1. Announcements

2. Usability and User Studies Committee Proposal - Adam

3. Committee related business, i.e. 2008/2009 membership, PSEC liaisons

4. Possible PSEC Forum

Attendees

Eli Brown, Adam Chandler, Pat Court, Mary Ochs, Jean Poland, Pat Schafer, Kornelia Tancheva, Kizer Walker, Scott Wicks

Announcements

The Reference and Outreach Forum on 5/13 was devoted to WebVision developments. The next forum will focus on the Website Redesign work.

Pat observed that the recent PCAC Forum on the future of Cornell’s public computing was very informative and especially helpful for the Olin renovation thinking.

The Voyager upgrade is scheduled for the week of May 12

U&US Proposal

Handout: New Model Proposal

From the Executive Summary:

The following proposal introduces a new model of usability coordination and implantation at Cornell University Library (CUL). The model is thought to replace the PSEC Usability & User Studies Committee (U&US). The proposal reflects what U&US learned through its two-year experience in facilitating usability efforts for CUL. Usability testing is recognized as one of the critical success factors of a user-centered library. Yet, a lack of clarity in the committee’s role and inherent limitations in the committee model have proven to be a hindrance in the implementation of systematic usability efforts. The recommended new model proposes a strategic realignment – from a committee structure to a core group of library staff with usability responsibilities written into their job descriptions. The Committee believes this model has the potential to be more sustainable than the previous model could afford.

Adam Chandler presented the report and fielded questions:

Questions:

How will people cycle in and out of the committee? This should be a part of someone’s job description, and may mean that someone could be involved indefinitely, but the group is open to suggestions and changes as the proposal is in the beginning stages.

Who makes the decision on what projects are priorities? Will be treated like other RAU projects.

What does the future of this group look like? Training will expand in the future to other people who have used this service, however there should always be a central group responsible for doing these tasks.

Where is the half-time position coming from? A redistribution of time for an internal person.

Action: Pat was charged with communicating to Anne PSEC’s support for the proposal and ideas for staffing.

2008/09 Committee Membership

Action: The following decisions were made following discussion:

Committee chairs will be chosen by each individual committee.

PCAC membership will stay the same.

U&US membership to stay the same pending results of the U&US proposal resolution.

Documentation Committee membership will stay the same.

Liaisons will follow up with supervisors and proposed new members of the Instruction, Reference and Outreach and Access Services committees.

Liaisons:

·        Pat Court will replace Eli Brown as liaison to the Instruction Committee

·        Mary Ochs will continue with PCAC

·        Kornelia Tancheva will continue with R&O

·        Xin Li will continue with U&US pending results of the U&US proposal resolution

·        Jean Poland will continue with LMT

·        Pat Schafer will continue with Access Services

PSEC agendas will be posted in advance.

Meeting minutes will continue current format.

PSEC Forum

Suggestion for an Academic Assembly instead of a PSEC Forum: Focus on the user research, possibly using the data from Rochester study. Kornelia will investigate.