Instruction/Reference Program Committee (IRPC) Meeting Minutes, 2/17/03

1. Announcements.

• Reminder to RSVP to Nan Hyland (nch9) if you plan on attending the IRPC
  Retreat on March 17th. RSVP is for planning purposes only -- you can still attend if unable to RSVP at this time. Also, please send your favorite reference questions to Angela Horne (a form to use is attached)
• Fred thanked the group for their response to the question about adding more
  journal abbreviations to the catalog. There will be further investigation to see what kind of solution is possible.
• If you have a favorite Reference or Instruction article, web site, book,
  etc. that you think would be appropriate to add to the IRPC web site, please contact Jean Callihan, jc374 (Reference) or Ira Revels, ir33 (Instruction) with those citations. The IRPC web committee is trying to develop a repository
  for Reference and Instruction relevant materials on the web site.

2. Nancy McGovern presented preliminary results of a GoogleAnswers study.
Because the results are preliminary, Nancy provided more of an overview of
GoogleAnswers and the methodology behind the study. Questions and Discussion ensued. Next step will be the publication of an article.

3. Michael Engle demonstrated Newsbank Full-Text Newspapers, which was recently funded by DRC. This complements our subscription to Newsbank Newsfile Collection. Janie Harris provided additional information about the content of the Newsbank sources. Newsbank Full-Text has, for example, full-text of the Ithaca Journal starting in 2002. Coverage of local news is extensive, including letter, editorials, obituaries, sports, etc.. (does not include wire stories and most freelance writer material) There is some full text available in the Newsfile collection, so if needed material is not found in the Full-Text source, try the Newsfile collection.

4. Next month's IRPC meeting is the Retreat on March 17th.