LAUC-B Fall Assembly
December 1, 2022, 10:00 am - 11:30 am. Virtual.
Business Meeting
10:00 - 10:15 am
- Introduction and welcome from Chair, Jesse Silva.
- The business portion of the meeting will be abbreviated so that the bulk of the meeting time can be dedicated to the discussion. Committee reports will be linked from the Assembly minutes.
- Recognition of new librarians
- Misha Coleman (EPS)
- Kate Donovan (Bancroft)
- Presley Hubschmitt (Bancroft)
- Betsy Frederick-Rothwell (Environmental Design Archives)
- Kris Kasianovitz (IGS)
- Julia Larson (Environmental Design Archives)
- CAPA Report (Michele Morgan)
- Committee Reports (submitted in writing)
Making Meaning of Librarianship
Gisèle Tanasse and Nicole Brown facilitated this highly reflective session, which sought to deepen our understanding of what it means to be a librarian at Berkeley today. The session was born out of some of the deep morale issues, challenges, and grief that were elevated through the Strategic Plan Steering Committee's process of engaging all library staff (and specifically LAUC-B members).
Retroboard prompts:
https://retroboard.io/board/1669760490598x666550167872208900
0. Chat Blast: Share in the chat something our colleagues here may not know about you
1. What drew you to the profession? What experiences or messages made you want to be part of the profession.
2. What about your daily work is energizing, makes you the most proud, or gives the most satisfaction?
3. What parts of your daily work seem unenjoyable or a grind?
4. How do you like to be appreciated by others?
How might lauc-b improve morale and our collective work? What role can LAUC-B play looking forward towards lifting morale and moving our collective work forward. (Chat discussion)
Opportunities for informal gatherings
- Providing more opportunities for informal gatherings with colleagues would be great — perhaps a monthly get-together, or opening and closing semester gatherings?
- Having safe outdoor opportunities for us to gather informally on or near campus would build community and probably morale to a degree.
LAUC-B influence and role
- It seems like LAUC(B) could be leveraged more as a collective force, but I don't know how exactly
- I'd like to see administration be responsive to what LAUC brings to them during the meetings with the LAUC President and VP (rather than just be an information sharing activity).
- I think an underlying question is "what is within LAUC's power", which is limited. A typical response might be a committee on morale, but that might not be right for us, especially considering our workloads.
- I realized part of the problem is I still don’t fully grasp LAUC-B’s role within our larger org. As a newer employee who’s still learning, perhaps having a discussion that maps LAUC-B’s “power,” in relation to our leadership, unions, and other campus initiatives could be useful.
- Trying to advocate slowing things down/recalibrate with management if expectations are getting out of sync with what library workers are able to do/accomplish while still keeping our sanity and doing quality work.
Acknowledgement
- Could LAUC-B have a person who elevates the accomplishments of our peers? I would love to see a place where we announce a new publication, presentation, exhibit, etc.
- One challenge for any organization that does reviews (I've seen this in my several careers and many jobs) is that the glitzy stuff is easier to pay attention to, rather than steady attention and wonderful carrying out of the core of the position.
Librarian Review
- Streamline the merit review process?
- I think this exercise was really helpful. It surfaced a lot of issues that we can bring to admin. I also noticed one stressor that actually is, to some extent, under LAUC’s control: the CAPA/dossier process
Feedback form for library equity and inclusion committee https://forms.gle/FUiEoAc6NnLAuTVH8