1. Announcements
1. On May 8 there will be a demo of Ebsco 2.0 in Kroch 2B48.  Stay tuned for time.

2. Academic Chat Cooperative—Virginia Cole
1. An evaluation of the first 6 months of Cooperative Chat has been conducted.
2. Background of Co-op:

                                                               i.      Began June 2007; funded by PSEC.

                                                             ii.      Co-op chat provides 24/7 reference service and is in addition to Cornell chat.

                                                            iii.      Provides basic help, referrals, and there is follow-up via a marked transcript.

                                                           iv.      Uses OCLC QuestionPoint software; we are in the Academic Co-op.

                                                             v.      Covers 121-135 hours per week.

                                                           vi.      Software looks at patron’s referring web address and matches patron with a policy page for the relevant institution.

3. Evaluation will help to determine improvements to be made, as well as help us decide if we want to continue.
4. Both quantitative and qualitative components of the evaluation.
5. Quantitative:

                                                               i.      Co-op doubled chat traffic; significant after-hours traffic.

                                                             ii.      Peak traffic occurs 11 am – noon, plus late afternoon.

                                                            iii.      During November 2007, 53% of chat was handled by co-op.

                                                           iv.      7000 extra hours of service.

6. Qualitative:

                                                               i.      Transcript analysis—200 randomly selected and graded according to QuestionPoint criteria on a 1-5 scale.

                                                             ii.      Average score = 3.96; Mean = 4.17

                                                            iii.      28.5% of questions referred for Cornell follow-up

                                                           iv.      36% of questions were difficult or impossible to answer without local Cornell knowledge.

                                                             v.      Co-op librarians did not seem to recognize when a user was non-affiliated.

7. Some initial conclusions:

                                                               i.      Cornell users are generally satisfied.

                                                             ii.      Cornell librarians are generally satisfied.

                                                            iii.      Types of questions seem to mirror what is asked at reference desk.

                                                           iv.      QP software does present some limitations on statistical data.

8. There is a possibility that the second 6 months will be evaluated too.
9. Virginia’s presentation slides are available on the Digital Reference Services wiki here: https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/drefsvcs/Digital+Reference+Services

3. Qwidget—Virginia Cole
1. Similar to IM; can be placed on any web page.
2. No need for patron login.
3. Still provides a transcript.
4. Convenient way for patrons to make contact.

4. LibGuides—Chris Miller
1. There are now nearly 100 guides available.
2. The committee is finding the vendor to be very responsive to our needs and suggestions.
3. Upcoming enhancement: Full-text keyword searching of the guides.
4. Be sure to e-mail team members with suggestions.

5. Columbia Reference Services Symposium—Chris Miller, Michael Engle
1. Susette Newberry and Michael Engle presented a paper at the symposium, which they will present for us during Professional Development Week.
2. The “Away from the Reference Desk” presentation was very interesting and highlighted the following activities that librarians could be doing:

                                                               i.      Academic advising

                                                             ii.      Taking a department secretary to lunch

                                                            iii.      Holding office hours in cafeteria

                                                           iv.      Join non-profit groups

                                                             v.      Greet people off campus

3. Michale Engle discussed Joe Janes’s keynote speech, “What to Think About When We Think About Reference.”  See handout.

Submitted 4-30-08, mm