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June 9, 1997
Present: J. Copenhagen, L. Coral, J. Powell, P. Schafer, D. Schnedeker, D. Lamb-Deans, C. Bahn, R. Lightbody, P. O'Neill, P. Court, C. Blankinship, C. Spicer, K. Chiang, P. Viele, S. Markowitz, S. Rockey, P. Constatine, C. Murray-Rust, S. Palmer, S. Currie (recorder)
Electronic Reserve
Catherine reported that a meeting will be held with staff from O/K/U and Mann to discuss how electronic reserves could be expanded to other units on campus. Based on this discussion, recommendations will be made to Sarah Thomas for how we might expand the service. Lenore cautioned all about the use of audio in electronic format as the copyright restrictions are very stringent. Kathy Chiang reported that Mann could run a small scale project in the fall and that all functions would work, but the library technology staff support is not available presently. Susan Currie reported that although the Nousoft system is successfully installed in Uris, the vendor programmers have had a terrible time with the XCP code for vendacards. Susan also gave a brief report on her site visit to San Diego State University Library where the Nousoft system has been implemented.
Web Use & Support
Catherine said that Dave Lambert and Anna Stunden (CIT) are interested in getting the Library, CIT and the Campus Bookstore together to discuss web support. The Library is interested in what support is currently being provided to the CU community. Patricia O'Neill has been investigating and preparing a report on what the libraries are doing. Most libraries are doing sumilar things such as teaching the use of the web in bibliographic instruction classes, HTML, search engines, etc. B. Prior announced that she and L. Heidig would be talking to the Learning Technologies Program about sharing information on web teaching and support. There is a concern over copyright infringement on web pages.
Access Brochure for Alumni
A special brochure for alumni was prepared and distributed for alumni weekend. Copies were distributed.
Interlibrary Loan
Pat Schafer reported on the OCLC installation across campus and the revised ILL program. OCLC was inplemented first in Olin in July 1996 and in Mann, Vet & Geneva at the beginning of this calendar year. It has been very successful and has resulted in better patron service. Revising and simplifying photocopy and charges last summer helped the process go smoothly. Law plans to implement the use of OCLC on July 1st. The final changes to the ILL program are tentatively planned for September when the Olin ILL Services unit will no longer serve as a middleman for Mann and Vet lending requests.
Julie Copenhagen reported that from a user's point of view, being able to request on OCLC as opposed to mailing ALA forms provides a tremendously improved service. We were concerned about increases in lending but a staffing reorganization, use of the OCLC IFM (accounting system) and an in-house invoicing system has kept operations streamlined. RLIN is still the majority of ILL business but we will keep an eye out for shifting workload and what the means for the bottom line costs. So far all is going well. There were a few questions about the ILS web form. Julie reported that a few bugs had been found but she and Tony Cosgrave are working them out.
Standing Committee Reports
Instruction and Reference Program Committee: Barbara Prior thanked everyone for participating in the Database Review. With the help of the IRPC, a good evaluation was completed in a short amount of time. Marty Schlabach from Mann Library will be the co-chair with Lance Heidig next year. The next meeting is June 23rd which Karen Calhoun will talk about BIBCO.
Access Services Program Committee: Deb-Lamb-Deans and Carmen Blankinship co-chairs, reported that at the last meeting, Michelle Paolillo presented an outline of how NOTIS works. Michelle met with staff from LTD to get information on how the indexes and files interact with each other. One important piece of information presented is that we have learned that if we interrrupt some operations (e.g. discharging) and hit the clear key, this causes problems in the system. The next meeting on June 24th will be a continuation of the CUL reserve discussion.
There was a question about the open LTD position. Catherine reported that several good candidates have been interviewed and another position is being posted. One challenge is that many candidates do not have MVS experience -- our legacy system poses some problems in this area. Another question was raised about the next release of NOTIS. Release 6.4 is going to be available later this summer. It does have the year 2000 changes as well as some fixes to 6.3 and the webpac software. Although no one looks forward to installing a new release we are already have a year 2000 problem in acquisitions.
Another question was if we will have an interim system - a web based catalog? There have been two presentations to the Senior Management Group as to some possible candidates.
Considerable concern was expressed by various people regarding aging public computers. Many units still have Mac LC's which are slower and do not provide web access. LTD is evaluating network computers which are cheaper than standard PC's. There was so much concern about poor service that staff discussed the possibility of installing an early version of Netscape on the LC's.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held in August before the start of the 1997-98 academic year the date will be posted later.
Reporter: Susan Currie
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rev. 12/24/97 dih