Minutes of April 23, 2010 Meeting

Present:

Joe Abraham, Jeris Cassel, Kayo Denda (recorder), Mary Fetzer, Tom Glynn (chair), Sara Harrington, Karen Hartman, Tom Izbicki, Marty Kesselman, Triveni Kuchi, Mei Ling Lo, Jim Niessen, Michelle Oswell, Gene Springs, Jane Sloan, Eileen Stec, Tao Yang, Myoung Wilson.

Report of the NBISG chair

• IHL 413's malfunctioning touch screen will be replaced.
• Scanners will be introduced at ALEX, ART and LSM. Placement in the building will be discussed locally. Other libraries may also get scanners when the current lease for copiers ends on June 2011.
• Françoise is looking for funding for e-bulletin boards at ALEX, Douglass, Kilmer, and LSM.
• Joe Abraham, a SCI student and the UCS at Alex, is interested in doing work in instructional technology. See him if you have ideas for project on which you might collaborate.

Report of the AUL for RIS

• Order for LibGuides is in and will be available starting 6/1. Cost: $3000.
• "In touch alert" from Ingenta (TOC alert service) is on the cutting board. Mary is trying to figure out who the 300+ subscribers are. An official statement was requested for the liaisons to inform the departments/units when the service ceases.
• The proposed budget reduction for the NJ State Library is 75%. This cut would include statewide materials delivery services ($65,000), which we use for ILL. The future of Q&A NJ is unclear.
• RUL final budget reduction is unclear at this point. However, there will be a reduction for the allocations (voucher) for instruction and reference, frozen lines, etc.

Discussion on best practices for instruction

The main concern is the how can we sustain the same level of library instruction with English 201/301 classes while the number of full-time librarians diminish and less funding is available to hire part-time librarians. At the same time, new programs/courses with a writing/research component, such as the SAS Global Signature courses, are emerging with potential library impact, but there is no formal liaison relationship. A series of discussions under the 3 headings below took place regarding these issues.

1. Use of technology in instruction

• We need to have a library presence (link) on the Writing Program SAKAI site, both on the program coordinator and instruction sites. Once embedded, the librarian can monitor the class discussion, make announcements, and offer assistance directly to students.
• We need digital documents created to provide assistance: PDF documents, Webpages and tutorials could be embedded on class SAKAI sites.
• LibGuides can help with this.

2. Liaisoning Effectively with Instructors

• Currently, our NBL-wide instruction efforts are focused heavily on Writing Program classes. How can we branch out our diminishing resources to liaise with other classes, especially other research-oriented classes?
• More online tutorials are needed to assist specific topics or help with databases 24/7.
• The literature review generally seems to be less emphasized now by faculty; thus there is less opportunity for the librarians to engage.

3. Use of assignments and quizzes in library sessions

• Needs a buy in from the course instructor.
• Although pre-library instruction test has some merit, it adds to the librarian's workload.
• Quizzes are time consuming for librarians.
• Duplication of library instruction. Some students have 2-3 in one semester. We need a mechanism to avoid it.
• Need to analyze the instruction statistics that are collected and strategize library instruction future.

Decisions and Actions

1. Jeris will meet with the Writing Program coordinator to present the NBISG's recommendation: commit to offer only 1 library instruction session per class. Mary volunteered to accompany Jeris.

2. Marty will chart different instructional methods with cost, use of technology, time, impact for the students and the instructor.

3. Jeris will report on best practices for using SAKAI course sites.

4. Tom G will report on what librarians can reasonably expect from instructors with whom they work in Writing Program and other classes.

New Brunswick Information Services Budget for 2010-11

Tom G. reported that there will most likely not be a voucher budget for 2010-11. We need to make plans based upon that assumption. He suggested three principles upon which to base our plans:

• Decisions are made whenever possible based upon hard data, statistics that tell us where and when our users need us most.
• The burdens imposed by the budget cuts should be shared, as nearly as possible, New Brunswick-wide.
• We should have some system or procedure that roughly quantifies what we are all doing in public services and ensures that the burden is equitably shared.

The discussion was divided into two parts.

1. Instruction

There was an extensive discussion of how many sessions we will offer to the Writing Program classes. The NBL Faculty voted to offer one session, but to leave it up to the discretion of the individual librarian to offer more than one.

2. Reference Services

• There is a need to rethink how we offer reference services, especially because of the budget. If we close a ref desk, how can we compensate for its loss?
• If ALEX and Kilmer are the only weekend ref desks open, should the rotation include all NBL faculty?
• Tom G. suggested we share, allocate what work-study RAs/IAs we have, depending upon need at the desks. He will also look into using SCI students registered for Fieldwork Experience.
• We might explore Adobe Connect to offer online interaction with users.
• The RAs/IAs could be more engaged instead of waiting for a reference interaction at the desk.
• While the ref desk stats decline, Meebo stats display growth. We need better software for chat reference, that allows queing of librarians. We could do meebo at the reference desk, if one librarian didn't have to handle all the questions at once.
• Myoung does Meebo with her intern. Although the software is limited, there are creative ways to do the session with more than 1 person.
• Mobile reference taskforce is studying options. The Organizational Review of Reference is revising the report adding more data and analysis.

Announcements

Eileen announced that she and Jeris are offering a two-session workshop to Libraries faculty and staff on tutorial design and creation.