Minutes of the Meeting of April 4, 2007
2:00 - 3:30 pm, Davis Conference Room
Present: Chris Gray (recorder), Tim Ireland, Esther Millar, Bill Oldfield (facilitator), Dan Sich, Charles Woods.
Absent: Doug Morton
- Minutes of the meeting of March 21, 2007
Approved with minor corrections.
- Business Arising
4 - Charles reported that Guelph is no longer subscribing to CSA MultiSearch federated search now that the OCUL project has been abandonned and the mailing list decommissioned.
#2(7) - There was some interest in a further Wiki instructional session expressed from Special Collections, Systems, and UML.
Action: Dan will try to schedule a session an notify those interested.
Action: Bill will talk to Alex to make determine interest from Circulation, if any.
- Agenda review
Added Web statistics and Lib Web Review.
- Wikis, Blogs, and Podcasts (Bill)
Bill talked to Allan about official support of the initiatives in this area. Allan replied that he needs to know (1) the proposed purpose for these technologies in the Library and (2) the results of the trials.
These technologies are in need of official administrative support to ensure stability, security, and quality assurance. It is unclear who is responsible for content and technical maintenance.
For Wikis it is unclear what the best uses are, for instance, targeted at a specific group or open for contributions from anyone or a publication medium for the Library as a corporate body. Without managerial support, the staff committment needed to make these successful is a concern.
- Widgets (Dan)
Dan demonstrated the three top custom page applications: Google, Netvibes, and PageFlakes. PageFlakes proved harder to use. Dan has created search Widgets for Google and Netvibes.
It was proposed to begin phasing in the proposed changes by adding the Scholars Portal quick search to the Library's site.
- Flickr/slide.com library tours (Dan)
Dan demonstrated the photo tours of the Davis Library he has put together using Flickr pictobrowser and slide.com.
He is awaiting feedback from LibWebReview.
- CNAC User Satisfaction Report (Tim)
Tim reported that the survey showed low user satisfaction with the TRELLIS Catalogue. One recurring problem seems to be students trying to find journal articles via the OPAC.
- Web statistics
There were a few responses to our request for people's needs for Web stats. Linda Teather mentioned ARL statistics she prepares annually. Allex McCulloch wants to know how often Circulation Web pages are visited.
The question arose as to whether Web site usability issues can be revealed by statistical tracking.
- Web Review
Some updates from Lib Web Review are documented in their minutes.
Bill has been given the mandate by Allan to review the Library's use of the Web and its method of managing the Web site and address the current problems of managing it with two committees that have little real authority.
- Around the Table
Tim: The Library Outreach group has reacted favorably to the YouTube proposal. Tim may be looking for funding from Mark. Audio/Visual has offered use of its resources.
Chris: WordPress MU (multiuser) was successfully installed. Some further configuration is necessary and then library staff will be able to create blogs at will.
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May 2, 2007
