Information Services Management Committee

Minutes of the Meeting of June 11, 2002
1:30 – 3:30 pm
Davis Conference Room

Regrets: Jim Parrott

1. Minutes of Previous Meeting
   The minutes of the meeting of April 30, 2002 were approved with changes.

2. Virtual Reference:  Update from the Virtual Reference Implementation Group; Update on Meeting at Western
   1. Virtual Reference Implementation Group: Doug reported that a task list has been assigned for these and other items:
      • developing call resolution codes
      • determining name of virtual reference service
      • promoting service
      • investigating what scripts and canned responses, etc. LSSI includes in its training packages
      • scheduling of service

      Doug added that there is a need to smooth out proxy server issues.  He is hopeful that virtual reference can go live in early July.  The implementation group should confer with Mary when it begins considering promotion ideas.  Doug agreed to continue providing regular updates on the group’s activities at ISMC meetings.

   2. meeting at the University of Western Ontario of the OCUL Collaborative Virtual Reference Task Group:  Susan reported on this meeting, which she and Doug attended in May.  Some of the discussion at this meeting included issues involving:
      • hours during which the provision of service could be shared by two or more libraries
      • name of service
      • ensuring that collaborating libraries have some knowledge about each other’s services
      • referrals or handing off questions
      • benefits of a collaborative service

      Susan indicated that the OCUL libraries represented at this meeting included both observers (Western, McMaster, Toronto, Windsor, Carleton, and Waterloo) and those actively planning to participate in a collaborative virtual reference initiative (York, Ryerson, and Guelph).  She felt that although it was too early for UW Library to commit to such an initiative, it is important to know what partnership activities are developing within OCUL as they relate to virtual reference.

3. Meeting with Library Assistants who Provide Ask Us/Tell Us Service

   Judy, Sue, Helena and Michele met with the assistants who respond to Ask Us/Tell Us questions and reported back on the feedback they received.  Some of the concerns raised at this meeting include:

   • There is no single person overseeing the day-to-day aspects of the service, such as staffing, scheduling, or training procedures.
   • Statistics:  Should the categories for statistics kept for Ask Us/Tell Us be uniform with those kept at the information desks?
   • How many hours should the service be offered on a daily basis?  For example, Monday is the busiest day.
   • There is a need for a contact list for referrals, to suit the variety of questions Ask Us/Tell Us receives.
   • The practice of notifying selectors about questions specific to their discipline area needs revisiting.
   • There is some concern about the subsequent correspondence that takes place when a question is referred to another staff member—a patron may encounter several different staff members responding to the same query.

   Sue indicated that the library assistants were agreeable to the suggestion of having their responses seen by a broader group, if needed.

   Sue suggested that a first step in addressing the above concerns would be to review the Ask Us/Tell Us guidelines document, and incorporate the current issues associated with the service.  ISMC discussed several approaches to handling these issues, and decided that:

   • There is a need to articulate clearly what the issues are, including how aspects of Ask Us/Tell Us have been handled to date.
   • Determine how many issues are not addressed by the current guidelines.

   Sue is willing to continue working with the Ask Us/Tell Us group.  Susan will review the guidelines and get together with Sue.

4. Draft Charter for a Public Workstation Review

   ISMC provided some feedback on the draft that Linda provided prior to the meeting.  Linda agreed to bring the Committee’s suggestions back to Mark Haslett, the project sponsor.  She will incorporate the revisions into the charter by the end of this week.  It was agreed that the Committee will consider the revised charter as the final draft and use it to complete the population of the group over the next three weeks.  The review team will be composed of:

   • 3 staff members appointed by ISMC (to include two ISR staff and one User Services staff member)
   • 2 Systems staff members (one of whom will be Carl Nagel)
   • Stephen Markan (IST)
   • Project Manager/Facilitator:  Linda Teather.

   Susan will send a message to ISR for expressions of interest (a staff member from each Porter and Davis ISR is preferred).  Sue agreed to be one of the ISR members.  Melanie will contact User Services to see who is interested in serving on the review group.  Susan thanked Linda for answering today’s questions and for the work that went into the Project Charter for the Review of the Public Workstation and Network Environment in the University of Waterloo Library. 

5. Write Permissions for the VR Page and for ISMC Pages on the Staff Web

   Deferred to the next meeting.