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PALNI Groups and Committees Descriptions

Camp Rio 5PALNI’s institutions all represent a variety of working groups. Each group is composed of individuals from the institutions led by a steering committee. The role of the steering committee is to communicate with the Board the needs of the PALNI institutions as a whole.

View the complete Groups and Committees Descriptions below.

 

PALNI Board

Scope of work:

  • Create and approve strategic initiatives once per year, create and act on Board goals and action items, review goals for gaps, approves annual budget
  • Provides direction to the EC and Board on strategic initiatives and feedback on goals and activities
  • Reviews reports from EC, ED, StratComm, Coordinators/Consultants, and Working Groups and provides strategic guidance through ED
  • Present any knowledge pertinent to PALNI strategic activities from external groups, campus, and media
  • Ask questions to ensure understanding of the goals and outcomes of the projects
  • Ensure PALNI employees and groups follow strategic plan and PALNI mission, vision, and values
  • Review group efficiency and effectiveness in pursuit of goals
  • Provide input on strategic priorities

See Bylaws for complete list of responsibilities

Board Committees

Executive Committee

See our Governance page for current member listing.

Body to which the group reports:
Board of Directors

Scope of work:

  • Provides oversight of ED, works with ED to manage current year budget fund lines
  • Recommends Budget
  • Provides authorization to ED to sign contracts
  • Strategic Plan Work:
    • Coordinate Board goals and action items
    • Strategic goals are coordinated by the ED and EC with group responsibility.
    • The goals are guided by strategic initiatives.
  • Serves as the Audit Committee
  • Focuses board attention on collaboration opportunities with other organizations

Member appointment and terms:
The PALNI Board elects its own Vice-Chair and Secretary annually and the Treasurer bi-annually to join the current Chair, Past Chair, and PALNI Executive Director in forming the Executive Committee.

Expected reporting frequency:
Quarterly reports before each Board meeting and as needed to update the Board on their plans and actions.

Staff or Board liaisons:
PALNI Executive Director

Finance Committee
TITLE NAME INSTITUTION
Chair (Current Treasurer) Fritz Hartman Goshen College
Member (Past Treasurer) Dan Kolb Saint Meinrad
Member (Past EC Chair) Robert Roethemeyer Concordia Theological Seminary
Member (Executive Director) Kirsten Leonard PALNI

Body to which the group reports:
Board of Directors

Scope of work:

  • Consists of the Treasurer, the Past Chair of the EC, the Past Treasurer, the ED and other members as appointed by the Chair of the EC.
  • Acts as an advisory body to the EC as needed.
  • Reviews the Investment Management Policy every two years.
  • Reviews the Cost Sharing Formula every five years or more frequently as needed.

Member appointment and terms:
Chaired by the current Treasurer. Also assigned to this committee is the Past Chair and Incoming Treasurer (if identified) and others as appointed by the EC Chair. EC positions rotate as EC members change. All other members participate as appointed/agreed upon.

Staff or Board liaisons:
PALNI Executive Director

Future Framing Committee
NAME INSTITUTION
Jessica Trinoskey Marian University
Amy Bryant Earlham College
Shannon Eaves Taylor University
Rusty Tryon Saint Mary-of-the-Woods
Noah Brubaker PALNI
Kirsten Leonard PALNI
Molly Reed PALNI

Body to which the group reports:
Executive Committee and the entire PALNI Board

Scope of work:
To develop a plan to respond proactively to financial and other pressures facing PALNI’s supported institutions, including significant declines in higher education enrollments projected for the Midwest. This plan should be geared to sustaining PALNI collaboration and strengthening PALNI’s supported libraries and institutions over a 10-year horizon from 2020-2030.


Specific goals and outcomes:

  • Environmental Scan
  • Financial Plan
  • Strategic Services Plan
  • Communication Plan

Member appointment and terms:

*Other ad hoc groups as needed

Joint Board and Staff Groups

Communication Focus Group

Body to which the group reports:
Strategic Communications Director > Executive Director > Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Pursue the goal of efficient, effective communications internally and externally, including:

  • Assess current communication including preferred modes, styles, timing, technologies
  • Scan environment for best practices in communication, including modes of communication and targeting for different outcomes
  • Development communication plan(s) addressing training protocol, and assessment of modes, tools, behavior

Member appointment and terms:
On hiatus until needed. Temporary membership created at time of need.

Supported Institutions' Staff Groups

Fulfillment Group
TITLE NAME INSTITUTION
Chair Laura Vogler Wabash College
Steering Barb Chen University of Saint Francis
Steering Sarah Damery Butler University
Steering Lisa Karle Saint Mary’s College
Steering Heather Myers PALNI
Steering Roger Peters Concordia Theological Seminary
Steering Kim Wenning University of Indianapolis

Body to which the group reports:
Associate Director > Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Statement of Work

The group consists of those who are both supervising or working with fulfillment (resource sharing and document delivery) activities on each campus. Coordinates PALNI resource sharing efforts and provides input and priorities to the PALShare Admin team. This group examines opportunities related to ILL and other possibilities for resource sharing between PALNI supported institutions and externally and develops best practices. Works with the Collection Management Policy Group.

Member appointment and terms:
Membership is open to any library staff who work in fulfillment in their library.

The term of appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer.

Instructional Technology Group
TITLE NAME INSTITUTION
Member Carla Harper University of Indianapolis
Member Nathalie Rouamba University of Saint Francis
Scholarly Communications Liaison Amanda Hurford PALNI
Chair Noah Brubaker PALNI
Instructional Technology Coordinator Andrea Bearman PALNI

Body to which the group reports:
Associate Director > Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Statement of Work

The Instructional Technology Working Group provides resources and support to PALNI supported organizations working in instructional technology, information technology, and instructional design.

Member appointment and terms:
Membership is open to any library staff who work in fulfillment in their library. The term of appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer.

Electronic Resource Management (ERM) Group
TITLE NAME INSTITUTION
Chair Lisa Gonzalez PALNI
Steering Cale Erwin Butler University
Steering Edward Mandity Marian University

Body to which the group reports:
Associate Director > Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Statement of Work

Coordinates maintenance, troubleshooting, and development efforts associated with the WMS Knowledgebase and License Manager products for PALNI libraries. The group will work with priorities from the AD, and the strategic plan as well as identify new opportunities and objectives and balance immediate needs with long term goals. The group will explore ways to reduce redundant efforts, coordinate troubleshooting and development efforts, and explore training opportunities.

Member appointment and terms:
The term of appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer.

Reference, Instruction, and Outreach (RIO) Group
TITLE NAME INSTITUTION
PALNI Consultant Ruth Szpunar PALNI/Aestiva Solutions
PALNI Coordinator Eric Bradley Goshen College/Aestiva Solutions

Body to which the group reports:
Executive Director > Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Statement of Work

Coordinates end-user needs, usability, and learning outcomes assessments, and provides support and services for reference, instruction, and outreach. Advises the PALNI ED, EC, and Board in these areas. Gathers input from faculty and students as well as provides their own recommendations. Works with analytics, ROI, and assessment.

Member appointment and terms:
Membership is open to any library staff who serve the role of reference, instruction, or outreach in their library. 

Scholarly Communications (ScholComm) Group
TITLE NAME INSTITUTION
Steering Jennifer Coronado Butler University
Chair Amanda Hurford PALNI, Scholarly Communications Director
Steering Heather Myers PALNI
Steering Jerry Nugent University of Indianapolis
Steering Victoria Peters DePauw University
Steering Sue Wiegand Saint Mary’s College
Hyku/IR Rep Nicholas Stanton-Roark PALNI/Anderson University

Body to which the group reports:
Scholarly Communications Director>Executive Director>Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Statement of Work

The Scholarly Communications Advisory Group (ScholComm) develops and supports scholarly communication initiatives at the PALNI-supported institutions. PALNI defines scholarly communication as the cycle through which scholarly information is created, evaluated, disseminated, acquired, and preserved. Initiatives include open access, scholarly publishing, institutional repositories, affordable learning, and digitization.

Specifically, ScholComm:

  • Raises awareness and provides professional development opportunities related to ScholComm activities, via web and in-person.
  • Identifies, develops, and maintains resources, tools, policies, and services applicable to ScholComm initiatives.
  • Creates targeted task forces on pertinent ScholComm topics.
  • Provides overarching structure for the PALNI Digital Admin Team, PALSave Admin Team, Publishing Services Admin Team, and the Institutional Repository Admin Team.

Corresponding Task Forces:
OER Publishing Task Force

Library Publishing Task Force (Completed 2020, now Publishing Services Admin Team. See press.palni.org)

Collaborative Consortial Institutional Repository (CC-IR) Hyku Pilot Task Force (Completed 2019, now Hyku for Consortia Product Management Team. See hykuforconsortia.org)

Resource Integration Task Force (Completed 2020)

Open Textbook Adoption Task Force (Completed 2020)

Islandora Implementation Task Force (Completed 2020)

Member appointment and terms:
The Group is composed of a Chair, Steering Group, Representatives from other relevant groups, and any library staff person who wishes to participate. The term of Steering appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer.

Workflows
TITLE NAME INSTITUTION
Steering – Cataloging Joe Springer Mennonite Historical Library
Steering – Cataloging Mary Bogue Earlham College
Steering – Acquisitions Josh Petrusa Butler University
Steering – KB/LM Lisa Gonzalez PALNI
Steering – Analytics Heather Loehr Hanover College/PALNI
Steering – Support/Infrastructure Brooke Cox DePauw University
Steering – Fulfillment Laura Vogler Wabash College

Body to which the group reports:
Associate Director > Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Statement of Work

Coordinates, assesses, produces, and delivers training and support in the area of WMS workflows. This group will work to develop best practices, identify deep collaboration opportunities, coordinate and deploy PALNI experts, 12 and participate in identifying and developing topics of interest for PALNI-wide summit meetings with the steering committees. This group will support collaboration by bringing together the expertise necessary to address complete workflows and encourage conversation and dialog to optimize our use of the system.

Member appointment and terms:
Membership is open to any library staff who work with WMS in their library. The steering group is composed of 1-2 Cataloging Liaisons, 1 Acquisitions Liaison, KB/LM Librarian and Coordinator, 1 RIO/User Needs/Usability Liaison Focus: Discovery Data: Interoperability/Management/Configuration, 1 Support/Infrastructure Liaison.

The term of appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer.

 

Support Teams

Collaborative Collections
TITLE NAME INSTITUTION
Chair Kirsten Leonard PALNI
 Member  Laura Vogler

 Wabash College
Member Josh Petrusa Butler University
Member Randy Neuman Huntington University
Member Cassaundra Bash Ancilla College
Member Lisa Gonzalez PALNI
Member Sue Wiegand Saint Mary’s College

Body to which the group reports:
Board of Directors

Group Affiliation:
Scholarly Communications

Scope of work:
Statement of Work

The goals of the committee are to identify, develop policy, initiate pilots, provide administrative oversight, and support shared collection management activities.

Potential Areas of Focus:

  • Demand Driven Acquisitions
  • Analyze group data from SCS and Collection Evaluation Tool
  • Coordinated Acquisitions
  • Investigate PALNI Licenses with vendors (work separately from ALI)
  • Create and maintain an academic program inventory for PALNI to inform collaborative efforts
  • Consider the creation of a PALNI retrospective shared print periodical decentralized repository
  • Explore establishing floating PALNI collections

Member appointment and terms:
The term of appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer.

Development
TITLE NAME INSTITUTION
Chair Lauren Magnuson PALNI
Steering Anna Shields PALNI
Steering Preston Howell PALNI
Steering Patrick Ridout Trine University

Body to which the group reports:
Associate Director > Board of Directors

Scope of work:
The Development Team will manage CodeSchool or other appropriate coding development opportunities. Solicit input from across PALNI regarding current software limitations/gaps, workflow issues, system extensions. Vet projects for scale, sustainability, impact, technical clarity and strategic importance. The team will develop software (web, server based) in a sustainable manner to meet needs identified.

There has been an increasing interest in the opportunities available to us through programming and API development. Since the move to WMS, PALNI has already put API access to good use to address several workflow issues. The CodeSchool program has served the purpose of increasing the level of programmatic ability of participants and to identify those who have an interest in program/API development projects. With this background, the Development Team offers those with an interest in coding a place to connect, formulate and identify projects, continue to learn, and enhance the ability for PALNI, when strategically appropriate, to address technological problems with consortium development work.

Member appointment and terms:
One chair with a 3-person steering. The term of appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer.

PALSave
TITLE NAME INSTITUTION
  Chair  Amanda Hurford  PALNI, Scholarly Communications Director
Member Caitlin Balgeman Marian University
Member Jennifer Coronado Butler University
Member Karla Fribley Earlham College
Member Heather Myers PALNI
Member Jill Noyes Trine University

Body to which the group reports:
Scholarly Communications Director>Executive Director>Board of Directors

Group Affiliation:
Scholarly Communications

Scope of work:
This team provides ongoing administration and support for the PALNI Affordable Learning program.

Member appointment and terms:
The term of appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer.

PALShare
TITLE NAME INSTITUTION
Chair – Fullfillment Coordinator Barb Chen University of Saint Francis/PALNI
Member Sarah Damery Butler University
Member Heather Myers PALNI
Member Laura Vogler Wabash College
Member Kim Wenning University of Indianapolis

Body to which the group reports:
Associate Director > Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Administer and coordinate PALNI-wide resource sharing. Provide PALNI-wide support for optimizing use of WMS, test new releases, and gather data to prioritize development for resource sharing.

Member appointment and terms:
Led by the Fulfillment coordinator, the group members represent a balance of ILLiad, WorldShare ILL, and Circulation staff, and from small, medium, and large libraries.

The term of appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer.

PALNI Digital Admin Team (PDAT)
TITLE NAME INSTITUTION
Chair Darla Haines Manchester University
Member Sudha Anand DePauw University
Member Eric Bradley Goshen College/PALNI
Member Janice Gustaferro Butler University

Body to which the group reports:
Scholarly Communications Director > Executive Director > Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Statement of Work

Administer and provide support for PALNI CONTENTdm digital platform. Maintain system policies and best practices. Make recommendations regarding digital content management. Ensure data source interoperability with Indiana Memory, DPLA, and PALNI discovery layer. As part of Scholarly Communications, work with other groups (primarily the IR Admin Team) on specific projects.

Member appointment and terms:
The term of appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer.

Publishing Services
TITLE NAME INSTITUTION
Chair Amanda Hurford PALNI
Member Cale Erwin Butler University
Member Edward Mandity Marian University
Member Heather Myers PALNI
Member Sue Wiegand Saint Mary’s College

Body to which the group reports:
Scholarly Communications Director > Executive Director > Board of Directors

Group Affiliation:
Scholarly Communications

Scope of work:
The Publishing Services Admin Team provides support for library publishing activities at PALNI-supported institutions. The team primarily creates and maintains documentation for basic level journal publishing services using the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform; and also develops skills and workflows for other highly desired services, content types, and platforms under the PALNI Press. Members will work collectively to address local barriers to library publishing, engage with the library publishing community, and monitor the landscape for new developments in this area.

Member appointment and terms:
The term of appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer.

2022-23 Task Forces

Open Education Resources (OER) Publishing Task Force

Body to which the group reports:
Scholarly Communications Director > Executive Director > Board of Directors

Group Affiliation:
PALSave/Scholarly Communications

Scope of work:
This task force will build PALNI’s capacity for the adaptation (editing and remixing) and creation of open resources such as open textbooks and ancillary content. This includes project pre-planning, education module development, deciding requirements/deliverables, and assessment plan for this initiative. This group will investigate platforms to be administered, identify services to develop, and perform a capacity scan based on best practices for modifying and publishing open content.

Member appointment and terms:
The term of appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer.