- Alumni Access. We will be working with vendors to provide some alumni with access to some of our licensed databases in the near future. An example of a service that grew out of alumni requests for database access at the Harvard Business School will be found at http://hbsworkingknowledge.hbs.edu. A CUL task force is being formed to work on this.
- Voyager Update. Lynne Personius explained that the implementation plan for Voyager is on schedule, thanks especially to the enormous energy of the Implementation Management Team. We now have the server hardware in place; many of the desktop machines have been ordered and a second order will be placed shortly; we have the software loaded and upgraded to version 99.1, which is the version we will be loading in June; and we are presently engaged in the first data migration testso things are moving forward on all fronts. The test database is now accessible at http://library7.library.cornell.edu . The OPAC Design Committee is working on an effective interface, and their work can be viewed at http://library10.library.cornell.edu . Twenty staff have been identified as trainers, and all of them have now been trained. General training, which is being coordinated through Library HR, is expected to begin next month. IMT will be hosting an Academic Assembly on 2 March, at which staff will be able to see the individual Voyager modules.
Pat Schafer reported that she introduced the Endeavor and GFA representatives to each other in San Antonio. GFA is the software company that created the inventory control system we use for the Annex. GFA and Endeavor will work together to improve the interface between the two systems, with one main goal being that users should be able to request an item in the Annex from the online catalog. The intention is to have this available for the Voyager 2000 release.
Susan Currie asked that all units look again at the spreadsheets for locations which will be transferred from NOTIS to Voyager. These are located at http://www.library.cornell.edu/voyager/MigrLocs/index.html . These spreadsheets do not include new locations that will be created for the first time in Voyager, but rather only locations that will be moved from the old system to the new. Any questions should be directed to Susan Currie or Diane Hillmann.
- Mainframe Space. Joel Zumoff reported on mainframe space. He said that we now have some eight million records in the NOTIS bibliographic file. There is a limit of ca. four gigabytes for files on the CICS machine where NOTIS lives. A few weeks ago, that limit was exceeded when we tried to load a large number of RECON records, with the result that the system was down for some time. Joel said that DLIT and CIT have worked together to increase the file limit to nearly five gigabytes, which they expect will be adequate until we move to Voyager.
Joel also noted that the pointers from the bib records to the item records can be defective in some cases. DLIT therefore ran a program (written years ago by Naomi Dushay) to review those pointers, and they found that some 45,000 bib records were not pointing to item records. These have now all been fixed, although we may want to run the program one more time before the final data migration to Voyager. Nancy asked whether one could tell from the OPAC that such pointers are absent. If so, perhaps we could have some examples, in case questions are asked at reference desks. We agreed that I would talk with Diane Hillmann about this.
The only reason we might not want to run the Dushay program again, Joel said, was that Bill Kara has found that he is experiencing some problems in the order of item record displaysand Joel thought this might be a result of the program. Susan, Lenore and Steve all noted that they have also had similar problems very recently. We will want to get this cleared up before we move to Voyager.
- Digiref. Paul Constantine reported on the LC-run Collaborative Digital Reference Service project, the first test phase of which CUL is participating in. Paul explained that LC has contracted with Joe Janes, a professor at the University of Washington library school, to undertake a series of studies to gauge library activities and attitudes around the country with respect to digital reference services. As an example of a well developed digital reference service, Paul referred to the Virtual Reference Desk at Syracuse, which serves the Ask ERIC program. In a recent study it was found that they were able to answer 76% of the questions they received with library school students or professional library volunteers; the rest of the questions had to be forwarded on. This shows that good general reference staff can answer many questions, and that all questions need not be directed specifically to experts. Paul said that the first pilot project will begin on 28 February, and will be entirely scriptedso that prewritten questions will be sent to the participating libraries to see how the process works. Participating in this first phase are LC, NAL, the National Library of Canada, the National Library of Australia, Santa Monica Public Library, the library of the Museum of American Art, the Morris County, N.J., library system, UT Austin, and Cornell. We are uncertain at this point what the next pilot phases will consist of, or when they will be. There are several key policy questions, Paul said, that remain to be answered, the central one being whether this service should respond to questions from users or only to questions from reference staff.
As part of the CDRS project, a giant FAQ database of reference questions is going to be built by InFour AnswerBase (Brett Buttler). LC and the National Agriculture Library have already contracted with InFour to participate in the building of this project, and InFour has asked whether Cornell would like to participate. We're still thinking about this. In the longer term, InFour is looking at this database as something that would be marketed to libraries (and those libraries that contributed to the database would receive a portion of the revenue).
- Chat Reference. Paul also reported on the new program in OKU reference to respond to user queries in a chat mode. This new service is called LiveHelp. Paul explained that this has been the result of a team effort by many of the OKU reference staff. In this service, questions are answered online in real time. Currently this is being offered 1:00-5:00, Monday thru Friday; there is a link from the LiveHelp so that users can send questions by e-mail during hours when the service is not available. The Web page offering this service is at http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/livehelp.html. The software being used for this is called LivePerson, and it is made for more commercial purposes, so there are some things that do not quite fit into the academic settingbut on the whole it is working well. Nancy said it is expected that the next release will have more sections that can be customized. The software permits the sending of live URLs and images. It also permits us to send prewritten responses, such as requests for amplifications of the user's question. There is a survey form that users can fill out, and these are being collected. OKU Reference has purchased one simultaneous user, so that one reference librarian can answer questions at any particular time: in theory one reference librarian is able respond to up to four concurrent questions with this software. Paul said his department is treating this as a new service point that needs to be staffed during the afternoon hours.
- Distance Learning. I reported that Cornell is planning to create a majority owned, for-profit subsidiary, E-Cornell, which will be devoted to providing distance learning services. The Trustees have looked at this and have apparently endorsed it in principle. The Library will play a central role in this service. Initially high profile courses will be offered, mainly through the CU professional schools: ILR, Hotel, Vet, Law, JGSM, but probably other courses will be offered from other colleges soon thereafter. Consortial arrangements with other institutions might evolve. One possibility might be that the work the Library does to assist in this effort could also be marketed to other institutions providing distance learning, but none of that has been discussed yet. A CUL task force will be created to work on this. From my perspective, the two main challenges will be copyright and online reference services. For the copyright, we may need to partner with some commercial vendors. Marty Schlabach asked why this has to be a for-profit subsidiary. I said that the response I have always heard is that this will be very expensive, if it is to be successful--so Cornell needs venture capital quickly; the best way to obtain such resources is to open up the project to selected entrepreneurs who are willing to put up some of the funding. This has the potential to become an increasingly significant library service.
- Usage Measures. ARL is creating a new program to identify usage and performance measures for electronic resources and services that would be ultimately be used by all research libraries. CUL will participate along with some other ARL libraries in the development of this program, and Christian and I will be attending the founding workshop later this month. The basic rationale is that libraries are today busier than ever, and yet some of our public services statistics are noticeably falling; the reason is clearly that we are not measuring effectively how our users are making use of the various new resources and services that we are providing. There are a great many complications, not the least of which is that many of our new electronic services are continually changing. Whatever measures are created, therefore, we will need some mechanism to update them frequently. The consultant for this project is Charles McClure, who is now at Florida State. I asked anyone who has ideas or opinions about the kinds of measurements that are needed to send those suggestions to Christian or me.
Minutes recorded by Ross Atkinson.