ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C&RL News ■ O ctober 2000 / 775

or have been directors o f academic librar- 
ies. Details and an application form are on 
th e W eb  at http :/ / is.g seis.u cla.ed u /  
seniorfellows/. Send nominations and appli- 
cations to Beverly P. Lynch, director, Senior

Fellows Program, Graduate School of Educa­
tion & Information Studies, UCLA, 3045 Moore 
Hall, Mailbox 95121, Los Angeles, CA 90095- 
1521; phone: (310) 206-4294; fax; (310) 206- 
6293; e-mail: bplynch@ucla.edu. ■

A representation of the new Information Technology Center at Linn State Technical College, 
located in rural central Missouri. The building w ill include a 12,000 square foot new library. The 
library plans to move into the new facility (which was designed by Pellham-Phillips-Hageman) 
in March 2001.

Efficient, effective, and equitable e-minutes

More and more people are avoiding 
eye contact when volunteers are sought 
to take minutes at staff or departmental 
meetings, and who can blame them? Re- 
cording and disseminating the enormous 
amount o f information that should be 
shared regularly among library staff mem- 
bers has becom e a Herculean task.

The task becom es more critical every 
day, where the quality o f internal com- 
munication has a tremendous effect on 
the quality of service. Breaking the task 
into small, manageable pieces ensures the 
consistent, regular exchange of informa­
tion among library staff members which, 
in turn, results in the best p o ssib le Ser­
vice to patrons.

While, according to R o b ert’s Ru les o f
Order, the responsibility for taking min­
utes at formal meetings must be taken 
by the secretary or recording secretary, 
responsibility for recording minutes of in­
formal meetings can be shared by the 
entire group. All participants arrive at the 
meeting with information to share, ques-

 

tions to ask, or problem s to discuss. 
(These items can be typed and saved in 
an e-mail message to be added to or ed- 
ited later.) Each member o f the group as- 
sumes responsibility for recording discus- 
sions and decisions related to items that 
he or she introduces during the meeting.

After the m eeting, the participant 
records only the portions of the meeting 
he or she initiated and e-mails them to a 
designated individual who simply cuts and 
pastes all input and sends one final docu- 
ment to the entire group.

This simple process encourages active 
involvement; assures that issues impor­
tant to each individual are addressed, 
documented, and acted upon; allows all 
participants (both full- and part-time and 
those who are unable to attend all or part 
of a meeting) to stay well-informed; and 
provides easy-to-access records that can 
be saved electronically and referenced 
when needed.— P a tr ic ia  Weaver, S ain t 
Jo s e p h  's University, P h ila d e lp h ia ; e-m a il: 
p w eav er@ sju .ed u

http://is.gseis.ucla.edu/
mailto:bplynch@ucla.edu
mailto:pweaver@sju.edu