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Information Services and Resources, Dana Porter Library
Departmental Meeting
January 8, 2010
Dana Porter Library Room 428
10:00am – 12:00pm
Minutes

Present:  Annie Bélanger (chair), Michael Bustamante, Helena Calogeridis, Nancy Collins, Marian Davies, Jane Forgay, Alison Hitchens, Tim Ireland, Christine Jewell, Sandra Keys, Judy McTaggart, Leeanne Romane (recorder), Janet Wason, Agnes Zientarska-Kayko.

  1. Minutes from November 13, 2009 approved with minor edit.

  2. Business Arising from the Minutes

    3. Information Desk pilot amended:  the last Sunday shift of the term has been removed from the schedule.
    Action: Judy will make changes to signage
    Action: Annie will notify Susan and Jennifer

  3. Additional Agenda
    1. (7e) Lexis Nexis (Annie)
    2. (7f) Heat at the Information Desk (Annie)
    3. (7g) Decision requested on whether to remove old Rotary File from Information Desk (Marian)
    4. (7h) LC Classification sign and LINC promotion (Marian and Nancy)
    5. (7i) Primo/Trellis session (Tim and Alison)

  4. Introduction of Michael Bustamante (Tim)
    1. Tim introduced Michael, the new Co-op student for Porter ISR.
    2. Michael described himself as a 1A Mech Eng student who is a self-directed learner and a perfectionist. His interests lie with programming (HTML, CSS, Java, PHP, and Touring), game creation, and he was the webmaster of his high school website.
    3. Michael has had his training with Sarah Martin (Circulation) but still needs his training with Library Systems.

  5. Noise at the Information Desk (Janet)
    Janet commented that there has been an increase in noise on the main floor in the last year. This noise consists of machine noise (equipment at Browser’s Café) and people noise (people standing and talking loudly in the lobby, group gatherings and conversations near the Information desk that make it hard for staff to help patrons in person or on the phone, and loud talking at the banks of computers). Janet asked the group for suggestions on handling the noise:
    1. Use headset for phone calls while at the desk,
    2. ask those leaning or standing near the desk,“Is there something I can help you with?”, which tends to send them on their way,
    3. library provides a staff member to monitor the main floor for noise,
    4. better signage about appropriate behaviour,  
    5. staff bothered by the noise can speak to the ‘offenders’.
      Action: Annie will inquire about getting staff training for dealing with problem users in the library.
      Action: Annie will investigate use of a ‘white noise machine’ at the desk.
      Action: Annie will continue discussions with Mark Haslett, Sharon Lamont and Alex McCullough on environmental issues and policies at Porter.

  6. Blackwells and YBP (Annie)
    1. YPB bought Blackwells, but our rep, Sylvain, will remain on with YBP as the Director of Canadian Sales. He will also remain the TUG rep.
    2. Blackwells UK will continue to supply us with UK titles.
    3. The migration to YBP will occur by the end of March (tentative)
      YBP will translate Collection Manager profiles to GOBI, and meetings will be arranged with each liaison librarian to edit profiles.
    4. Staff questioned whether librarians could choose either Coutts OR YBP for Canadian titles?
      Action: Annie will raise the possibility with Susan and Jennifer
      Action: Annie will investigate getting report from YBP to compare the offering of Canadian titles between YBP and Coutts.
      Action: Training for OASIS (Coutts collection manager tool) will be arranged.

  7. Administrative Matters (Annie)
    1. Performance Appraisals
      1. Deadline for Annie’s submissions to Susan is February 15th.
      2. Annie went through the form and made suggestions for completing document: content should be succinct, and you may use bullet form, look back, but also look forward; identify areas in which you need more support (ie: training, development, opportunities), list 2 or 3 items per section.
      3. Action: staff need to fill out Performance Appraisal forms and submit completed form one day before scheduled meeting with Annie
      4. Action: Beginning week of January 18th, staff are to schedule meeting with Annie to discuss their Performance Appraisal.
    2. Technical Co-op projects
      1. Project requests must first go through the co-op supervisor (Tim).
      2. Add  project requests to the Co-op Project List on Sharepoint (Porter > Administrative > Planning).
      3. Potential projects are: screen casting and LibGuides.
    3. Book Budgets
      1. It is unlikely that over-commitments will be allowed this year.
      2. Liaisons can meet with Debbie Tytko to discuss timing of expenditures.
    4. MLIS Co-op
      1. Annie is preparing a new proposal and needs to know what potential projects could be included. See proposal on Sharepoint (Administrative > Coop > Request 10/11).
      2. Action: Send project ideas and feedback on the proposal to Annie.
    5. Lexis Nexis interface
      1. Staff are to continue using current interface while learning the new interface.
    6. Heater at the Information Desk
      1. Thanks to Tim for picking up the departmental heater for the Information Desk.
      2. The last person on the desk for the day brings the heater into the ISR office.
      3. Tim reminds everyone that the heater must remain upright or it becomes a fire hazard.
      4. Complaints regarding heat need to be sent to Annie then to Eric
        If Annie is unavailable at the time of the complaint, email it to Eric and cc Annie.
        Include your phone extension in your complaint email.
    7. Rotary File (Marian)
      1. Decision requested: The Rotary File at the Information Desk is outdated and not longer used…what should be done with it?
        Nancy offered to take the outdated rotary file.
    8. LC Classification Sign and LINC Promotion (Marian and Nancy)
      1. Decision requested: Can the LC sign also be used for  the LINC workshops sign?
        It was agreed that the sign holder would be used for LC on one side, LINC workshops on the other.
    9. Primo/Trellis session (Tim and Alison)
      1. Tim and Alison are providing a session on January 15th, from 10-11:30am in the Flexlab.
        Session will cover how to use Primo for the searches you would do in Trellis.
      2. Librarians were encouraged to send session announcement to their faculties.

  8. Around the table
    1. Nancy: update on Scopus Ambassador program.
      Interviews with grad student applicants were conducted and an offer was being made.
      Ambassador would again have office in Davis
    2. Nancy: update on UW branding and logo information
    3. Alison: collaborative testing for v.3 of Primo is commencing
      Alison is going to Jerusalem to participate in this collaboration
    4. Alison: the co-op student for Cataloguing is Christina Zoricic. Christina is a library student from the University of Western Ontario.
    5. Alison: reminder to all that the Health Services people are currently housed on the 5th floor of Porter.
    6. Tim: the screencasting group is meeting with other screencasters on campus.
    7. Tim: in collaboration with the Writing Centre, Tim is conducting an Academic Referencing session for students, faculty and staff.
    8. Tim: is in discussions with Glenn Anderson of IST to set up a registration system independent of LINC.
    9. Annie: a Porter Signage Project is underway, with Marian, Annie, Janet and Nancy on the team.

The next meeting is a Joint Meeting with Davis ISR, on January 22nd.


October 7, 2011