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Reference and Instruction User Group Fall 2006 Minutes

Tuesday, October 24, 2006
11:15 am - 1:45 pm


MINUTES Draft

  1. Opening Remarks: Kathleen Daniels (MCT) reminds the group that she is not the real convener anymore. Pete McDonnell (IHC) and Ruth Anderson (MHS) are the co-conveners, and Pete had to teach a class today.

  2. Recorder: Jennifer DeJonghe (MTR)

  3. Additions/ Changes to agenda:
    • Kathleen Daniels (MCT) proposes a discussion item (9b) if time allows: Wants to look at using proxy server for Netlibrary - Rod Bruce can talk about it. Agenda approved as amended.
    • Announcement: there will be a short break at 12:40, we will reconvene at 12:45 for joint meeting with the Cataloging User Group.

  4. Approval of April 2006 Reference minutes:
    No comments or changes.
    Move to approve minutes. Seconded.
    Minutes approved unanimously

  5. Task Forces. Kathleen Daniels noted that the first couple of items on agenda were common to all user groups:
    1. Review revised Task Forces Process Document for Approval:
      Kathleen Daniels mentioned that earlier on the 24th there was a suggestion that task force memberships be representational of types of libraries. She wondered if we should we suggest that, approve or reject?
      • Motion to approve the task force be approved with change that suggests representational membership. Motion Approved unanimously.

  6. Steering Committee Discussion
    1. What is the role of the Steering Committee? Role of steering committees: should they continue as they are?
      • Ann Nelson moved to agree with motion made yesterday that all user groups have steering committees, Randi Madisen seconded.
        • Mary Jane Striegel asked "How can we say that all user groups should have a steering committee? Shouldn't we just comment on our own?" Kathleen Daniels clarified that the questions is about governmental structure.
        • Barbara Carroll (DCT) also noted that it is just a recommendation that we are sending on- we are not deciding that each group should or shouldn't have a steering committee. However, she felt that if there is a steering committee in one group, there should a steering committee in all.
        • Bobby Bothmann (MSU) said that before we vote on whether a group should have a steering committee, we should agree on their purpose and what they do. He noted that one thing that has been discussed is to make it mandatory that steering committee members take minutes at these meetings and wondered if that is the only purpose of a steering committee - if not, what they should do?
        • Ann Nelson mentioned that yesterday they discussed the specific tasks that steering committees should do and came up with four tasks that were very clear and specific and if you have a search committee that should be their purpose. These were:
          1. Find a convener for the group
          2. The secretary is elected by that group
          3. Ultimately make decisions sent to them
          4. Assist on getting the agenda together for the committee
        • Mary Jane Striegel noted that the ILL group discussed the role of a steering committee and that the current and former convener came down on side of not having a steering committee because they had a difficult time getting volunteers. The group came up with the idea to elect 3 people representing library types, they would decide who would be the convener.
        • Kathleen Daniel's opinion as prior convener for two years is that a steering committee taking on those roles would be helpful. It can be hard to organize things yourself. A suggestion was made that it might be helpful for time set aside for steering committees to meet at the User Group meetings.
        Motion passed.

  7. Aleph v. 17 OPAC Discussion
    1. MnPALS Web OPAC Preview by Perry Madden (PALS)
      • Perry Madden (PALS) noted that so far he hasn't had a lot of time to do customization to the web OPAC pages. You can see it if you go to: http://lute.msus.edu/ and scroll down to the version 17 web servers.
      • He noted that all libraries look identical right now - the local logical bases are there. Collections can be seen under limits on advanced page, otherwise it looks the same.
      • Perry has several pages of recommendations from the Access Task Force plus there are the changes to version 16 and 17 to implement. Perry will work to implement as many recommendations and new features as he can before switch to production in January. In November he will send out a list of customizations that each library can do to their web OPAC with a form you can send back to him with local customizations, a "hit list" of things you can change.
      • Mike Barnett wanted to point out that almost every html page has changed in version 17. 20-25 percent of the pages have disappeared and 20-25 percent are new pages. There is a list of about 120 html pages that have changed. He had to start from scratch, and retrofit some of the changes to get the new version to look similar to version 15. In the future, the group will have to consider how many site specific changes and customizations there should be, because it slows down the implementing of new versions. If Ex Libris continues to make large numbers of changes to the base html set, the group will need to figure out a way to handle this.
      • Perry Madden noted that in December he will try to put as many of those prior changes in their so each institution's web opac looks the same as it did. Logical bases will all come over, drop downs are already over.
      • Sheila Hatchell (MHS) noted that the group has been talking a while about allowing sites to customize their own versions and wondered how what Mike was saying impacts that. Mike Barnett noted that sites can customize, but that it slows down future implementations and that should be considered.
      • Bobby Bothmann (MSU) stated that since all institutions are different and have different needs, we need to be able to allow for customization. We have to balance the time issue with that.
      • Becky Schwarzkopf (MSU) stated that we need to step back and look at the face of the catalog in a different perspective. As someone in reference, she looks at it as: "how do we serve our public?" She suggested that we need to be making the catalog the best for them and the needs they have and those needs are different depending on your library. She said that libraries have things they want to change and have been waiting to be able to do so.
      • Perry Madden (PALS) asked the group if there were specific things about the OPAC that is making their jobs hard. (People interjected things here -Filter and Revise, "Save on Server.")
      • Keith Ewing (SCS) noted that MATF has been discussing this issue and that it is hard to get communication on this and similar issues with the full User Group.
      • Kathleen Daniels said that it was her understanding that the MATF is going to be in charge of looking into group consensus changes to the OPAC. She wondered about how the User Group and Task Force should be working together?
      • Perry Madden (PALS) brought up something new in version 17: On the basic and advanced search pages, you will be able to choose your logical base to search as part of the search instead of having to specifiy it prior to the search.
      • Jim Byerly (MNDot) suggested that the language change from "change the base" to something more understandable.
      • Perry Madden (PALS) noted that EndNote will be supported in version 17.
      • Keith Ewing (SCS) stated that he wanted to see more direct support for RefWorks in version 17.
      • Ann Nelson Asked whether the pace of version changes would continue to be as fast (1 or more per year) once we were on V18. Becky Bell (PALS Office) said yes - that Ex Libris comes out with a new version every 18 months, and we will probably be upgrading about once a year until we are caught up.
    2. Next Generation Opac (Jennifer DeJonghe - MTR)
      • Presentation is available here.

  8. PALS Report - Perry Madden (PALS)
    1. PALS Report and Work Plan.
      Perry Madden (PALS) noted that the reference report begins on page 18 of the       Support and Training Services Report, and asked if anyone had any questions or comments. There were none.
    2. Syndetic Solutions Follow-up (action item)
      • Perry presented a price list of what it would cost us to put the Syndetic products on our web pages. He showed a spreadsheet with the standard price and volume discount price. Libraries can also request quote per library (price is based on your bib records count) The cost would be $104,500 per year for all of the areas for whole consortium. Can also pick and choose from at least 5 services and still get discount price).
      • Someone wondered about the group doing planning on future of MnPals consortium and if we should we pass this on to them for consideration and study.
      • Bobby Bothmann (MSU) suggested that an RFP is needed to look at different proposals and different products and solutions.
      • Randi Madisen was not sure many of the catalog enhancements would be useful for a law library.
      • 18 libraries indicated by a show of hands that they are interested in next-gen catalog products.
      • Debbi Brude (AHT) made a request to send to executive committee to investigate our options, possibilities for funding and possibilities for collaboration. She stated that she wanted to know details of what exactly you would get with these products.
      • There was a lot of discussion about whether or not institutions would want to adopt this individually or as a consortium. Many people agreed that more research needs to be done considering the cost and the fact that budgets are falling behind. Also wondered if the exec committee should investigate or if User Group should have more knowledge first before asking that.

  9. Reference Meeting Adjorned, followed by joint meeting of Reference and Cataloging User Groups.

AGENDA
  1. 11:15 Opening Remarks - Kathleen Daniels (MCT)

  2. Recorder
    Please identify yourself when speaking at the meeting to ease the recorder's job. As the recorder you may ask someone to repeat their comment or verify your notes.

  3. Additions / Changes to Agenda

  4. Approve Spring Minutes - April 20, 2006

  5. 11:25 Task Forces
  6. 11:35 Steering Committees Discussion
    • What is role of Steering Committee?

  7. 11:45 Aleph v.17 OPAC Discussion
  8. 12:10 PALS Report - Perry Madden (PALS)
    • Work Plan
    • Syndetic Solutions Follow-up (Action item)

  9. 12:30 Breakout Session Topics
    • Brainstorm new breakout topics

  • 12:40 Break to pick up lunches

  1. 12:45 Reference / Cataloging Working Lunch
    (See their     agenda)

  2. 1:45 Reference Meeting Adjourns

Discussion Notes for Agenda Items:
  1. A Task Forces Policy Document written by the User Council and last revised on September 14, 2006 is on the PALS website at:
    http://www.pals.msus.edu/pals/policy/tf20060914draft.html
    The User Council requests that each Task Force review the document for clarity and asks for comments and suggested revisions as it applies to the work of your Task Force. Discussion of this document will be a common User Group agenda item. The User Council will follow up with the suggestions from the Task Forces and the User Groups at its November meeting.

  2. Steering Committees Discussion The Steering Committee is described within the MnSCU/PALS Governance Structure on the web and was last revised May 2002:
    Each user Group shall have a Steering Committee, which is responsible for organizing and conducting the meetings of the User Group. The Steering committee shall comprise up to six members selected by and from the User Group. Each User Group shall determine the method of selecting its Steering Committee members. One of the members of the Steering Committee shall be selected by the Steering Committee as the Convener, who shall also be the Convener of the User Group; the Convener shall be selected for a two-year term. The Steering Committee is responsible for designating someone to act as Secretary of the User Group and of the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee shall keep minutes and distribute them to members of the steering Committee and to others as appropriate. The Steering Committee shall meet at least twice a year; these meetings may be in person or by conference call.

    Action: Discuss topic. Convener will take any comments and suggestions back to the User Council.

  3. Syndetic Solutions
    Peder Christensen from Syndetic Solutions presented information about his product at the Spring 2006 Reference User Group meeting. His Powerpoint presentation (converted to PDF) can be found at     http://www.pals.msus.edu/pals/minutes/ref0604syn.pdf

    Action Item: The PALS management team would like a recommendation from the Reference Users Group as to whether we should pursue adding this to the MnPALS Web OPAC. Information on costs, benefits, etc., will be discussed during the Reference Users Group. The recommendation will be forwarded to the Executive Committee's Strategic Planning group that will be meeting in November.

  4. Breakout Session possible topics (summarized from Fall 2005 User Groups). The idea was to offer breakout sessions at future Reference meetings. A narrowed-down list could be decided upon, and communicated to the User Council.
    1. Information Literacy:
      1. Delivery of instruction, tying into courseware such as D2L, use of tutorials, other examples;
      2. Status of Info Lit standards in MnSCU; definition of Info Lit, handling of credit courses in Minnesota Transfer Curriculum;
      3. Assessing effectiveness of delivery for both course-integrated and stand-alone courses.
    2. X Services:
      1. Integration of Aleph with other products/services: vendors, SFX, etc.;
      2. Analysis of how users are using the database - what could we learn and how could we apply this to development?
    3. Reference or Instruction:
      1. Issues surrounding virtual reference service-licensing, cooperation, and cross training of staff;
      2. Focus on the new structure of reference service (virtual, e-mail, in-person, phone, consultations, info commons), and how workflows can be adapted to the changes;
      3. Reference demonstration for users, how to use various tools.
    4. Aleph training/Tips:
      1. Information on customization options (e.g., search examples on web OPAC).
      2. (Possibly part of 1., above) Sample training demos (for example, using Captivate.) Interest in training demos that libraries would be willing to share.
      3. Best practices for setting up logical bases.
      4. Information on the differences between WebPALS and MnPALS.

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