With Ross out of town, Suzy Szasz Palmer chaired the meeting and Kathy Chiang nobly agreed to take minutes.
Tom reported on the financial aspects of the campus-wide wireless plan. CIT proposed a 3-year program to put 300 access points onto the campus, at a cost of approx. $1.8 million. The library and campus life facilities are scheduled for year one; this phase is expected to cost approx. $750,000. CIT’s pricing plan (as proposed to the Provost) included a charge to students to recover the costs (approx. $15/month) of implementation.
The library philosophy is to offer no-charge access within the library. Sarah is pursuing a donor funded subsidy for CUL. The library is scheduled for 45 access points (and conversion of the 10 existing Nomad project connections.)
John reported on the installation planning. He meets with Tom Every from CIT, who is coordinating the project. They have a prioritized list of the libraries and have discussed how to merge the two goals of implementing the allocated access points from CIT with the library’s desire for 100% library coverage (a greater challenge for libraries in buildings like Olin and ILR.)
Question: What is the relationship between buildings with wired networks and the wireless network?
Tom: The ideal is ubiquitous network access. The wireless capability should be centralized and standard. Some buildings have the additional wired capability and there should be a synergy between the two forms. With both options available the library will be in the best position to support services that are both effective and economical.
Question: What are the user requirements for the two options?
Jay Datema, John and Oliver: That is hardware dependent. The iBook can do both without swapping cards. The PCs only allow on option at a time. Future PCs will allow for both. How we handle the options will be determined to some degree by what the students are buying/bringing with them. It will get easier as the technology progresses.
Oliver described the technical aspects of the project. The goal is a seamless wireless coverage for the campus. But that may be stymied (the secretary’s word) as JGSM, Hotel, and Law are looking at networks to give their schools 100% coverage, free for their students.
The support for the service will have to be somewhat reactive as the technology changes and develops too quickly for long lead-time planning.
The wireless wavelengths are the same frequency as for cordless phones, without the proximity threat.
It was the consensus of the three wireless folks that the most likely rollout time would be fall 2001.
25 libraries are participating in a test program to create and assess the feasibility of the new measures. They are working on two elements. 1) Measures to track use of local resources. 2) Ways for vendors to give libraries standard use measures. CUL is in the group working on the first element. Charles McClure at Florida State is leading the team that is creating the measures to be tested. The first draft was biased toward the input measures. They are reworking the instrument to add more use measures. Then each of the test libraries will see how easily they can collect the information. The CUL assumption is that the information has to be something that can be manipulated out of the existing systems, munged, so to speak.
The projected completion for this phase is this winter. A final set of 10-15 measures that all libraries could report would be a satisfactory outcome.
The second element is more challenging. Four, of eight vendors invited, attended a meeting with ARL project staff at ALA. Vendors are reticent to share information, but they are learning that libraries need this feedback for decision making. Part of the challenge of this project is to identify both the measures and what they might contribute to a decision. John Saylor noted that the DRC is looking at databases funded on 519 and is attempting to obtain use data directly from vendors for those resources.
The further challenge will be how to connect the use of e-resources to user behavior, which is something that connects this project to the LibQual project.
For example, consortially loaning print materials needed by NYC ILR students to Baruch University for pickup proved less effective than FedEx’ing the item to the students’ homes.
Other issues, such as defining a DL student, and defining technical assumptions/requirements for students, await further discussion. A tangential issue is how we should be supporting Cornell students when they are distant (e.g. doing field work, or in a semester abroad.) ILR has also proposed a course to e-Cornell on Human Resources.
Lynn Brown mentioned the technical problems that beset the JGSM class, most notably the firewall problem. She pointed out that there are two overall approaches to any technical problem. The search for a technical solution, and the mission-based search for an administrative solution to a technical problem. Both need to be pursued in these cases.
CIT has staff assigned to support the machines. The software suite parallels the CIT labs (Bear Access, Microsoft Office, Photoshop, statistics). When not circulating the machines are housed in a cart that allows the batteries to recharge. The machines are ‘disted’ (restored to their default configuration) between each circulation cycle.
The service came up in early February. The service will be publicized in the near future. Up to now patrons have learned about it through in-building signs and word of mouth. Up to 12 computers have been checked out at one time to date. A digital video camera is also available for loan.
The idea of a Web form to obtain patron feedback was suggested. The overdue fine is the same as for reserves, and students understand they are responsible for a replacement fee if the machine is lost.
The possibility would be to give students in 5-6 writing seminars PDAs with the understanding that they would read e-books, and class materials on the PDAs, as well as use them for productivity functions (scheduling, notes, e-mail, etc.) They would do some sort of survey in mid semester and at the end of the semester. Various questions could be pursued in the course of the project such as the use of library kiosks or the Web as delivery devices, or the use of locally stored materials, as opposed to commercial or public domain information.
The earliest such a project could start would be fall, but more likely it would run in spring 2002.
The group meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month at 4:00 in John Saylor’s office. Other PDA project planners are welcome to attend.
Additions/corrections to these minutes may be sent to Suzy or Kathy. The next regularly scheduled Public Services Forum is Monday, April 9.
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3/19/01, jwg