Instruction and Reference Program Committee (IRPC) meeting minutes, 7/21/03

1. Campus Services Event volunteers needed (5 min)

This annual event will take place in Barton Hall on Friday, August 22nd, from 8am-4pm. Bob Kibbee will send out a message requesting volunteers for 2-hour shifts (2 people per shift). Representation from different libraries is desirable. Participants will have the opportunity to talk with students and parents and demo library resources.

2. E-Journal Task Force (15 min)

David Banush presented the findings of this task force, which can be found in detail on Staff Web (currently under "Hot Topics"). David demonstrated the new title-level URLs for Proquest titles, which resulted in spontaneous applause from the crowd. The target for generating the e-journal title list from library catalog records is next month. There was a question about whether a subject browse for e-journals will be available -- the answer for now is "no", because of all of the work that would have to be done manually to create this. This might be possible in the future if subject headings become available as part of the metadata received by CUL from vendors or created from other sources.

3. ENCompass developments (15 min) -- Karen Calhoun and Nan Hyland

The week of August 11th remains the target date for removing the "e-Reference Collection" as an option on the Gateway. Also that week, the team is on track to bring up the new e-journal title list under ENCompass. The new list will have its own tab, "Find e-Journals." As David explained in the previous presentation, this new list will be generated from the library catalog and will contain over 20,000 titles, an improvement over the 16,000 title list that is available now.

Reminder for instruction and reference staff to check the URLs that are provided on their guides for databases. If the URL begins with "resolver" or "encompass", it should be fine. If the URL begins with "campusgw", it will need to be changed. Electronic Access URLs provided on Voyager records for databases will be finalized after August 18th -- some may change before then. There will be a tranisition time during which the "campusgw" links will still work. "Short" URLs have been created to enable linking to the "more info" metadata for databases. This link is provided at the bottom of a database's "more info" page. "Short" URLs have been created to enable linking to a subject category in Find Databases. This link is provided at the bottom of a category page. For example, one could link to the complete list of resources for "Anthropology" from a guide. There was a request to change the terminology for the short URLs from "Permanent URL" to perhaps "Permanent URL for this page" or "URL for this page".

There was a question about getting the word out to non-library staff regarding the need to change URLs in guides, courseinfo pages, department pages, etc.. Kornelia Tancheva will provide the ENCompass team with contact info for ATC at CIT so they can see if a message could be sent to an appropriate e-mail list. If IRPC staff know of faculty with links on their pages, please communicate with them about the changes.

Karen announced that the ENCompass team is working with Library External Relations to provide publicity for the new services. There was a request that the draft announcements be shared with IRPC Steering.

4. OPAC Committee -- Opening screen proposal (20 min) -- Ed Weissman

Based on comments from patrons and library staff, the library catalog "splash" page will be removed. The new design is being finalized, but basically, users will be brought directly to the Basic Search screen with the ability to click to Guided Keyword and Course Reserve searching from there. IRPC affirmed this decision.

5. Events Database Committee (10 min)

Angela Horne and Thad Dickinson did a brief demo of the Library Events Calendar. Staff were encouraged to start trying to enter events information, using the Staff Login link at http://www.library.cornell.edu/events/ . The calendar will be released campus-wide in late August, but library staff have a "sneak peek" over the next month. Please send feedback to CUL-EVENTSGRANT-L@cornell.edu.

6. Bibliographic Database Management Group (25 minutes)
Virginia Cole explained that the Bibliographic Database Management Group is evaluating web-based bibliographic management software. The two products being evaluated are RefWorks and WriteNote. Catherwood currently has a subscription to RefWorks for the ILR community. Susan LaCette provided a demonstration of both products and said that CIT has expressed interest in "partnering" with CUL to provide a web-based bibliographic management product to the campus. Library staff can test out both products:
To try RefWorks:
Contact Susan LaCette at skl2@cornell.edu and she'll set you up with an account and provide you with a pdf tutorial.

To try WriteNote:
Go to http://trials.mywritenote.com and follow the directions to setup an account and download.