Best Committee/Group Collaboration Nominees
Group collaboration, whether it is part of the Libraries' formal committee structure, a formally organized work group or team or an informal group, is a vital part of the participative decision-making process in the Libraries. Commitment given by individuals throughout the Libraries to committee work and other forms of group collaboration is considerable. Recipients for this award will be chosen based on the effectiveness of the committee or group's process, the communication of its progress, the timeliness of its recommendations, and its task and effectiveness for the mission of the Libraries.
What is the function/charge of the group?
This group is charged with planning the ASSET Awards Ceremony and the ASSET
AWARDS Week activities.
What goals has this group accomplished, and how have the accomplished goals benefited the UGA Libraries?
Strenuous efforts have been made by this group to make the ASSET Awards a positive
experience for everyone in the Libraries. This committee set out to incorporate
new ideas into the ASSET Awards and to improve all the other areas of the Awards.
What makes this group effective as a whole?
Teamwork, enthusiasm, and hard work are the hallmarks of this committee.
What is the function/charge of the group?
The Libraries Staff Association (LSA) promotes vitality,
enrichment, and community development within the UGA Libraries'
Staff. LSA is responsible for designing and implementing
comprehensive, diverse programs involving library staff,
both within the UGA Libraries and extending to various
local area communities.
What goals has this group accomplished, and how have the accomplished goals benefited the UGA Libraries?
These events have given Libraries' employees the opportunity
to get out of their work area and meet others in the Libraries.
Through entertainment, education, and fundraising, LSA
gives employees a chance to be a part of a community,
not just a work force.
What makes this group effective as a whole?
LSA is probably the most diverse committee in the UGA Libraries. The group is comprised of both staff and faculty, and committee members represent myriad departments, such as Reference, Russell Library, Cataloging, Access Services/Science, Serials, Government Documents, Administration, Media/Peabody, and Hargrett. They are successful as a group because they genuinely believe in what they do. LSA consists of members from different departments with varying employment statuses coming together to bring a community feeling to the UGA Libraries.
What else do you think the ASSET Awards Committee should know about your nominee?
LSA attempts the impossible; they are constantly tweaking
and altering programs in order to increase cohesiveness
and contentment in all of the 230+ people that work in
the UGA Libraries. Whether it is organizing a flower sale,
conceptualizing and executing the Thanksgiving Luncheon,
or finding ways to keep the staff room stocked with working
appliances, the LSA committee constantly goes above and
beyond for the employees at the UGA Libraries. Committee
members are genuinely interested in creating a community
outside of our individual workstations. The events LSA
coordinate bring the members of the UGA work force together
as people -- not just employees.
What is the nominee's position and what is the nature of his/her job?
The Main Library Shelving
Unit is responsible for
shelving, shifting, sorting
books at the Main Library
and at the Repository.
How long has the employee been employed at the UGA Libraries?
The Shelving Unit has been around for a long time.
How has the nominee's hard work affected your unit and/or department, as well as the Libraries?
If the Shelving Unit does not get the books back to their proper places in the Stacks, then patrons are not able to access the books for their use. This inability to use books would place the Libraries in a bad light.
How would the work environment at the UGA Libraries be different without nominee?
If the Shelving Unit were not around, people would not be able to concentrate fully on the jobs they do now. Everyone would have to shelve books for 4 hours a day and then do their other assignments. The Libraries would be extremely hectic.
Despite lack of recognition, what makes the nominee an integral part of the UGA Libraries' mission?
If part of the Libraries' mission is to help patrons' research, then having materials available for patrons to use is exactly what the Shelving Unit does. If the shelvers didn't accomplish their mission, then the Libraries couldn't fulfill its mission.
What else do you think the ASSET Awards Committee should know about your nominee?
Shelvers are generally
hard-working people. They
get selected to do many
a task that other people
in the Libraries would not
do. They work in rather
adverse conditions. However,
they do it all with a smile.
They love their jobs, and
the Libraries is better
for it.
What is the function/charge of the group?
The
Music
Cataloging
Section
of
the
Cataloging
Department
is
responsible
for
the
cataloging
and
processing
of
all
non-book
music
material
which
includes
music
scores,
most
music-related
Internet
resources,
and
sound/video
recordings
in
all
formats
(Audio/Videocassettes,
LPs,
CDs,
DVDs,
Laserdiscs,
etc.)
They
also
prepare
the
music
scores
for
binding,
and
mark
and
label
all
music
audio/video
materials.
What goals has this group accomplished, and how have the accomplished goals benefited the UGA Libraries?
By processing so much material the faculty and students of the School of Music benefit from having the newest materials available for research and performance. Our status as a major regional and national music research collection is also significantly enhanced. Evidence of this can be seen through the high volume of Interlibrary Loan lending activity for all formats of music materials that takes place each month. Thanks in part to the Music Section's rapid processing of CDs received on blanket order we have become a major ILL lender of audio/visual materials with multiple requests arriving almost daily.
Several
former
UGA
music
students,
now
working
on
doctoral
degrees
at
other
major
universities,
have
come
back
to
use
our
collection
and
have
commented
that
our
circulating
collections
are
far
superior
to
that
of
their
current
institutions
--
Yale
University
being
one
prime
example.
Others
who
are
now
teaching
at
colleges
and
universities
come
back
occasionally
and
say
how
much
they
miss
having
our
collection
available
for
their
classes
and
research,
and
how
"the
music
collection[s]
at
their
school
just
doesn't
measure
up."
Again,
these
comments
signify
how
much
care
has
been
taken
by
the
Music
Section
to
maintain
the
quality
of
cataloging
while
processing
such
a
high
volume
of
material
so
that
materials
are
easily
located
on
the
shelves
and
via
OCLC
and
GIL.
What makes this group effective as a whole?
I have had the great fortune to work with Neil Hughes and the other members of the Music Section for nearly seventeen years. During that time some of the positions have had a change of personnel. However, throughout the entire time everyone in the Section, old and new, has been thoroughly professional, personable, and great to work with. We have been able to communicate about projects or issues that have come up from time to time and arrive at mutually agreeable solutions and/or processes to streamline the workflow so that large volumes of materials could be managed efficiently and made accessible.
What else do you think the ASSET Awards Committee should know about your nominee?
For all of the years that I have worked with Neil and the members of the Music Cataloging Section, everyone has "always" given their best effort. 5,000 cataloged titles in FY03 is their most current milestone. Thanks to Neil's cooperative nature and his willingness to take a fresh look at ways to process large volumes of "older" materials in our collection he and the Music Section made sure that 100% of the music research collection in the Main Library is fully cataloged. This kind of cooperation is not always readily available at many institutions. I and the members of my staff would like to congratulate Neil and his "merry band" on their current pinnacle of success! I would also like them all to know how much they are appreciated and how glad I am to have them as colleagues and friends. They just don't come any better!
What is the function/charge of the group?
The SLC User
Interface
Committee,
chaired by
Sharon Hay,
was asked
to make recommendations
for five aspects
of the SLC
workstations'
functionality.
These were
the user interface,
the authentication
protocols
for UGA folks
and for non
affiliated
people, software
selection,
workstations
for the disabled,
and usage
statistics.
Particular
emphasis was
to be given
to the interface
so that software
applications
and library
resources
would be clearly
presented.
What goals has this group accomplished, and how have the accomplished goals benefited the UGA Libraries?
This committee was the first SLC group to tackle a fundamental turf issue. The group was comprised of three representatives from EITS and four members from the Libraries. In learning how the EITS labs' desktop is generated the library staff learned that the issues of maintenance and security figured heavily in the EITS programmers' minds. Esthetics and ease of navigation were of primary importance to the Libraries' staff. They were seeking an updated design which would feature the various library products and not hide them all behind a single icon as had been done in the past. The dialog was intense with each group having to define and redefine the terminology they were using until each member of the committee could understand all perspectives. Finally a prototype version of a new page was designed and field tested by a team composed of one EITS member and one Library staff member. Gradually consensus was reached. The opening day product is easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing as well as being secure and easy to maintain.
What makes this group effective as a whole?
The committee was effective because it kept communication flowing even though it became clear that significant differences in opinion were present. The committee helped to dispel some of the stereotypes the members held about their colleagues. The process of designing a new webpage forced the committee members to talk with the same language and respect one another's knowledge of relevant software. No one faction prevailed since the final product was truly a collaborative achievement.
What else do you think the ASSET Awards Committee should know about your nominee?
This committee's
success was
build on listening
carefully
to committee
members, laying
egos aside,
and being
willing to
offer up ideas
freely without
fear of ridicule.
It required
patience,
perseverance,
and people
skills. Other
library staff
members on
the committee
were Dan Murphy,
Amanda Nash,
and Anna Van
Scoyoc.