Porter ISR
Minutes of the Meeting
Friday, March 11, 2005
Present: Christy Branston; Helena Calogeridis; Marian Davies; Christine Jewell; Sandra Keys; Judy McTaggart (Recorder) Erin Murphy; Mark Polger; Shabiran Rahman (Facilitator); Carol Steele; Baiba Turner; Marina Wan; Janet Wason
Regrets: Margaret Aquan-Yuen, Rachel Caldwell, Jane Forgay, Val Huggan
1. Minutes of the Previous Meeting, February 25, 2005:
Item 9, Around the Table:
2. Business Arising :
Erin referred to Dan Sich’s email message about adding the location limit to the Trellis record for items located in Career Resources. She has not yet received feedback from Career Resources.Marian noted she hoped to have the signs for the printers updated shortly. She will also look into creating a sign that could be used at the Information Desk during those times when staff are away from the desk for a short period (e.g. short break during evening shift, etc.). She also suggested that signs for “no fluids at the terminals” be created. This prompted a discussion about the Library’s policy regarding drinks in the Library and how this could be monitored effectively. Marina noted she is not aware of any policy that Systems has regarding this issue. Action: Marina will consult with Systems to see what the policy is on drinks by the computers.
Helena reported she has contacted LINC about the creation of a display to advertise the Librarians’ liaison service. Linda Hastings has started to work on a poster mock-up and other committee members have passed on some ideas. Any additional suggestions would be welcomed.
Jane has consulted with Dan Sich and Betty Graf about having an item’s floor location indicated on the TRELLIS record. This cannot be done currently (due to technical issues and it would be a labour intensive project); however, it is recognized that this is a problem. Shabiran noted this may be pursued at a later date.
Judy noted that Sasa was continuing with his observations of the desk “”traffic flow” for the desk staffing pilot. In addition, he will monitor the telephone activity for any observations that might be useful for the telephone reference pilot. Sasa has been sitting behind staff at the desk in order to better observe the telephone activity. Concern has been expressed that this location makes him quite visible and he could easily be approached by users with reference queries. Any responses he might give could skew the statistics being collected for the pilot. As well, it was felt that some staff might feel uncomfortable having an individual sitting behind them at the desk.
Action: Judy will follow-up on this.
Erin commented that on occasion - when the public terminals are busy - she will let a student use the second workstation at the desk to conduct their research. She asked for feedback on this practice. The group discussed the issue and the question of whether this might be a possible security issue was raised. It was also noted that the terminal would not be available for the backup desk person to use when called to the desk to help a patron. It was suggested that reserving a terminal near the desk or making the signs on the express terminals more visible might help. The group agreed that the real issue is the need for more terminals.
Marina reported on the development of the joint WebOps/Porter ISR co-op student position. Applications have been screened and a decision should be made by Monday. The student will be housed in the Davis library.
Christy, Janet and Helena will be interviewing co-op students in London for the Porter ISR contract position. This student will concentrate specifically on work related to Government Publications. This is an 8 month contract position and Christy will be the supervisor.
There was discussion about the need to lock the Porter ISR office door when Department meetings are held. Now that Val is attending the Department meetings, the office is vacant during that time. It was noted that non-ISR staff on the desk may still need to have entry to the office and should have a key. It was agreed that the door should be locked and an extra key provided for the person on the desk (the desk scheduler could ensure the key is given to the staff member at the desk during the meeting).
Action: Shabiran will look into getting an additional key.
The remainder of the meeting focused on reviewing the draft document “Planning for the 6 th Decade”. The changes recommended by the group were saved to a disc. There was insufficient time to complete the document and it was agreed that a special meeting would be set to complete the exercise.