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Logo CBB STAFF and FACULTY MEETING Oct. 29,1998
Bowdoin Bates Colby Feedback Search/Browse Member Institutions Library & IT Instruction Research CBB

The agenda included:

Notes from staff discussion groups

Technical Services Group
John Harrison
Bates College


Our meeting began with a commitment to create and maintain a mailing list for all three schools Technical Services Departments. This will be used to coordinate future meeting dates, times, and topics. It was felt that although a highly specific topic might be a priority agenda item in a meeting, it would be in the best interests for all Tech Services to hear about these to gauge their interest and participation. The three schools have been planning a joint meeting for some time now and this morning long meeting is anticipated before the end of the year. Of primary interest is the question of limiting searches by material

type in the new simultaneous interface we have created for our catalogs, and in particular the code maps that each catalog department has set up between their MARC records and III. These questions need to be discussed in depth, and Karl has already been called by the CBB Steering Ctte to chair a smaller group from each Technical Services Department for this purpose.

Other topics which will be discussed at a future joint meeting with the
three schools:
- questions of serials control, maintenance, and archiving;
- possible joint or coordinated outsourcing projects (e.g. approval plans);
- a discussion of the changing nature of technical services in each of our schools, regarding the blurring of the division of labor and expertise between formerly "autonomous" units;
- how experience can be shared across college boundaries;
- strategies on the possible merging of the three bibliographic databases


Reference Group
Toni Katz
Colby College


Discussion centered on teaching issues : the technical requirements for effectively teaching resear ch methods; the pedagogical issues involved in teaching the research process and how to evaluate sources in an electronic, information-rich environment; the importance of collaborating with faculty in teaching research methods to students; and finally how to reach all students (and faculty).

From these issues, the group made the following recommendations to the Mellon User Education Committee for projects that would collaboratively support the teaching needs of the three Reference Departments:

1) A workshop on creating instructional materials that would simulate interactive, online research. These materials could be used not only when systems were down, but they could be portable, timesaving products for class presentations. Once we know how to produce these CD s, a collaborative effort to develop certain tutorials and borrow from each other would be possible.

2) Introductory tutorials on web pages that would be designed as an initial basic instruction to reach all students, or in collaboration with faculty to incorporate library research into a particular course.

3) A workshop on how to teach most effectively in an electronic classroom.

4) Additionally, the group encourages the development of linked journal holdings to our electronic indexes. The appropriate group(s) should begin discussions of how to facilitate CBB journal requests.


Circulation Group
Judy Hansen
Bates College


Collaboration re: training student assistants
Checklist with procedures or work towards common training outline
CBB procedures i.e. downloading
sharing differences in local procedures so borrowing libraries understand the process
i.e. Bowdoin has branch libraries, sends e-mail and students to get materials
Colby calls and sends
For now will swap our procedures
Sharing ideas on procedures
1. Webpac training for students
2. Dating CBB books when received
People are confused about the fact that they would be able to request material from our own institution.
Could create a specific patron type to get materials to faculty who may be handicapped or disabled
Statistics could be sent to the listserv also eventually on the WWW page
Also first two weeks of Nov. CBB will do a study of turn-around time
We talked about special user groups and who were making the requests. Bowdoin s faculty have more control over what they buy and own.
Students expectations at Bowdoin and increasing and often they don t look at the catalog in a vacuum--they want to look at it and then look at an index
Having an author show in the Web version of the reserve display

ILL Group
Marilyn R. Pukkila
Colby College


Bates - CBB requestor working with Circulation and ILL: volume not overwhelming yet in requestor; we ll see what the end of semester brings. Circulation and ILL talk frequently about overlaps. ILL still does packaging for requestor books, and Circulation does the rest, with Circulation doing the unpacking.
Haven t seen an increase in journal requests
Colby - has seen increase in requests overall

Handling copyright:
Bates ignores copyright at time of request. A Circulation member does updating and separates those which fall in 5 year limit. Has own program for processing.
Bowdoin: CLIO mounted on OCLC and captures information; does annual report
Colby searches each title before requesting in own database which also includes full text sources but problems keeping it up to date; bottleneck in workflows. Will look into CLIO.

Still getting CBB requests in ILL?
Bates - yes gives to Circulation person who puts them through and sends a letter .
Colby yes; follows same process as Bates (only notifies differently).


AV, Media, Videoconferencing Group
Carmen Greenlee
Bowdoin College


Present: Jim Bauer, Carmen Greenlee (CBB Videoconferencing committee chairs)
Vicki McTague, Tom Schipper, Tad Macy, Jackie Tanner, Paul Gregoire, Andrei Strukov, Kirk Read

After an update on the committee's work since our last meeting in April, we
created a list of areas ripe for collaboration. It was agreed that the CBB
media services heads will meet soon to discuss strategies for collaboration
on:
- Hardware installation
- Staff training
- Creating joint documentation
- Support: -ongoing staff training
-user training
-ongoing financial

We also discussed the impact of this new technology on our departmental
personnel, planning, and budgets. We will soon name subcommittees to
support the creation of joint documentation, and programs for joint staff
and user training.


Information Technologists Group
Berni Kenney
Bates College


Focus :
Collaborative Support Opportunities

Questions:
How do we share expertise?
How do we collaborate?
What has worked?
What are practical collaborative efforts?
What can we share since we are also competitors?
Library and Faculty projects are obvious collaborative efforts. What else can we do?
How do we share our people and share the work to be done?

What can we share:
Sharing documentation (this has worked in the past)
Sharing training materials
Sharing technical solutions
Make results of planning activities known to all institutions
Sharing resources to reduce cost (e.g. news server)
Share identified problems and solutions
When working with consultants explain there is an expectation to share with other institutions (e.g. one card)
Common hardware and software (e.g. newsserver, helpdesk software)
Y2K issues
Disaster Recovery
Improving computer literacy

How do we share it:
Become more familiar with our counterparts at each institution
Set up email communications
Sit together at lunch
Centralize functions with each institution as a backup. (use video-conferencing as the model

Conversation about improving Computer Literacy:

Work with Library to teach first year students
Teach staff at the onset before they get into their job. More difficult to get at faculty.
Leave it to academic departments to work into their program; make literacy a faculty initiative
Just-in-time training
Look for other resources like web-based training
Use time during First Year orientation to teach
Recruit. Involve technical folks in search committees for new staff. Can we involve admissions in identifying and recruiting for computer literacy skills?
Peer-to-peer training is successful for students. Identify students with skills in the residence halls; use help desk students; use resident advisors