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Public Services Steering Committee
July 7, 1999
Minutes

Members Present:Carol Turner, Jan Swanbeck, Carol Drum, Gary Cornwell, Rich Bennett, David Hickey.

1.    Student Assistants - Standards and Training

    Carol Drum reported that there have been instances lately of students dressing inappropriately, e.g. wearing

    revealing clothing. This has brought up the question of whether or not a set of guidelines should be required for students who work in the libraries. Since these students represent the library, it is generally felt that they should look somewhat professional. It was also mentioned that these guidelines may be difficult to define and enforce. Another related issue concerns students' behavior. A patron recently complained that students who worked in the evenings and on weekends are loud and rude. This might be addressed in the guidelines. It was agreed that the old guidelines should be looked up, modified if necessary, and given to student employees in public services areas. Carol Turner suggested that LMG and TSC be notified, so that they can adopt these guidelines if they see fit.
     

2.    Instruction, Handouts, Undergraduate Outreach - Discussion of Needs and Strategies.
    Carol Turner talked about Jana Edwards' new position, and mentioned that she would like to accompany Jana to see various deans of colleges and others working specifically with undergraduates to give Jana some visibility, and to let people know about her new duties.

    Carol also reported that Jana, Mimi, and Denise are looking at the instructional web pages to make sure they are consistent, and to identify any existing gaps. Alice Primack is also working on instructional tutorial web pages. Carol would like to know if anyone has any suggestions for the instruction program.

    Rich Bennett talked about the seminar series. He mentioned the possibility of using incentives (such as free copy cards) to get more people to attend. Gary Cornwell reported that the general consensus at ALA was that other libraries are also having trouble getting people interested in these series. An alternative that Gary mentioned was a chat, or online session staffed by a librarian.

    Carol Turner suggested that faculty might be more willing to use a tutorial if it is something that they can assign to students to do outside of class, rather than giving up a class session for it. Gary said that Yale did a survey to find out what their faculty considered important; he will find out if this survey is available on the Internet.

    Gary will look into getting the instruction tapes that Denise, Jana, and Mimi are working on added to the UF CD that is available at the bookstore.
     

3.    Other Issues David Hickey asked Rich if the Distance Learning Homepage has been moved; it has not. David reported that the site has been revised. It has been updated to make things easier for users to find.

Carol Turner reported that the R&R Center asked if students have access to certain information pertaining to Distance Learning services, and indicated that many library staff are not aware of them. She said that the R&R Center has put separate pages on their website dealing with each university within the SUS system.

Carol Drum reported that some people have been having trouble accessing the Wiley titles. Rich said that anyone using the proxy server should be able to access them, but Carol said that Pam at Lake Alfred was unable to get in even while using the proxy server. One solution is to tell users to set up a Gatorlink account to aviod these problems.
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