Instruction and Reference Program Committee (IRPC) Meeting Minutes, 11/17/03

Announcements

• Two new babies. Phil David and Suzanne Cohen (Anna Davis Cohen) and Michael and Margaret Cook (Lillian Mae Cook).
• Pat Viele has replaced Suzanne on Steering Committee
• Still seeking Documentation Committee volunteers
• Second Annual IRPC Retreat on the morning of March 21, 2004 . The tentative topic is “Outreach” but we are just beginning to plan and are open to suggestions.
• Introduction of new Law Librarian, Thomas Mills, who received several post graduate degrees from Univ. of IL at Urbana-Champagne and who taught legal research and writing there.

MARCIVE -- Greg Lawrence and Anna Korhonen
Government documents librarians are closing monitoring GPO's transition from print to web resources. GPO assigns PURLs to online gov docs so it is possible to catalog them. GPO created a PURL server to facilitate cataloging.

CUL contracted with Marcive to receive records for all existing and future gov documents. The Marcive data is simply loaded into the catalog, which is not burdensome. The $1,325/year Marcive contract saves us a great deal in time and effort.

22,000 records have been loaded so far. 5,000 records were identified as duplicates and are being reviewed.

Beginning in October 2004, all fed agencies will send their e-docs to GPO. The amount of information sent to depository libraries will double.

Marcive records permit searching the catalog for gov docs at the title level. Individual documents will be broken out and will no longer be buried behind series titles. A click on the catalog URL, however, may direct users to an agency search screen.

Once Marcive record exists, it stays in system, even if gov doc later withdrawn.

Use GPO e-mail on the Help screen to let GPO know about any URLs that don't work.

GPO, RLIN and NARA cooperating in this effort. Within 5 years 95% of all gov docs (not just depository items) will be digital. There was some concern that we would not know when certain documents would be available only online, since so much is in flux.

Readex has been under contract to create fiche records for GPO but the contract wasn't renewed so fiche access may soon disappear as well.

At this point, GPO adds digital records to existing print records so users will be aware that both formats exist. If the resource is strictly digital, a new record is created.

IRPC should discuss what formats should be prioritized—should we have paper or fiche backup? “The List of Essential Titles” in print remains. GPO is looking into printing a document on demand for a fee to satisfy print requests. Greg suggests bringing a GPO representative to an IRPC meeting to answer questions.

As an aside, there are also changes afoot to Ask Eric. 12 subcontractors down to 1 and not clear what the one will offer.

Action items: To help IRPC staff better understand these changes, Greg and Anna will see if it's possible for a GPO rep to visit Cornell in the near future. They will also prepare an update about ERIC for distribution to IRPC-L.

MyContents -- Angela Horne
Angela provided a demo of how MyContents now links to full-text articles (when available). This change has been made possible by ENCompass' “Find Articles” application.

Endeavor's LinkFinderPlus OpenURL resolver makes it possible for patrons to be led to full-text articles when they use “Find Articles”; this technology has been integrated into MyContents. Patrons do need to change their MyContent settings to “HTML” from the delivery settings options at the bottom of the main MyContents page in order to receive TOC that will contain “Find it at Cornell” links.

Just as in ENCompass, the embedded “Find it at Cornell” link within the html format in MyContents leads you to a “Find it at Cornell” page. This is the same page one encounters within ENCompass. It shows catalog information and links to those online vendors captured by LinkFinderPlus.

All current MyContents users have been apprised of the change, and the online MyLibrary help pages have been updated.

Concerns raised by IRPC included:

• how do users know which of the full-text sources will contain the actual article? (Not all “full-text” links actually lead to the full-text). Can ENCompass feed the data to MyContents differently, so that this is clear?
• some online sources link to the journal home page, others to the current journal TOC with links to articles. Can (and should) this distinction also be made clear?
• there is a problem linking to online journals that delay access, since a patron would not get linked to current TOC as expected. Removing links to online sources that delay publishing would be helpful. Can these embargoes be taken into consideration?
• does the MyContents help match that for using “Find it at Cornell” within Gateway help?

The MyContents team will investigate all of these questions.

Any questions or concerns about MyContents may be sent directly to Angela (akh8@cornell.edu ) or the Personalized Library Services Committee (peswg-l@gould.mannlib.cornell.edu)

IRPC Web SITE – Jean Callihan
The web site needs volunteers to update it and turn it into a dynamic resource. Right now minutes are posted, but otherwise the site has been static. With Suzanne on leave, we need a person or persons to work on our web presence and make it into a source of helpful information. For example, it could be used to post reading lists for brown bag lunches, reports, etc.

Anyone interested in volunteering is asked to contact any member of IRPC Steering.

More Announcements:

• Brown Bag Lunch on commercial answer services vs. academic reference services is being planned. No date yet.
• Members were encouraged to attend the December Academic Assembly to hear A. Ben Wagner, Sciences Library at University at Buffalo , discuss outreach. He is one of several librarians who have office hours within college departments.
• It is highly unlikely we will have a December meeting.