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AskWisconsin Librarians General Spring Meeting April 7, 2004 2-4 p.m. via Placeware Notes Member libraries represented: Reference & Loan, WiLS, UW-Milwaukee, UW-Platteville, UW-Oshkosh, UW Colleges, Alverno College, Mead PL (Sheboygan), L.E. Phillips PL (Eau Claire), Winnefox Library System (Oshkosh Public Library), Appleton Public Library, UW-River Falls, UW-Whitewater, UW-Green Bay, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. Upcoming Elections Three board positions will come up for election before the beginning of July.  They are one representative of an academic library (currently filled by Anne Kasuboski); one member at large (currently held by Jan Dibble) and one representative of a technical college library (currently held by Kim LaPlante). According to the by-laws, elections will be held four weeks before board members take office on July 1.  John Stoneberg will ask for nominations and notify members of the election by e-mail.  Voting will take place by e-mail over a one week period.  Each member institution will have one vote. Cooperative Scheduling Module Before this can be implemented, Mark needs to meet with the local administrator for each library.  Everything must be in place locally and profiles have to be approved by the Library of Congress before scheduling tables can be filled out.  Mark will do training via Placeware during the work of May 3-7.  Administrators should notify Mark which days that week they will not be available.  It was moved and seconded that we move ahead to implement the cooperative scheduling module. Survey Results from Non-renewing Libraries Kathy Schneider sent a survey to all libraries that did not renew their subscriptions as of January 1, 2004. Among the six that did not renew are three UWs; one private academic, one public and one technical college.  Four out of them responded to the survey. The primary reason for non-renewal was low demand by patrons; one library said the primary issue was “availability of staff to cover assigned hours.” None said that they anticipated moving to an alternative VR service at this time.  Two libraries said that they would be more likely to participate in a VR consortium consisting of libraries of the same type; the other two didn’t know if this would make a difference.  One library indicated that they would be more likely to participate in a virtual reference consortium that was actually 24x7 service; two said 24/7 availability was not a factor in their decision and one “didn’t know.” Common Logo Mark Beatty initiated discussion about developing a common logo that could be used by all VR services in the state.  It would be used to promote chat service only.  24/7, Dokutek, LSSI, and Convey were identified as other software packages used in Wisconsin  Concern was expressed about patron confusion and it was pointed out that most students using AskWisconsin don’t realize that the librarian helping them is not at their local institution.  It took one year to get the AskWisconsin logo out there and most agreed that they would like to focus on promoting the AskWisconsin Librarians logo and their local service.  Consensus was to put this “on the back burner” for another year. Opening Consortium to other VR service staff Staff from other VR services have joined our listserv and have attended our consortium meetings when they are held in conjunction with other group meetings such as WLA. By cooperating with other groups, joint workshops and publicity efforts could be initiated.  The Wisconsin Public Library Consortium (WPLC) has proposed doing a study to compare features of the AskAway and AskWisconsin Librarians services.  At a recent meeting, the WPLC decided not to fund the study this year and to consider including other VR services in their comparison.  Mary Struckmeyer suggested that our group investigate setting up a VR roundtable in WLA. Opinions about this will be solicited on the AskWisconsin Librarians listserv. Extending Hours of Coverage Staff from several libraries felt that they would not have personnel to provide coverage for additional hours.  It was suggested that library school students could be hired to fulfill practicum or internship requirements.  Several people pointed out that this would require considerable effort on the part of existing staff for training, quality control and continuity. One person expressed concern about students doing professional library work. Another stated that the 7-9 p.m. time slot can be very busy and they would like to see more staff assigned to cover existing hours. Kathy Schneider said that other alternatives would be to hire one of the groups of librarians who have businesses that provide back-up reference service or to have a partial affiliation with the 24/7 service.  The latter would require our consortium members to cover additional hours for that group.  The group agreed that we should approach extending hours cautiously, making sure that we are accomplishing what we want to.  It was moved and seconded that WiLS staff will explore the costs of outsourcing for additional hours.  Kathy Schneider will take a vote on this by e-mail. Docutek Demo Feedback Mark Beatty reported on the Docutek demo given at Marquette University.  A large consortium in the State of Florida uses this software. There are no “overt” plug-ins for either the service provider or the customer—just a small cookie.  The pricing is similar to that of QuestionPoint and 24/7 software. Seats must be purchased; therefore, a limited number of people may be on simultaneously.  Mark liked the user interface.  It also allows co-browsing, so that the librarian sees what the patron is seeing. Docutek staff were not available to demo the software during our meeting.  Information on signing up for a trial demo is available at http://vrlplus.cb.docutek.com/demo/.  Alverno College is going to try it out and will provide feedback to our consortium.  Mark had planned to demo 24/7 software, but the trial product didn’t work well and he felt it wouldn’t be fair to show it. Trial Reference Resource Products Consortium members had an opportunity to try out Xreferplus and Oxford Reference Online. There was general agreement that they are good products, but would not be useful for the types of questions that we get.  One person observed that their library could not contribute funds.  WiLS would cover the costs for one year.  It was also pointed out similar resources could be found for free at Bartelby.com.  There was general agreement that right now it would be better to have training on how other consortium members’ websites are set up. Committee Reports Evaluation/Assessment—Jan Dibble is the chair.  Academic library members are still needed.  Questions that Jan will pose to the membership on the listserv are: o Should other products be evaluated or just QuestionPoint? o Is non-renewal an issue? o Will opinions be solicited from staff or customers or both? It was suggested that July 1 would be a good deadline to aim for to complete the report. Knowledge Base—Mary Struckmeyer is the chair.  Mary and Regina Pauly attended a web seminar sponsored by OCLC on the KB.  Many libraries said that they did not have time to use or explore the global knowledge base.  Mary wrote up notes and sent them to committee members and included suggestions for guidelines as to what would go in a Wisconsin local KB.  Joy Schwarz at Winnefox tried adding some questions, but they need to be approved by a KB editor.  Mary S. and Joy will work together on the editing process.  Mary S. will set up a training session on using the KB for this summer via Placeware.  It will include information on searching and submitting questions to be saved. The session will be archived for two weeks or could be saved on a CD for a small fee. Marketing—Kim LaPlante is the chair.  Approximately $1,000 is available for PR efforts.  An additional $1,000 may be available, since it was not used to purchase electronic reference sources. At Northeast Wisconsin Technical College they followed PR guidelines used by Washington state librarians.  One good idea was putting up posters with a holder for the librarians’ business cards. Another suggestion was to try promoting the service at a local high school.  Staff at Alverno college will try this and report back. Popular giveaway items are buttons, magnets, post its and pens.  One person suggested creating an AskWisconsin business card that would have a url, the AskWisconsin Librarians logo and the local library’s logo on it. There was a discussion about the need to have all consortium members focus on promotion at the same time.  By using a combination of free advertising opportunities and paid for promotions, a lot can be achieved.  Screen savers and public service announcements could be used. Once an article appears in a few newspapers, it will probably be picked up by others and spread across the state. Where there are two institutions in the same city such as Oshkosh, joint promotions could be launched.  Ads on sides of buses may be free if placed by the local public library.  Jan Dibble reported that this worked well for the 2-1-1 service in Oshkosh. The Marketing Committee will get cost information for bus ads. The South Central Library System used ads in theaters to publicize the AskAway Service, but this is expensive.  The group agreed that near the beginning of the fall semester would be a good time for all of us to launch a PR campaign. Members should choose some questions to use as examples. The PR committee will come up with designs and suggestions. Best Practices—John Hubbard and Anne Kasuboski are co-chairs.  The committee is working on a draft of policies.  They will include suggestions for handling shift changes, referring questions, etc.  Suggestions for inclusion should be sent to Anne or John.  They are also working on a table for the UW libraries that lists databases held in common and information on electronic reserves that would be useful in assisting off-campus users.  This will be posted on the AskWisconsin website.  Other Topics The summer schedule needs to be set, starting the first week in June.  Last summer, the same hours of service were maintained but single person coverage was used. Mark will send an e-mail to the listserv to collect information on availability. The meeting was adjourned at 4 p.m. Submitted by Mary Struckmeyer Secretary