Information Services Management Committee

Minutes of the Meeting of October 9, 2001
1:30 – 3:30 pm
Davis Conference Room

Present:  Helena Calogeridis, Judy McTaggart, Doug Morton, Sue Moskal, Jim Parrott, Richard Pinnell, Susan Routliffe (Chair), Mary Stanley, Linda Teather, Melanie Watkins, Rose Koebel (Recorder)

Guests:  Jenny Marvin (Librarian and Virtual Reference Project Manager, University of Guelph), Robin Cooper (Library Associate, Information Services, University of Guelph), Romie Smith (Library Associate, Information Services, University of Guelph), Debbie Addesso (Library Assistant, St. Jerome’s University Library), Diane Peters (Reference Librarian, WLU), Amy Chan, Marian Davies, Anoma De Silva, Sam Gibbon, Yulerette Gordon, Christine Jewell, Agnes Kayko, Michele Laing, Amos Lakos, Sharon Lamont, Wish Leonard, Erin Murphy, Dan Sich, Paul St. Pierre, Carol Stephenson


  1. Minutes of Previous Meeting

    The minutes of the meeting of October 2 were approved with changes via e-mail.

  2. Virtual Reference

    ISMC plans to consider matters associated with introducing a virtual reference service.  To this end, Susan R. invited Jenny Marvin from the University of Guelph library to join today’s meeting to provide information about virtual reference at Guelph, and staff providing information service at UW Library, the college libraries, and WLU library.  Jenny’s presentation included an overview of the software, what was involved in bringing virtual reference to Guelph, the initial and current stages of the service model, and future steps.  Jenny also provided a brief demo of a virtual reference session in training mode, where we could see both the patron side and library side of the screen.  She invited library staff to try out Guelph’s virtual reference service later via the training room. 

    Some of the questions Jenny, Romie, and Robin addressed include:

    1. Is it necessary for the patron to supply an e-mail address?
      An e-mail address is optional, but it is required if the patron wishes to receive a transcript, which includes the entire text and URLs visited during the session.

    2. How does the patron know when you are moving to another screen (e.g. during a search session)?
      The live chat portion (transcript) of the session is always visible to the right of the screen.

    3. Whose barcode is entered at the authentication stage?
      The student enters his or her barcode and last name. 

    4. What happens when the staff member receives a question not in their discipline area?
      Guelph library has only one virtual reference desk. The virtual reference staff member needs to be open to answering all questions, and should also be aware of the key tools to help get the patron started.  If the student requires the advice of a liaison librarian, a referral step can be taken.

    5. What message do patrons see when they try to use virtual reference outside the service’s opening hours?
      They receive a message indicating the hours of opening.

    6. Can the transcripts be used as a resource?
      The transcripts are accessible only to the U of G library.  We will want to keep the information they provide, but will need to strip the identities.  The next step may be to include a survey about virtual reference within the transcript.

    7. If a virtual reference session is taking place, can the service be accessed by anyone else?
      The current session must be completed before the next patron can be picked up.  The patron waiting will receive a message that indicates that the system is busy, and that someone will be available shortly. (The statistics will show that someone has signed in, but was not picked up.)

    8. Is it possible to see the next question on the library side of the screen?
      This function will become available in the next software package.

    9. Do virtual reference staff also work at the reference desk?
      Yes, personal contact with patrons is felt to be very important.

    10. Will virtual reference service at Guelph be moving away from the chat model?
      Yes, we are looking into it.  New residences will have voice-over IP technology, which will enable students to talk through their computers with headsets.

    11. Is virtual reference available only to on-campus users?
      The service is available to anyone in the world (technically).  However, we chose to promote it to on-campus users so that we could get really good at providing VR without worrying about network speed.  In order to get access to licensed databases people must be able to authenticate as members of the U of G community.

    12. What if the patron does not have the necessary software to see an item being pointed to on the Web during the session? For example, Adobe Acrobat.
      The staff member could send it as an image.  However, most things pointed to during the sessions are things that the library has developed.

    Jenny discussed some of the issues experienced at Guelph regarding virtual reference.  Some of them are: Susan thanked Jenny, Robin and Romie for sharing Guelph’s experience with virtual reference. 

Next Meeting: October 23, 2001 (no meeting next week, Oct. 16, 2001)