Information Services Services Management Committee

Background

The Systems Liaison Working Group is being established to address four recommendations made in the ISMC Report on Improving the Working Relationship between the Information Services and Resources Department and the Systems Department. Section 1 of the report, Establishing Procedures, notes that:

"During ISMC's discussions it became clear that ISR staff do not know how the Systems department assigns priority to requests for support or what the priorities are once they have been established. This is a source of frustration because people do not know how their requests fit in with others or when those requests will be filled. At the same time, it became clear that ISR does not have a systematic, department-wide method for collecting and discussing requests in order to establish what priority each request has for the department before submitting requests to Systems. As a result, ISR requests are submitted by individuals who each see their requests as high priority and who become frustrated when they aren’t necessarily treated as such. As a further result, no individual or committee in ISR has a comprehensive picture of what the department is expecting Systems to do on its behalf at any point in time."

The Report includes a number of recommendations intended to improve the way in which priority is assigned to requests. The Systems Liaison Working Group will undertake work to address the following recommendations:

1. Clarify what types of requests are appropriately submitted directly to Systems by individuals and what types need broader discussion within the department before they are submitted. (Systems and ISR)
2. Determine the level or levels of priority that will generally be assigned to requests submitted directly by individuals. (Systems and ISR)
3. Develop a process within ISR for collecting, discussing, and assigning departmental priority to requests requiring broader discussion. (ISR)
4. Develop procedures for submitting requests requiring broader discussion to Systems and for letting all members of ISR know what requests, with what level of priority, have been submitted. (Systems and ISR)

Responsibilities

Preliminary

1. Work with Systems to determine what types of requests are appropriately submitted directly by individual staff members and what kinds should be discussed within ISR before submitting to Systems.
2. Develop guidelines to be used for assigning departmental priority to requests before they are submitted to Systems.
3. Develop a mechanism through which ISR staff members may submit requests for Systems support (this is not intended to include requests appropriately submitted to the Help Desk).
4. Work with Systems to develop a mechanism to be used for submitting ISR requests and establishing their priority within the larger context of Library-wide requests.
5. Establish a mechanism for keeping ISR informed about requests submitted.

On-going

1. Collect requests from ISR and assign priority using established guidelines.
2. Submit requests, with an indication of the priority assigned by ISR, to Systems and work with Systems to develop time frames within which each request will be handled.
3. Keep ISR informed about requests submitted and expected completion dates.
4. When requests cannot be acted upon within the expected time, work with Systems to establish new time frames.

Membership, Reporting, and Term of Office

The Group is a sub-group of ISMC consisting of two members of ISMC, one from Davis and one from Porter. The Group will regularly update ISMC. The initial term of office will be one year but this will be reviewed in a year as part of a general review of the Group.