Present: Stephanie Bartz, Jeris Cassel (recorder), Kevin Mulcahy, Ferris Olin, Penny Pagei, Myoung Wilson (chair)

Preliminaries
Ferris Olin was welcomed to the group as the team leader for the Douglass Library.

Stephanie Bartz will be acting liaison for the Common Knowledge Database while Ron Jantz in on research leave.

Approval of Minutes
Minutes of June 12, 2003 were approved.

Agenda Changes
The following items were added to the agenda:

Ideas for ACIC Funding Proposals
Organizational structure of NBISSG

Reference Manual Update
Penny proposed the following changes/updates to the reference manual: inclusion of voucher request form, deletion of the voucher pay rates, and inclusion of a general pay rate statement. These proposed changes were approved. Updates to personnel information and the inclusion of the revised form for off-desk statistics developed by Stephanie Bartz will be included in the manual, as well as information on inputting reference and instruction statistics online.

NBISSG Organizational Structure
After a review and discussion of the organizational structure of NBISSG, the group agreed that the structure is working and that it should continue as is. Meetings are open to all NBL faculty and major information issues will continue to be forwarded for the NBL faculty meeting agendas.

Librarians and Reference Activities
Myoung reminded the group that anyone interested in participating in Ask a Librarian, Ask a Librarian Live Project, and reference exchanges should email the appropriate team leaders and copy her.

Ideas for ACIC Funding
Since there were no major ideas forthcoming presently, Myoung encouraged the group to think about ideas, talk with reference teams and bring ideas to future NBISSG meetings.

Voucher Request
Request for an amount of $66, 561 in voucher funds was forwarded to Francoise. Francoise will get back to us after decisions are made regarding personnel lines and budget.

Instruction
The NBL instruction librarians are reviewing staffing issues, best practices, and key programs in the context of working on short-term and long-term plans for the information literacy/instruction plans in NBL. Jeris will provide a full report at the next meeting. The timeline for presenting recommendations and proposals for the fall semester to the NBL faculty is problematic.

Exploration of Alternate Models of Information Services
The group will put aside all extra-curricular activities, pilots, etc. for the coming academic year due to personnel shortage and budget constraints. In the meantime, new models for information services will be explored. Jeris proposed that the group pursue combining aspects of Access Services and Reference Services since there is an increasing duplication of directional and reference questions asked at both service points. Ferris noted that Douglass will be implementing this model soon and will appreciate guidance. Issues to be addressed regarding this matter include identification of staff, training, and procedures for good referrals, There was a discussion of ways of accommodating the needs of library users and helping Access Services staff to accommodates these needs when no librarians are present, including "how-to" videos. The group agreed to focus on the following two goals over the year:

1. Work closely with Access Services and other appropriate units towards a new information services model
2. Assess needs of Access Services and library users when no librarians are available.

Reports
Myoung encouraged team leaders to send highlights from unit annual reports. She will circulate the NBISSG annual report next week.

• Public Services Council
  • An interlibrary loan self-services function is to be available around July 15.
  • RUL will not be participating in QandA New Jersey until an academic segment is developed.
  • Serious negotiations regarding Open URL are underway.
  
  
• NBL PC Working Group
  • PC Team will be tagging and inventorying pieces and parts of the laptops. This information will be included on a form for each computer.
  
  
• Alexander Library
  • Kevin will be coordinating the scheduling of instruction. Tricia will represent Alexander on ISC and will work on instructional models/modules.
  • Kevin will be looking at canceling many reference standing orders and will be conferring with Ferris, Jeris, and Penny regarding these.
  • Dissertation Abstracts will be sent to the Annex.
  
  
• Kilmer Library
  • Reference assistants/librarians are working on an enhanced Kilmer reference manual and are reviewing the NBL manual for possible additions.
  • Weeding continues for portions of Stacks and Reference.
  • Collections Services issues persist.
  
  
• LSM
  • Librarians are updating finding aids. Mei-Ling is developing a web page of finding aids that will be linked eventually on the RUL web.
  • The LSM-specific reference manual is being updated.
  • Preparation is underway for weeding the reference collection.
  
  
• Douglass Library
  • Working conditions are not good through the renovation and emergencies.
  
  
• NBL Director Search Committee
  • The search committee met and recommended public presentations by candidates. The practice of collegiality and participatory management in NBL has been emphasized.