Minutes
New Brunswick Information Services Steering Group Meeting
Thurs., September 13, 2001 - Conference Room, Kilmer Library

Present: Stephanie Bartz (recorder), Ron Jantz, Kevin Mulcahy, Penny Page, Pat Piermatti, Myoung Wilson (chair)

1. Approval of Minutes - Minutes of the August 2, 2001 meeting were amended and approved as amended.

2. Old Business

ISSG Voucher Allocation, FY 2001-2002
- Myoung distributed spreadsheets detailing voucher fund requests and the final voucher allocation for 2001/2002.
- Raises for voucher employees should be requested through the local Administrative Team at each library, so that paperwork goes through the proper channels and ultimately reaches Arlene and Myoung.
- Arlene Minch will be invited to attend an ISSG meeting in the spring to go over guidelines for the voucher budget, rates of pay, raises, etc.
- Definitions for IT Student, Reference Assistant, and part-time Librarian need to be added to the Reference Manual. Ron will provide the first, and Myoung will provide the latter two.

Reference Hours
- There was a discussion of whether reference desk hours should be coordinated across the NB libraries. Hours will continue as is for now and Douglass will gather statistics to determine whether the desk there can close at 7:00pm beginning in the spring. No other changes are being considered at this point. This change would bring Douglass in line with LSM evening hours; Kilmer and Alex both staff the desk until 9:00pm.

Reference Exchange
- The final list of exchange librarians for the fall semester is as follows:
- Joe Consoli (Alex)
- Kayo Denda (Alex)
- Rebecca Gardner (LSM)
- Tom Glynn (Douglass)
- Brian Hancock (Art)
- Sara Harrington (Alex)
- Scott Hines (LSM/Alex)
- Marty Kesselman (LSM)
- Ferris Olin (Art)
- Hector Perez-Gilbe (LSM)
- Eileen Stec (LSM)
- Lourdes Vazquez (Art)
- Ryan Womack (Alex)

Alternate Models of Information Service
- Myoung proposed that an electronic information fair to advertise services for graduate students be planned. Possible topics to be covered included remote access, use of bibliographic software (e.g. EndNote), and e-books. Such an event would need to be planned well in advance and advertised broadly. Further discussion on content, use of television channels, etc. will need to take place before any formal plans can be made.
- A discussion of basic ways to improve service led to the suggestion that the names of subject specialists be made more prominent on the libraries Web pages by adding a link in the How Do I… section of the main page. Myoung will forward the suggestion to Jeanne Boyle, Rebecca Gardner, and WAC.
- Ron will look into the possibility of either obtaining a site license for EndNote or at least upgrading EndNote in the Data Center.

Coordinating NBL-wide Instructional Services
- Librarians and SCILS students are participating in the Shaping a Life program. Some initial class meetings were cancelled due to RU class cancellations caused by current events.
- Stephanie Tama and Jeris Cassel are coordinating instruction for writing classes across the NB campuses.
- The Tech Commander in the Douglass Instructional Alcove is broken; other options are being explored.

3. New Business - None

4. Reports

- LSM - Pat has been receiving resumes for the Information & Technology Assistant position, and will arrange a meeting of the search committee within the next week or so.
- D21 - A new drawing has been received and approved by the program committee.
- PC Coordination Team - ACIC and ELF funded computers should replace all existing public PCs sometime this fall.

9/17/01sb, revised 9/27/01

jfc/8/7/01 rev.8/12/01