Information Services Management Committee

Minutes of the Meeting of February 25, 2003
2:15 – 3:30 pm
Porter Conference Room

Present: Christy Branston, Helena Calogeridis, Judy McTaggart, Jim Parrott, Richard Pinnell, Susan Routliffe (Chair), Mary Stanley, Melanie Watkins, Rose Koebel (Recorder)

Regrets: Linda Teather

1. Minutes of Previous Meeting
   The minutes of the meeting of February 4, 2003 were approved as written.

2. Review of Reference Service: Assessment of User Needs
   In preparation for our March 4^th meeting with CNAC, we considered what we want to learn through an assessment of user needs as they relate to reference service. Focusing on broad - or high-level outcomes, we identified the following three questions that an assessment should answer.

   • What needs for reference service do users have (as expressed by themselves, rather than us)?
   • How satisfied are our users with our current service?
   • What modifications to current service would users like?

   A bit more specifically, we’d like to answer these questions:

   • Are we offering the right level of service? (We’re using the term “level” to refer to getting the answer vs. providing instruction, and providing the right amount of information.)
   • Are we offering service during the right hours?
   • Are we responding in the right time? (We have two things in mind here: how long people have to wait for help and, once they get help, how much time the transaction takes.)
   • Are we using the right delivery methods? (i.e. in-person at a reference desk, in-person consultation, telephone, email, paper mail, on-line chat.)
   • Are we offering service at the right place? (This overlaps somewhat with delivery methods, and may prove not to be a separate question.)

   Other things discussed included:

   • A project charter for assessment work will need to be prepared before we launch into an assessment.
   • What user groups should we include in the assessment? We’re leaning in the direction of focusing primarily, if not exclusively, on the UW community, but recognize that we have some obligations to others. We’ll discuss this further at the March 4^th meeting.
   • What methods should we use for the assessment? A survey is one method, and probably the one that most quickly springs to mind. But there are other ways as well and we should consider some of these.

3. Work Breakdown Structure
   Deferred due to time constraints.

Next Meeting: March 4 at Porter, room 428. Topic: Joint meeting with CNAC to discuss assessment of user needs.