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Information Services and Resources, Dana Porter Library
Departmental Meeting
October 29 , 2010
Dana Porter Library Room 428
10:00am -12:00pm
Minutes

Present:  Annie Belanger, Helena Calogeridis, Nancy Collins, Jane Forgay, Alison Hitchens, Rebecca Hutchinson, Tim Ireland, Judy McTaggart (recorder), Carol Steele, Janet Wason, Margaret Yuen, Agnes Zientarska-Kayko

Regrets:  Marian Davies, Christine Jewell, Sandra Keys, Leanne Romane

  1. Approval of the previous Minutes of October 1, 2010
    The minutes were approved.

  2. Business Arising From the Minutes
    Item 4, Around the Table:
    • Information desk service on Easter Sunday:  The scheduling team is proposing some revisions to the desk scheduling guidelines.  The group will be meeting with Annie and this item will be part of the discussion
    • G20 report:  Annie submitted the report to Mark Haslett.  She will send it out to the Department
  1. Instructional Load & Statistics (Annie):
    Anecdotally, instruction has been on the rise.  Annie would like to have more data to explore ways to support the department during the busiest time of the fall term (Sept.-mid-Oct.).  She will be preparing a report to present at the Department Manager’s meeting in December and would like to have an accurate picture of this term’s activities.  She asked for details on the kind of data people are keeping and how statistics are being recorded.  The following points arose from the discussion:

Annie asked everyone to send her their consultation statistics for the term by the beginning of December (how many and by week).  Instructional sessions should be recorded using the LINC form.  She also asked the Library Associates to send her the number of hours they assisted with instructional sessions.  These statistics will help to build a complete picture of the Department’s activities during the Fall term.

  1. Porter Reference & General Collections (Jane):
    1. Keeping the Reference Area Relevant:
      Jane initiated a discussion about the importance of the print Reference collection. She asked for ideas on things that could be done to ensure this area remains relevant and up to date.  Some thoughts were:

      • each subject librarian might examine their specific areas of the collection and promote the resources – e.g. thru LibGuides
      • we need to find ways to showcase the Reference collection
      • it is important to ensure the area is kept clean and the shelves dusted

    2. Porter Ref/Gen fund and wish list priorities:
      The Porter Ref/Gen wish list needs to be built up now.  A substantial amount of money is available due to the cancellation a few years ago of a large microfiche collection (Envirofiche).   In addition, Porter and Davis both get $8,000 for purchases.  Purchase recommendations should be sent to the Porter Ref/Gen committee by the beginning of December.  IRMC also maintains a wish list that an item could be added to if it doesn’t fit the Ref/Gen fund.  Annie noted that Oxford Handbooks Online has new instalments available.  She will send the details to selectors for discussion.

  2. New Program Reports (Annie):
    Annie is creating a template for the New Programs reports.  She asked for feedback about what is needed and what is not in the existing model.  There was agreement that the form needs to be condensed and refinements made to the language. It was suggested that similar refinements should also be made to the existing templates.  Ideally, the finished document should be less than 2 pages.  The template will be reviewed by IRMC.

  3. Administrative Matters:  
    Approvals (Annie):
    YBP reps are coming December 1st – 3rd for a profile review.   Some progress has been made with Coutts but it has fallen off.  Annie has been in touch with the Coutts rep and is awaiting a reply.  There was discussion about other methods of getting approvals (e.g. BNAQ)

    ISR Session on Citation Tracking (Margaret):
    Kathy McDonald gave a LINC session on tools used for citation tracking and is willing to offer this session to ISR.  Margaret asked if this would be of interest and, if so, is it something that is needed by all staff serving on the Information Desks?  It was agreed that a hands-on session would be good and it would be useful for all ISR staff (rationale:  having a good understanding of citation tracking can assist in helping a student move forward in their research).

  4. Around the Table:
    Jane created 4 modules (using UDLEs) for History 110 which was offered through UW-ACE.  She has drafted a retention policy document for both History and Political Science.  Leeanne has also drafted one for English.  They will be showing these to the selectors to see if they can be of use.  Annie noted that the co-op student in January will be working on a retention policy project.

    Carol has assisted with several instructional sessions this term.  She has also been busy obtaining items in electronic format for students in the Adaptive Technology Centre.  Requests are up 40% over last fall.  She will be trained as the Porter administrator for LibQuest.  There will be a migration of Sharepoint in the near future and it is unclear what impact this will have on her work.

    Helena noted she and Jane had been working with an International student during the summer and all the completed work now has to be put into RefWorks.  The German Canadian Bibliography site is generating interest from the public and requests for research assistance are being received.  A message has been added to the website stating that research is not provided; and, links are being provided to where the patron might find the information.  Helena gave 3 grad sessions in September and October and created LibGuides for each.

    Alison reported that the earliest the new Cataloguing rules will be implemented will be Spring.  A training committee has been formed to address training needs.  Cataloguing is focusing now on what needs to be done regarding electronic resources.  She is a member of an ad hoc discovery and access committee for electronic resources.

    Rebecca noted she has had lots of opportunity for instruction.  She has designed a Health assignment, analyzed data from LINC assessments (pre and post assessments) and, worked with Laura Howell doing screencasting for the web 2.0 program. 

    Tim gave several undergrad sessions for Psychology & Sociology, RefWorks and (with Nancy) sessions for Arts Orientation.  He developed a LibGuide for RefWorks and was invited to give a session for the Neuroscience student journal club.  He provided sessions at WatITis and the CTE/OND conference and submitted a proposal for the upcoming staff conference.  He noted the screencasting working group would like to work on creating something similar to the “library minutes”.  He has also been conducting interviews (along with Kai) for the next co-op student.

    Nancy reported the button campaign has been going well and the buttons are going quickly.  Any feedback that is received from students should be given to her.  More information about the campaign will be displayed on the digital display unit.  Posters are also available.  Nancy is a member of the International Education Planning Committee and has been co-teaching (with the Centre for Career Action) sessions on working abroad.  There will be a survey to evaluate the “News@YourLibrary” newsletter in the November issue.  Google Analytics and focus groups will be used for analysis.   She also had an in- class visit for Drama 301, Dramaturgical Analysis.

Next meeting:  November 12
Recorder:  Janet


February 3, 2012