Porter ISR

Minutes of the Meeting

Friday, May 6, 2005

Present: Margaret Aquan-Yuen; Christy Branston; Rachel Caldwell; Jane Forgay; Val Huggan (Recorder); Christine Jewell; Judy McTaggart; Erin Murphy; Mark Aaron Polger; Shabiran Rahman (Facilitator); Carol Steele; Baiba Turner; Marina Wan; Janet Wason

Regrets: Helena Calogeridis; Marian Davies; Sandra Keys

Remarks from the facilitator: Shabiran welcomed Kevin Manuel who is a Library Intern working in Porter ISR until December 23.

1. Minutes of the Previous Meeting, April 8, 2005
   
   The minutes were approved.
   
   
2. Business Arising
   

   Jane reported that thanks to Rachel Caldwell’s recent write-up of NetLibrary http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/newsitems/netlibrary.html, staff can get a good summary of the product and how it works. As far as information on the workflow regarding ordering, acquiring, and cataloguing NetLibrary items, Debbie Tytko is still working on these in consultation with Carol Steele and others.

   Marina reported that systems won’t be opening the help desk during lunch hours, they said the statistics from reported problems don’t support this. We may like to look into a peer assistance program.

   Action: Shabiran and Marina will discuss this with Linda when she returns from vacation.

   It was advised that we should leave a message with systems and report all problems we might have during the lunch hour and use the emergency procedure if needed.

   Christy will forward to the Porter ISR Department the recommendations for the laptop procedures that Sandra and she discussed.

3. Report Telephone Reference and Discussion (Mark Polger: 20 minutes)
   

   Mark made up a table of the responses, advantages and disadvantages of managing telephone reference. Unofficially we all voted for Circulation as the first point of contact.

   Action: Mark will continue to do more research to look at the library menu at 4883 and will send out an e-mail with 3 models of how the new simplified menu will look.

4. Report Information Desk Pilot and Discussion (Judy McTaggart and Marian Davies: 20 minutes)
   
   Judy distributed the report of the pilot project findings prior to the meeting. The findings were discussed and it was agreed to continue with the pilot in the fall term in order to gain additional information about how the service is working. Before the pilot begins, Judy will write up guidelines and distribute.
   
   
5. Around the Table (Only information provided, all discussion postponed to the next meeting)
   

   Marina reported that chat and e-mail reference using Docutek will begin on May 16.

   Marina and Shabiran will meet with the E-mail Reference Group to finalize the procedures. The Chat Reference schedule will be on-line and will be maintained by Val and Marian.

   Erin pointed out that for the months of May and June she will be off Monday and Tuesday, working Wednesday to Friday. Erin reported that the International MLA Bibliography is now available through the CSA Interface. Erin and Helena will agree on revised wording for the data base description which is linked to Research Data Bases page and still refers to the old Silver Platter Interface.

   Rachel reported that she won’t be in the library Tuesdays until the end of July.

   Kevin Manuel thanked everyone for welcoming him.

   Shabiran reported that Daspina Fefekos will be helping Carol with Bib searching one day a week starting on May 11.

   Shabiran noted that instead of sending out a collective message for the 2005-2006 holidays Val will be informing individuals of their vacation credits.

   Shabiran pointed out that the coffee shop problem has been resolved to the satisfaction of library staff.