Attendees: José Adrián Barragán-Álvarez, Lynn Cunningham, Manuel Erviti (recorder), David Faulds, Frank Ferko, Sheehan Grant, Ruth Haber, Toshie Marra, Mohamed Hamed, Jianye He, Adnan Malik, Jeremy Ott (facilitator), Scott Peterson, Claude Potts, Stacy Reardon, Jane Rosario (guest), Abby Scheel, John Shepard, Virginia Shih, Naomi Shiraishi, Susan Xue
1. Announcements
Reminders of upcoming events by Claude, https://lunchpoems.berkeley.edu/ (Berkeley Lunch Poems), and Scott, https://www.textxd.org/ (TextXD: Text Analysis Across Domains, December 10-12, 2020), who also provided links in the chat box.
2. Welcome/re-introduction to Jane Rosario, in new role as Head of the Collection Services Division
Jane summarized a vision of Collection Services as a division focusing on service in partnership with other divisions and identified immediate challenges in the transition to Alma, understaffing, and the hiring freeze. After the SILS transition she is looking forward to expanding work on linked data. Council members offered congratulations, remarking that previous work with her had convinced many that shared and collaborative initiatives are a good fit.
Jane was asked to explain the relationship between Collection Services Council and Collection Services Division and she noted that CSC is reorganizing and specifics are being worked out. The Division has some representatives on the Council and she is in contact with Jo Anne Newyear Ramirez. Asked to comment on the increasing collaboration of acquisitions and cataloging work, Jane recognized that while labor is shifting from in-house to outsourcing, increasingly taking advantage of language expertise in cataloging, she finds that vendor services are improving, which could be a development with benefits. Finally, asked how the A&H Division could help, Jane noted that she would reach out, possibly for language help. It was suggested that perhaps Library Communications could attempt a story to highlight the important work of the Collection Services Division.
3. Discussion of Ithaka S+R/MLA Study on the Research Needs of Modern Languages and Literature Faculty
Claude summarized the report, "Supporting Research in Languages and Literature" available at https://sr.ithaka.org/publications/supporting-research-in-languages-and-literature/, noting features such as the faculty-focus, centrality of the text (book), and importance of serendipitous but also socially-curated discovery as well as increasing reliance on digital surrogates, etc., before stepping through the four groups of recommendations systematically, encouraging council members to comment.
Particular attention was devoted to the first two groups of recommendations, as the focus on the role of database providers, professional societies, and interdisciplinary academic departments that is found in the final two groups of recommendations ("Connecting Scholars" and "Fostering New Directions") was less relevant. Concerning the first two, "Accelerating Discovery" and "Building Research Skills," members found resonance with their current work, ranging from collection and metadata services, such as Frank's description of developing linked data initiatives, to public services in Abby's reminder that members use proactive outreach and their knowledge of contacts, social media tools, and how things work within different departments during this period of distancing.
Overall, several council members remarked that the report, based on in-person interviews at 14 institutions (many our peers), was very similar to findings of the UC Berkeley Library survey of October 2018, sent to faculty members across all disciplines, previously discussed in the Arts & Humanities Council Meeting of May 7, 2020, though the expanded discussion of "public humanities" surprised some.
4. Continuing the discussion of integrating the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion charge within the activities of the Council
Jeremy returned to the closing topic of the Arts & Humanities Council Meeting of August 6, 2020, and continued brainstorming possible ideas or approaches that A&H Council members can use as examples of diversity, equity, and/or inclusion from within their own work as subject specialists. Whether through cataloging, discoverability, and subject headings or addressing issues concerning collection development from marginalized groups/countries, he noted that the Council would start the new year with one presentation per council meeting, a very flexible five to fifteen minute discussion or presentation. In case Council members believe that more time is needed for a specific topic, it may be possible to set aside up to 30 minutes depending on the other items on the agenda.
Next meeting: To be determined