Documentation Committee Meeting Minutes

February 11, 2005

Present: Gail Steinhart (co-chair), Lynn Thitchener (co-chair), Megan Perez, Camille Andrews, Carmen Blankinship, Ken Bolton.

Appointment of co-chair

Ken agreed to serve as co-chair.

Working model

The committee agreed that we would work in pairs on documentation. For pages that people are already working on, everyone will find someone to review their edits. As future assignments are made, we’ll specify who the partners are from the beginning.

Enhancing Journal Access Committee (Leah Solla)

• The committee is charged with enhancing access to journals across Cornell, but particularly between the Cornell and Weill campuses.
• EJAC will most likely create one information page (on the gateway) that we can link to from help.
• ILS is the primary way to move items back and forth. Weill requests to Cornell are given priority and vice versa.
• The committee agreed to provide an inventory of help pages that currently refer to Weill, so we have a handle on how many pages will be affected by changes or new documentation, and EJAC will have an idea of where information might be inserted into existing documentation. Megan offered to make the list.

Appointment of print publications liaison

• The liaison is responsible for delivering updated CUL pubs to the Olin copy shop.
• Committee members who update a page that is also a CUL publication should create Word and PDF versions. Gail will make a Word template for committee members to use.
• Megan offered to be the liaison.
• CUL pub list (may not be current): http://www.library.cornell.edu/documentation_committee/orderform.html

Orientation for new members

Gail will set up a meeting to orient new members, before our next full committee meeting.

ENCompass upgrade status

• We’re uncertain of the date that ENCompass will actually be upgraded.
• Committee members might want to consider Lynn’s approach to documenting affected pages. She wrote fairly generic pages (Search Tips for Find Articles, Find Articles, Find Articles Quick Guide, Find it at Cornell), which can be added to or filled out as needed.
• Lynn’s pages should be uploaded as soon as possible, and Camille will assume responsibility for these pages.
• We discussed briefly the possibility of consolidating the Search Tip and Quick Guide pages into one each for Find Databases and Find Articles. Search Tip pages have direct links from the Gateway, so they have to stay. (We should check to see if there is a similar situation with the quick guides).

Wireless update

Amy has been keeping Gail posted on changes to wireless on campus. These will not involve major changes to documentation since our page is brief and links to CIT’s information page. Gail will update as needed.

Title index for help pages

As the gateway committee liaison, Ken will check with Paul again about getting a page title index for help pages.

Meeting (and minutes) schedule for the rest of the semester

Friday, March 11, Parker Center. Minutes: Camille Andrews.

Friday, April 1, Olin 106. Minutes: Ken Bolton

Friday, May 13, Olin 106. Minutes: Megan Perez