OSL Minutes: Reference Working Group, August 21, 2007

The minutes of the previous meeting were viewed, and no changes were made.

Pat tried to follow up with Rick in regard to the content management software reviews, but got no response. With the move for the OSL office being delayed, he has probably been tied up with that, and will get back to this issue when he can. Joomla was the selection of our group. We are waiting to hear from Rick about his selection.

Cranston is planning to do an informal survey (of the staff, not the public) starting about Sept. 1, to determine how their reference resources are being used (i.e., print reference, database, internet, circulating material, etc.). It has been recommended that all of the committee do the same thing, so that we will have data to augment the discussion at the round table.

The question to be answered is how informal do we want to make this survey. Beth plans to just do hash marks as to what type of source is used. Julie says that she has been writing the title of the source used, and another person said that they had heard Greenville was putting dots on the spines of the print sources used.
The consensus seems to be that titles would be more useful in our discussion, because it would tell us the level of the source used (standard reference material such as CLC, standalone title, subscription database, etc), as opposed to just the generic "reference", "internet" level. It would be best if we all used the same level of data collection.

Sue created a list of reference resources that might be dropped, and has circulated that among her staff to get their feelings on individual titles. She is planning on dropping several of the print resources in favor of the online.

Some libraries are putting their reference collections into the same areas as their circulating collections, but keeping them library use only. While this might ease the confusion of searching for items, it also confuses people as to what can and cannot be checked out, causing problems at the circulation desk.
Other libraries are changing their reference collections to circulating. This can be troublesome if people do not return an item and have to pay the replacement cost for a pricey item.

How to run the program on Sept. 19:

We should do a short presentation before opening the floor for discussion.
We need to have several focus points to steer the discussion.
Moderators : Jenifer? Pat and Hope

What is the focus of the discussion:

How do we as librarians answer questions?
What about the money aspect of reference sources
Which books are actually being used?
How do you assess your reference collection?
What is the mission of your library?
We might present different ways of surveying a collection.

Hope brought copies of several articles about the future of reference collections.
Too much prep work will discourage people from attending. Hope will create links on the OLIS web page to these articles, and encourage people to read at least one of them before Sept. 19. She can actually send copies to people if they request them. We cannot have copies to pass out at the round table because of copyright, but this is allowed.
She also brought a copy of the latest Public Libraries journal, the focus of which is the reference collection.

Pat brought a copy of the flyer that she had created, and asked for revisions. She will make the changes and send it out just after Labor Day.

The round table needs to be open to all libraries, public, academic, primary/middle/high schools, etc. These issues face all of us.

We are going to try to steer away from the print vs. electronic issue - that's a whole other discussion. We want to focus on print - if you cancel one source, where else can you find the information that you usually found there? How else can you answer a question.?

Possible future round table - how to work with teachers.

Meeting for the final prep for the round table - Wed. Sept. 12, 2:15 at Warwick.

Millennium issues :
Still having problems with freezing items. The patron does not have an issue, it works fine from their end. If an item is frozen, but available somewhere, the item shows up on a pull list at the owning library every day that it is frozen, then when checked in, shows no holds.
Lisa said that she would check into this.

Other:
Joan's timetable of Millennium fixes - Sue passed out copies of the chart. This should hopefully eliminate the fact that some working groups seem to be making decisions that others should be involved in.

Sue mentioned that there are several old issues that we have discussed and tabled. We need to revisit some of these issues, i.e. icons, etc.

Meeting adjourned at 4:00.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara J. Bussart (WNS)