Library Committee Meeting Minutes of December 16, 2002
Members Present: Frank Barmore, Susan Crutchfield, Scott Dickmeyer, Elsie Patterson, Chris Prucha, David Reineke, Julie Yazici
Visitor: Jen Holman
Consultant: Anita Evans
The meeting was called to order at 3:37 by Crutchfield; Yazici took over at 3:40.
· Minutes from 11/18 meeting were approved.
· Old Business
*Information Literacy Document: The document has been submitted to the General Education Committee. Evans received a memo from Provost Hitch praising the document’s thoughtfulness.
*The teaching conference panel on information literacy will be Jan. 21.
*Yazici handed out copies of the UW-L Strategic Plan. Comments should be submitted to Steve Senger, Faculty Senate Chair. There was some discussion as to how the library committee should best respond to the strategic plan. The library staff have created a memo on issues concerning them: 1) technology isn’t well represented; 2) information literacy needs to be stressed further. This discussion will be picked up again in a later meeting.
· New Business
*Murphy Library first-floor space planning committee report and discussion: Yazici passed out “Murphy Library User Surveys” being considered for this year and the ones used last year. Also the results from last year’s survey were handed out.
Holman reported on the library staff’s first-floor use subcommittee. They are considering what changes would need to come along with a café on the first floor. Discussion ensued: perhaps the library should move bound periodicals down stairs (using compact storage, if cost effective); perhaps it should offer more computer access for research paper writing.
Lengthy discussion followed about possibly integrating computers more fully into the first floor. Barmore wondered if it would be better to place computer clusters throughout the library or to centralize them in the building’s computer center. Evans reported that there has been some talk between the library and ITC about possibly providing laptops for checkout and use in the library--perhaps with wireless network capabilities. Currently, several computers in the library are being piloted for use of word processing. Crutchfield pointed out that what we decide to facilitate in the library will send a message to the students about what kind of learning and work is valued.
There was also considerable discussion of how best to gather relevant data. Yazici suggested handing out the surveys to our students in the Spring. Dickmeyer agreed it’d be a good idea to survey students who may not normally come to the library. Reineke suggested we need more data than we had in the last survey (with only 68 students participating). Barmore suggested we get student help in drawing students into the survey (through a UW-L course in sampling or statistics). Perhaps there should be a blurb in The Racquet with a web link. Holmen does want to get feedback on the questions currently included and on the strategy for accessing survey participants.
· In the computer classroom, Randy Hoelzen presented two new software programs that will be piloted in the upcoming term. ILLiad is a new online interlibrary loan software package. New users must register, and this package includes specific forms for requesting different types of documents. Also, users can look at the status of their outstanding requests as well as their request history. They can cancel their request or renew an item online. This allows for desktop delivery when the lending library makes an item available in that format. Hoelzen then demonstrated QuestionPoint, a joint Library of Congress and OCLC (library vendor) project. QP allows for a live reference contact with a librarian, in a chat-room style format. Murphy Library staff will be responsible for their own and other libraries’ patrons at various designated times. The users will tap into a consortium of library staff from various regions in Wisconsin. Murphy may become involved in the QP national or global network in the future. This will help with distance education learners, as well as helping the reference librarians at Murphy extend their staffing virtually.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:55pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Crutchfield