Libraries Committee Meeting Minutes

Meeting Details:

Fiscal Year: FY2026
Date:
Time: 1:00 pm
Location: Zoom
Minutes Recorded By: Shayla Murphy
Minutes Approved On:

Attendance—

Attending Members

  • Steven Bien-Aime (Chair)
  • Carol Smith 
  • Debbra Peres
  • Chris Bohling
  • Claire Willey-Sthapit 
  • Eun Ah Cho
  • Aimee Wilson
  • Josh Bolick
  • Min-young Kim
  • Yi-yang Chen
  • Hartwin Peelaers
  • Casey Franklin
  • Robert Schwaller 

Other Attendees

  • Shayla Murphy

Approval of Previous Minutes —

Minutes from 12/08/2025 sent to committee ahead of time. Steve asks if there are any objections. No objections to meeting minutes. Minutes approved by acclamation. 

New Business —

Updates from Dean Carol Smith: 

Watson Library Renovation: 

  • An architect team has been selected. It’s a pair of architects: Studio Trope, a Denver-based boutique firm is partnering with Strata, a nationwide firm in Kansas City. Stakeholder engagement sessions are planned. It would be helpful if this committee could be part of the engagement sessions. Broad campus input will be gathered in early and late March. 

Student Fee: A very modest student fee has been requested to support the KU Libraries. Three letters of support from students and/or student groups have been gathered. Carol asks about possible support from this group. The fee would be very small, but it makes a large difference. 

Strategic Alignment Presentations: 

  • Carol gave KU Libraries presentation in January. Slide decks available via SSO sign on. 
  • A follow-up presentation may be offered. 

Greater Western Library Association: 

  • This is a primary consortium that KU Libraries belongs to. It’s a shared consortium for databases so we can negotiate with vendors. 
  • KU is a big lender and does a lot of things with this consortium. 

Institute for Globally Engaged Librarianship: 

  • This is now 1 year old. It was launched in January 2025 and led by Brian Rosenblum
  • There will be a visiting librarian from Ghana – a 5-month residency and there will be an international lecture series.

New Subcommittees: 

  • Carol suggests the Faculty Research and AI committee meet with Associate Dean Scott Hanrath. Carol will touch base with Scott on this. 
  • Aimee makes suggestion for the “Talking Points Sheet”: “next steps” may be helpful. 
  • Casey shares some additional background on space renovations. Carol would like the Space Renovations subcommittee to meet with the architects if possible.

The subcommittees will plan to work on their objectives and can follow up at next meeting in March. 

Meeting adjourned.

Libraries Committee - Feb 19, 2026