Minutes of December 3, 2010 Meeting

Present:: Joe Abraham, Jeris Cassel, Mary Fetzer, Judy Gardner, Rebecca Gardner, Tom Glynn, Sara Harrington, Triveni Kuchi, Mei Ling Lo, Laura Mullen, Jill Nathanson (recorder), Jim Niessen, Michele Oswell, Jane Sloan Eileen Stec, Myoung Wilson

1. Agenda approved, minutes approved.

2. Report of the AUL for RIS- Mary Fetzer

Getting around to libraries to see what is needed. Will soon be asking for equipment/software/furniture needs. In February will prioritize these needs for limited funds.
Web Board has set its meeting dates; 4th Thurs. each month.

3. Goals Discussion:

Goal: 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

NBL vs RUL concerns: these discussions need to be inclusive at local level and information passed on to appropriate groups, need to decide how and where to present.
A PCWG goal is to explore desktop conferencing software for virtual reference and collaboration. Will work with NBISG to test possibilities and report to Users Services Council at the end of the year.
Need to look at Counting Opinions comments to see what has been said about reference.
Investigation of expanding hours through use of work study library school students. Evenings and weekends.
Is there really a demand and a benefit to having librarians in person evenings and weekends? Chat is busy, but in person is not. Students in library prefer chat.
At Douglass, IAs must list all reference questions asked. They try to have a backup librarian. Overall increase in numbers of people in library because sociology moved over. Since everyone leaves questions and answers, IAs are more responsible. Desk is an Info Commons. Before noon, a librarian is called. Douglass has a proposal that the home page for public computers will be availability for librarians. Librarians with their own meebo boxes aren't really getting questions.
RUL needs to look at queuing for chat and getting more librarians on. Proprietary software requires people to sign in.
Workload issues are associated with branching out in different services such as Meebo.
Chat Task Force is currently looking at products.
Phone reference - VOIP is going in today, but it will be further in the rollout before it would be fully functional as a central reference phone number. Suggest to Web Board a phone icon on webpage that goes to list of reference desks.
Many fragmented efforts right now in addressing reference, some still experimental. Need to pull them together to address reference needs of our users.
Web Board will not be doing small changes. Will be doing releases. NBISG can make a formal recommendation to Web Board to put an icon for contacting reference on our webpage.
Would like to collect reference stats qualitatively and centrally, not hash marks on paper. Jeanne is investigating statistics across the board: way we record stats, who does it, where compiled, where they go. Joe Abraham creating a system (in Google) where we would all use the same form, wouldn't have to compile because creates a spreadsheet. Free, simple, does everything. Also need a definition of what is reference across the board. If this is how we measure our service, we need to spend more time on it. Need to quantify intangibles of reference. Librarians were reminded to record and submit off-desk stats.

Will have the same discussion for instruction next month. Tom will check on attendance for next month; since the meeting falls during the break and during ALA, we may need to reschedule.

Statistics will have to be an agenda item. Tom will follow up with Jeanne to see what she is doing.

Action items: need a resolution to the Web Board about contacting reference (such as a phone icon on the web page), Tom will craft a resolution and poll everyone on sakai.

Action items: look into what VOIP can do for us now and what it can do once fully installed. Tom will talk to Tibor.

Action items: explore a page that shows librarian availability, PCWG would handle what is possible and Web Board would see how it is presented. Tom will talk to Tibor.

4. Faculty services for online learning: Mei Ling and Jill

We have focused on students, now we need to focus on faculty. Jill and Mei Ling have many ideas, but want to talk to librarians who have ideas.
Need RUL website to include online learning pages, most other schools have pages on online learning.
Need to provide info on persistent links for all faculty. This info also needs to be on web page.
Mei Ling and Gene working with developers of Sakai to make libraries more visible. They requested 3 links: Libguides; introduction to libraries course Libguide; link to reserve page in IRIS. Sakai is frozen right now but those links will be in Sakai in January. They will be under options for instructors to select. Mei Ling will follow up with Jeris on link in Sakai to reserves and other links to see if a specific Libguide can be used as the link. Current system might be good. Must let selectors know to contact faculty when these links are available so they can be added.
Might want to include this stuff at OIRT showcase next year and Sakai training.
NBISG endorses these efforts.

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