Minutes of July 14, 2003 Meeting

Present:

Ka-Neng Au, Sam McDonald, Leslie Murtha, Karen Wenk, Dave

1) Content Group Report

(Au reported for Theo as the video conference equipment would not work)

• Theo received a dozen Index Database Description revisions from various WAC members that will be passed on to Sam to update the live web pages. Sam approximates that there are 40 to be done.
• Research Guides in development are :
  • Theatre and Drama - mocked up will be sent to Matthew S. to review
  • French - in process
  • Biology Guide - has been revised, mostly to remove dead links not to add new content.
  • Psychology - in process by Laura Mullen
• Law Research Guide - Paul Axel-Lute has moved his law page to the Newark law library server. We will leave a shell page behind that points to his. His is essentially an Internet guide and does not reference any local RUL databases that may be law related. WAC-C will look at what content needs to be on the RUL law shell page.
• There seems to be a feeling that web page revisions will take a long time to be added to the live site. Sam said that unless the page is complicated, extremely large, or has alot of coding errors - it only takes a couple of days to post updates.
• Theo will schedule a WAC-C meeting prior to the next full WAC mtg.

2) Design Group

• WAC-D is working on a redesign of the library's front page. They are still tweaking its design and will release a URL where the full committee can preview it when it is ready.
• Request from Jeanne Boyle to sort Committee pages to move inactive ones to the bottom. This work is proceeding.
• E-Journals page has had notes added in red to direct students to look in the Indexes and databases and "How to find an article" if they need to find articles on a topic. And to try IRIS for specific journals, volumes and issues. It is unclear if the E-Journals page will be removed as PS librarians seem to be divided over how confusing/useful it is.
• Library Terminology page and the Library Guide for International Students page will be incorporated into the "About the Libraries" web page.
• Remote Access to Library Resources web pages are going to be revised. Currently there is one under AAL, one under Remote Resources (User Services), and one for How to configure your web browser. The How to configure will become the main page and AAL and Remote Resources will point to it. The exiting "How do I connect form home" will remain as is but will point to the new page where appropriate.
• AMICO will not work with Netscape 7, works in NS 4 and IE. A note to this effect has been added to the description page.
• PsycArticles - Since it is not a seperate Ovid database with its own description, do we want to update the PsycInfo description to reflect access to PsycArticles - Answer Yes. It was noted that other Ovid databases will also give full text to the journals contained in PsycArticles - at this time no other Ovid description pages will be rewritten. It was asked if an announcement would be made to RUL about PsycArticles - and the answer was that the announcement would be written by Laura Mullens.

3) Webmaster Report - response to browser questions (see previous minutes)

• It was a little confused in talking about this since Sam was not at the last meeting where the questions were raised, so questions were more clearly defined.
• Sam asked about the preference of Netscape over IE for remote users and wondered if it was a user preference or a systems preference. Dave H responded that when IE fails to configure and work with the proxy server, our only recourse is to direct people to download and use a copy of Netscape. So it is not our preference (we would prefer that IE would always work) but a need to get something working for the end user. Dave just reiterated systems preference that the library controlled and hosted web pages will always be usable in Netscape. Sam stated that he will code for "modern" browsers (IE 5.5, IE 6.0 and NS 7.0) and will try to see that any style sheet coding has only a minimal (if at all) impact on Netscape 4
• Is IE the prefered web browser - in the world at large - Yes
• What is the state of Netscape 7 installation on the public machines at RU. - systems is still working out security software issue.
• The change to Netscape 7 on staff machines has made Sam aware of some issues that need to be addressed. It took 6.0 hours to get the Agenda to display properly. Images in the left menu are small and cramped. Headings are wacky sizes. The How Do I link on the front page is not quite right. Blue line separators work in older browsers (NS 4) but do not appear in modern browsers - the fix will probably make them appear in modern browsers and disappear from older ones.

4) Liason Reports

• Instructional Services - Leslie M, nothing to report
• Systems -
  • Dave H. reported on a few types of requests that are making their way to Cathy Pecoraro for addition to the IRIS, web pages, and the proxy which have not come from the usual direction (ie CDC). Two examples are Roper IPoll, and IPCSR - these both came from Ron J at the SCC who asked for them to be added to the proxy server. It was unclear where the active links to these services were and if they would be added just to IRIS or if they needed to be added to the library web pages as well. Brian Hancock has also requested that Spectator be cataloged, as well as a new full text resource that he has purchased and will build an interface for. Sam stated that questions for services like this could be discussed with him and referred to Jeanne or another AUL if need be.
  • Cathy also seems to be getting a large number of requests for free resources and doesn't always know how to act on them. They are time consuming and in some instances may need someone else to review where they sould be added. (i.e. - are there different criteria for Indexes that should) (be added to IRIS but not the web pages ? Does Cathy just: (send it along to Sam, Au, Theo for consideration ? If not) (considered appropriate for the web pages does it still go) (in IRIS ? )
  • Is it possible that the addition of the "Free resources request" web page has opened a flood gate and someone needs to review the types and volume of requests that are coming in ?
  • Note: Cathy P. is also going to talk this through with Mary Page to see what suggestions she can make.