Coordinating Committees
CUWL User Services Coordinating Committee (USCC) Meeting Minutes
February 13, 2009 10:00AM-12:00PM
Present: Steve Frye, Barb Bren, Ella Cross, Leigh Dorsey, Lisa Jewell, Valerie Malzacher.
1. Additions: There were no additions to the agenda.
2. Announcements: Valerie Malzacher reported that UW River Falls will again be setting up a table in the Student Center a week before and a week after Spring Break. A brief discussion followed on the plusses of providing a Library presence in other venues on campus during this critical time of the semester. Steve will be sending out a reminder about the February User Services Forum.
3. MetaLib Final Report: Steve and Valerie gave the background to the report. A large portion of the working group’s time was spent on the development and implementation of a protocol to assess MetaLib QuickSearch sets from the user’s perspective. They conducted a literature review and selected 12 articles that were relevant to their goal.
The User Assessment Protocol consists of 5 sections-Librarian Directions, Pre-Task Survey, Participant Directions, Participant Worksheet, and Post Task Interview. The directions and questions used at River Falls were included in the report as an example of how to carry out the protocol. The methodology used, Pre-Task Survey results, Research Task observations, Post-Task Interview results, and the conclusions from the River Falls assessment were described.
The general conclusions and recommendations in the Final Report were discussed. The conclusions are that undergraduate students generally prefer using QuickSearch to using individual databases and that instruction improves their understanding and successful use of QuickSearch. The working group recommends that some of the other UW campuses implement the protocol and share their results to help develop a “culture of assessment” in the UW System Libraries. Another recommendation is to allow individual campuses to name/label buttons and links that are suited to their campus setting. The assessment at UW-River Falls pointed out that the FindIt! Button is not as intuitive as previously thought and this is an example of the importance of allowing campuses flexibility in experimenting and changing labels and doing further assessment to meet the needs of their community.
Further discussion revolved around the various levels of campus implementation of MetaLib. Lisa Jewell also announced that there will be refresher training for all aspects of MetaLib, starting in March. The Final Report will be presented at the April CUWL Meeting.
4. Resource Discovery Exploratory Task Force: Steve reported on the progress of the Task Force. Pages on the CUWL WIKI were reviewed--Various Resource Discovery Systems and Resource Discovery Product Matrix. The questions were posed as to the goal of a new resource discovery system--is it just a new OPAC or does it go beyond that? Should we start with one of our biggest vendors that students really seem to like? Some of the products available were discussed, including WorldCat Local, Extensible, Endeca, and Summon. Money and staffing are issues that need to be considered when implementing the new Resource Discovery tool. It was suggested that support for the Libraries is something that the UW System will need to address. The final report is due by the end of June. Steve is asking that other campuses volunteer to host focus groups about Resource Discovery tools. These focus groups will need to be done by mid-to-late March, in order to be included in the final report.
A question about system reimbursement for incentives used in focus groups was posed. Lisa Jewell was going to check on the specifics and report back to the USCC group.
5. June Conference: Steve reported on the progress of the June Summer Conference. He asked for more ideas for topics. Possibilities include LibGuides and D2L Integration. A report on the Document Delivery Project will probably also be included.
Recorder: Leigh Dorsey