Coordinating Committees

CUWL User Services Coordinating Committee (USCC) Meeting Minutes
March 14, 2008 10:00am-noon

Present: Steve Frye, Renee Buker, Ella Cross, Leigh Dorsey, Jill Markgraf, Jana Reeg-Steidinger, Valerie Malzacher.
Absent: Dave Dettman, Barb Bren, Nick Weber.

1. Announcements: None.

2. Working Group Reports:

Information Literacy Assessment (Ella). Members: Ella Cross, Dave Dettman, Kathie Mason, Sarah McDaniel, Cristine Prucha, and Ann Vogl.
The group met March 11th to discuss their charge and assign tasks to analyze three standardized tests that have come to prominence and are available for purchase: iSkills - Dave and Cris. Project Sails - Kathie and Sarah. Sarah will gather additional information from UC-Berkley. Information Literacy Test (ILT) - Ann and Ella. Dave will develop a survey draft based upon UW-Green Bay’s information literacy survey.  Suggestions regarding survey content should be sent to Dave. The suggested survey target audience: instruction/info lit coordinators from each campus. 

Metalib Assessment (Steve). Members: Steve Frye, Valerie Malzacher, Ronna Hoeper, Scott Silet, Terri Muraski, Maureen Olle-LaJoie, Joia O’Brien.
The group met twice via teleconference conference. Each member will read assigned articles from Metalib Assessment Bibliography and note articles containing assessment protocol and mark in bold significant content. Then each member will read the bolded articles to take note of important assessment protocol in preparation for the next group meeting to determine an appropriate assessment protocol for Metalib. The assessment will be done at a number of campuses and in phases. An anticipated challenge is to acquire meaningful comparable data due to extreme variation of the Metablib interface among participating campuses.

New Reference Models (Jill). Members: Kimberly Bartosz, Patti Becker, Renee Buker, Jill Markgraf, Nancy McClements, Albert Quattrucci, Jana Reeg-Steidinger.
During the group’s teleconference meeting, the charge was reviewed. The two-fold immediate focus entails development of a bibliography of relevant literature and a survey for each campus regarding current reference services. The group’s wiki includes a survey question repository. Jill reported that a UW-Eau Claire LTE (UW-Milwaukee SOIS graduate) is extensively contributing to the bibliography. She also suggested using flickr for reference area photos from individual campuses. The group’s next meeting is April 16th 6:30pm at the WAAL Conference.

Web 2.0 Tools (Barb). Members: Barb Bren, Patricia Fragola, Leah Ujda.
At their February meeting, the group developed a survey sent to representatives from all campuses. Survey results are posted to the group’s wiki page.  Steve asked if the USCC wiki was advantageous; positive responses affirmed wiki use.

3. Distance Library Services Standing Committee. Membership includes a DE representative from all campuses: Renee Sikma, Jill Markgraf, Anne Kasuboski, Stefan Smith, Renee Buker, Heather Weltin, Leigh Dorsey, Rick Krause, John Leonard Berg, Brad Gee, Aaron Nichols, Jana Reeg-Steidinger, Ella Cross, and Kyle Naff.
The organizational meeting is April 21st 11:00am at which time the group will draft a charge, determine standing meeting time and frequency.

4. Summer CUWL Conference. June 3-4. Steve reported a draft of Conference plenary sessions, break-out sessions, and round-table sessions is available from the USCC wiki. Suggestions are welcomed.

5. CUWL and Advantage Wisconsin. Steve and Valerie reported on a new DIN, Advantage Wisconsin: Growing the Research Infrastructure, to be considered by chancellors at their upcoming meeting.  Following is a portion of the executive summary:

In a Web-enabled world researchers must have instant access to digital content to drive their findings forward for the benefit of Wisconsin.  In support of Advantage Wisconsin the University of Wisconsin System requests $9,000,000 GPR/Fees to expand the research enterprise across all UW institutions. This funding will be used to acquire electronic content in areas of new knowledge for all students and faculty/staff, and to expand access to Madison’s electronic collections for faculty across the UW System.

CUWL forwarded a copy of the DIN narrative to library directors requesting them to meet with and encourage their chancellor to support Advantage Wisconsin. Valerie reported that Ed Van Gemert, Ken Fraiser and Kathy Pletcher are developing a DVD which promotes the cause.

6. Libraries “five years from now.”  Ken Fraiser based a recent presentation on the future of libraries upon his observations http://www.taigaforum.org/documents/ProvocativeStatements.pdf Group agreed library directors can be out of touch with ongoing library practices and projects. UW-Madison librarians have initiated regular informational meetings with their director. The College’s library director works the busiest reference shift to stay in touch.  Although our practices have changed with technology, libraries are busier than ever. We need to prove through assessment that our professional tasks are vital.

7. USCC Get-together at WAAL. The group will convene April 16th 7:45pm for a social meeting.

8. The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, April 11th, 10am-noon.


Recorder: Jana Reeg-Steidinger