New Brunswick Libraries
Information Services Steering Group

Midyear Report (July, 2003-December, 2003)

On behalf of members of Information Services Group, the Steering Group (ISSG) met monthly during this reporting period and addressed the following (among other) issues:

• 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 utilize the new forms for reporting instruction and reference statistics beginning July, 2004. This new 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 http://nbl
  
  
• 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. A preliminary meeting with Marylin Wilt took place to coordinate this proposal with RUL.
  
  
• 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 are Jeris Cassel, F. Olin, M. Sheehy and G. Smulwitze. The Task Force issued its preliminary report.
  
  
• 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. Mcquire and a guest Intern, Aryana Bates, joined the meeting to have a general session on better marketing strategies of library services.

Instruction Services

• Members of ISSG addressed issues regarding NBL wide instruction activities and strategies as an on-going topic. 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 under review by J. Cassel and K. Mulcahy for further discussion.
  
  
• 277 class sessions (including 12 sessions of McNair Scholars Honors Course) were taught; 184 of the classes were first session with a total of 3834 attendees and 93 of the classes were follow-up sessions.
  
  
• 29 tours/orientations with a total of 935 attendees were held during the beginning of the Fall Semester, 2003.
  
  
• The instruction data also indicated the following breakdowns of instructors of library classes:
  
  
• 17 sessions taught by course instructors.
• 16 sessions taught by temporary librarians
• 9 sessions taught by TA/GA/SCILS students
• 264 sessions were taught by librarians

• Over 14000 reference/research queries were fielded at NB libraries and over 10,000 directional questions were answered. Additionally over 1200 reference/research consultations were provided in office or via email.

Personnel

• Two Librarian V positions were developed and posted during this time and successfully recruited at a later date.