Porter ISR

Minutes Of The Meeting

Friday, December 2, 2005

Present:                  Margaret Aquan-Yuen; Christy Branston; Rachel Caldwell; Helena Calogeridis; Marian Davies; Jane Forgay; Alison Hitchens, Val Huggan (Recorder); Christine Jewell; Sandra Keys; Kevin Manuel; Judy McTaggart; Erin Murphy; Mark Aaron Polger (Facilitator); Shabiran Rahman; Carol Steele; Baiba Turner; Marina Wan; Janet Wason

1.       Christy’s dry run of presentation for the Gaming Symposium

Christy will be speaking at a Conference on Gaming in Libraries:  http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/~cbransto/branston.ppt

2.        Approval of the Minutes of the Meeting of November 18, 2005

           Approved.

3.        Business Arising

           Alison will distribute the Journal Article in the University of Toronto Alumni  Magazine “The Infinite Library”

           Shabiran stated that Reference Assessment will be discussed at another meeting.

Shabiran reported that the Pre Performance Review meetings are going well.  She noted that this year there may be a hange.  The Review would go to the Supervisor’s Supervisor before going to the incumbent.  This is still under discussion.  The department felt that it should stay the way it is.

4.               Update from the Department Head ( collections maintenance project, librarians’ meeting, processing of gifts, vacation time, Kresge day off)

                  In light of space shortages in the Library stacks, IRMC is spearheading a project to identify duplicates that might be weeded. The project will target materials that are located in Porter and Davis and fall between the LC call number ranges Q and QR. This will involve about 1100 titles. A list will be generated that shows each item, the number of times it has been charged out since 1998 (TRELLIS’ genesis), and the date it was last charged out. Porter and Davis selectors will work together to determine the best future for these duplicate items. The project will be undertaken between Dec 2005 and the end of February 2006.  This exercise will help selectors establish criteria that will streamline the process of dealing with duplicates in other call number areas and other areas of the Library system.

              Shabiran noted that the librarians for Davis and Porter met November 18 and agreed that the present time Library Associates should not be involved in Library Instruction, however a recommendation was made that Associates in ISR should have a career path by which they are able to move from USG 6 to USG 7 similar to the librarians career path.  Shabiran has already communicated this to Susan Routliffe.

                  Rachel mentioned that the E-mail Reference Group met last week to discuss Docutek.  A report will be created tentatively before the new year.

                  Shabiran reported on the Virtual Reference Desk Conference she attended.

                  Processing Gifts

                  Leslie is getting a lot of duplicates.  It was decided that searching needs to be done at a much better level.

                  Shabiran will be leaving on vacation on December 15th and will return to work on January 6.  Jane Forgay will be filling in for Shabiran while she is away.

                  Consult with Shabiran when and how you would like to take the Kresge day. 

5.               Winter Desk Schedule (Marian and Judy)

                  Marian will be the desk scheduler for the winter term and is in the process of preparing the schedule.  Judy noted she has reviewed the data collected from the backup pilot project of last winter and has identified specific times that warrant scheduling a backup person.  The statistics indicate that the time period between 12 noon and 3 p.m. are consistently busy enough to have a regularly scheduled backup.  The time spans between 10:30 a.m. – 12 noon and 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. are very inconsistent and much less busy and does not indicate that it is necessary to schedule a backup.  Judy noted, however, that rather than eliminate a backup completely during these time slots it would be wise to have someone available for assistance should the need arise.  A revised schedule that takes these factors into account was proposed.  The new schedule proposes scheduled backups between 12 noon and 3:00 p.m. and “floater” positions between 10:30 – 12 noon and 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.  Judy also noted the arrangement of this desk schedule would offer a greater degree of flexibility and could possibly allow those interested to take a term off the desk.  Marian asked everyone to email their preferences to her (i.e. on desk, backup, floater, term off desk, interest in email reference).  She will then draft a schedule taking these preferences into account.

6.               Reference Assessment

                  Deferred until next meeting

7.               Training Circulation staff for handling reference questions (Janet)

                  Deferred until next meeting.

8.               Noise on the Second Floor (Marian) 

                  Marian has posted signs on the large table.  She asked staff on the information desk to inform her or Shabiran if there is any noise.

9.               Information Literacy Seminar (attended by Helena)

                  Deferred until next meeting.

10.            Around the Table

                  Erin informed us that there is another net work printer on the 3rd floor so people don’t have to come to the second floor.

                  Val will train staff on the Information Desk on how to fix uncomplicated paper jams on the public printer.  The more complex paper jams will be handled by systems.

                  Shabiran noted that LT3 will be putting up a permanent sign as to their location.

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