Reference and Outreach Forum

January 15, 2008

1. Jim Morris-Knower opened the Forum, and introduced the Forum agenda:
   1. Announcements.
   2. A resource demo by Baseema Krkoska
   3. Update from the Web Vision Team, with particular attention to WorldCat Local.

2. Announcements
   1. John Saylor: John announced that the policy on NIH funded research has been revised. An information sheet is being put together to help reference librarians help authors. Individuals may contact John with questions.
   2. Nancy Skipper: Nancy, a member of the Reference & Outreach Committee, re-announced that the committee is working on a modest project to increase the information regarding reference services, CUL-wide, in the Library Gateway. To help meet this goal, she asked each library to e-mail her (nss3@cornell.edu) two pieces of information:

                                                              i.     The link to their web page that provides information on reference service hours.

                                                            ii.     The name, position title and contact information for the person who coordinates or manages their reference service.

3. Simply Map Demo—Baseema KrKoska
   1. Baseema announced that her demo was the first in what the Reference and Outreach Committee hopes will be regular mini-sessions on reference sources and skills. The Committee would like to see a few minutes of each forum devoted to sharing information that will help all reference librarians on campus maintain awareness and skills.
   2. The Simply Map product is currently on a 6-month trial subscription.
   3. Baseema first saw the product at ALA, and she saw great potential in it. The product allows users to create maps using various datasets.
   4. The subscription permits 3 simultaneous users.
   5. The product is available via the catalog by doing a title search on “simplymap”
   6. Baseema welcomes feedback.
   7. There will be an instruction session on Simply Map at Mann Library’s Stone Lab on February 6 at 11:00 am. No sign-up necessary.

4. Web Vision Team
   1.  ZsuZsa Koltay provided a Web Vision update.
   2. A successful test of LibGuides has been completed and a contract has been signed. There is still some behind-the-scenes work going on.
   3. Library Outside the Library: Received go-ahead in four areas: Blackboard, LibX implementation, Cool Labs, and adding entries (pilot phase) to Wikipedia.
   4. ZsuZsa reminded all that there is a public wiki available for providing feedback to the Web Vision Team.
   5. ZsuZsa announced that we signed a contract with OCLC for WorldCat Local.

5. WorldCat Local—Adam Chandler
   1. Adam reviewed the details of WorldCat Local (WCL) and provided a PowerPoint presentation (available on the Web vision wiki).
   2. Cornell is one of the early adopters of WCL; WCL is part of the larger effort to make the library more user-centric.
   3. WCL will be offered as the primary search tool with Voyager as a secondary option. A long-term goal is to eventually phase out Voyager. WCL will not be the catalog of record any earlier than 2010.
   4. Licensed content and local metadata will be the last to move to WCL.
   5. There are multiple already-identified challenges that face the transition to WCL.

                                                              i.     Some proprietary records are not there.

                                                            ii.     Some local data is missing.

                                                           iii.     Issues with relevance ranking

                                                          iv.     Issues with integration with BorrowDirect.

                                                            v.     Thousands of serial titles missing.

6. Sync issue: Bib records are in sync daily, while circ and other records are in sync in real time.
7. ZsuZsa characterizes the adoption of WCL as a trade-off in which we open up the world at the cost of losing local control.
8. Adam noted that WCL offers social networking tools, and these tools improve as the number of users grows.

6. Questions and Concerns on WorldCat Local
   1. Issue with scholar getting access to material at point of need. This could be a problem with the fact that WCL will suggest that an item is available at Cornell even when it is not.
   2. Users increased exposure to items not at Cornell will have an immediate impact upon ILL staff and selectors. At the University of Washington ILL volume doubled during the first 2 months of using WCL. As well, there is the related issue that users will be given the impression of collaborative access.
   3. Is location information visible? This info is pulled from Voyager and is seen in the full item record.
   4. Will articles from FirstSearch databases be integrated? Eventually, this is in discussion now.
   5. Is Weill going to be using WCL? Not at this point. Implemented at Ithaca only.
   6. What about searching titles in a series? Getting all titles in a series is possible, but there is an economic issue that makes this difficult.
   7. What if OCLC become the database of record? Significant ramifications for employees’ jobs in Technical Services.

7. Jim Morris-Knower thanked one and all and closed the session.

Matt Morrison, 1-30-08