Information Services Management Committee

Minutes of the Meeting of September 11, 2001
1:30-3:40 P.M.
Porter Conference Room

Present:  Marlene Laurence, Maureen McCormack, Doug Morton, Susan Moskal, Shabiran Rahman, Susan Routliffe (Chair), Mary Stanley, Linda Teather, Rose Koebel (Recorder)

  1. Minutes of Previous Meeting

    The minutes of the September 4, 2001 meeting were approved with changes.

  2. Review of Statistics Table

    ISMC reviewed the Excel table created by Sue M.  She and Maureen will make the following modifications:

    Outstanding issues include the need to consider whether there are any gaps in statistics related to information services. For example, are e-mail questions from the journal indexes page being counted?  Also for future consideration is the fact that different methods for counting things such as e-mail consultations, or other types of consultations, are used.  Susan R. will invite Richard Pinnell and Susan Bellingham to the next meeting to discuss statistics.

  3. Laptop Readiness

    The Committee discussed what needs to be done to prepare staff and inform the public about the availability of laptop drops in the Library as follows:

    1. internal publicity:  Linda and Susan R. will draft a message for all Library staff, which should be sent next week.  Doug, Maureen, and Carl will connect with Wish about organizing demos for staff. 

    2. external publicity:  Mary will ensure that an announcement about laptop connectivity in the Library, with a link to the instructions, will appear in the next issue of news @ your library, which is due September 25.  She will also contact the Imprint and uwstudent.org.  (news @ your library already goes to Chris Redmond for the Daily Bulletin.)  It was suggested that the liaison librarians could forward the new e-publication to groups in their subject areas.  Mary will send the librarians the names of those who would have already received an e-mail message with a link to the publication.

    3. instructions for use:  Doug, Maureen and Carl will meet tomorrow to develop instructions.  It was suggested that this document be available both in print and on the Web, under “Services for” on the Library’s top page.  ISMC will decide how to handle the print version after it has been created.  Spare copies should be kept at the public services, circulation, and attendants’ desks.  Doug will contact someone at Queen’s to see how instructions are made available there.

    4. signage:  Mary will speak with Linda Hastings about creating small signs for each of the drop locations.  There are 8 drops at each of Porter and Davis libraries, and 2 in UMD.  It was noted that these signs may be replaced by more sophisticated ones in the future through the Signage Committee.  Mary will also speak with Linda about updating the floor plans, and with Esther about updating the mini-guides.

  4. Review of List of Topics for ISMC Discussion

    ISMC determined the status of each item on the list included in the minutes of September 12, 2000:

    1. Continue to work on implementing recommendations contained in the Systems/ISR relationship report:  well in-hand; the status report has been prepared and will be issued shortly.

    2. Ezproxy:  More testing will be done in a consortium environment.  This is an issue more appropriate for Systems, than for ISMC, and is now being handled through Systems.

    3. Statistics and other measurements: a) in progress.  b) Susan R. and Mark Haslett attended an ARL symposium on Measuring Service Quality in October 2000 and the Library subsequently decided to participate in a pilot (LibQUAL).  The data will be reviewed.

    4. Desk scheduling:  complete.

    5. Digital (electronic) reference service:  not yet addressed.  This will be the first major topic for the new committee.

    6. MyLibrary:a topic more appropriate for the Digital Library Coordination Committee.

    7. Library instruction and information literacy:  ISMC’s role is probably complete.

    8. Online tutorials:  in progress.  Developments include:  1.  Shabiran has been working with faculty and students to develop a prototype for use in Psych291, but possibly for broader use.  2.  Co-op students have been hired to develop a tutorial for History; the tutorial will probably focus on elements of information literacy standards #2. 3.  Susan R., Shabiran, and Jane Forgay will look at a tutorial developed by the University of Texas and available to other libraries through a no-cost license.

    9. Recommendations in Information Services Review report:  ISMC has not had a systematic look at the report, but has addressed issues in ways that are consistent with the recommendations contained within, e.g. information literacy and more active promotion of the Library. 

    10. Page counters for web pages:  ISMC provided feedback to the Web Operational Management Group, which it has not yet heard back from.

    11. HTML versus PDF format:  complete.

    12. User Services and “reference services”:  complete.

    13. Electronic reference shelf and the possibility of a separate page for more academic topics:  will be looked at.

    14. Services to co-op students on work term:  complete.

    15. Laptop docking stations and the possibility of wireless drops:  nearing completion.

    16. Issues associated with TRELLIS upgrades:  may not be an issue.  Susan R. will speak with Dan Sich, the TUG OPAC contact.

    17. Training Group update: It has not been necessary to invite Jane Forgay to meet with ISMC, due to the Training Group’s effective work and Website. 

    18. Evaluation of meetings:complete.

    19. Review of ISMC terms of reference:  complete. 

    ISMC will also look at topics it has handled, which were not on the above list.  Linda will review minutes of the Committee’s past meetings for these.

Next Meeting

September 18, 2001, Porter.  Topics for the next meeting will include statistics, managing the changeover in membership, and issues undertaken by ISMC that were not included on the list of September 12, 2000.