Instruction and Reference Program Committee (IRPC) Meeting Minutes, 9/15/03

Announcements:

Don Schnedeker, Director of the Management and Hotel School Libraries announced that Lynn Brown is now serving as Associate Director of both libraries. In that capacity, she has asked Mihoko Hosoi to serve as Reference and Hostline Coordinator and Thad Dickinson to serve as Instruction Coordinator for the Nestle Library.

Jean Callihan introduced Matthew Morrison, the new Reference Librarian at the Law Library. Bob Kibbee reminded everyone that Beth Katzoff is the new Head of Public Services for the Asia Collections.

Call for volunteers: Two new members are needed to serve on the IRPC Documentation Committee. More information about this committee may be found at http://gould.mannlib.cornell.edu/docwg/irpc_documentation_committee.html . If you are interested in serving on this important committee, please contact Thad Dickinson (ted26) or Jaime Martindale (jjm67).

1. Instruction Working Group Internal Grant Report. The purpose of the grant was to conduct an evaluation of user perceptions of library instruction services and resources, evaluate how well current instruction practices meet user needs, and solicit suggestions for potential future services. Based on the results of both focus groups and a web survey, the group conducted a promotional campaign to try to make users more fully aware of the library's instruction services. This included the sending of a professionally designed postcard about CUL library instruction to all Faculty members in August 2003.

Tony, Kornelia, and Virginia presented some highlights, and encouraged all to read the full report, which is available from the Instruction Working Group web site: http://www.library.cornell.edu/ins-work/ .

2. Technical Troubleshooting. Amy Blumenthal, Fiona Patrick, and George Kozak were introduced as part of the team responding to Find Articles/Find Databases/Find E-journals technical problems reported to libit-l@cornell.edu. George noted that the top management at Endeavor are aware of a problem that has required the ENCompass server to be restarted frequently, and a solution is being sought. Amy and Fiona will be updating FAQs and Standard Responses over time. Because the system is so new, they are still trying to learn what those responses should be. They need as much information as possible about errors that people are encountering or problems that patrons are experiencing, so PLEASE keep sending that information to libit-l.. Reminder that the old proxy server set-up is no longer required and should not be recommended to off-campus patrons. Also, the problem with CU Web Login timing out after 5 minutes of inactivity is being discussed with CIT.

3. Oya Rieger reminded everyone about the Learning & Technology with Technology Expo to be held October 13th and 14th, 11am-3pm. She asked IRPC members to distribute posters (which she made available) in places where faculty and those involved with instruction would see them. She also reminded people to use the promotional e-mail message that she had sent out earlier. The Expo web site is http://lttexpo.cornell.edu/ .

4. Peter Hirtle updated the group on initiatives taking place within the IRIS Department of Instruction and Learning.

The group received a planning grant from the Mellon Foundation to design a Joint Education Program in Digital Librarianship with the Clark Atlanta University School of Library and Information Studies. The planning grant will be used over the next nine months to develop a curriculum in digital librarianship that combines the theoretical and the applied; forge the connection between a formal education program and a research library; and define the specific requirements for a sustainable program.

A grant from IMLS to establish a Digital Library Summer School here at Cornell was not awarded to Cornell, but Peter hopes to try for this again.

The old Uris Library media center room is being converted into a new teaching and learning space focused on collaborative computing. This is a partnership with David Schwartz , a faculty member in the Computer Science Department, with support from a Faculty Innovation in Teaching grant and some unspent FABIT funds. Tony Cosgrave is coordinating this project.

Ira Revels is working on a standardized set of metadata elements to measure instruction programs. She will be sharing her work on this with IRPC at a later date.

Other questions being considered: should librarians be teaching software application classes -- can others with expertise teach these classes?; What are current expectations for "information literacy"?; How can outreach to Faculty be improved?; Should the library be more closely involved with career counseling on campus?

5. Maureen Morris announced that Paul Houle has written a script that redirects old campusgw URLs to the new ENCompass URLs. Staff should continue updating guides to the new URLs, but this script will allow more time and help avoid errors by those connecting from faculty and student created web pages.

6. Pam Baxter reminded people that CISER (Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research) is now located at 391 Brown Rd and providing the same services as it did before. She strongly encouraged that appointments be made for data archive consulting to ensure that a staff member (Pam!) is available. http://www.ciser.cornell.edu/
Kornelia reminded everyone about the October 16th Data Analysis workshop to be held at Mann Library 10am-12noon.