Present: Christy Branston, Helena Calogeridis, Judy McTaggart, Jim Parrott, Susan Routliffe (Chair), Mary Stanley, Jackie Stapleton, Linda Teather, Melanie Watkins, Rose Koebel (Recorder)
Regrets: Richard Pinnell
Guests: Susan Bellingham, Michele Laing
Minutes of Previous Meeting
The minutes of the meeting of September 23, 2003 were approved.
Electronic Reference Collection
The e-reference collection was identified as one of the upcoming topics for discussion at the June 18, 2002 meeting. ISMC wished to get a better understanding of the issues associated with the e-reference collection and considered how these issues might be resolved. Michele Laing, a member of the TUG Electronic Reference Collection group, joined us for this discussion. Helena indicated that the group needs terms of reference including a statement of purpose, and a statement about the scope of the collection. In addition, there are no guidelines for the evaluation of reference resources. Questions regarding scope have arisen within the group; for example should a category be broadened? The group takes submissions from anyone via a link on the e-reference collection’s web page. It is left to the discretion of the selector responsible for a category as to what resources are included in that category.
ISMC suggested that:
Helena will take this discussion back to the Electronic Reference Collection Group.
Laptop Configuration
Students frequently have difficulties configuring their laptops for wired or wireless use in the Library. ISMC configured a laptop borrowed from Systems to test the instructions provided by both IST and the Library. There was a suggestion to add the initial set-up statement included on the IST instructions to those provided by the Library. Jackie will consult with Doug on this point.
Reference Philosophy
ISMC reviewed the draft statements proposed by Jim, Helena and Jackie. It was suggested that the reference philosophy statement focus more specifically on the Library’s role within the University. In addition, we need to recognize that there are times when we instruct our users in finding information, and times when we get the information for them, thereby fulfilling an immediate need. It was suggested that the reference philosophy statement capture the following elements:
Jackie, Jim and Helena will re-formulate the wording of the draft statement to include the above elements.
Reference Review: Next Steps
The Committee reviewed the next task on the work breakdown structure: document components of current service. Judy agreed to collect data for the past fiscal year with respect to hours; service locations; methods of delivering service; categories of statistics maintained; staffing models/levels; and number of staff. She will collect information for all locations, including Special Collections, Optometry and UMD.
ISMC, as a group, will gather the information for the infrastructure support and skills required categories.
Other Business
There have been recent incidents when the EZProxy server shut down during the past two weekends. Linda reported that the EZProxy software was upgraded to address the problem. In addition, an alert system that monitors EZProxy every few minutes and emails all Systems staff if a potential problem is detected has been implemented. Systems will restart the service if it goes down. It is hoped that these measures will prevent the lengthy outages experienced in September from recurring. Linda indicated that the proxy service has been very stable and has not required any special after-hours support arrangements. She will review this with Systems Managers.
Next Meeting: November 4, 2003 at Porter. Topics: data gathered for reference review; content of UW Library website.