2022/04/15 Section Heads Minutes

Owned by Lewis Day
Apr 15, 2022
3 min read

April 15, 2022

  1. Planning student work for the summer – Adrien + Lewis
    • Digital Programs - 2
    • Books End-Processing - 1 or 2
    • Books cataloging - no
    • Poetry/Manuscripts - 1
    • Summer Youth Employment Program - not this year
    • Susan and Linda are investigation the placement of a rare books intern from Simmons
    • Student workers for for two projects: Arabic manuscripts, and MS Hyde 76 digital work
  2. Logistics for an opt-in quarterly reading meeting are under investigation, to encourage discussion, enhance work and expand knowledge base, as well as facilitate brainstorming amongst staff who want more experience, dialogue, and a forum for discussion. Betts and Adrien are looking at setting up a dedicated channel in Teams for this, with rotating "office hours," and monthly conversation. Topics may vary throughout the year, though there is a commitment to continue readings in and discussion of reparative description/cataloging. Any staff member may suggest an article and host a session.
  3. Next steps on FY23 annual planning and closing out our FY22 goals:
    • Closing out FY22 - an early June outdoor outdoor coffee to celebrate the year. Staff will be able to share successes from the year. Susan is coordinating the event; attendance will be voluntary.
    • Goals for FY23 - synthesize 2-3 objectives and priorities from the recent survey and staff meeting. Topics will be broad-based, recognizing the difference between departmental, section, and individual goals. Managers will collaborate on wording, with time for staff input and suggestions.
  4. AASC goals and objectives under discussion.    

Susan’s Update

  • Charge for the Visual Image Access and Discovery group accepted and we have started work
  • On an AASC subgroup to work on Annual planning
  • Working with Ramon on clearing up some lingering shelving/reshelving problems post-renovation
  • Merritt Room (Music Library) Alma project finished- book and manuscript items now have a temp location of HOU MERR/MERRHD and circulate through Houghton
  • Beginning work on reviving HCET

Book Section Update

  • In the process of assessing what is in the FY22 priorities queue and analyzing the current bandwidth to push through (e.g., waiting for Leslie to review 8 boxes retrieved from HD)
  • Michael is in the process of tightening up the Intake document for recent occurrences not specified in the document; Linda, Lewis, and Meg will review the revisions and alert Susan for final approval
  • Plan to train Michael on copy cataloging this quarter
  • A lot of updates and moves of wiki pages
  • Hofer curator first-round interviews are underway

Acquisitions Section Update

  • Continuing purchases, including problematic vendor issues (working with Accounts Payable, and HCL Financial)
  • Need for curators to pick up the pace for examination of new materials
  • Supplies document distributed by Lewis to TS staff; Michael P. and Vicki have been using it
  • Gearing up for end of FY fiscal activities (emails as soon as scheduling is known)
  • Updating needed for some processes for intake procedures
  • New student hiring contact for us, Francesca Giacchino, since Gwang-ho Kim has moved to the Financial Office. There was no announcement of the personnel change, so Lewis alerted Ramon to the change

Manuscript Section Update

  • We’re doing initial interviews with six candidates for the Creative Arts Archivist; it’s a very strong pool
  • Annalisa is finished with Little, Brown and starting work on Kiesler. I don’t know if we formally mentioned it, her project has been extended out one year. 
  • Betts, Lilli, and Dorothy had an initial meeting to discuss the processing and description of the Tartt collection of photographs
  • Section is looking into how to streamline the MS Shelf List
  • Betts is organizing a SNAC-a-thon with Houghton and HUA folks to work on corporate names related to Harvard