This article is more than 5 years old.
I’m enjoying getting opportunities to represent ZSR at meetings that I haven’t yet attended. At the beginning of May, Tim asked me to stand in for him at the spring ASERL Membership meeting that took place in Richmond. The meeting spans two days and combines a business portion with programming. The meeting link shows the agenda and has links to speaker materials. Mark Puente, ARL Director of Diversity and Leadership Programs, presented about diversity, inclusion, equity and social justice strategies and missions in the modern academic library and outlined current ARL diversity and inclusion programs, the earliest of which began in 1990. Prior to the meeting, John Burger surveyed members about current diversity activities and the results were shared. Liz Brooks from the VCU Counsel office gave us a nicely distilled presentation about the GSU e-reserves lawsuit. We got updates about ASERL pilot projects (CHORUS and the “new metrics” project in which we are participating). Brian Nosek co-founder of the Center for Open Science, talked about the Open Science Framework. Here’s some background on it.
A highlight of the meeting was a field trip to visit VCU’s new Cabell Library which opened in January and is a major addition onto the original library. It added 1,500 new seats (the various levels have the decor color-coded to help define different spaces), an outdoor terrace, an expanded Special Collections and Archives, and a graduate student and faculty research center. My favorite is a screened porch-style student space (pictured below). If you want to see some pictures I took on the tour, I’ve saved them in Google Drive, enjoy! (restricted to WFU campus).
I was grateful for the opportunity to meet the deans and associate deans representing other ASERL institutions and came away with a better understanding of ASERL’s purpose and programs.
7 Comments on ‘Susan @ Spring ASERL Membership Meeting’
Thanks for your report and taking so many picutres! I see many elements that NC State has. Something that caught my eye, and which I’ve not seen in a long time, was a sign to ring the bell for assistance at the Circ desk, in P1050195.JPG.
Wow, that new library at VCU is really amazing. Their website is really informative too — love the “map” of name-able spaces:
Susan, thanks for the post and links! It was great to read what other libraries are doing to support diversity and inclusion. Your pics were awesome! I love the wide range of seating and study space they have available!
Thanks for the post, Susan. The more I learn about libraries and social justice, the more I believe that *everything* libraries do is a social justice issue.
I’ve heard that Mark Puente is a great resource for increasing diversity and inclusion. And I’d never thought of including a sink next to the research room to ensure researchers have clean hands, but now it’s going on my wish list. Very informative post, Susan, sounds like an excellent meeting!
The pictures are great and make me hunger for more cool seating…so much potential. Thanks for the diversity and inclusion list. It sounds like we are all pretty much on par with each other as far as still trying to find that innovative way to solve the diversity and inclusion challenge. My favorite quote from the GSU slide deck: ? “the fact that [publishers] have made paying easier does not automatically dictate a right to payment.” Awesome bit of clarity in a very indistinct world.
I want a reading porch at ZSR!
I’m glad you were able to attend the ASERL meeting. I’ve had occasion to attend a couple of ASERL meetings in recent years, and have always been pleased by the connections made.