Common Knowledge Minutes of the June 22, Meeting

Present: S. Bartz, F. Chang, R. Gardner, S. Goodman, S. Hines, R. Jantz, L. Langschied, P. Page

We extended a welcome to our new member, Fernando Chang, from Douglass Library.

WAC Merger

Ron Jantz reported on discussions related to the merger of the CKDB team with WAC. It was pointed out that this proposal had been discussed and approved in meetings of the ISSG and NB faculty. Discussions are now occurring with Jeanne Boyle and representatives of the Camden and Newark campuses. The CKDB is now located under "Staff Resources" in the new RUL website. From an earlier meeting, we had concluded that a resource of this type would need to be located very high up in the web hierarchy (e.g. on the top page) in order to insure quick access that is needed to enable the CKDB to be successful and become a valuable resource. Given that discussions with WAC, SACOPS and other library representatives will take some time, the CKDB team felt that it was important to announce the CKDB and make it publicly available to NB libraries and to proceed with the WAC merger after the appropriate discussions have taken place.

Announcing the CKDB

The team felt it was now appropriate to announce the CKDB for use by librarians and information assistants. Before making this announcement, we undertook some actions to improve usability of the database. These are enumerated below:

We reviewed the input from the faculty survey that was completed in January in order to add additional resources to the database. The following actions were determined:
- Links to training guides and major collections (Scott will add)
- Emergency phone numbers (Linda and Scott will add)
- Several sources will be added from Douglass (Fernando)
- After some discussion, we decided not to expand the current Alexander CDROM database to include CDs from other libraries.
- An equipment list for the disabled will be added by Scott
We will need to clean up the database to remove outdated records and also to revise the wording when there is a reference to "the reference desk". We need to make sure the descriptions are explicit as to what library is being referenced.
For quick access to CKDB, we decided that the CKDB icon should be placed on all NB reference desk/information assistant computers. Stephanie has done this for Alexander and she will send out instructions on how to place the icons on the desktop for other locations. Scott will handle LSM and Kilmer. Fernando will handle Douglass. Other CKDB representatives as appropriate will help insure that the other library locations are covered.
In terms of announcing availability of CKDB, we decided that an email note to all NB faculty and staff should be prepared. Ron will produce a draft of this note and send it to the team for comments. As part of this discussion, we decided that a more meaningful name would be appropriate since many people do not know what the CKDB is. The team decided to call the database "CKDB - The Universal Rolodex" which will give everyone a much more intuitive view of how CKDB will be used. The email note will also provide an explanation of what CKDB is and the process for continuing to add sources to the database. We agreed that formal instruction would not be needed, but it would be useful to give a demonstration at one of the upcoming NB faculty meetings.

Library Directions

Scott reviewed maps of the NB campus showing the locations of the libraries. Everyone thought that these would nicely augment the word descriptions that are now available through CKDB so Scott will complete the maps and place links to these from the online descriptions.

New Members

Fernando Chang is a new member representing Douglass, however since Jia Mi has left Rutgers we now need a Kilmer representative. Scott will talk with Kevin McGuire at Kilmer about his interest. Ron will talk with Nelson and Ron Becker to determine interest and possible sources for adding to CKDB from Special Collections.

Actions from last meeting

As reported above, discussions are proceeding regarding the WAC merger.
Stephanie has made all the changes to the CKDB including keyword searching across all fields and larger font for titles. We decided that boolean searching was not needed at this time.
Ron is still looking at improving the password access to CKDB.

Our next meeting is August 10, 1999 at 2 pm in the SCC - Heyer Conference room.