Reference Coordinators’ Committee

Teleconference Meeting

March 28, 2002, 10:00 a.m. - Noon

 

M I N U T E S

       

 

Present:          Chris Chamnes (UW-Colleges)                  Mimi King (UW-Eau Claire)

Anne Kasuboski (UW-Green Bay)           Randy Hoelzen (UW-La Crosse)

Ed Van Gemert (UW-Madison)          Vanaja Menon (UW-Milwaukee)

Sara Neises (UW-Oshkosh)                       Cynthia Bryan (UW-Parkside)

John Leonard Berg (UW-Platteville) Valerie Malzacher (UW-River Falls)

Axel Schmetzke (UW-Stevens Point)       Jana Reeg Stidinger (UW-Stout)

Ella Cross (UW-Superior)                           Lorie Docken (UW System Administration)

Barbara Bren (UW-Whitewater)                Paul Moriarty (CUWL Chair)

 

 

1.     Welcome and Introductions

 

Lorie Docken welcomed the group to the initial meeting of the Reference Coordinators’ Committee (RCC) and each person introduced them selves and what their responsibilities were in their library.  Lorie also introduced Paul Moriarty who is the current chair of the Council of UW Libraries (CUWL).  Paul expressed his appreciation for everyone’s willingness to participate in this important new standing committee of CUWL.   He regretted that they were unable to have a face-to-face meeting but hopefully this will be possible after May 31^st.

 

Paul Moriarty agreed to take the minutes for today’s meeting.

 

Lorie suggested that if there was no objection, that the next agenda item should be a review of the 2001-03 Strategic Directions for UW Libraries since that would set the framework for the discussion during the rest of the meeting.

 

2.        Review of the University of Wisconsin Libraries Strategic Directions for 2001-2003

        (http://www.uwsa.edu/olit/cuwlweb/strgdr03.htm)

 

Lorie reviewed the strategic directions document and indicated the following sections were especially relevant to the work of the RCC:

 

        STRATEGICHIC  DIRECTION 2:

 

·  Provide a variety of research and searching tools to allow online catalog or web access to the breadth of digital information and identification of the broad array of locally owned paper and multimedia resources.

Actions:  

Ž   Investigate software that allows searching across multiple electronic resources.

Ž   Investigate and support campus IT units’ incorporation of library access into campus portals.

Ž   Incorporate new interoperability standards such as the Open Archives Initiative, Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) and XML into library access technology.

 

·  Identify and develop policies, funding sources, and resource sharing mechanisms that will adequately serve students and faculty in a distributed learning environment.  

                                Actions:

                                Ž   Support remote access to licensed electronic resources.

Ž   Seek CUWL representation on the UW System Online Learning Policy Council. 

Ž   Support the UW System Executive Group for On-Line Learning (EGOLL) pilot collaborative online degree or certificate programs as proposed in “University of Wisconsin Online” [Appendix A.].

Ž   Apply appropriate identification, authentication and authorization (IAA) mechanisms to meet licensing and distributed learner requirements.

STRATEGIC DIRECTION 3:  Librarians will serve as information resource managers and teachers who assist their constituencies with using new learning systems and information technologies.

 

Actions: 

Ž   Expand reference services by using real-time software and investigate the collaborative opportunities for providing these services. 

Ž Working with appropriate UW System offices, assist faculty and students in understanding issues related to fair use and copyright in a digital environment and support efforts that would preserve fair use.

Ž Promote the campus adoption of “Information Literacy Competencies and Criteria for Academic Libraries in Wisconsin”  [http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/waal/infolit/ilcc.html]; these competencies include understanding the use of online search techniques and tools and the ability to critically evaluate information resources.   

Ž  Cooperate and collaborate in the development of teaching tools such as online tutorials to encourage effective use of staff in UW libraries. 

 

STRATEGIC DIRECTION 5:  UW Libraries will serve as centers of knowledge and information for their campuses by providing the physical facilities and IT infrastructure to promote teaching and learning and will meet access requirements for all students, faculty and staff.

 

·  The UW libraries will function as centers for collaborative learning, group study, private research and specialized instruction as well as repositories for collections. 

Actions:

Ž   Work with campus IT to ensure network capacity, hardware, and software to support information retrieval. 

Ž   Assure that the requirements of persons with disabilities are accommodated in terms of hardware, software, and web-based information resources and support national efforts to monitor and encourage accommodation by outside vendors.

Ž      Provide workstations and web pages which implement standards required for access by users

with disabilities and will implement recommendations in the “Report of the Committee on Access to Technology for Individuals with Disabilities” [http://www.uwsa.edu/olit/disacc/finrep.pdf] and the accompanying letter of Bob Christiansen, Chair of UW System Advisory Committee on Accessibility to Technology [http://www.uwsa.edu/olit/access/lyall.htm].

 

Lorie also emphasized that the Board of Regents had charged the Executive Group for Online Learning (EGOLL) to develop a coordinated approach to online learning.  Obviously, libraries will play an increasingly important role of supporting online learners which include both remote users on campus and the traditional distance education students.

 

3.     Review of CUWL’s Charge to the RCC

 

Lorie Docken reviewed the committee charge which had been formulated by the CUWL Executive Committee and adopted by CUWL at its January, 2002 meeting.  She noted under the duties that the CUWL Enhanced Resources Sharing Task Force was not had they were not the appropriate group to evaluating e the “one search” or “federated search” software as such functionality is generally outside the charge to this group.

 

Lorie also reviewed the work to date of the Enhanced Resources Sharing Task Force and included the following points:

 

Ö         The task force is concentrating on expedited document delivery of non-returnable items.

Ö         That any software would have to integrate with the existing ILL and document delivery systems – and not be another separate system.

Ö         It would not be a replacement for Universal Borrowing but would rather supplement it.

Ö         The committee has had demonstrations from 3 vendors and will follow up with at least one of the vendors later in the month.

Ö         The task force is asking vendors a set of questions but are not involved in a formal RFI or RFP process.

Ö         The task force will have a final report ready for CUWL at their May teleconference meeting.

 

Several  members asked if CUWL had set any priorities for the RCC.  Lorie and Paul both indicated that the list of duties were not listed in priority order but that CUWL has been discussing web based reference and “one search software” issues for some time.

 

4.     Group Discussion of Priority Issues and Service Areas Based on the Committee Charge and Strategic Directions

 

There was a general discussion of the following important issues that were identified by the RCC members:

 

Ö         A priority should be given to activities that would best be achieved by a group effort rather than by a single library.

Ö         Work with the CDC in evaluating resources with CDC emphasizing reference type sources rather than the types of online databases they have been recommending.

Ö         Real time web based reference services.

Ö         “24x7” reference service (or 18x6, etc.)

Ö         User online “interactive” guides and tutorials developed for specific online products

Ö         Service to remote users (including but not limited to distance education students)

Ö         Need to have services become transparent and easy to use.

Ö         Portal technology

Ö         Assessment tools

Ö         Assistance with use of Government Publications given the recent financial problems at the Wisconsin State Historical Society.

 

It was agreed that Web based reference service and related issues and web based instructional materials and tutorials were of the highest priority for the RCC to begin working on.

 

Hopefully, the UW System ban on meetings will end after May and Lorie will be able to set up a summer meeting early in the summer.

 

 

5.     Selection of Officers

 

Lorie asked if it would be acceptable to ask for volunteers for Chair, Chair Elect/Secretary, and CDC Liaison rather than have a formal selection process.  Everyone agreed and the following volunteers were unanimously accepted for the 2002-03 year:

 

Valerie Malzacher:      Chair

John Leonard Berg:   Chair Elect/Secretary (chair in 2003-04)

Randy Holzen:            CDC Liaison         

 

 

Paul Moriarty

Recording Secretary