https://wiki.diglib.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Labor%2FValuing-Labor%2F2017-09-20Labor/Valuing-Labor/2017-09-20 - Revision history2026-05-26T21:24:37ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.44.0https://wiki.diglib.org/index.php?title=Labor/Valuing-Labor/2017-09-20&diff=13483&oldid=prevAdw: Adding redacted minutes from September 20, 2017 group call2018-03-28T04:30:10Z<p>Adding redacted minutes from September 20, 2017 group call</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>'''DLF WG on Labor in Digital Libraries, Archives and Museums: Valuing Labor Subgroup'''<br />
<br />
Meeting minutes: September 20, 2017<br />
<br />
Note-taker: Melissa Chalmers. Names redacted.<br />
<br />
== Check-ins & Discussion ==<br />
'''Librarians' status as faculty'''<br />
* [At one institution] put in place some infrastructure for supporting and promoting professional track faculty<br />
** Fight at document level of policy making<br />
** Need to make things explicit, e.g. need for mentorship<br />
* [At another institution] Went through process of clarifying librarian status as non-TT faculty.<br />
** Mentorship is something that hasn’t been part of process, expectation of providing mentors only now being discussed.<br />
** Recently: lay-offs, two staff and three librarian positions lost, so mentorship may not be on the agenda at the moment.<br />
* [At another institution] Finally on track to get new faculty policy approved and ratified<br />
** Pushback on peer review in the hiring process.<br />
*** Large number of librarians in different types of jobs and lack of confidence that there’s a useful definition of librarian work that could assess across all the types of jobs.<br />
** Talk of limiting contract positions to 3 years, then making permanent.<br />
*** Will be interesting, given the increasing reliance on contract labor for things like maintenance and repair.<br />
*** To date little enforcement or standardization on contract limits because no ratified policy.<br />
*** One department has 30 librarians whose contracts need to be renewed every year or two, their voices are not often heard.<br />
* [At another institution] We are all on annual contracts!<br />
** That’s why we are all vulnerable to system wide cuts.<br />
** Protected TT faculty, non-TT faculty vulnerable.<br />
** Colleague of 38 years said this is the first time where they did not renew contracts bc of budget issues.<br />
** Leadership trying to define system, consistencies across units (e.g. annual contracts, three year contracts, expectations of renewals).<br />
** Interested to hear comparison from other universities<br />
** Sounds like how they handle grant-funded positions, at end of which ask can we hire this person or do they have to find another position.<br />
<br />
'''Workplace climate surveys & feedback mechanisms'''<br />
* Striking difference between faculty, staff in terms of satisfaction about transparency, equity, fairness, hierarchy (staff less satisfied)<br />
* Some people report not feeling sense of belonging, librarians of color have met with the dean, reaching out to staff too<br />
* Staff not feeling empowered, no feedback mechanism for supervisors; class environment, inconsistencies in supervision.<br />
* Need feedback mechanism for institutional culture, sense that currently not solving the right problem.<br />
* How to better create an equitable environment, empower the voices of our staff here?<br />
* In process of setting up meetings to create measures; librarians of color meeting, trying to provide feedback at the supervisor level<br />
** Generalized to all supervisors, not identifiable<br />
** Staff level employees of color are vulnerable, easily exposed.<br />
** Hoping to create widely available supervisor feedback mechanism, lower risks of reporting and create holistic assessment process. <br />
** Feedback can be tricky in general:<br />
*** e.g. when there are one or a few faculty members<br />
*** Challenges of generalizing feedback mechanisms in small departments where there is only one person in any given job<br />
<br />
'''Student workers'''<br />
* Coordinator at a branch library gave feedback at library governance meeting on behalf of student workers<br />
** Called for greater awareness of student workers as laborers, elevate voices, respect time<br />
** Reaction was shock/surprise by audience<br />
* “Have a student worker do it” phrase<br />
** Hearing it more lately, what does that mean?<br />
** What are we saying about the work or the worker?<br />
** Someone has to do the grunt tasks, unless it can be automated or scripted away.<br />
** Can repetition be automated, or is it something that needs one on one engagement?<br />
** Reflection on student library worker experience: adding 0’s to film catalog entries, editing every single record individually -- probably there was a more efficient, external workflow available for that.<br />
* Creating digital collections<br />
** How do we treat or interact with graduate student workers?<br />
** Ethics of care/feminist framing<br />
* Student hiring process<br />
** Ended up interviewing the same people that everyone else did, as revealed while chatting with other units hiring student workers.<br />
** Should there be guidelines in place to avoid this?<br />
** What are the criteria here and why are we all interviewing the same people?<br />
** Are there particular kinds of work experience that are transferrable?<br />
** Are there other ways to encourage diversity, open mindedness in the hiring process?<br />
<br />
'''How to make strategic efforts worthwhile to people in the trenches?'''<br />
* Meeting of library, library IT staff for strategic planning<br />
** Disconnect between what management wants to talk about and staff accomplishing specific tasks.<br />
* Long standing thoughts about the library profession as a whole & its veneration of a service ethic<br />
** Not trying to suggest service is the wrong term, but presents problems, especially when interacting with faculty, seems like it puts library workers at disadvantage for these interactions.<br />
** Trying to sort through thoughts on this, role of archivists and librarians particularly in academic (DH) projects.<br />
** What does it mean to be a service professional in the library and archives sector?<br />
*** Who are we serving or working with?<br />
*** How does “care work” get acknowledged by faculty, students, or administrators?<br />
*** Trying to figure out an identifiable role for libraries (and librarians?) in the research process<br />
<br />
'''What kind of labor is appropriate for different situations, level, benefits and challenges?'''<br />
* What should we be providing the person, what are the challenges we are facing, what cost to us?<br />
* Focusing on experiential learning opportunities<br />
* Example: Digital stewardship or digital library related work relevant for practicum students (120 hours)<br />
** Reasonable investment for us, but they're also getting something out of it.<br />
** Does this fit into what this group is doing? (Yes)<br />
<br />
== Readings & Resources ==<br />
Kaetrena Davis Kendrick, “The Low Morale Experience of Academic Librarians: A Phenomenological Study,” ''Journal of Library Administration'' 57, no. 8 (2017): 846-878. [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01930826.2017.1368325 doi:10.1080/01930826.2017.1368325]<br />
* low morale of librarians, workplace culture, and the labor issues there<br />
<br />
Todd Suomela, Florence Chee, Bettina Berendt and Geoffrey Rockwell, “GamerGate and Digital Humanities: Applying an Ethics of Care to Internet Research,” [http://csdh-schn.org/conference/ CSDH/SCHN 2017]<br />
* Canadian DH conference presentation on ethics for digital collection projects, with a section on student researchers involved in DH projects.<br />
* You can read the conference presentation and paper at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/r4p6cvw1vb8quuy/AACMh1OBpeJci7sShaFg9ZiMa?dl=0<br />
<br />
[https://www.zotero.org/groups/1235192/dlf-labor-wg/items/collectionKey/RJ4JNY25/itemKey/Q8ID5K6B Labor WG Zotero group/library]<br />
<br />
[http://eiratansey.com/2015/03/05/how-to-keep-up-with-all-the-archivistacademic-librarian-literature/ Academic Archivist/Librarian Reading Calendar] by Eira Tansey<br />
<br />
== Labor-Related Sessions at 2017 DLF Forum ==<br />
Valuing Labor panel accepted! Thank you, presenters & proposal editors https://dlfforum2017.sched.com/event/Bzsg<br />
<br />
Labor WG working breakfast ☕ https://dlfforum2017.sched.com/event/Bzt8<br />
<br />
Other sessions related to valuing labor<br />
* Show up, watch/listen with a labor “filter,” ask questions about labor implications!<br />
* #m1a: Labor+ http://sched.co/Bzs4<br />
* #m3a: Scholarship+ http://sched.co/BzsE<br />
* #m4c: Funding Possibilities: Programs, Priorities, and Trends http://sched.co/BzsL<br />
* #m5d: Community+ http://sched.co/BzsR<br />
* #t1a: Digital Library Assessment: Leveraging Infrastructure to Support Community Practice http://sched.co/BzsZ<br />
* #t3c: How to Build a 3D Imaging Program: An Overview of Technology, Skills, and Labor http://sched.co/Bzsl<br />
* #t3e: Outreach+ http://sched.co/Bzsn<br />
* #t6b: Community History and Public Work: New Voices in Digital Libraries http://sched.co/Bzsz<br />
* #t7c: Service Management - Sharing Experiences and Defining a Community of Practice http://sched.co/Bzt4<br />
<br />
== Logistics ==<br />
Standing meeting on the 3rd Wednesday of each month.<br />
<br />
Next meeting November 15.</div>Adw