Minutes of December 10, 1999 Meeting

Present:

S. Beck, N. Borisovets, J. Boyle, J. Cassel, T. Frusciano, J. Gardner, A. Montanaro, Robert Sewell, recorder), M. Wilson

1. AUL update (J. Boyle)
   • J. Boyle confimed that Jane Sloan will join PS Council in January in her new capacity as Head of Multimedia and Digital Services in New Brunswick.
   • J.B. visited reference desks in Art Library and LSM and will continue visiting others in the New Year.
   • Web of Science training conducted by ISI for RUL trainers has been scheduled on the three campuses. 38 have signed up, 19 in N.B., 10 in NWK, and 8 in CAMD. Those trained in these sessions will train other RUL librarians.
   • There will be a VALE Users meeting on Jan.7 in the SCC. There is a $25 charge which covers lunch and other expenses. All who are interested in learning more about VALE activities and who wish to participate in VALE developments are encourage to attend.
   • Public Services Administration Policy Memos are being revised. One in particular was discussed: Food and Drink Policy. Council is investigating making wide-based (unspillable) RUL mugs available to patrons in the libraries. JB would like the Preservation Task Force to review policy first and will send a memo to R. Sewell.
   • A new software program for labeling books is being introduced. Some changes in location codes will occur such as the location Douglass will become DGLS. Using more than 7 characters automatically reduces the font size. Council members asked to review the total list of library location codes.
   • Links to and from CIS Statistical Universe to the resources which they replace (ASI, SRI, IIS) well be included in IRIS. Catalogers need advice from selectors and reference librarians on the best way to do this. Reviewed
   • Technical Services Council's recommendations. The issue of sub-location for CD Roms, such as COMFIL, PER COM, etc., needs to be revised to make a more standardized and user-friendly representation in IRIS and to improve searching results.
2. Linking to full-texts from indexes.
   • Links from citations in the Web of Science to full-text are proceeding. ISI links only to e-journal packages, such as IDEAL and ScienceDirect. ISI is in the process of making these links so they are not comprehensive links to all articles in these journal packages. They are increasing links steadily. When links to full-text are available, there is a "full-text" icon in the citation record.
   • The American Mathematical Society is adding links to full-texts of journals from other publishers through MathSciNet (online version of Math Reviews). Users will be prompted for ID and password if we don't subscribe.
   • There was a general discussion about links to e-journals in IRIS and from e-journal list. Some suggested we should eliminate the e-journal list and rely only on IRIS links. R. Sewell and A. Montanaro pointed out that most links to e-journals are from the e-journal list not from the cataloging records and that the e-journal list is generated from IRIS.
3. Training and Development Survey
   • The Steering Committee on Training and Development has developed a survey to be completed by each of the three councils and the faculty coordinating committee as a needs assessment instrument to determine training needs from the point of view of focus each group. A lengthy discussion took place related to specific competencies and skills related to technology and effective communication within the organization.
4. A presentation by Natalie B. on Authorities demonstrated some of the changes what will occur in searching IRIS after the implementation of the next version of SIRSI in January. With Authorities, there will be "see" and "see also" references for subjects and "see related headings" for names. While there will be some surprises, for the most part they will be pleasant surprises. Brief cataloging records could not be included in the Authorities project and will require a special project. Natalie has prepared notes on Authorities available on the web. They appear as "Authorities Update" under PAC on her home page at: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~natalieb/ There was some discussion about training librarians on Authorities, and Natalie will handle in Newark, Jeris C. in New Brunswick, and Susan B. in Camden.
5. Tom F. did a demo on AMC (Archival and Manuscript Collection) Records, collection level records, and findings aids available on the web. Some of these could be used for collections of material held in libraries other than Special Collections and University Archives. He demonstrated several examples for the RLIN database Archival Resources as well as local records. The developing standard for finding aids is EAD, Encoded Archival Description, in SGML. Expertise and server space is needed to continue Rutgers work in this area. The idea that after the SCC has completed its research and development activities, the production mode and ongoing operations should shift to the Systems Department was expressed. Further discussion will take place at the next meeting.