Minutes of September 17, 2010 Meeting

Present:

Joe Abraham, Jeris Cassel, Judy Gardner, Rebecca Gardner, Melissa Gasparotto, Tom Glynn (chair), Karen Hartman, Qian Hu, Triveni Kuchi, Barry Lipinski, Mei Ling Lo (recorder), Jill Nathanson, Michelle Oswell, Gene Springs, Eileen Stec, Myoung Wilson

Adoption of the agenda:

PC Reservation Policies and Access Services

• Judy Gardner confirmed with the group that the reference desk would be the first point of contact for PC reservation. Circulation desk would only handle creating accounts when the reference desk is closed.
• The Access supervisors would like to set up guidelines for reporting problems concerning PC reservation system. Concerns about duplicate PC Reservation Accounts should be directed to Unit Computing Specialists or team leaders. Report any incidents of abusing Rutgers NetID to OIT (732-445-help).
• Accounts created in PC Reservation System will not expire after 1 year, as we had supposed.
• To address the privacy issue, we will only record the month and day of birth (as MM/DD/1900) when creating the account. No longer will we put down the birth year.
• Joe Abraham will update the document on PC Reservation Policy FAQ.

eCollege and Distance Learning

• Jill Nathanson and Mei Ling Lo have created a course shell inside eCollege to support our distance learners. Over 90% of Rutgers distance learners are now on the eCollege platform. The rest are on Blackboard and Sakai. The majority of the online classes are from the following areas: Business and Administration, Nursing, Music, Education, and SC&I. The course "Introduction to Rutgers Libraries" is available to the students and also to the instructors who may be new to Rutgers as well. In addition to the general course, the instructors of eCollege are asked to link to a Microsoft document in which links to Rutgers Libraries, subject librarians and Libguides are provided. The goal of this approach is to make sure that the subject librarians can be easily accessible to the students who use our libraries remotely. The course shell is duplicated on the Libguides platform. It can be found at http://libguides.rutgers.edu/intro.

Best Practices for Writing Program Instruction

• The group discussed best practices for providing library instruction. The discussion focused in particular upon the Research in the Disciplines courses (201s), but was useful for instruction generally. Some suggested best practices included:
  • Communicate with the instructor before class. The instructor should provide you with a copy of the syllabus and make sure the students have a topic, or at least a tentative topic, ready to research. For certain classes, such as the 201s, it may be helpful to have the students complete the RIOT tutorial before the class comes over. At their annual orientation, Jeris told the 201 instructors that a syllabus, topics, and RIOT were assumed, as they will allow for a much more effective session.
  • Be sure to leave time for hands-on so that the students can search the databases on their own.
  • Build in some time to go over E-Z Borrow, Recall etc.
  • Ask students questions such as "what is keyword search?" This will hopefully get them involved and thinking.
  • If possible, use students' topics for your sample searches.
  • For English 302 and 303, Eileen Stec has created a Libguide for "Writing for Professions". Use the guide as a starting point for the class.
  • For next meeting, Tom Glynn will put together a document on best practices for library instructions, based upon this discussion and discussions of the NB Instruction Task Force. Some event at which we can share ideas and strategies for instruction may be scheduled for Spring 2011.

NBISG Goals for 2010-2011

• The group discussed ideas for some of the NBISG goals in the upcoming year.
  • Provide training for reference and information assistants across the New Brunswick libraries.
  • Streamline communication and coordination of librarian support for 302 (Scientific and Technical Writing) and 303 (Writing for Business and the Professions) classes.
  • Communicate with the new Web Board regarding the placement of reference services on the new RUL website.
  • Discuss the changing needs for reference and instruction in New Brunswick and ways to meet those needs. Discuss possible new formats for reference services in the future.
  • Investigate providing seminars on topics that facilitate research across a range of disciplines, such as R or citation analysis software.