November 17, 2006, Georgia College and State University

Members Attending:

Nancy Anderson, Gordon College; Gordon Baker, Clayton State University; Pat Borck, Macon State College; Carol Bray, East Georgia College; Ray Calvert, Coastal Georgai Community College; Betty Childres, Kennesaw State University; Mary Jo Fayoyin, Savannah State University; Lorene Flanders, University of West Georgia; Doug Frazier, Armstrong Atlantic State University; Kathy Gallo, Georgia Perimeter College; George Gaumond, Valdosta State University; Debra Holmes, Georgia Highlands College; Victoria Horst, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College; Charlene Hurt, Georgia State University; Lynn Kelly, Waycross College; Lydia Knight, Dalton State College; Frank Mahitab, Fort Valley State University; Callie McGinnis, Columbus State University; LaVerne McLaughlin, Albany State University; Rich Meyer, Georgia Institute of Technology; Joyce Mills, Southern Polytechnic State University; Bede Mitchell, Georgia Southern University; Merryll Penson, Board of Regents; Bill Potter, University of Georgia; Robert Quarles, Atlanta Metropolitan College; Susan Ralph, Bainbridge College; Paul Robards, Middle Georgia College; Gene Ruffin, Georgia Gwinnett College; Rachel Schipper, Georgia College and State University; Richard Sutton, Board of Regents; Shawn Tonner, North Georgia College and State University; Jacqueline Vickers, South Georgia College; Mary Washington, Darton College; Vera Weisskopf, Georgia Southwestern State University.

Guests:

Lee Ann Boyd, South Georgia College, Bella Karr Gerlich, Georgia College and State University; Greg Topp, University of Georgia
Business Meeting:

Welcome/Introductions

Mary Jo Fayoyin, Chair, welcomed everyone and the group introduced themselves.

Metrics

George Gaumond, Valdosta State University (VSU), reported on Metrics. VSU has been required to provide metrics, a measure of effectiveness, for different aspects of their budget. The Board of Regents is requiring campuses to submit metrics for budget analysis. This involves operating costs, variables, and comparisons with other campuses. The RACL group may want to think about metrics common to the group. George recommends forming a committee to look at broader set of statistics. Bede Mitchell, Georgia Southern University, volunteered for this taskforce. Bill Nelson, Augusta State University was recommended as Chair. George Gaumond volunteered to be on the task force. Mary Jo will appoint a committee in consultation with the RACL Executive Committee and will send out the names on RACL list next week. She will ask Bill Nelson to serve as chair.

Academic Advisory Group

Mary Jo Fayoyin, Savannah State University, reported on the Academic Advisory Groups update on the University System for the next academic year.

Accountability and Strategic Planning - the theme is making things more streamline and effective. There will be an increase in Board Committees working on initiatives. Issues include: Six Sigma, Customer Service Initiative, principles of University System of Georgia Strategic Planning and re-examination of general education, increased capacity to accommodate growth, high quality affordable programs, etc. 10 Projects will be chaired by the system presidents. The projects include: improving enrollment management, early outreach programs, teacher education, professional development. RACL has the opportunity to be involved in these initiatives.

USG Report

Rick Sutton, Board of Regents, reported from the Board of Regents. He reviewed the top ten developments in Year 1 of Erroll Davis’ Chancellorship:

• Reorganization and System Reorganization (which includes a new Senior Vice Chancellor for Health and Medical programs);
• Approvals and Authorities (working groups currently examining academic, financial, facilities, legal/personnel – largely composed of presidents - to rationalize the way decisions are made in the system);
• Interim appointments (Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Operations Officer, Chief Information Office, Presidents);
• Budget process (FY08 budget request, shadow budget vs. paper budget, zero-based FY09 budget, budget forecasting, and quarterly reports);
• New capital budget model (3 revenue streams – general obligation bonds, public-private funding, higher education bonds. This adds another source of revenue, longer-term allocations based on metrics model);
• Four-for-four tuition plan (guaranteed rates, disincentive for 5th year and beyond, multitude of rates, challenges for financial aid, harder to isolate annual tuition increases to a single percentage);
• Customer Service Initiative (institutional and system level initiatives, not a complaint ombudsman);
• System Level Projects (enrollment/capacity, retention/progression/graduation, nursing/healthcare, advising, emergency preparedness, energy management, training, at-risk middle school students, AAMI, STEM students and Teachers);
• Strategic planning process (5 principles - Presidents to be named for each group)

RACL members are encouraged to participate if they see a place they can contribute.

Chancellor’s Remarks to ACIT and Rock Eagle

George Gaumond, Valdosta State University, reported on the ACIT meeting. The Chancellor spoke to ACIT (and RACL members who could attend) and he gave the keynote at Rock Eagle in the afternoon. The Chancellor’s message is consistent.

Six things were mentioned:

• Leadership
• Accountability
• Making the system stronger
• Budget
• Customer service
• Six Sigma

Rachel Schipper, Georgia College and State University, reported on the Chancellor’s keynote at Rock Eagle. The Chancellor made general statements including:

• The challenge of higher education
• The world is flat concept
• The backbone of economic development is technology
• Reinventing the shape of higher education
• Having the right leadership at every level
• Continuing to push the boundaries of distance education
• Discussion of streamlined reporting of the presidents
• Management at multiple levels
• Enhancements in training/development
• Leadership accountability for the future
• New suggested slogan “USG: transform your life, power your potential”.
• Other sources of revenue beyond state.

There will be lots of opportunities for RACL to focus on strengths, specifically customer service.

Customer Service Initiative

Gene Ruffin, Georgia Gwinnett College, presented on the Governor’s Customer Service Initiative. Gene is the Champion for Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC). The initiative’s motto is Faster, Friendlier, Easier. The initiative came out of the Governor’s office to the various state agencies. Jim Flowers and Debra Scott are in charge at the University System. The Chancellor has charged each institution to appoint a champion and develop a plan for each campus. GGC chose Information Services. The goal was to obviate confusion and increase the quality of information and speed of information coupled with staff training. Over time the system will develop a resource of Customer Service Initiative plans where each college/university can go and find a plan. A White paper explaining the details was distributed.

Georgia College and State University Showcase

The RACL Group was treated to a tour of the Flannery O’Connor Room at Georgia College and State University and an exhibit of art work featuring Rachel Schipper.

Leadership/Mentorship/Professional Development/Training

Mary Jo Fayoyin, Savannah State University reported on the results of the RACL Training Survey. In an interest to provide professional development and training for librarians and for staff and to help frame discussion, a survey was distributed to RACL members. The survey was completed November, with 28 respondents. The survey focused on four areas:

What is your library currently doing for professional development?
GIL User’s Group Meeting (GUGM) was not one of the choices on survey, but a real source of professional development is GUGM (the last GUGM had 228 attendees).

Staff development program – 46.4% strongly agree, 28.6% sometimes agree, 25% have no program (Research institutions 100%, Regional institutions 100%) For those that have programs, the programs are formal and informal with new employee orientations, annual staff retreats, and development throughout the year

What kinds of activities are librarians and libraries engaged in?
Staff at 46% of the libraries regularly attend national meetings.
82% attend in-state meetings regularly. .
77.8% of libraries have had someone participate in tuition remission. 92.8% participate in their campus continuing education programs and many attend SOLINET Workshops.
66.6% of directors indicate that RACL, GUGM, and an occasional ALA represent the extent of professional development activities.
50% of directors participate in mentoring programs.
60% indicated non-librarians have same opportunity for development as librarians

Callie McGinnis, Columbus State University, reported on attending the ACRL leadership institute. LaVerne McLaughlin, Albany State University, reported on attending the HBCU Library Alliance Institute. Charlene Hurt, Georgia State University, recommended the Emory Summer Institute which has an advantage of not being as expensive. Other leadership institutes are available.

What are our needs?
Top four overall, although it varied some by type of library:

• Supervision/leadership management
• Technical/computing skills
• Assessment,
• Customer service

Other needs:
Acquisitions, GALILEO, cataloging, future trends, collection development, public service skills, marketing, updates (Voyager), Reports (Voyager), System Admin (Voyager), diversity (all meanings of the word), systems/technology integration, team building, grants (funding/writing), and searching (GALILEO/GIL).

What are we spending?

High average expenditure per librarian: $2000-3000 for 1 institution. Most libraries are spending $100 - $1000 per librarian. Not enough to meet the needs.

Mary Jo posed the question: What does RACL want to do?

Possibilities include:

• Task force to present action plan in spring
• Establish group to develop leadership program
• Recommendations to system group reviewing professional development options
• Request GALILEO/GIL find way to address needs
• Expand GUGM

Mary Jo recommended forming task force made up of members of the RACL Executive Committee to discuss further.

Introduction to Lean Six Sigma

Greg Topp, Director of IT planning and Decision Support from the University of Georgia (UGA), presented an Introduction to Lean Six Sigma. Members can contact Greg at www.eits.uga.edu, gtopp@uga.edu, or call 706-542-7617.

GIL/GALILEO/OIIT Report

Merryll Penson, University System of Georgia, updated the committee on GALILEO and GIL. A report was distributed to the committee.

GALILEO might have the possibility to have funds for nursing resources. (Debbie Holmes is chairing a committee to review resources and make recommendations should funds become available. RACL librarians will be invited to evaluate on a trail basis between now and January).

The Upgrade is going along well and people are working very hard. An Upgrade status report was presented. Usability testing is forthcoming. GALILEO has started a Metalib pilot group and Georgia Tech is taking the lead on this pilot. Ross Singer, Georgia Instititute of Technology, is the technical lead for this project. Heather King and Elizabeth Winters are working on the e-resources side. Selden Deemer, Emory University, is working on the interface side. Community customization groups are ongoing.

GIL will be moving over Christmas to a new upgrade for Voyager. GIL staff have been looking at Endeca. Some GIL coordinating committee members are excited about the possibilities of Endeca, which offers more guided navigation. Endeca is currently working on a Proof of Concept for us.

The GUGM group is working hard on getting ready to meet at Fort Valley State University in the spring. The GUGM committee has requested that the Chancellor meet in person for this meeting.

GIL has a change in a service site. The Medical College of Georgia (MCG) will no longer support itself. MCG Voyager will move to a UGA service site.

Merryll asked if the committee was interested in putting distributed handouts up on the RACL website in order to save paper. The members could print the documents and bring them to the meeting, if desired. The group agreed to try this.

Mary Jo reminded (for Eva Lautemann) the committee that staff make sure they are signed up for appropriate listservs. Listservs can be found on GIL site.

Announcements

The spring meeting will be held at Sea Palms on St. Simons Island, March 14-16, 2007. Mary Jo will send out information to the group.

Mary Jo thanked Rachel Schipper (Georgia College and State University) for preparations for today’s meeting. Mary Jo also thanked Merryll for her mentorship.

Respectfully submitted,
Nancy D. Anderson, Secretary