LEAD: Library Enrichment and Development

The Library Enrichment and Development Committee of Central University Libraries (CUL) was an idea conceived by Kris (Murphy) Reed as a result of her participation in the 1994 Tall Texans Leadership Institute. The Institute was sponsored by the Texas Library Association and was the first one of its kind in Texas specifically designed for the promotion of leadership skills among the Texas library profession. As a member of the charter class, Kris spent one week (July 11-15, 1994) in a remote location of Central Texas on a retreat with 23 other Texas librarians, all chosen for their leadership potential and contributions to the profession. In order to fully utilize the skills and knowledge gained at the retreat, all participants were required to design a project which utilized their skills in leadership and contributed to the profession in some manner. The project was self-designed and to be carried out in one or two years' time. Kris met with Maureen Pastine, Central University Librarian, on August 2, 1994 to go over some of her ideas and to help to formulate the project. As a result, Kris posted a message to the CUL listserv on August 10, 1994 which introduced the project to all library staff: to develop a standing committee made up of representation by all levels of staff from all of CUL dedicated to three main goals:

1. The establishment of an ongoing staff development/continuing education program for CUL staff

2. The development of regular social activities so as to increase communication, cooperation, and collegiality among CUL staff

3. To position CUL to be a more visible and vital part of the SMU community

As a result, many staff members expressed interest in either serving on this new committee or in participating with ideas and/or a time commitment.

The committee was formed, representing all of the units within CUL, and had its first meeting on October 13, 1994. Nine members served on the committee, with only one vacancy from the Science/Engineering Library, until the tenth member joined the following month. The committee was not officially named, even in their formal charge of November 9, 1994, until November 15, 1994 when the CUL Executive Committee approved a formal name change from "CUL Staff Development/Community Awareness and Communications Working Group" to the new "Library Enrichment and Development Committee" (LEAD), which was suggested by Kris and approved by the group. Meetings were held on a regular basis since October 1994 and the committee membership has only had two changes due to staff leaving employment at SMU.

Original LEAD Committee members:

• Kris (Murphy) Reed

• Chair Kay Bost (DeGolyer)

• Bill Dworaczyk (CMIT)

• Joel Eatmon (CUL Processing Svcs.)

• Melanie Golder (Science)

• Donna Mendro (Hamon)

• Judy Searles (Colophon/Liaison to Exec. Cmte.)

• Tammy Sherwood (CUL Processing Svcs.)

• Marcella Stark (Fondren Public Svcs.)

• Billie Stovall (Fondren Public Svcs.)

Original Charge:

The Committee's charge is as follows: Reports and makes recommendations to the Executive Committee. Focus is to identify, organize, and present opportunities for substantive, job-related or intellectual development activities such as inviting speakers from other areas of campus and off-campus, identifying and obtaining management videos for brown bag lunches or during the day scholarly presentations. Activities could include promoting ALA, TLA, and AMIGOS teleconferences, lecturers on library issues such as copyright/site licensing, ethics, preservation, remote storage, etc. Communications (such as minutes of happenings in CULNews and separate fliers) will be used to advertise activities, faculty/departmental liaison, the LINE newsletter, etc. An occasional focus is to plan, coordinate, moderate staff social activities (parties, brown bag lunches, white elephant sales, pot lucks, cookie swaps, create-your-own omelet/ice cream sundae, musical entertainment, dessert lottery/swap, picnics, games, restaurant order-ins); community awareness activities (e.g. book reviews, travelogues, poetry readings, purchase of selected bestsellers or "best" books for placement in the browsing section of Fondren Library - the focus should be on the more literary or serious non- fiction type of book). Semester or annual recommended schedules of events and activities will be presented to the Executive Committee for review. Budget requests and justifications must be submitted to the Central University Librarian.