Occasional Progress Report 9 – Nov. 4, 2013
Hi everyone:
Here’s the latest on what’s been happening with 2CUL Technical Services Integration (TSI). This report, along with past updates, is also available in the Project Reports section of the TSI wiki.
“Integration is a state of mind”---Joyce McDonough
1. TSI Joint Senior Managers Integration Network (JSMIN) met at Cornell on October 23-24. JSMIN minutes may be found on the wiki. This group consists of the Cornell and Columbia technical services directors, plus members of the TSI Steering Committee. Our main agenda topic was to begin to work together as a Joint Senior Managers group and understand our role in the overall 2CUL initiative. We began with a bit of soul searching about what JSMIN should be and what it meant to integrate our current management structures. Joyce suggested that integration is more a state of mind than a formal management structure at this point. For now, we defined JSMIN as our structure to "bless" proposals and recommendations that require staffing or workflow reallocations, policy changes or the purchase of new tools and software. TSI Steering will continue to implement, monitor and assess progress on all proposals and recommendations.
2. JSMIN has now worked through the various recommendations, ideas, and suggestions received from the TSI functional working groups and other input. We discussed each recommendation in a week long series of meetings and decided in each case whether to approve, approve with caution, or put the idea on hold. The TSI Steering Committee will next draft new charges to include: (1) integration tasks/projects, (2) timelines, (3) possible changes in group membership, (4) the need for pilots or other testing, and (5) evaluation and communication strategies for TSI Phase 2. The extent of this proposed early-stage integration will necessarily vary from function to function. The Steering Committee is still working out the details of how best to launch Phase 2, though we anticipate it will be similar to the approach we took to Phase 1 – that is, meetings of the TSI Steering Committee with the individual working group leads to review the Phase 2 charges and solicit input regarding their scope and feasibility.
3. While at Cornell, Columbia members of JSMIN attended an Open House to introduce Cornell staff to the newly consolidated Library Technical Services (LTS) after the move of that division’s E-Resources and Serials Management Units from the Mann Library down campus to join the rest of their LTS colleagues in Olin Library.
4. Kate, Jim and Xin Li gave a presentation about 2CUL at an Open Meeting for Cornell staff on October 22nd. You can see all 2CUL Technical Services Integration articles and presentations on our wiki.
5. Lois Purcell, Administrative Supervisor of the LTS Ordering and Gifts Unit at Cornell, will be participating on the search committee for the new Director of Monograph Processing Services. Chew Chiat Naun, the Director of LTS Cataloging & Metadata Services, will participate in the search for the new Chinese cataloger position at the Starr East Asian Library.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more information about Phase 2. As always, please feel free to direct questions to your supervisors or to any member of the TSI Steering Committee: Jim LeBlanc, Adam Chandler, Colleen Major, Boaz Nadav-Manes, Robert Rendall, or me.
- Kate Harcourt (on behalf of the 2CUL TSI Steering Committee)