Professional Forum
Wednesday, April 19, 2006, 10am – Noon
Central Library 315A 

Attending: 

Cathy Spitzenberger, Brenda McClurkin, Ruthie Brock, Ann Hodges, Troy Black, Diane Shepelwich, Ben Huseman, Gerald Saxon, Tommie Wingfield, Emily Galpin, Karen Hopkins, Jason Neal, Evelyn Barker, Josh Been, Ellie Curiel, Bobbie Stevens Johnson, Tom Lindsey, Dwayne Schrag, Brad Guilliford, Mary Castle, Mary Jo Lyons, Antoinette Nelson

Agenda:  

1. Approve minutes

2. Program:

      UTA Libraries: Connecting to the Community

            Panel members are:

• Evelyn Barker, IL -- Reaching out to the K-12 Community
• Brenda McClurkin, SPCO -- Taking Special Collections to the Community at Large
• Cathy Spitzenberger, SPCO
• Tommie Wingfield, Admin -- Arlington Reads
• Ruthie Brock, IS – Outreach as individuals

Evelyn Barker

• K-12 Connections
  • UTA+
    • High Schools & Middle Schools – introduce to university libraries
• T – Link
  • Introduce teachers to resources available to K-12 teachers
• History’s Lessons
  • Loan kits alternative
  • Fort Worth Museum of Science & Industry partnered
  • Texas pioneers kit includes a personal diary and money from the Republic of Texas provided by SPCO
  • Developed lesson plans based on TAKS including replicas of SPCO materials, student handouts, etc.
  • All digitized and lesson plan materials are available from the UT Arlington Libraries web site

Cathy Spitzenberger & Brenda McClurkin

• Special Collections
• Outreach to Elementary through community groups such as the Rotary Club
  • Highlight rare materials available in SPCO
  • Tejano Voices – oral history available online
• Go out into the community rather than having the groups come to us
  • Documenting the Texas Revolution
  • Genealogical resources
  • Civil war
  • Preserving family historical collections
• Works as a tool for getting materials donated to SPCO
• Time Frames – Arlington Star Telegram feature

Tommie Wingfield

• Arlington Reads 2006
  • Opportunity for networking
  • Bring authors and illustrators to Arlington and they speak at/visit both university and public venues
  • Promote new university features – this year the planetarium
  • Cost of program spread throughout several organizations

Ruthie Brock

• Outreach as an individual
• What is our professional responsibility?
  • Act as an advocate for public libraries in our communities
  • Citizens for Library Excellence was formed
  • “Ganged up” on the city council
  • Encouraged the community to have a voice with regard to the value of libraries
  • By supporting our public libraries it affects our library’s ability to meet our own patrons’ needs

Ann Hodges

• Exhibits
• AISD High School marketing students
  • Historical Arlington playing cards based on images from SPCO

What does the community think our outreach responsibility is?

How can we make sure that we have outreach to our students and faculty as well?

3. Announcements

Mary Castle – Are we with Library or Libraries?

Gerald is still waiting to hear back from the Provost

Antoinette Nelson – Upcoming Webcasts

• Google Book Search
  • Friday, April 28^th  at 11am in room 315A
• Trends in Technology
  • Wednesday, May 10^th at 1pm in room 315A
• Information Literacy for the 21^st Century Student
  • Friday, June 2^nd at 11am in room 315A
• Confronting the Crisis in Library Education
  • Friday, June 9^th at 11am in room 315A

Additional comments from Ruthie:

The time period that I described as a member of the panel was a difficult one where UTA, AISD, and the City of Arlington were not communicating well with one another. There was very little good will between the institutions. The building up of the public library system was only a part of what needed to be done.

The other parts: reaching out to the K-12 teachers and students, and reaching out to the Arlington community needed to be done, and are being done now as the other panelists demonstrated in their presentations. Recent library and campus administrations have come to see the library as a key player in outreach.

It also helps that our collections have gotten stronger so that we have more to offer the broader community. We haven't always had the library fee and that has made a big difference. The library funding that we had 10-15 years ago wasn't adequate to support the demands placed upon it by the community and the school system.

Fortunately, we've come a long way in welcoming people and building relationships.  Tommie, Information Literacy, and SpCo especially, as well as others, are to be congratulated.

Thanks for allowing me to make that final point (which I should have made while still at the meeting).

>>Ruthie