Public Services Committee Meeting: August 1, 2013

CARLI Office, Champaign

Members attending: Rebecca Brown (College of DuPage); Anne Buchanan, by phone (Saint Xavier University); Rosanne Cordell, by phone (Northern Illinois University); Paula Garrett (Illinois Math and Science Academy); Andrew Lenaghan, by phone (Joliet Junior College); Jennifer Sauzer (Columbia College); David Stern, chair (Illinois State University)

Members absent: Leslie Rios, Lincoln Land Community College; Marianne Ryan, Northwestern University

Staff attending: Debbie Campbell, Elizabeth Clarage

Guest: Susan Singleton, CARLI Executive Director

Announcements

  • Susan Singleton, Executive Director of CARLI, explained that the CARLI committee reorganization is intended to increase communication and coordination and to be more inclusive of members who are not I-Share participants. To aid communication, committee minutes should be shared more quickly and broadly; as such, minutes should be posted to the website within a week and should summarize discussions as well as decisions.
  • Meeting planning should be done earlier and following the CARLI event planning timeline: 4 months advance notice of plans for Forums, 6 months advance notice of details for continuing education programs that require resources and and outside speakers (These types of supported events require review and approval by the Program Planning Committee). The Board encourages joint program planning and recognizes that Open Houses are popular events.
  • A reminder: CARLI staff are available for local conversations.
  • Susan floated an idea about a joint IACRL pre-conference on Assessment. She noted that there are over 70 people on the Assessment interest group email list at the moment. She thought it might be interesting to emphasize satisfaction with particular practical tools/methods currently being used within CARLI libraries. It was also noted that the Instruction group is already planning assessment webinars for the future. Any proposal would need to be presented to the CARLI Program Planning Committee by October 20. David will contact the other Committee chairs to see if there is interest in working together on such a proposal.
  • White Paper charge for the group ... Conduct an examination of the field within the scope of committee's charge to identify trends, technologies and challenges. Prepare a white paper for the Board of Directors suggesting specific activities or general trends with which CARLI needs to be knowledgeable and engaged in the next 1-3 years. Due by May 30 for the June 2014 Board meeting.
  • CARLI Update: The server has been migrated from Solaris to Linux. Oracle, WebVoyage, and the Voyager client are showing significantly improved options and response time, but the real test will come during the semester under real load. The loading of records is much faster, and patron loads are faster as well. VuFind was already very fast, so you may not notice a difference. Customized option upgrades are on-track.
  • CARLI Consortial Ebook Demand-Driven Pilot update: There is no contract yet, but plans are for MARC loads that allow a gradiated viewing/purchasing model. We are not sure how long the designated funds will last, and this will be a topic for further study by our consortial Collection Development folks. It was determined that individual book PDA is more efficient for our consortia than ebook package purchases.

Discussions

  • Minutes: David Stern was selected to take minutes.
  • Charge: We reviewed the Public Services Committee charge in terms of trend spotting, training, communication, and holding physical and virtual education sessions.
  • Communications (review of tools and rules)
    • Email List : A closed list used for internal group communication
    • Our work space for draft minutes, possible themes/projects, etc. (Minutes: a draft will be posted by the rotating member within one week, an email will be sent to the group asking for review and comments to be made and a signoff on the bottom by all members by the next Friday; on the next Friday a "Draft" copy will be posted on the public web site; a final copy will be approved at the next meeting.)
    • Committee Website: The public location for our member contact information, charge, minutes, project reports, and other materials. We reviewed the preliminary CARLI Products & Services section of the public web site proposal, and we were comfortable with the proposed structure with the following modifications: ask Instruction to remove the word Reference, ask for Scholarly Communications link to be added to our Patron section, and consider the categorical term Patron Resources.
    • Public Services Interest Group list (publicservice-ig): This list is used to communicate with our interested audience, and to obtain important feedback. We can create threaded discussions from this tool.
    • This site will hold links to any threaded conversations to allow people to track comments on a particular topic.
  • Highlights from Previous Years
    • 2011: Clearinghouse of Access Services policies.
    • 2011: Chicago State, Open House on Space Considerations.
    • 2012: Joliet Community College, Forum on Faculty Collaborations; and a webinar on Space Modifications.
    • 2012: Begin the creation of a web space for contributed Space Modifications videos (YouTube loading best practices being developed).
  • Other Committees' discussion topics
    • Resource Sharing: Ebooks and DDA investigations, Open House but not yet completely described.
    • Instruction: Fall webinar series on assessment, Spring Open House/Forum Instruction Showcase, Assessment Interest Group contact/conversation has begun.
    • Preservation: Collection assessment for preservation purposes.
    • Collection Management: Weeding and relocation (NW weeding, U of Chicago storage facility); PDA (possibly a webinar) -- local implementation plus updates to CARLI print and ebook consortial projects.
    • Created Content group: Analytics and efforts to publicize digitization products; and session on training and copyright permissions (as a web site, not as a f-2-f session)

Decisions

  • Possible Project Proposals
    Other possible topics for consideration:
    • Matrix to share best applications/tools plus summaries of satisfaction and contact names (Jennifer)
    • Access Services - how do fewer librarians in units affect their operation, management, training, etc.(not yet assigned)
    • Access Services - security concerns (Becky)
    • Presenting complex research options most simply on a web site (David)
    • Assessment topics that do not end up on the IACRL presentation list (Reference, Space review process, Feedback, signage, circulation, website, staffing/budgeting, ebooks/reserves/textbooks)(not yet assigned)
    • Other topics for later consideration: PDA and ebook implications, iPad/laptop checkout
    • White paper to be discussed as we move further along in our planning.

Tasks Assigned

  • David will contact the other Committee chairs to see if there is interest in working together on an IACRL joint pre-conference on Assessment ...(identify most logical Public Services areas, recommend an Overview session about why/how/tools)
  • Elizabeth and Debbie will work with the CARLI webmaster to create Public Services webspace to post the Library Space videos. At the next meeting, the committee will follow-up on the space videos web site (completion of best practices, load the first few videos, and begin promotion).
  • Elizabeth will post the meeting dates/times to the CARLI calendar.
  • Volunteers noted above under "Possible Project Proposals" will upload their short outlines in the Themes area of the PSC wiki for further consideration at our next meeting.

Meeting Dates & Deadlines

  • CARLI Annual Conference
    • November 1, 2013, Hilton, Champaign
    • Theme: Research on consortial activities.
    • August 15 deadline for submissions.
  • Meeting dates:
    • Our meeting times are proposed for the 3rd Thursday of the month, 1:30-3pm
    • Proposed dates (exception dates have astericks): Sept 19, Oct 17, Nov 21, Dec 12*, Jan 16, Feb 20, March 13*, April 17, May 15, June 19
    • Our next meeting will be September 19 at 1:30pm. The URL and phone numbers are TBD.