• Next Generation Gateway (Erla Heyns)
• Patron Privacy (Jean Poland)
• Collaboration between Public Services and Technical Services (Mary Wesche and Boaz Nadav-Manes)
• New faculty visits, both trends and history (Jill Powell)

 
6)   Google Scholar on Cornell Web Search Page

7)   Find E-Journals and the ERM upgrade

Attendees:  Ross Atkinson, Eleanor Brown, Pat Court, Anne Kenney, Zsuzsa Koltay, Xin Li, Oya Rieger, Pat Schafer, Scott Wicks

**Starting with the next meeting, 10 minutes will be set aside at the beginning of each meeting for announcements

1)      Mihoko Hosoi and Jean Callihan gave a report and discussed their findings on the Reference Statistics Sub-Committee of the Reference and Outreach Committee, regarding the use of sampling to collect CUL Reference statistics

§         Mihoko and Jean gave a PowerPoint presentation titled: “Reference Statistics: Sampling” which included:

o        ARL requirements

o        Surveying Cornell Libraries and their Reference statistics gathering methods

o        People they consulted with

o        The pros and cons of sampling

o        Sample size determination

o        Limitations

o        Data needed for CUL

o        Recommendations for PSEC

o        Recommendations for the Reference Statistics Task Force

o        Recommendations for Statistics Administrators

§         Conversation after the presentation:

o        ARL requires one week of sampling per year

·        Geneva Library samples for 12 weeks

·        Law Library samples for 2 separate weeks per semester

·        Medical Library samples for 14 random days each semester

o        Random days are better for sampling (there are statistics software that can generate random days)

o        Choosing weeks though may be easier for people to remember when to sample

o        Reasons for sampling

·        Current statistics gathering is inadequate:  the way we are doing things and the services we are providing are changing, so the way we record things should change too

·        To see how demand changes throughout the day, to better staff reference desks, to meet user needs (resource allocation)

o        There needs to be system consistency in the sampling; a base level set of questions

·        Special needs of individual libraries should also be taken into consideration

·        Case load per unit (statistics fatigue—12 weeks could be a burden for some and a relief for others)

·        How to choose weeks to sample also (for example, RMC is busier during the summer, so is opposite many libraries in that respect)

ACTION ITEMS:

ü      Make this a potential topic for the next public service forum (February?)

o       Have reference librarians from larger and smaller units and an administrator present; then open for discussion

ü      Mihoko and Jean should find out the number of reference questions per day from each library (talk to Linda Miller about retrieving this data), and figure out the minimum sampling time per year for the libraries

2)      Modest redesign of Gateway webpage

§         Carla DeMello made a mock up of a new design

§         Anne received feedback from various people (Tom Hickerson, Karen Calhoun, Sarah Thomas, Maureen Morris, Ed Weissman) and everyone was positive about the redesign

§         Some changes made:

o        There is a “Find” heading now instead of “Research Tools”

o        “Images” was added under the new “Find” heading

o        “Technical Support” was moved to the right side and in the middle

o        “Events” was pulled over to the right hand side

ACTION ITEMS:

ü      Change, on new webpage, “Images” to “Image Collections”

ü      PSEC approved the redesign

ü      Don’t change the purple bar across the top of the page

ü      Maybe remove the “Find Library Catalog” underneath the already listed “Library Catalog”

3)      Charge and Membership for the Gateway Committee

§         Pat Schafer met at different times with the Committee, Maureen Morris, Anne Kenney, and Ed Weissman

§         The Charge is out of date, and the Gateway webpage right now is not going to change drastically (in the future, however, there will be a redesign with CommonSpot)

§         Ed and Maureen could maintain the Gateway themselves until the Committee needs to prepare for CommonSpot

ACTION ITEMS:

ü      PSEC should review the charge and members after the holiday break (come up with a taskforce)

ü      Tiffany will tell Jenn and Carla to remove the Gateway Committee information from the PSEC website, but to leave the page as a placeholder

4)      Discussion regarding IRPC and new Public Services email lists

§         In the subject line, write the purpose of your email clearly (for example: Reference question, or Circulation question), which will allow the people on the list to pick and choose which emails they feel are appropriate to read

ACTION ITEMS:

ü      Tiffany should put Unit Library representatives on the list

ü      Nan should send a farewell email to the IRPC list

ü      Anne should send a welcome email to the Public Services list; and talk about subject headers, etc.

5)      Zsuzsa updated PSEC on finding and replacing the Endeavor system that runs FindArticles

§         A report/spreadsheet of replacement options will be submitted to Karen Calhoun by April

ACTION ITEMS:

ü      Zsuzsa will send an email to the Public Services list to find out people’s opinions on FindArticles

6)      Find E-Journals and the ERM upgrade

§         Scott reported that the ERM software is going to be upgraded on Monday, December 19, and Tuesday, December 20

§         The software will be upgraded to the 2005 version Monday, and to the 2006 version Tuesday

§         Due to the upgrade, there will be no Find E-Journals service between approximately 10am and 2pm each day, but E-Journals can still be accessed through the catalog