New Brunswick Libraries
Information Services Steering Group

Annual Report (July 2003-June 2004)

The following are the highlights of the Information Services Steering Group (ISSG). During this reporting period members of ISSG addressed a number of important issues on behalf of the NBL Information Services Group. The members of the ISSG during this period are as follows:

Stephanie Bartz, PC Coordination Team Leader
Ronald Jantz, CKDB Liaison
Penny Page, Branch Libraries and Vice Chair
Jeris Cassel, Kilmer Area Library Reference Team Leader and Vice Chair, NBL Library Instruction Liaison
Ferris Olin, Dougalss Library Reference Team Leader
Kevin Mulcahy, Alexander Library Reference Team Leader and Generalist Team Liaison
Patricia Piermatti, Library of Science and Medicine Reference Team Leader
Myoung Wilson, Chair, New Brunswick Libraries Information Services Group

In June 2004 election, Jeris Cassel was elected as Reference Collection Team Leader and will be representing NBL on the RUL Generalist Team. In June 2004 Kayo Denda was appointed as Acting Reference Team Leader of Douglass Library for 2004-2005.

1. Information/Reference /Research Services*
   
   
• During this reporting period, 27,207 reference and research queries were answered and 22, 426 directional questions were answered in person or by phone by librarians, staff and information assistants. Additionally librarians responded to 8,046 individual and advanced research questions and 369 directional questions away from the reference desk. Altogether 58,048 contacts were made between the NB information services librarians, staff and students, and the public. This is an increase of almost 8000 more research/information /directional assistances provided at all service points including in librarians' offices than in the previous year.
  
  
• Due to the unusually grim budget forecast, members of the ISSG made a decision early on to suspend all extracurricular experiments and activities relating to alternate models of information services during this academic year.
  
  
• After many months of fine-tuning the elements of web-based statistical forms for instruction and reference statistics, NB librarians began to regularly utilize the web-based forms for reporting instruction and reference statistics beginning July 2004. This online form centralizes the data collection in a consistent and uniform manner eliminating the labor intensive and duplicative work of unit instruction coordinators. The form resides at NBL homepage at http://nbl.rutgers.edu. This is the first year that the entire instruction and reference data are reported from this data bank and will serve as a benchmark year for future comparisons.
  
  
• Members of the ISSG met with the following groups in order to better coordinate information provision across all public services desks on NB campus.
  
  
• At its September meeting, PC Coordinators (K. McGuire, P. Johnson and A. Joachim) joined the members of ISSG and addressed issues regarding the use and allocation of PCs. One concrete result of this discussion was a proposal for on-site training for basic technical skills for all NB personnel. A document entitled Computer Training for Common Tasks: A Proposal for On-Site "Mini" Training Sessions for Personnel at the New Brunswick Libraries, was authored by A. Joachim and S. Bartz. After a meeting with the RUL Training Coordinator Marylyn Wilt this proposal was folded into more comprehensive system wide training program.
  
  
• At its October meeting, F.Tehrani, M. Sheehy, and G. Smulewitz attended the ISSG meeting to explore better coordination between Information Services and Access/Collection Services. A Seamless Information Provision Task Force was formed; members were Jeris Cassel, F. Olin, M. Sheehy and G. Smulewitz. The task force issued its final report in May, 2004. This report will require further discussion with the NBL Administration and librarians as appropriate.
  
  
• At its November meeting M. Lo, C. Finlay, M. Kesselman and R. Gardner joined the meeting to discuss issues pertinent to Branch Libraries. It was affirmed that email communication is the most effective way to share information; concern was expressed regarding the serious shortage of staffing at some branch libraries such as at Math Library.
  
  
• At it December meeting A. Joachim and K. McGuire and a guest Intern, Aryana Bates, joined the meeting to have a general session on better marketing strategies of library services and explored alternate ways to reach students and faculty.
  
  
• Encouraged by the newly developed Douglass online directory members of ISSG agreed that a creation of NBL wide digital directory will be useful for training and reference purposes. Toward this end Access/Collection Services and Information Services jointly appointed task force to develop NBL digital directory. The members of this task force are Megan Doyle, Heather Huey, Kevin Mcguire and Karen Wenk. Stephanie Bartz and Ron Jantz serve as consultants. The members of the task force are aiming to produce a phase I of the NBL digital directory by the beginning of the fall, 2004 semester.
  
  
• On April 13, 2004, the ISSG chair organized a meeting with the residential deans of Rutgers College in order to better coordinate the library needs of students at dorms, especially the first year students. Jeris Cassel and Karen Hartman joined the meeting. Twenty-one (21) Academic Community Programmers (ACPs) who serve as the live-in peer counselors for the first year dorm students will be trained in August in preparation for the fall semester, 2004. Karen Hartman agreed to coordinate the training program.
  
  
• On October 20, 2003 the chair of ISSG met with the Deans Jolie Cizewski and Barbara Bender at the Graduate School (NB) and the representatives of RUCS (NB) in order to review library computing lab hours in general and especially in the Alex Graduate Reserve Reading Room. After the review of use statistics in previous years, NB RUCS agreed to keep the Graduate Reading Room labs open during the intersession of spring, 2004.
  
  
• The NBL wide reference exchange has been in effect in limited numbers.
  
  
• NBL librarians continue to contribute to RUL "Ask A Librarian" and to real time virtual reference services during this time.
  
  
• For unit and area specific activities and achievements, please see individual team leaders' reports.
  
  
2. Instructional Services**
   
   
• Members of ISSG addressed a number of issues regarding NBL wide instruction activities, coordination and strategies as an on-going topic during this reporting period. The Group also had extensive discussions on a document entitled Information Literacy and Library Instruction in the Rutgers University New Brunswick Libraries: Report, Proposals, and Recommendations prepared by the NBL Instruction Librarians Group. This document is still under review by J. Cassel and K. Mulcahy for further discussion at NBL wide librarians' meeting.
  
  
• A total of 655 class sessions were taught during this reporting period (217 of these sessions were repeat sessions) reaching 9,872 students. Among those 655 sessions, 531 sessions (81.07 %) were for undergraduate courses; 89 sessions (13.59%) were for graduate students; 8 (1.2 %) sessions were for faculty members; 7 sessions (1.07 %) were for EOF students; 8 (1.22 %) sessions were for other groups at Rutgers; and 12 sessions (1.83 %) were for non-Rutgers audiences including 4 sessions for high school students.
  
  
• The instruction data also indicated the following breakdowns of instructors of library classes:***
  
  
• 538(82.14%) sessions were taught by librarians
• 87 (13.28%) sessions taught by TA/GA/SCILS students
• 17 (2.60 %) sessions taught by course instructors
• 13 (1.98 %) sessions taught by temporary librarians
  
  
• Departing from its past practice, members of ISSG agreed to systematically hire temporary librarians (our own part-time lecturers) in order to respond to the increasing demand for library instruction at 100, 200 level required courses.
  
  ** A more detailed analyses of NBL wide instructional activities will be reported by Jeris Cassel who serves as NBL Instruction Liaison to ISSG.
  
  *** The mid year report of ISSG contains two inaccurate numbers in this area. The number of course instructors who taught their own library classes from June through December 2003 should read as five (5) and the number of temporary librarians who taught library sessions during the same period should read as eleven (11).
  
  
3. Personnel
   
   
• Three Librarian V positions were developed and posted during this time and successfully recruited. They are Ann Bemis (Kilmer), Heather Huey (Alexander) and Kim O'Konis (Kilmer).
  
  
• As in previous years, Reference Team Leaders at LSM (Pat Piermatti), at Douglass (Ferris Olin) and at Kilmer (Jeris Cassel), and the PC Team Leader (Stephanie Bartz) participated in the annual P4P review for the two unit computing specialists and one information and technology specialist.
  
  
4. Goals and Objectives
   
   The members of ISSG made considerable efforts and progress toward many of the goals and objectives stated below from last year. We will continue to work toward achieving these goals through specific projects by creating targeted opportunities.
   
   
• Review the organizational structure of ISG and ISSG in order to encourage participation from all who provide information services; address those issues that specifically relate to its leadership structure.
  
  
• Continue to explore within the NB academic community innovative information, instruction and research service models appropriate for digital library environment.
  
  
• Identify and assess the information needs of students and faculty during the times when reference desk is not staffed.
  
  
• Work closely with Access Services and identify common areas of training and service.
  
  
• Foster a culture that value learning and continue to seek ways to train librarians and staff on Internet based resources
  
  
• Develop and design more effective "marketing" and "public relations" programs regarding the role of librarians, and library information resources and services.

Cc: Members of ISSG