University of Florida Public Services Division
  UF Libraries Home Page

July 31, 2002

Minutes

Members Present:   Helen Armstrong, Rich Bennett, Tom Caswell, Robena Cornwell, Lori Driscoll, Carol Drum, Lei Lani Freund, David Fuller, Iona Malanchuk, Alice Primack, Patrick Reakes, Jana Ronan, Colleen Seale, Jan Swanbeck, Carol Turner

Members Absent:  Suzanne Brown, Pam Cenzer, Gary Cornwell, Ann Lindell, Richard Phillips, Robert Singerman, Carl Van Ness

  1. Library Council – Library Council members
    LMG has been disbanded and a smaller group (Library Council) consisting of the Directors and department chairs has been created. It met last week for the first time and will meet the 4th Thursday of every month.

  2. Budget and Vacancies

    Budget

    • Already faced cuts for this year and may face an additional 5% callback.
    • Departmental OPS allocations were made based on what the department spent last year.
    • Departmental travel allocations were increased by 10%
        A committee is being formed to review the travel allocation process

    Vacant Lines

    • Dale is concerned that if a cut occurs in the future that we may have to lay off employees. Therefore, she is holding tight with letting departments fill lines.
    • There are 10 overall vacancies in Public Services.
        One in Documents
        Two in Reference
        Several in Access Services
        Recently two in ILL – David Fuller will be talking with individual unit heads about assisting with paging, verifications, copying, and charging institutions.
        Carol T. is only authorized to fill two of them (one in Science; the other is undecided).
    • Possibilities for offsetting effects of vacancies.
        Units should review procedures to see if there are things that can be done more effectively or in a new way.
        Staff exchange program
        Iona Malanchuk will contact College of Education and Denise Bogart-Caballero about the possibility of students working in the Library for course credit.
        Internships with other Universities

  3. Public Services Goals – Group
    PSSC started with the goals that the SPIT committee pulled out of balanced scorecard and the strategic planning process started last year to come up with the following:
    • Library West Addition
    • LMS Implementation
    • Analyze Lib Qual + returns and take action based on them
    • Culture of Assessment follow-up and planning based on what we’ve learned
      • Goal Settings – Individual and Unit
      • Adopt strategies to plan & assess, focusing on users
    • Maximize ease of use of electronic resources
      • Investigate implementing MetaLib
    • Improve and expand library web presence
    • Promote library services/resources more effectively and with less jargon to the campus and to our distance learning programs
    • Increase the influence of the libraries and library staff on campus
      • Focus on promoting/incorporating information literacy into academic programs
    • Provide additional customer service training focused on local needs
    • Review and revise our statistics gathering and reporting to align with goals
    • Assess Reference service and varieties including email and RefeXpress (and evaluate QuestionPoint as an aspect of reference service)
    • Assess ILL including customer service and electronic requests and delivery

    Working on trying to have the process make more sense so that there is on going planning, input from another Lib Qual + Survey and have those things fit into departmental and individual goal setting. One of the things came out of the cultural of assessment workshops are smart goals (individual goals that are specific and measurable) that tie into strategic planning.

    Suggestion that goals need to be more specific/worded differently but be related to library wide goals

    Suggestion that goals should address maintaining the current level of service

  4. Update on video project – Pat Reakes
    Marilyn Ochoa and John Ashcraft in conjunction with CITT are working on the production of an informational/instructional video linked to the library website. It is being patterned after library handouts (library locations, collections locations, etc) and UF’s virtual tour. CITT has had personnel problems therefore the completion date for the video has been changed from August to January.

  5. Statistics gathering – Carol T. and Colleen
    The current method for collecting statistics will end at the end of August and a new sampling method will begin in September. Two random dates for each month will be chosen. Dates for September are TBA. Colleen Seale is working on a definitions sheet to go along with statistics forms.

  6. Gator Days and Gator Nights participation
    Suggestion to post the Library’s regular orientation schedule to the calendar.
    Suggestion to invite Sam Proctor to relay stories related to the Library.

  7. Voter registration forms
    There is a new law that requires public entities to make voter registration forms available. Therefore, all the Libraries will have to make these forms available to our patrons. Documents will receive a large portion. We are only required to make them available, not for collecting or processing.

  8. Plans for fall semester
    • Xerox Changes - An email has been sent out referencing the upcoming changes. Library West and Marston will be changed over August 13th. Suggestions to do a mailing to departments, place announcement on the web page and in Library News, and provide FAQ sheets at the reference desks explaining the changes. Xerox is supposed to change all signs.
    • Authentication – Changing the method for putting patrons into the computer during the break weeks. Students are being cleared to do authentication overrides.
    • Triage – Successful during the spring however it is not effective for summer due to the lack of student traffic. Triage will run from August 21st –August 30th (10a – 3p) for the fall semester.
    • Training – A staff workshop is scheduled for August 14th.
    • Handouts – We are supposed to have the easy proxy server by the beginning of fall. The Connecting…from your Home or Office handout will be updated at that time. Barbara Hood is having the User Guide and Desktop Publishing printed. The Databases and the ILL handouts are still in process. All others have been provided to Facilities and are available for printing.

  9. Status of Public Services Web Page
    • The Public Services WebPage Task Force is reviewing the Public Services web pages.
    • The group surveyed Smathers Libraries staff to ascertain how they are using the Public Services Division pages on the Staff Toolbox and what they would find useful to add to that page. The results of which are available in a PowerPoint presentation put together by Jason.
    • Resulting from the survey, the group recommends that
      • Links that are redundant be purged from the PSD pages.
      • People should be made aware of what is on the pages.
      • Pages should be kept up to date by having one person who is in charge of the PSD pages.
    • In other discussions, the Task Force recommends that the Staff Toolbox should be reorganized and much of the “clutter” on it removed.
    • The Task Force is going to mock up a PSD webpage which will be sent out for to staff for comment.

  10. Other topics
    • Rich Bennett - Serials Solutions Search Engine work great. It can truncate words within tiles. The e-journal page will be reworked by fall.
    • HelenJane Armstrong – Maps has redesigned their webpage. It is being put up for Public Service to review before making it live.
    • Alice Primack – New graduate orientation is scheduled for August 19th. 1000 students are expected.
    • Carol Drum – The Access Services unit in Marston now reports to Kate Lee.
    • Jan Swanbeck – Government refeXpress begin September 9th. Approximately 1000 letters are being sent to Florida Libraries with bookmarks and press releases.

Return to PSC 2002 Minutes Main Page

Public Services Council Home Page

UF © 1999 University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries
P. O. Box 117001
Gainesville, FL 32611-7001 
Please read our disclaimer.
Send comments and/or questions about this site to Carol Drum
Last Updated October 07, 2002