" To enhance undergraduate learning in the liberal arts by promoting use of library special collections"

Participating Institutions

Steering Committee Minutes
Conference Call
February 1, 2006
4:15 p.m.

Present: Ann Okerson, Yale; Steve Berizzi, Norwalk Community College; Sue Walker, Yale; Danuta Nitecki, Yale; Anja Smit; NELINET; Suzy Taraba, Wesleyan; Kathrine Aydelott, Yale. David Valone was unable to join.

Recorder: Jessica Slawski, Yale.

Danuta Nitecki stated that the publicity for the upcoming March 3rd workshop should be finalized as soon possible.

[Danuta leaves]
[Suzy Taraba joins the call]

I. Planning for the Visualization Workshop, to be held March 3rd.

Kathrine suggested the group begin by agreeing on a title for the workshop. David Valone had sent an e-mail to the Steering Committee stating that the title should remember to emphasize special collections. Sue Walker stated she has added the words "special collections" to the title of the poster. Kathrine stated that she and Danuta had come up with a new title for the workshop: "Focus on Special Collections." The group liked the emphasis placed on special collections rather than being used a subtitle. Kathrine will e-mail Sue on the new title.

Kathrine reviewed the names of some of the predominantly Yale presenters who had been invited and asked if others had people in mind from their institutions to be speakers at this workshop. Suzy Taraba replied that she will try to attract someone from Weslelyan's Learning program for a talk that would fit humanities and social sciences. It was also suggested that David Valone might have someone in mind from Quinnipiac. Ann asked Kathrine to telephone David Valone and discuss this matter with him. Suzy questioned whether the proposed assessment piece could be shortened to 45 minutes instead of the scheduled hour.

Ann Okerson asked what suggestions there were for publicizing locally. Kathrine suggested posters and flyers. Suzy stated that she targets particular faculty. However, that can be tricky because students might want to show up; can students be included? It was agreed that graduate students who teach would be allowed to come to the workshop. Suzy stated that the attendees for the workshop should consist of people from the core 9 institutions and suggested that Kathrine call the point person from each institution to get the word out. Ann will send Kathrine a list of names.

Ann asked how large would the printed posters be. Sue Walker stated she would need to scan the cover picture in a higher resolution. Anja stated that she was having 3 interviews next week at Teagle institutions and that she could distribute the posters then. Jessica and Kathrine will get copies of posters/flyers made.

Danuta had been wondering whether the Davis grant, whose staff are helping to organize this workshop, could get its name on the posters. Ann stated that it was possible to acknowledge the Davis grant. Kathrine stated that according to the conditions of the grant, a small blurb about its purpose has to be put on any activity it helps to sponsor.

There was discussion of how to register potential participants, which needs to be done in order to plan for setup and food. Ann stated that for the last workshop, attendees were asked to sign up online and that the form at the time didn't work too well. She will try to fix it this time Also, Ann asked Jessica whether a week in advance of the event was enough time to register. Jess stated that two weeks would be better, given caterer requirements. Ann stated that she would set up the website on the coming weekend and have the registrations bounced to Jessica's e-mail address.

Kathrine asked if packets were handed out at the last workshop. Ann stated that there were and they contained the program, a list of names of those who would be present and their contact information, a bibliography, some handouts, and an evaluation form to fill out at the end of the workshop. Ann believed there was not enough of a record of the last workshop to satisfy readers who wanted to learn how to make a start with oral histories nor to document it fully for the Teagle grant.

To avoid this difficulty in the future, Suzy suggested that the speakers should prepare a one-page summary of their speech, and we can use those as some of the deliverables for this workshop. Bill Rando, having longer time slots than the other speakers, will have to turn in a larger summary. Ann stated that in exchange for the 1 page summary and any material such as slides or pictures, each speaker should receive a small honorarium.

Anja asked if there were going to be evaluation forms given out at this workshop. Ann stated that it was a good idea, and we should use the same questions as at the last workshop. Jess will take care of that.

II. Third workshop.

Ann asked the committee to begin discussing the next workshop with a tentative date at the end of April. There was enthusiasm for the topic of local museums and historical societies as resources for the teaching of special collections to undergraduates. She asked if there were other suggestions; there were none. Ann stated she had talked to Danuta who had learned that the British Art Center and Peabody museum both have outreach programs to students. They are interested in teaching undergrads. Kathrine added that Danuta had followed up and found people in the BAC and the Peabody who would be willing to participate.

Ann asked Steve what he thought of the discussion. Steve stated that on Wednesday, April 5, there would be an academic festival at Norwalk Community College and one of its program segments is to be what local historical societies have to offer to the College. The purpose is to identify society collections in the area of history. The festival is mostly for people on campus but is Teagle inspired. Ann asked if there was anyway to intersect the third Teagle workshop and the Norwalk academic festival. She suggested co-sponsoring the event and providing resources. Steve will meet with Linda Lerman, the librarian of his institution, to discuss whether this can be accomplished. Suzy suggested that Steve be a speaker at the next workshop. Steve volunteered Linda. He will e-mail Ann after this meeting.

Ann asked if there is a suggestion for the date of the future workshop. Suzy suggested late April because classes end early may and faculty leaves. A possible date could be April 28.

III. Assessment

Anja had three ideas for assessment with in the Teagle project:

1) Each workshop should be evaluated in a comparable way
2) In the final report, each event could be evaluated
3)After all the workshops are over, the attendees could be surveyed about the overall success of the grant. (What can they do now that they couldn't do before?)