LAUC-B 2019 Fall Assembly Committee Reports

LAUC-B Combined Library and Affiliated Libraries Assembly Committee Reports

Submitted for the Fall Assembly on November 22, 2019

I. 2019 LAUC-B Fall Assembly Report: Committee on Appointment, Promotion and Advancement (CAPA)

Written report submitted to LAUC-B ExComm in advance of the 2019 Fall Assembly. Oral report given by outgoing Chair I-Wei Wang.

Members 2018-2019

• David Eifler (2020)
• Kendra Levine (2021)
• Toshie Marra (2020)
• Lisa Ngo (2021)
• Theresa Salazar (2019)
• Elliott Smith (2020)
• I-Wei Wang (2019)

Theresa Salazar and I-Wei Wang are rotating off CAPA, and Marlene Harmon and Michele Morgan are new members serving through 2022. Elliott Smith will be chair.  The committee page for CAPA will show the roles of position listing coordinator and interview coordinator for the coming cycle.

Position Descriptions

CAPA reviews all job descriptions in the Librarian series, prior to public posting, to provide comments to LHRD concerning professionalism, equity and accuracy of each description. Since the Spring Assembly report of April 2019, CAPA reviewed 5 job descriptions:

• Instructional & Educational Technology Librarian (Law)
• Political Science & Public Policy Librarian 
• Reference & Academic Outreach Librarian (Law)
• Reference Librarian (Law)
• Undergraduate Learning and Research Librarian

Interviews

CAPA interviews all candidates for positions in the Librarian series to share information related to the Librarian review process and evaluate their potential for advancing in the series and obtaining career status at Berkeley. Since April 2019, CAPA completed interviews with 19 candidates for the following 6 positions:

• Head of the Life & Health Sciences Division
• Scholarly Communication & Copyright Librarian
• Chemical & Physical Sciences Librarian
• Head of Collection Services Division
• Political Science & Public Policy Librarian
• Digital Archivist

Librarian Review

For the 2018-2019 Librarian review year, CAPA reviewed 27 Librarians, including 4 appointees in Affiliated units, 22 in The University Library, and one University Library appointee who departed before the review cycle was completed. CAPA met weekly for two hours from the beginning of March to the end of May.

Career Status and Promotion Reviews

Four ad hoc committees were convened to review four cases involving both career status and promotion reviews, three cases for career status review alone, and one case for promotion review alone. Thank you to the 12 librarians who served on the ad hoc committees.

Congratulations to the 8 librarians who earned career status and/or promotion:

• Mary Elings (Bancroft)
• Mohamed Hamed (Arts & Humanities Division)
• Mark Hemhauser (Acquisitions)
• Kendra Levine (Transportation Studies Library)
• Chan Li (Scholarly Resources)
• Jeremy Ott (Arts & Humanities Division)
• Naomi Shiraishi (East Asian Library)
• Gisèle Tanasse (Instructional Services Division)

Review Outcomes

• 5 greater than standard merit increases
• 17 standard merit increases including those paired with a promotion and/or career status review
• 3 special reviews and 1 no action

The merit increases that were awarded ranged from a standard increase of two points in merit cases to a greater than standard increase of four points. Greater than standard merit increases were awarded in cases for both Assistant, Associate and full-rank Librarians.

Differences Between the CAPA Recommendation and UL or VPF Decision

Of the 26 cases that completed the review cycle, the UL agreed with CAPA’s recommended action in all but 1 case. In all four Affiliated cases, the Vice Provost for the Faculty agreed with CAPA’s recommended action.

Annual Reminder re CAPA Involvement

CAPA is composed of your LAUC-B peers. If you would like to be considered for CAPA service in the future, let the current chair know, or register your interest in CAPA via the Nominating & Elections Committee’s LAUC-B volunteer form. Upcoming opportunities for service are ad hoc committees. This provides a glimpse of the review process from the reviewer’s perspective and is a good experience to build prior to CAPA service.

To serve on an ad hoc committee:

• You must already have career status
• You will be member of a team of 3 librarians and will review 1 to 3 career status/promotion cases
• Ad hoc appointments are made in January and the work is completed by the end of March
• If interested, contact the CAPA chair

To serve on CAPA:

• You must have career status
• You must hold the rank of Associate Librarian or Librarian
• It’s preferable if you have served on an ad hoc or two
• CAPA appointments are made in the late fall, after other LAUC-B committees and offices have been filled
• CAPA strives to balance librarian work experience with committee needs. If you have not been invited to serve on CAPA, keep on volunteering! 

II. Committee on Affiliated Library Affairs

No report submitted.

III. Committee on Diversity

Report by Kiyoko Shiosaki

Members:

• Mohamed Hamed (LAUC-B Co-chair, 2020)
• Christina Fidler (LAUC-B Co-chair, 2021)
• Stella Tang (LAUC-B Member, 2020)
• Neda Salem (Affiliated Staff Representative, 2020) 
• Claude Potts (LAUC-B Member, 2021)
• Michael Lange (SDC Representative, 2021) 
• Immaculate Adesida (LHRD Representative, 2021) 
• José Adrián Barragán-Álvarez (Statewide Representative, 2020) 

Outgoing Members:

• Kiyoko Shiosaki (Past Chair, 2019) 
• Natalia Estrada (SDC Representative, 2019) 
• Naomi Shiraishi, ex officio (Statewide Representative, 2019)
• Susan Wong, ex officio (LHRD Representative, retired June 2019)

Recent activities:

The Committee on Diversity hosted a third microaggressions workshop called Restorative Responses to Workplace Conflict on March 12, 2019. This well-attended event was co-sponsored by the Staff Development Committee and partnered with facilitators Julie Shackford-Bradley from the Restorative Justice Center and Martha Chavarin from Central Campus HR as a follow up to the two previous workshops held in 2018.

In the summer, the Committee co-hosted a film series, Documentaries at Doe with Gisèle Tanasse from the Media Resources Center, and Margaret Phillips in the Social Sciences Division. During the months of May, June, July, and August, these four screenings featured thought-provoking documentaries highlighting the media collections at Berkeley. Each film was followed by a community conversation, connecting the content with current events, higher education, and personal experiences. The film screenings included: The Pushouts, Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, Exiled, and Warrior Women.

On August 14, 2019 the Committee on Diversity held a transition meeting to welcome incoming members: Christina Fidler (Bancroft); Michael Lange (Scholarly Communications/Bancroft); Immaculate Adesida (LHRD); Claude Potts (A&H); and Adam Clemons (Social Sciences). Adam Clemons has since left Berkeley for a new position, and José Adrián Barragán-Álvarez volunteered to be the LAUC Statewide representative. 

IV. Committee on Research and Professional Development

Submitted by Jeremy Ott

Contributions by Susan McElrath and Jessie Sherwood

Members

Celia Emmelhainz and Jeremy Ott (outgoing co-chairs), with members Jessie Sherwood (incoming co-chair), Susan McElrath (incoming co-chair), and Christina Fidler (outgoing), and incoming members Liladhar Pendse, Kendra Levine, Jianye He, Haiqing Lin, Lara Michels, and Susan Powell

Recent activities

In August 2019 the committee held a transition meeting in which Jessie Sherwood and Susan McElrath were elected co-chairs.

In the fall of 2019, the LAUC-B R&PD committee received eight applications for LAUC grants, one of which was subsequently withdrawn. Seven grant applications -- three presentation grants, one mini-grant, and three research grants -- were submitted to LAUC statewide on November 8. 

We also sponsored the CAPA review workshop, originally scheduled for October 10th and rescheduled for October 30th, which was attended by 57 librarians and library staff members. 

Fall professional development events

LAUC-B R&PD organized a panel of librarians on Friday, November 8. The panelists were

Lillian Castillo-Speed, Lara Michels, Stella Tang, Sam Teplitzky, Tim Vollmer, and I-Wei Wang. They discussed the paths and decisions that shaped their careers. There was also a Q&A period.

A new librarians’ event has also been scheduled for Thursday, December 5. We look forward to hearing from Chan Li, Susan McElrath, and TBD.

V. Conference Planning Committee (2019)

No report submitted.

VI. Distinguished Librarian Award Committee 

Report submitted by Jennifer Nelson

The members of the 2018-19 Distinguished Award (DLA) Committee were: Imad Abuelgasim, Julie Lefevre, Jennifer Nelson (Chair), Susan Xue, and Rita Lucarelli (Faculty Representative). We put out our first call for nominations in February 2018 with monthly reminders in March, April, and May. The deadline for an intent to nominate was June 1st 2018, with the final nomination packet due August 3 2018. The winners of the DLA award were Elizabeth Dupuis and Deborah Jan. The DLA ceremony was held on Tuesday, December 11th 4-6 p.m in Morrison Library. Opening remarks were given by UL Jeffrey MacKie-Mason. Speaking on behalf of each awardee were Jennifer Dorner for Elizabeth Dupuis and Nick Robinson for Deborah Jan. Closing remarks were given by Chancellor Carol Christ.

VII. Nominations and Elections Committee

No report submitted.

 

VIII. Social Justice Events Planning Group

 

LAUC-B’s Social Justice Events Planning Group (SJEPG), 

Final Report, November 2019

• Angela Arnold, Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library
• Jean Dickinson, Catalog & Metadata Services (Co-Chair)
• Natalia Estrada, Social Sciences Division 
• Corliss Lee, Instruction Services Division (Co-Chair)
• Michele Morgan, Bancroft Library
• Elissa Thomas, Library IT (left the Library in  June 2019)

~     ~ ~     ~ ~ ~

The LAUC-B Social Justice Events Planning Group (charge) was formed in October of 2018, to continue the work of the previous LAUC-B Task Group on Social Justice in Academic Libraries (final report) and to lead up to the LAUC-B Conference on Social Justice  and Critical Librarianship.

The Planning Group held three events.

1."What’s in a Subject Heading?  Confronting Metadata Bias" Lightning talks.

January 31, 2019.

About: Metadata bias affects all library staff and all library users.   If you are interested in hearing about and discussing how issues of bias and representation impact searches, cataloging, and — ultimately — access to information -- please join us!

Bring:  your “favorite” or “worst” examples of egregious subject terminology, or of topics that are not represented at all by library subject terms

Lightning Talk presenters:

• Sine Hwang Jensen, Ethnic Studies Library  "Words Matter"
• Jean Dickinson, Cataloging and Metadata Services, "Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):  How they Work (or Don't) and Some History"
• Robert Toyama, Ethnic Studies Library "LC subject headings & LC call numbers"
• Elissa Thomas, Library IT "Alternative Press Index"
• Lillian Castillo-Speed, Ethnic Studies Library "Chicano Thesaurus"
• Melissa Stoner, Ethnic Studies Library "H.K.Yuen Archive"

Discussion followed.

Slides are available at: http://ucblib.link/metadatabiasevent  

The event was very well-attended -- 37 attendees including the 6 speakers and committee members.   We received 8 evaluation forms, and these rated the event highly (on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest, the ratings were 7 (2 votes), 8 (3 votes) 9 (2 votes) or 10 (1 vote).  

But the final reaction was mixed. Most of all there was a feeling of enlightenment about what subject headings do or don’t do, how they work, how they are biased, and what new kinds are being used, etc. But unhappily there was some definite post-event blowback about what constitutes bias, racism and privilege at the UCB library, that the SJEPG had not been prepared for. The individuals involved resolved the conflict privately but obviously these issues persist.  

~     ~ ~     ~ ~

The second event was supposed to be about search engine bias, but when it was announced that , Dr. Safiyah Noble would give a  lecture on campus on March 20, 2019 on that topic, the Planning Group received the Executive Committee’s permission to advertise that event to library staff and instead sponsor (with funding from the Executive Committee) the following North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG) webinar:

2. “Bringing Social Justice Behind the Scenes: Transforming the Work of Technical Services”  April 18, 2019.

3. Bias in the Machine:  Teaching about search engine bias and metadata bias

Thursday, September 19, 12:15-1:15 in 303 Doe Library.

• How has search engine bias or metadata bias come up either in your classes or reference interactions or as a library staff member?
• How do we balance encouraging students to use library tools with the acknowledgement of their inherent bias, especially with limited time and bandwidth?
• Do you take an activist stance in instruction and reference?

There were 22 attendees.  We received 9 evaluation forms and the event was highly rated (on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest rating, attendees rated the event 7 (2), 8 (2), 9 (3) or 10 (2).  The comments (see below) were mostly positive. Library staff from across campus shared their own encounters with problematic metadata and their efforts to confront metadata bias.  

The Social Justice Events Planning Group assembled some resources on the topic of metadata bias in a google doc (Calnet ID required) and some resources on the topic of search engine bias, which will be shared with Library staff.

Global LibGuide boxes on subject heading bias and search engine bias have been developed and will be shared with Library instructors.

~     ~ ~     ~ ~ 

The Planning Group was supportive of  (but can’t take credit for) two parallel projects:  one to add “Undocumented immigrants” and all its permutations, such as “Undocumented immigrant children,” etc., as alternative subject headings to “Illegal aliens” and “Illegal alien children,” etc. (proposed by Susan Edwards, implemented by CaMeL and the Cataloging and Metadata Council); and the public showing of the documentary “Change the Subject” (acquired by Susan Edwards, showing arranged by the Documentaries at Doe committee).   

The Planning Group could not have done their work without the support of many people:   LAUC-B Chairs (past and present) Brian Quigley, Jane Rosario and Naomi Shiraishi; the Executive Committee of LAUC-B (past and present) and the LAUC-B Diversity Committee (past and present) and the speakers and attendees of our events.

Further Thoughts

The Planning Group was not asked to provide further thoughts, but we feel that some comments from the evaluation forms are worth highlighting.

One trend we noticed was an interest in conversations between technical service staff and public service staff.  The co-chairs are investigating whether there is enough interest in this to warrant an event and what the appropriate avenues for this conversation might be.  

The evaluation form asked what other topics might be of interest, and these are some of the highlights:

• metadata bias beyond subject headings (descriptions of archival collections, how bias affects which collections get processed sooner, bias in the language of the Library website)
• continued work on LC Subject Headings
• an event about white fragility
• hearing the users’ perspective on subject heading bias
• at the time of the evaluation the Conference had not yet been held but one commenter suggested that the Conference would yield topics for follow-up
• “reach out to the iSchool, jSchool, Office of Equity and Inclusion, etc. There's a lot of expertise on this campus, let's tap into it!”
• diversifying recruitment

The evaluation form asked about formats also; some highlights:

• lightning talks were popular
• “anything that makes staff talk to one another” (paraphrase)
• reading group (this was in connection with Robin di Angelo’s book “White Fragility”
• “More interactivity -- I find open discussions to be stifling and semi-unproductive; More interactions between participants; Introductions and time to reflect; The actual experiences and voices of students would be cool”
• I think this topic could have been broken down into smaller chunks with more structured discussion activities around them.