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CUWL User Services Coordinating Committee (USCC) Meeting Minutes
October 10, 2008, 10 am-11:26 am

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

Reports submitted by working groups were discussed:

1. Distance Library Services
The group’s members are finding the discussions at their bimonthly meetings useful. A suggestion was made that the group discuss strategies for providing library services to consortial programs, e.g., nursing.

2. New Reference Models
The report notes a trend toward merged service desks that often are not always staffed with librarians, but the group’s survey of UW libraries did not show that any campus was eliminating a reference desk altogether. A question was raised about the effect of of these changes on the service patrons receive, which might be an interesting topic to investigate in the future.

3. Information Literacy Assessment
The group will be adding a conclusion to its report. There is not a standardized assessment instrument that will be recommended for all System libraries, because differences among campuses are such that a particular instrument would not be appropriate in all settings. Dave Dettman said that on his campus the standardized test served the purpose of showing that library instruction is effective, so that he could go to departments to discuss what instruction could do for them. The discussion also has moved from assessing just library instruction to considering the library’s role in the students’ education overall, because librarians provide instruction outside of formal sessions, e.g., at the reference desk and in consultations. A better measure might be the end result: how students perform in their classes. There was a brief discussion of the campuses that had used the assessments, although no UW has used ILT. In the future it may be helpful for campuses to share what other forms of assessment (other than these standardized tests) are being used so that others may consider whether those efforts would be useful on their campuses.

Two working groups’ reports are not yet complete (MetaLib Assessment and Web 2.0 Tools). They will be discussed at the next USCC meeting.

Other discussion:

Jing: Some librarians have been using Jing to make simple screen capture videos that are saved on Jing’s server. The link to these videos can supplements chat sessions, shortening the typing that has to be done to explain how to do something. But some librarians also create these videos on the fly to supplement face-to-face reference interactions or library instruction sessions.

Information Literacy: It’s important for libraries to have discussions with general education on campuses so that both are “on the same page” as to what information literacy means. The phrase “information literacy” has worked its way into some accrediting bodies’ documents, and then it comes to the attention of campus administrators.

Next Meeting: The USCC’s next meeting will be on Friday, November 7th. Time and location will be confirmed as soon as Steve Frye receives confirmation, but will likely be noon-3pm at the WLA site (Madison Marriott West, Middleton). At that meeting the two remaining working group reports will be discussed, as well as the committee’s projects and objectives for the remainder of the current year.

The meeting adjourned at 11:26am
Recorder: Barbara Bren