Attendees:  Anne Kenney, Boodie McGinnis, Angela Horne, Pat Schafer, Kathy Chiang

Guest Speakers:  Virginia Cole, Nan Hyland, Oya Rieger, and Nancy Skipper

1)         Chat Report (Nancy Skipper, Virginia Cole, Nan Hyland)

·        Currently spend $1800 for 6 months split between Mann and Olin for 24/7

·        Initially evaluated 8 chat software packages used by peer institutions

·        5 of the 8 packages did not meet most of the criteria with regards to features and capabilities

·        Focused on three packages:

o       24/7:  cost is affordable, but software not always reliable

o       LSSI:  costs about 3 times as much as 24/7 with not many differences

o       Divine:  more user friendly and customizable, but cost is very high and lacks experience with academic needs

·         Another package, Question Point, will be evaluated when the new version is complete

·         Recommendations:

o       Continue with 24/7 until the summer

o       Question Point will be evaluated at that time by the same group

·       Chat-Related Issues

o       Olin and Mann share one seat:  Olin 10am-3pm and Mann 3pm-5pm Monday through Friday

o       Cornell and University of Washington collaboration:  5pm-midnight Monday through Thursday.  5pm-8pm Friday.

§         Receive good service from both Universities regardless of the origin of requests.

§         Peak usage of Chat:  noon-3pm, also 10am-11am

§         Considering whether the collaboration should continue

§         Will explore feasibility of covering some of the evening Cornell chat traffic at Cornell Reference service desks

·         Virginia has begun working on “best practices” outline for chat reference

ACTION ITEMS:

Ø      Topic will return to PSEC agenda after Question Point has been evaluated

2)     Participation of units beyond Mann and Olin in Chat (Angela Horne)

·         ILR, Hotel, and JSGM might consider sharing one seat

ACTION ITEMS:

Ø      Nan Hyland, Virginia Cole, and Nancy Skipper will work on  scheduling a public services forum on the Chat

3)        MAS 2010 inclusion of Reference Services (Oya Rieger)

·         www.library.cornell.edu/MAS

·         Year long research project funded by Mellon foundation to reinvent and restructure current services to better serve the academic community

·         Developing a new production/resource/consulting center

o       Identifying 10 functional areas which could relocate to the center

o       Assessing the benefits to library units, other Cornell groups, and other Universities

·         Discussed adding Reference as a service that could move to the center

ACTION ITEMS:

Ø      Schedule a joint IRPC and PSEC meeting to discuss the data gathering strategy for MAS 2010

4)         Review ASSC’s charge and membership (Boodie McGinnis)

·         Terms of appointment and make-up of committee should span across libraries

·         Any professional library staff who wants to participate should be given the opportunity

ACTION ITEMS:

Ø      Get original charge for ASSC from Ross Atkinson for review

5)         Review Draft of Charge for User Assessment Group under PSEC (This topic has been deferred to a future meeting in the interest of time)

PSEC’s next meeting is:  Wednesday, February 26, 2002, 3:00pm-4:30pm 702 Olin Library