Diversity Committee Minutes for September 04, 2003

UT Libraries’ Diversity Committee
September 4, 2003
Meeting Minutes
Room 605, Hodges Library

Members present: Arab, Bright, Chaudhuri, Deeken, Keally, Leach, Meyers, Mundava, Royse,
Roller, Renee Smith, Stephens

I. Announcements
Molly welcomed the Minority Librarian Residents (Kwanna, Jayati, and Maud) to their first
Diversity Committee meeting.

A. Uganda Exchanges
JoAnne announced that Miriam Kaika, the exchange librarian from Uganda, will be here
September 13th for two weeks. JoAnne will host a potluck for Miriam at her home on
September 20th. Barbara Dewey will leave for Uganda soon and Anthony Smith will go at a
later time.

B. Race Relations Week (September 22-26)
Molly reported that September 22-26 is Race Relations Week. The Office of Minority
Student Affairs has programs scheduled for that week and at other times during the year
as well. (http://web.utk.edu/~omsa/)

C. Lambda Student Union
The Lambda Student Union recently contacted Molly about doing a display in October,
but the display case on 1st floor is scheduled for the rest of the semester. Hopefully, we
can collaborate with them on a display in the future.
(http://web.utk.edu/~lambda/about.html)

D. Banned Books Week (September 20-27)
On behalf of the Diversity Committee, Molly ordered and has since received this year’s
ALA Banned Books kit. It includes 3 posters and 100 bookmarks, which are currently on
display in the Culture Corner and in the Reference Room. Molly created handouts noting
the purpose of Banned Books Week and listing frequently challenged books and authors.

E. Fall Festival (October 16)
UT’s annual Faculty/Staff Fall Festival will be held on Thursday, October 16th from 11:30
a.m. until 3:00 p.m. at the University Center. Last year the Diversity Committee won
2nd place in the scarecrow contest. If any committee member is interested in
participating this year in any of the contests (there is also a pumpkin-carving contest), let
Becky or Molly know. Deadline for entering contests is October 9th.
(http://uthr.admin.utk.edu/FallFestival.pdf)

II. Goals & Priorities for 2003-2004
Molly presented a draft of the Committee’s goals for the new year based upon information
received from members at the August 21st meeting. A recent Chronicle of Higher Education
article, “10 questions College Officials Should Ask About Diversity,” notes the importance of
setting realistic goals. Becky and Molly will continue working on the goals and present a final
version at the next meeting.

III. Updates

A. ‘02/’03 Annual Report and ‘03/’04 Budget
The Committee’s annual report for last year is close to completion. Molly will finalize and
send it to the Committee members soon.

The latest draft of the ‘03/’04 budget request was discussed. The request is similar to last
year’s, but the total dollar amount is less. A new addition to the request is for a student
worker. This led to a discussion about whether the committee needed a student at this
time. Sandy Leach, who suggested this possibility at the August 21st meeting, noted that a
student worker could be used by the Committee to keep up with labor-intensive tasks such
as maintaining a diversity calendar for the campus community. Kawanna noted that she
worked 20 hrs/week for the Information School’s Diversity Committee at the University of
Washington maintaining several websites for them, and had plenty of work to do. The
Committee decided to leave a “place marker” in the budget request for a future student
worker position and continue to develop the parameters for such a position before making
a formal request.

B. “Life of the Mind” Program
The Libraries’ “Life of the Mind” Committee has met its goals of creating a “Life of the Mind” website for the Libraries and collaborating with the UT Bookstore to host a book signing by James McBride, author of The Color of Water. The book signing will be on September 12, 4:30-5:30 at the bookstore. The University’s “Life of the Mind” Committee is discussing the book selection for Fall ’04. Two titles being considered are Tears of the Giraffe and Dream Birds.

The Committee’s Culture Corner is being well received by patrons. Once the Corner’s website is completed, a Share News message will be posted reminding library staff about the Corner and restating its purpose. Suggestions for the next Culture Corner topic will be solicited from all library staff.

C. Residents
Jill reported that the orientation for the Residents was proceeding smoothly. Kawanna,
Jayati, and Maud confirmed this. All said they had had very pleasant experiences thus
far. Maud said she has been “enjoying every minute of it!” Jill noted that planning the
Residents’ orientation schedule has brought to light the need for improvement in the way
the Libraries orient new faculty and staff.
Martha Rudolf has prepared press releases re. the Residents. The press releases have
appeared on the TLA listserv and in the @Tennessee Daily Newsletter for Faculty and
Staff. She has also created a webpage on the Libraries’ website:
. This site needs to be
linked to the Committee’s webpage.

D. Webpage
Molly and Becky noted several revisions/updates that need to be made asap to the Committee’s webpage. They will meet with Jeffrey in the near future to work out a process to keep the page up-to-date.

IV. New Business

A. Student Recognition Event
The Committee discussed when best to hold the Student Recognition Event, the first of which was held last fall. It was agreed that spring semester might be the best time, perhaps around Valentine’s Day. A subcommittee will need to be formed to plan and organize the event. Jill can assist in getting us a list of student workers who will have worked for the Libraries two years as of May 2004. These students will be recognized for their service via a bookplated book in their field of study.

B. Professional Development Opportunities
Molly noted two upcoming professional development opportunities for Committee members:
1. Tennessee Library Association, March 17-19, 2004 – TLA meets in Knoxville this year. The deadline for submitting presentation proposals is October 17. The conference theme this year is “A Tennessee State of Mind.”
http://www.lib.utk.edu/~tla/04conf.html

2. The Fourth National Diversity in Libraries Conference, May 4-5, 2004, Atlanta
This year the conference is co-hosted by the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL), the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET), and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Library Alliance. New for the conference is the involvement of HBCU and the focus on public libraries and smaller academic libraries. A call for papers/presentations should be coming out soon.
http://www.librarydiversity.org/

V. Other Business
Renee noted that Digital Media Services has new equipment, some of which might be useful in preparing presentations. She invited all to visit.

Becky suggested that standing subcommittees be formed to handle some of the Committee’s projects. Perhaps the subcommittees could be based on areas reflected in the Committee’s goals for the year.

Respectfully submitted,
Becky Roller