Coordinating Committees
User Services Coordinating Committee (USCC) Meeting
Minutes, January 11, 2008, 10 AM – 12 PM
Present: Steve Frye, Barb Bren, Renee Buker, Ella Cross, Dave Dettman, Leigh Dorsey,
Lisa Jewell, Jill Markgraf, Nick Weber, Valerie Malzacher
Absent: Jana Reeg-Steidinger
Guests: Paul Moriarty
Call to order: Meeting began at approximately 10:10 am.
1. Approve Minutes from 12/14: There were no corrections or additions to the Minutes of 12/14/07. Minutes were approved and will be sent out to the larger group and posted on the CUWL Website.
2. Announcements: Lisa Jewell was introduced. Lisa will be working full time with UW libraries in the areas of electronic collections, implementation issues, and technology projects. Lisa succeeds Lori Docken.
Steve reminded the group that meeting minutes are posted on the main CUWL site. There is a link to the minutes in the WIKI. This process of sharing minutes will be reviewed in the summer.
3. Feedback concerning 12/14 web conference presentation on iSkills: Steve queried the group to determine if we felt that the FreeConference.com software for meetings and presentation is sufficient to meet our needs. The presentation participants and presenter agreed that the software is user friendly and works well. It was the group’s consensus that presentations should be given as important topics arise and / or there is new information to share.
4. Discussion: New working group on distance library services: Steve presented the idea of creating a new standing group under the auspices of the USCC to address distance education issues and concerns. This group will be made up of interested distance education liaisons across the state. A debate ensued concerning if the group should have both their own email distribution list and space on the WIKI.
It was agreed that for now a new email list will not be created but space on the WIKI will be provided. Paul agreed to check on an “experts” list that was recently created by Marlys Brunsting at UW-Green Bay to see if it contains contact information for people responsible for distance education at institutions across the state.
Volunteers to serve will be sought. Jill related that she has a list but it may be no more current than 2005. Steve stated he will use this list as a starting point to make contacts and let distance education liaisons know that they have an opportunity to communicate with colleagues across the state via the CUWL WIKI.
5. Discussion: Membership of working groups: Steve posed questions concerning the process of acquiring new members for the various working groups. It was agreed that anybody interested in becoming a member would be added to the group. It will be the responsibility of the group’s chair(s) to contact them and to add them to the WIKI.
It was agreed that working groups should keep minutes of their meetings and post them on the appropriate WIKI space. This requirement should be written into each group’s charge.
6. Discussion: Working group charges (including timelines): The group reviewed the first draft of working group charges. All submitted a first draft except the Information Literacy Assessment group who stated they would have a draft ready for review at the next meeting. Draft charges can be viewed at the User Services section of the CUWL WIKI at http://cuwlwiki.wetpaint.com/.
The group agreed that it is important to included language in the charges indicating that a final “product” will be provided by the working groups for the review of the larger CUWL community. It is also important to have a flexible timeline to adjust to possible changing expectations of the CUWL group at large.
Steve suggested that it would be useful for each working group to provide a bibliography of published literature with their final reports.
It was agreed that the chair(s) of each working group will be in charge of determining how often the group meets. It was also agreed that each USCC meeting will include working group updates.
Steve shared a retreat experience that he and other librarians in Madison had recently that involved a “database showdown” where MetaLib, Google Scholar, and a native interface of a popular database were compared. Using clickers the audience had to pick which results they thought were the best for a late sophomore / early junior research project. MetaLib was selected as the best in all three rounds.
It was noted that MetaLib does not allow the user to limit to full text which can result in frustration of a researcher on a small campus who continually only gets an interlibrary loan option. It was agreed that this sort of activity should serve as a model for future MetaLib usability testing for the campus communities we serve.
7. Discussion: CUWL "conference" scheduled for June 3/4 in Madison: Steve asked the group to start thinking about appropriate keynote presentations and how we want to handle working group meetings. It was suggested that the working groups could provide the larger group with preliminary reports. It was also suggested that it would helpful to build in time for roundtable discussions that would highlight the progress of the working groups and serve as an opportunity to gather information and feedback from interested parties.
It was suggested that a possible keynote topic could be the next generation of discovery tools. Steve commented he has a possible speaker in mind who has given a similar talk at UW-- Madison. Another suggested topic along the same lines was a presentation that examines user expectations juxtaposed with current library tools.
There were no additional comments or announcements.
Meeting Adjourned at 11:50 AM.
Recorder: Dave Dettman