Minutes from 12/4/2009 Meeting

MINUTES
Central New Jersey Academic Reference Librarians Group (CJARL)
Mercer County Community College
West Windsor, NJ
Friday, December 4, 2009
10:00am – 12:00pm

Members present:
1. Pamela Price, Mercer County College
2. Martin Crabtree, Mercer County College
3. Dan Calandro, Mercer County College
4. Connie Paul, CJRLC
5. Valerie Bonilla, Brookdale Community College
6. Jeanne Vloyanetes , Brookdale Community College
7. Caitlyn Cook, Ocean County College
8. Gary Schmidt, Ocean County College
9. Olivia Nellums, Camden County College
10. Dave Peterson, Burlington County College
11. Lisa Coats, Monmouth University

Many thanks to the Mercer County Community College Library for hosting us. Their newly renovated Library looks wonderful. Let’s hope things settle down sooner rather than later; I’m sure everyone could benefit from a sense of normalcy after such a long period of transition.

We were also very happy to be joined by Connie Paul, Executive Director of the Central New Jersey Regional Library Cooperative. Connie’s experience and wisdom offers a priceless perspective on where we’re headed. In fact, Connie comments to the Committee offered a preview of what was in store for the upcoming CJRLC Fall Membership meeting the following week.

We also had the opportunity to discuss the process by which Librarian Faculty members are evaluated for tenure and promotion. It appears that each Institution addresses this process differently. Some schools use a more narrative model while others would prefer a more quantifiable method such as the one according to which teaching faculty have been traditionally assessed.

Our morning concluded with a very tour of the newly remodeled library. Pamela Price and Martin Crabtree provided extensive—and very entertaining—commentary.

Next meeting: Either February 12 or February 19. I’ll e-mail everyone for feedback.

Lessons Learned

The iSchool at the University of Washington has recently published, "Lessons Learned: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age" as part of its "Project Information Literacy." It's a very intriguing report. The .pdf is available here.