Minutes of August 26, 2004 Meeting

Present:: Jeanne Boyle (Chair), Susan Beck, Natalie Borisovets, Tom Frusciano, Judy Gardner, Sara Harrington, Ann Montanaro, Bob Sewell (Recorder), Karen Wenk, Myoung Wilson
Absent:: Grace Agnew, Patricia Libutti, Ann Montanaro

Documents for meeting

Knowledge Initiative
Guidelines for Implementing and Maintaining Virtual Reference Services: http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaprotools/referenceguide.virtrefeguidelines.htm
RLG''s RedLightGreen http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=435 and related email message from Judy Cohen

1. Tour of Renovated Douglass Library conducted by Kay Denda.

"Post-its" with information on e-reserves were distributed. They will be given away at circulation desks and other library locations and are available for student orientations

Jeanne summarized work being done to develop a formal statement on library collaborative agreements with other institutions that describes what services (including online access to databases) will be available depending on the nature of the collaboration. Advice has been given by university counsel. Jeanne is working on the specific case of UMDNJ and Rutgers in New Brunswick/Piscataway, but the language can be used for other collaborations as well.

The Knowledge Initiative was described as a $6 million State Library program in FY2005 to purchase science, technology, and business databases for VALE and selected public libraries. Negotiations with vendors are currently being conducted. Some Rutgers databases will be funded from this initiative, which will have a positive impact on our collections budget.

Descriptions for catalogs on "Other Catalogs" Web page are being updated, and assignments have been given.

The communications audit report has been received and is available on all library t/drives. Cabinet will determine next steps, which will include a public forum on the report.

The Libraries will be getting iLink, the new interface of the SIRSI online catalog. We also be getting Director's Workstation, which will enable us to get reports from all SIRSI modules in a user friendly way.

The tutorial for instructional services is now in the final stage of editing. Targets dates for the roll out are Thanksgiving to Rutgers librarians by and January 2005 for the public.

Work for Project SAILS (Project for Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills).is underway. PI Eileen Stec has submitted the request for endorsemenrt to human subjects research to IRB, support from deans has been received, the registrar contacted, and the Web development office is in the loop.

The Alumni Library page is getting very good feed back; the Foundation page links to it.

Judy Gardner has established a process to deliver videos via UPS among the campuses. This should decrease delivery time.

LibQual, an ARL suite of services that libraries use to solicit, track, understand, and act upon users' opinions of service quality, will be used at Rutgers and a few VALE libraries for assessment measures during spring 2005. Susan Beck, chair of the Libraries' assessment committee, and Gary Golden will coordinate our participation.

ALA guidelines for virtual reference services developed by the Reference and User Services Association and approved in July 2004 were discussed and approved for Rutgers. Updates to Public Service Policy Memo # will reflect these guidelines as necessary.

Judy Gardner recommended increasing the maximum payment per article purchased on Ingenta from $35 to $40. This was approved. In FY2004, the average cost was $25; 128 documents were delivered via Ingenta at a total cost of $3,211.63. She is currently reviewing the match list between what Rutgers owns and what is available from Ingenta.

Judy discussed JerseyClicks, a portal/gateway to full-text magazines, reference works, and biographies licensed by the New Jersey Library Network and available to in academic and public libraries and remotely to registered borrowers. This service is limited to New Jersey residents. It will be listed on the Alumni Library page and the free databases page with the Ask a Librarian FAQs.

Tom Frusciano and Jeanne Boyle announced that the new search engine using Google relevance is out of the pilot phase and is currently available to search the books file of the RLIN database. Issues related to subject searching and "top Google relevance" vs best resources for the researcher were raised. Overall, PSC thought RedLightGreen was a good product especially for undergraduate searchers. RLG is looking for "partners" in this project, although it is unclear what this involves. Most likely, promotion. Jeanne will investigate further.

The first-time library user task force has not yet met but will be scheduled soon. Ways of reaching first year students is an ongoing concern. Student Fairs, involvement with colleges were discussed. Must develop a clear and succinct message about the relevance of the libraries to their studies and the services we offer.

Sara Harrington reported on her work identifying contacts within the various undergraduate colleges. The undergraduate colleges working group will meet to identify topics to discuss with these individuals and campus library directors.

The task of working on acquiring additional electronic books that was originally assigned to the undergraduate collection working group has been accomplished, and member were invited to join one of the other undergraduate review groups. It was noted that we will load catalog records for all 3,400 public domain titles in netLibrary. These texts primarily come from Project Gutenberg and the University of Virginia Electronic Text Center. GERT has been requested to review Wilson OmniFile and Wilson products we already subscribe to as well as look for or a suite of services for "one- stop shopping" for beginning students. Wireless laptop PIN registration at undergraduate gatherings was discussed.

Preliminary discussion of public service annual goals

Susan suggested that all goals include methods of "measuring success" with assessment techniques.

DLI II long range planning: the Council should be ready to participate in planning work, including consideration of what will we stop doing in order to do more important things.

Revisit reference services: lively discussion about "live chat" and the need for more people to be involved.

Completion and expansion of the undergraduate services review (see # 6 above) will take considerable effort.

Myoung noted there is a plan to develop electronic floor plans for all New Brunswick libraries with related information. Prelude to development of virtual library tours.