Announcements

·      Marty reported that the Voyager upgrade is scheduled for the week of May 19^th pending testing to evaluate the functionality of the new version. First meeting of the upgrade team is February 22.

·      Mary mentioned a recent expression of concerns from students to President Skorton regarding the lack of sufficient computers in the libraries and suggested PSEC discuss this at an upcoming meeting. Pat said that Anne had responded and that she would post her response to the PSEC list in advance of the discussion.  

·      Pat reported that the Access Services Committee believes that it is time for a review of the Library Card policies and plans to form a task force for this purpose. They will send a report to PSEC. – Pat

Faculty Indefinite Loan Report

Carmen Blankinship, representing PSEC’s Access Services Committee, briefed PSEC on the review of the current procedure as requested by Anne.

Some issues raised in the report are:

·      Books are being kept out longer.

·      Billing of unreturned indefinite loan books for expired faculty is very labor-intensive manual process and can not be automated. As February 1, 2008 there were 47 expired faculty with 370 unreturned indefinite loan books.

·      Annual reminders of charged indefinite items is not automated. Extensive time of Library Systems and Access staff is involved in notifying faculty of their books checked out.

·      Indefinite loan remains very controversial. Many users question the necessity for or benefits of the privilege. It has engendered negative feelings on the part of teaching and research staff who do not qualify for the privilege because they do not have faculty status in the library patron database.

·      In 2006 33 percent of books are being kept for more than a year. In 2004 it was 18 percent.

Access Services Committee recommendations:

·      Return to definite loans for faculty (perhaps extending the loan period to one year). Books currently charged out for indefinite loan (approximately 30,000 items to 1500 faculty) will remain as-is. New checkouts will reflect definite due dates according to the new policy.

·      Eliminate the $25 overdue fee for replacements bills for faculty; these charges are already forgiven by most units when the books are returned. Raise the lost item block to 4 books.

Action Items:

·      PSEC recommends further investigation before considering a reversal of the policy and suggests a survey of the 1500 faculty who currently have material checked out on indefinite loan regarding their opinions about the policy. PSEC further recommends that the Research and Assessment Unit conduct the survey.

·      Marty will investigate the possibility of a more granular separation of user types, so that research assistants and lecturers could be separated from the staff category.

Digital Reference Group 24/7 Report

Virginia Cole, chair of the Digital Reference Services Committee, presented the committee’s report, “Evaluation of Cornell’s participation in OCLC QuestionPoint 24/7 Academic Cooperative.”

Key points in the report are that after 6 months:

·      Chat traffic from Cornell users has doubled without extensive advertising

·      Many questions are coming in after hours

·      Service quality from the cooperative is satisfactory

·      Cornell users are generally satisfied with and appreciate the basic, after-hours reference service

·      Digital Reference Group recommends continuing participation when the contract runs out.

Action Item:

·      PSEC support the committee’s recommendation. Pat will discuss funding with Lee.

Annex Task Force

Kizer, Jean, and Pat presented a draft charge for a Library Annex Task Force and suggested Xin Li serve as chair.

Action Item

·      Scott will submit the draft to CAT after Pat includes some suggested wording regarding costs of new services and staffing.

Planning for New Librarians Orientation

The orientation is planned for PSEC’s March 19 meeting. The 11 new librarians, Don Schnedeker, and PSEC committee chairs will be invited to the meeting. In addition to introductions, Pat will give an overview of the public services organization. Committee chairs will give an overview of their committee’s charge and describe some of their work for the year. Refreshments will be provided as well as nametags.