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AskWisconsin Librarians Online Meeting December 13, 2004 Notes Member libraries represented: Winnefox Library System, Madison Area Technical College, Moraine Park Technical College, UW-Green Bay, Marathon County Public Library, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, WISPALA, Appleton Public Library, L.E. Phillips Public Library (Eau Claire), WiLS, UW-Milwaukee, South Central Library System, UW-Whitewater, UW-Oshkosh, UW-River Falls, Reference and Loan Library Subscription Price The new subscription price after the merger with 24/7 will be $1500 per institution for six months. This was derived based on the following annual figures: A base fee of $3,500 each for two consortia (academic and public) $350 X 13 (number of current members) $25,000 for full 24/7 coverage (based on FTE and population). This total is divided by two (for six months of coverage) and then by the number of participating libraries. According to Kathy Schneider, the price quote to cover the entire state for one year is $66,000. Marathon County Public Library, Alverno College and the UW Colleges will be dropping out in 2005. Staff at UW-Milwaukee and UW-Whitewater asked about the price for QuestionPoint coverage as it is now. Mark Beatty pointed out that the group voted for the subscription which includes 24/7 coverage at the annual membership meeting in November. Sally Drew asked if subscription costs could change if many current subscribers drop out. Kathy Schneider said that this would not change much. She pointed out that the current subscription rate for the group is $25,000 and the new rate is around $30,000. This includes 24/7 coverage over holidays and breaks. Under the new plan, our consortium will have to cover only around 20 hours per week; we are now covering 40+ hours. (Although any library can cover as many hours as desired). Stef Morrill pointed out that when the South Central Library System joined the 24/7 group, they were asked only to cover 1-3 in the afternoon Monday-Friday. 24/7 has paid professional staff that cover late night hours. Kathy Schneider said that the $66,000 quote for 24/7 coverage of the entire state will still be good in July 2005. This does NOT include the $3,500 fee for each consortium or the $250 per profile. It would cover any number of participating libraries. WiLS’ vision is to seek other sources of funding and to bring in more libraries in July. Other funding sources include the UW System and an LSTA grant. Since the cost of profiles would be added on, the library system could have a single profile, or individual system member libraries could have their own profiles. Stef Morrill said that the South Central System opted for individual library profiles for statistical purposes. Members in attendance voted 10 to 2 in favor of the $1500 price for six months. The pricing will be reviewed again at the beginning of June. “Funky” is Mark Beatty’s description of how the system will look until the first of February 2005. It will be a blend of the 24/7 and QuestionPoint interfaces. After February 1, our consortium could reduce its hours of coverage to 20 per week. We will still be able to get statistics broken down both by consortium and by library. Review of Cooperative Virtual Reference Mark Beatty used a PowerPoint presentation by Susan McGlamery, founder of 24/7 and now Global Product Manager at OCLC, from the 2004 Virtual Reference Conference to review cooperative reference coverage. The slides are available on the OCLC QuestionPoint website at http://www.questionpoint.org in the COMMUNITY section. Stef Morrill said that to facilitate answering questions for other libraries in the 24/7 service, each library posts a policy page with answers to commonly-asked questions. AskWisconsin Librarians’ policy pages will be put up as soon as our consortium signs the contract for the next six months. Mark will work with Susan McGlamery on this and hopes to have it done by February 1. Mark will also set up training sessions for the new system in January. Public and academic groups can easily transfer patrons to each other or to subject specialists. Maryland has a full multitype virtual reference service. During their assigned staff time, members of the local consortium serve local patrons. After local working hours, 24/7 public library staff handle public library patrons and the 24/7 global academic members serve academic patrons. The proceedings of the 2004 Virtual Reference Conference are now available online at http://www.vrd2004.org/proceedings/index.cfm. They have a lot of good information on current virtual reference practices. A brochure describing the merged QuestionPoint and 24/7 Virtual Reference Service is online at http://www.oclc.org/services/brochures/questionpoint.pdf. Both are essentially cooperative consortia. A task force will guide the transition, which is expected to be completed by August 2005. The integrated system will allow us to have full co browsing, which goes beyond the page pushing now available through QP. This will not require a plug in. Plans for the Transition We will continue what we are doing now and follow the same schedule until we start using the new service, probably in February. AskWisconsin librarians should have at least one library on during the currently scheduled hours after we start using the new system. In response to a question, Mark said that there would be no problem with our keeping the name AskWisconsin Librarians. The 20 hours that we need to cover for 24/7 will fall within our current hours, so we will not be adding extra hours of coverage. Kathy Schneider pointed out that there may be a difference in hours of coverage for academic and public libraries. Several of the UW member libraries would like to provide coverage during regular business hours only. Jan Dibble said that the Winnefox staff is willing to cover evening hours until 9 p.m. Another issue is coverage during academic breaks. Mark said that 24/7 is considering implementing a master scheduling software program that would be made available to each consortium. Governance Structure Stef Morrill was asked to explain how the AskAway service was organized and governed. Stef said that they are responsible for 10 hours of cooperative time per week. Staff at Madison PL cover eight hours and Marshfield PL staff cover two. There is a governance team, which has generally adopted 24/7 policies. Staff at the Reference and Loan Library suggested that the current AskWisconsin Librarians structure be simplified and that the group use online meetings and the listserv to discuss governance issues. Stef also recommended holding regular meeting of people who answer questions, as a quality control practice. Publicity is another area that needs attention. In order to make this work, everyone will have to remain involved. WiLS staff will continue their administrative support. Mark Beatty will do training and facilitate meetings. Stef observed that Maryland has done a lot of training on handling reference questions. Kathy Schneider suggested that we keep the board in place for the next six months. Then we won’t need to elect a new chair. John Nickels of Winnefox pointed out that we need to begin cooperating with the SCLS AskAway Service – to work on public relations and recruiting new members. John Stoneberg will stay on as chair. We will need a separate meeting to discuss how we will manage the transition. We are scheduled to have a board meeting by phone in January and we could invite other interested people to participate. Jan Dibble volunteered to help with this. It was reiterated that each library will have to play an active role and take on some responsibility. Publicity will be a major task. The consensus was that John Stoneberg will arrange a meeting via Placeware in January for current board members and other participants. By-law and governance changes will be discussed then. Anyone with ideas on the key components for managing the new consortium should notify John or share them on the listserv. Kathy Schneider suggested that virtual reference discussion groups could be held at WAAL and WAPL spring meeting. The group can continue to meet together at WiLSWorld. John will lead the meeting at WAPL, and WiLS staff will lead the meeting at WAAL. Next Steps Mark will plan training sessions for the new software. They will be conducted via Placeware and face-to-face. Best practice sessions similar to the focus groups held in Maryland and Washington where staff review questions and answers and identify good and bad practices will be considered. We will also need to organize a marketing push. John will schedule a meeting of board members and other interested participants. Submitted by Mary Struckmeyer, Secretary