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CUWL User Services Coordinating Committee (USCC) Meeting Minutes
February 8, 2008 10 AM TO 12 PM

Present: Steve Frye, Barb Bren, Ella Cross, Dave Dettman, Leigh Dorsey, Lisa Jewell, Jill Markgraf, Jana Reeg-Steidinger, Nick Weber, Valerie Malzacher

Absent: Renee Buker

Call to Order: Meeting began at approximately 10:05AM

1. Minutes from 1/11 Meeting: There were no corrections or additions and the minutes were approved.

2. Announcements: Steve reminded committee members that the registration for the next LOEX Meeting opens today at noon. The meeting will be held in Oak Brook, IL this year on May 1-3. Room for attendees fills up quickly so Steve encouraged those that want to attend to be ready when registration opens.

Steve reported on the CUWL meeting from January 23rd. He gave a report at the meeting on the progress of the USCC—the working groups are getting started, the CUWL Wiki is a place for CUWL members to follow the progress of the committees, the iSkills presentation was well received, and the USCC is in the process of setting up a Distance Learning Standing Group with the liaisons from each of the UW campuses.

The chairs of the CUWL Summer Conference will be meeting on Monday, February 11. A thread of program suggestions has been started on the CUWL Wiki. Steve asked that we add any suggestions we might have. In addition to the joint sessions at the conference, there will be breakout sessions for each of the CUWL Coordinating Committees, as well as the working groups of each committee. Steve suggested that this would be a good time to have a one page summary of the progress of each committee ready.

3. Working Group Reports: Steve suggested that as each group is reviewing their charges and setting up their timelines they should also try to fit within the timeline followed by the CUWL Directors. He suggested that a one page summary be prepared for the summer conference and that a final report be ready for the Director’s meeting in June.

Information Literacy Assessment (Dave): The group will have its first teleconference meeting at the end of February. The working group’s charge, which was a collaborative effort, was posted on the wiki. The members of the group have discussed what the scope of their charge should be and recognized that information literacy is not only a library focus but a campus-wide focus, as well. The group will look at 3 standardized tests: iSkills, Project Sails, and Information Literacy Test (ILT). They will take each test and compare them, look at data from them as well as conduct a literature search. Nick asked if the group was going to look at other approaches in addition to the standardized tests. A discussion followed on doing an environmental scan versus a survey to see what each of the campuses is doing in terms of information literacy. Steve suggested the use of SurveyMonkey via the UW System account. Nick will contact Lisa Jewell regarding its use.

MetaLib Assessment (Steve): Terri Muraski from the Technology Initiatives Committee is now a member of this group. Steve has a student (Joia O’Brien) that will be doing a practicum with him and Valerie also has a student assisting with MetaLib at UWRF. Both students will assist with some of the work of this group so they will be added as members. Maureen Olle-LaJoie from UW-River Falls will also be joining the group. Steve and Valerie both have bibliographies being developed on metasearching—they will compare both and will also develop a usability protocol by the end of March. Valerie asked if one more member could be added to the group.

New Reference Models (Jill): The group will have their first teleconference meeting on February 15th. In the meantime, they’ve been reviewing the charge and have determined that they need to pare it down and focus on what can reasonably be accomplished this year. It was noted that the charge for this group was extensive and the goals were very ambitious. Discussion followed on the use of FreeConference for the group meetings and Steve gave some tips on its use.

Web 2.0 Tools (Nick): The group reviewed their charge and used that as a basis to determine what 2.0 tools they should look at. They will be doing an environmental scan of all the UW campuses to see what each is using. Each member of the group has been assigned specific campuses for review. They will also conduct a literature search. Nick asked what the final reports should look like. What info do the Directors want? Discussion followed on what to include in the reports, such as what tools are being used, how they are used and if they are working well. Steve gave the example of a tool called Jing, used in capturing and sharing images and video.

4. Distance Learning Standing Group:  Formation of this group is still in progress. Leigh will work with Steve on this. Marc Boucher, who had been leading the CUWL Distance Learning Task Force, will be leaving the UW System.

There were no additional comments or announcements.

Meeting Adjourned at 10:54AM.
Recorder: Leigh Dorsey