair, Web Coordinator
- Talitha is in contact with folks re: Rockman Scholarship Committee Chair
- David is happy to continue to be the Web Coordinator, but if anyone would like to volunteer or be involved, that would be fine.
Action items: Talitha send out email about a new web coordinator, continue work on archivist & Rockman Scholarship
Awards Liaison Updates (Liz)
- Liz is on vacation
Action items: Talitha will get report from Liz
Mentorship Committee Update (Ethan)
- 2 members have been recruited
- Consolidated and updated webpage into 1 page for easier browsing
- 1 committee member compiled a mentorship research guide (bibliography)
- 3 new mentees and mentors have been added since last meeting
Review action items
Announcements
3 positions open at CSUSM (user services, special collections, and 1 temporary position)
Deadlines for submissions: March 15, June 15, September 15, and December 15. Newsletter submissions, corrections, questions, and comments should be sent to carlnewsletter@gmail.com.
Our mailing address is: |carlall@listserv.carl-acrl.org|
