Minutes of October 28, 1999 Meeting

Present:

S. Beck N. Borisovets, J. Boyle, J. Cassel, T. Frusciano, J. Gardner, H. Hemmasi (recorder), A. Montanaro, Stephanie Tama (guest), M. Wilson

1. AUL update (J. Boyle)
   1. a temporary URL for Web of Science has been provided by ISI, but this URL is not functioning; final RUL will be posted to the Library's trial page; Web of Science implementation process is underway; how to establish links to RUL full text journals is being explored; J. Boyle asked for feedback on the timing and what type of training is needed for Web of Science; PSC reviewed ISI training options and decided that ISI should provide train the trainer for librarians on each campus at the end of December or early January, if possible, and open workshops for faculty and students in February; the general publicity about Web of Science should be distributed at the beginning of the spring semester, questions about the use of Web of Science should be sent through Ask a Librarian; AAL will forward questions to ISI, as needed.

   2. report on Continuous Education Coordinating Council meeting of 10/19/99: a handout of sample web pages was distributed (http://rutgersonline.net) demonstrating the development of the Rutgers online university; this service offers credit, non-credit, and extension courses; professors may be acquiring full-text resources to support course research needs; questions about registration, library privileges, and copyright were raised; also distributed was the fall schedule from the Office of Continuous Education and Outreach, Professional Development Series (http://njserves.rutgers.edu/aboutus.html) and web pages from njserves.org.

   3. J. Boyle gave a brief update of the Document Delivery Task Force; public services activities will be represented in State of the Libraries demos for electronic reserves, the NJ interlibrary loan program, and Ask A Librarian. The Research Guide Subgroup (chaired by Au) of the Web Advisory Committee has identified which of the strategic programs offered by the University do not already have research guides; the Subgroup will develop research guides for these disciplines; the Staff Resources page is also being reviewed by J. Gardner and B. Warwick with the help of S. MacDonald; WAC is exploring the use of a search engine on the Library web pages; a user assessment of the Library web pages is being planned.

   2. Government Documents Group (J. Boyle)

   minutes from the 3/11/99 meeting of the Government Documents Special Interest Group were distributed; J. Boyle asked PSC to offer advice on with which Council the SIG would be most appropriately affiliated; based on review of the 3/11 minutes and a general discussion about the nature of this group, PSC determined that while the fundamental issues of the Government Documents group are collection issues, the immediate concerns of the SIG are more access-related (i.e., cataloging priorities, GOP tape loading, processing). Therefore, PSC recommended that the group be organizationally associated with TSC, under the direction of the AUL/TSC. If the Government Documents SIG has specific public services or collections issues, they should be encouraged to present their concerns to the appropriate Council. Likewise, their interests in purchasing networked resources should be directed through the Networked Resources Evaluation Teams.

2. Public Services Policy Development Strategy (all)

   J. Boyle provided handouts including the RUL Public Services Policy Development Strategy, the ALA Library Bill of Rights, Freedom to Read, Code of Ethics, the NJLA Draft Rules of Conduct for Libraries and Addendum to the Code of Conduct, along with printouts of various university library web pages dealing with public services policy statements; discussion focused on review of the NJLA Rules of Conduct for Libraries; many suggestions for improved and added verbiage were made and cited in the accompanying documentation available for PSC's review; based on the Council's recommendations to provide a more positive and academic approach, J. Boyle will draft the RUL document

3. Electronic Reference Conference Report (N. Borisovets)

   The conference, held at Harvard University and sponsored primarily by ERIC, was attended by N. Borisovets and M. Wilson; M. Wilson presented a paper entitled, "Evolution or Entropy? Changing Reference/User Culture and the Future of Reference Librarians;" the conference dealt with alternative methods of virtual reference currently being used in libraries; presenters at the conference emphasized the growing interest in "real time" virtual reference; LC is working on a 24-hour world wide virtual reference service

4. VALE Database Meeting Report (J. Cassel)

   A group of volunteers from several NJ academic libraries, including members of RUL, have been writing documentation for the VALE databases (ABI Inform, CINHAL, PsycInfo, and Per Abstracts); this documentation will be used by the VALE Training and Help Desk Committee and is intended primarily to assist librarians in their understanding of the databases

5. Electronic Reserves Demonstration and Update (J. Gardner)

6. Resource Sharing Demonstration and Update (J. Gardner)

   J. Gardner demonstrated the statewide resource sharing system and Propsero; she also introduced to PSC the RILN ILL Manager

7. Instructional Services Demonstration and Update (J. Cassel)

   A document that reviewed activities, memberships, goals, etc., was distributed; J. Cassel demonstrated the Knowledge Maze and asked for feedback

8. Goals and work plan for academic year 2000 (all)

   PSC agreed to embrace the current work plan and to revise the plan as new challenges are encountered throughout the year

   J. Boyle requested feedback on the appointment of Jane Sloan to the PSC. Members of PSC agreed with Boyle's recommendation; J. Boyle will proceed with extending this invitation to J. Sloan

Next meeting: 12/10/99