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Present: Annie Belanger (chair), Marian Davies, Jane Forgay, Anne Fullerton, Jennifer Haas (chair), Laura Howell, Rebecca Hutchinson, Tim Ireland, Christine Jewell, Sandra Keys, Connie Kovac-Hill (recorder), Zsuzsanna Lancsak, Martha Lauzon, Kathy MacDonald, Judy McTaggart, Doug Morton, Leeanne Romane, Jackie Stapleton, Carol Steele, Jonathan Sutherland, Kathy Szigeti, Janet Wason (recorder), Margaret Yuen, Agnes Zientarska-Kayko

Guests: Colin Fitzsimons, Roslyn Keller, Rose Koebel, Esther Millar, Maria Reinhard, Al Smith, Larissa Smyk, Peter Sterling, Cornelia Tiba, Liz Wehner

1. ISR Training Committee – Changes (Margaret/Kathy M):
   Margaret reported that the Training Committee is making changes because (a) the current terms of reference reflect neither their present activities nor the tasks they should be doing; (b) workload-related issues are of concern. As a result of discussions, changes have been proposed for the terms of reference and for the training procedures for new staff (which currently takes about 7 weeks).
   
   
   • The committee’s primary focus is training for ‘desk-related’ delivery points, including Chat and E-mail reference. The name will be changed to ‘Information Services Delivery Training Committee’. The responsibility for training for liaison functions rests with the department heads. The committee will work closely with the department heads to determine appropriate programs and responsibilities. For example, arranging information session on activities around campus, such as the change at Graphics, could fall to the department heads.
   • The committee will look after the policy and procedures manual and keep training materials up to date.
   • In order to address departmental workload issues, the membership will be reduced to five from the current six. Two each from Davis and Porter ISR – the chair, and ISR librarian, will be one of these. The fifth member will be a non-ISR staff member who serves on an Information Desk. There is a flexibility to add another non-ISR member if not enough ISR members are available.
   • They will continue to be responsible for the training retreat, primarily focusing on topics that support work at the information desk, with the flexibility to include other items if appropriate.
   
   Action: The committee will consider adding examples to clarify points in the terms of reference.

Kathy discussed the proposed training approach using the draft training schedule for MLIS Co-op students as a model (see document attached below). The intent is to focus on key resources, especially for staff here for a short time only, and to reduce the amount of training time, for both trainee and trainer. The committee proposes that training be divided into four knowledge/skill areas, with a mentor for each area. The topics outlined on the current training list would be slotted into one of the four areas. Training would vary according to the trainee’s position – MLIS co-op student, Library Associate, or Librarian.

• It was suggested that one function of the mentor would be to determine when the trainee was ready to move to the next level. A mock reference interview or a pre-and post-test via FluidSurveys could be used to assess learning.
• The supervisor is the over-all mentor. However, different individuals might manage the 4 training areas depending on their expertise; it is unlikely that they would be members of the training committee. It was suggested that there be a supervisory checklist that includes training in other areas such as WHMIS and AODA.
• This new approach might not lessen the amount of time a liaison librarian spends with the trainee, but the subject guides do highlight the core reference books and online resources.

2. FIMS Co-op student – Annie/Jennifer
   The FIMS Co-op job is at the ranking stage. The student is scheduled to start in January for 8 months. The student will work for both Porter and Davis ISR. Twenty percent of the job will be public-facing – staffing the Davis Information Desk and assisting with library instruction; the remaining eighty percent will be spent on special projects related to collections assessment and policy, e.g.:
   
   
   • Collection Retention Policies

   Project Goals: providing guidelines for collection maintenance and retention activities for print collections, which could assist in reducing the space crisis mode of collection review;

   Tasks: complete the collection retention policy toolkit; assist the librarians with the creating of the collection retention policies; assist with the creation of the collection retention rules document (for Circulation Services) associated with the policies, in collaboration with the librarians

   • Abstracts and Indexes (A&I) Databases Analysis

   Project Goals:  Identifying A & I with unique content and search tools, (e.g. thesaurus), and overlaps amongst A & I and full-text tools; provide background information.

   Tasks: analyze the A & I databases that Waterloo subscribes to locally and through OCUL, and explore impacts of a Deep Search tool on A & I licensing.

   One suggested project, to be considered for the succeeding co-op student, would be collections assessment against approval plans.

3. Campus Web Redesign (Annie)
   The Campus Web Redesign project has merged with the CMS (Content Management System) project. Campus units must participate in the centralized CMS in order to get the new design.

The queue for CMS will be: Main redesign launch; Faculty ENG; Faculties; Departments. Nothing further is known in the cue. Up-to-date information can be found at www.web.uwaterloo.ca. For the campus web redesign, there will be a phased protocol to align existing ‘common-look-and-feel’ (CLF) to the new site for non-CMS sites.

Web Redesign: phased protocol to align existing CLF to new site for non-CMS sites. This includes, which WebOps hopes to implement:

• New worldmark
• New global header
• New branding colours
• Wider content areas

The current library website has over 5,600 public-facing pages. In preparation for CMC, WebOps is working on proposals for: User needs assessment; usability testing, navigation redesign; exploring audience gateways; micro sites; revising current content and developing new content.

General discussion points included:

• LINC has initiated discussions about the web redesign
• The Primo homepage is scheduled to be changed with the upgrade in January
• In response to a question about implementing Drupal ourselves, Annie responded that this has been discussed, but the issue is having the staff to support it. A better use of staff time is to focus on content writing in preparation for the University initiative. It is estimated that an interim re-design, built on a mirror site and including usability testing would take 1.5 years.
• The Witer Learning Resource Centre website has to change along with the Faculty of Science website. WebOps should consult with Kathy M. (Optometry) re: information architecture.
• The implications for staffing in Library Systems were discussed. It was noted that there have been campus discussions about centralizing campus systems staff within IST. Jennifer listed a number of the projects that Library Systems is currently engaged in: LibQuest and LibWork; Primo issues; E-theses projects and issues including upgrades for D-Space; Library single sign-on; automatic proxying: ERM which only the University of Waterloo uses, but which is maintained by University of Guelph; screencast video player.

4. YBP Review (Jennifer/Annie):
   Heather from YBP will be on Campus December 1-3. Jennifer will let librarians know about the meeting structure.
   
   
5. Code Words for Info/Circ Desk (Jennifer):
   Jennifer will e-mail the information on this because of time constraint.

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