LIBRARY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES
September 13, 2011 7:30 AM
C1830
Members present: Ali Jaffry, Rena Kass, Fauzia Mahr, Stephanie Patton, Vicky Schirm, Justin Sloane, Brandon Smith, Philip Wilson, Zhaohia Yang
Library faculty: Nancy Adams, David Brennan, Tamara McMahon
Apologies: Cynthia Robinson, Timothy Cooper
Tamara McMahon, Knowledge Integration & Emerging Technology Librarian opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. Refreshments were provided.
1. Library website redesign
Tamara is in the process of forming a policy with regard to the new website design. A policy will help us focus on the website i.e. what does the user want? What will the website do; and the principles behind the website? All pages on the current website are being reviewed, and in September/October we will be recruiting for committee members to review the policy, feedback on changes, this will be a collaborative effort which will ensure that the website will be for the benefit of the whole PennState Hershey community.
Content Management System – no decision yet. Various systems are being looked at and the outcome will factor into timeline for new website. Brandon Smith asked about Angel. Nancy responded that Angel is class based and going to change. The library website should be viewed as a public service.
Vicky Schirm was concerned about changes and the possibility of lost links, Tamara assured her that pages will not be taken down at the present time and all links will be maintained at this point.
2. Frankenstein Exhibit
The exhibit is now at the library and opened August 29, 2011. Tamara announced there will be more lectures and a movie connected to the exhibit, she encouraged all those that
have not seen the exhibit to try to do so. The exhibit closes on October 8, 2011
3. Harrell HSL Collections
Serials 360 implementations – David reported that there is not a single link resolver at the moment. This is being addressed and we are closer now than we have ever been to achieving this, example: Pub Med, goal is to have two tables (PSU and Hershey) with one link resolver to connect both tables to one Pub Med. This would also serve ILLiad. Brandon Smith asked about Google Scholar, David replied this always uses Penn State titles not titles held by Hershey only.
4. Harrell HSL updating our Strategic Plan
Focus Groups – Nancy discussed that two focus groups were held on July 27, 2011; one basic sciences faculty and one clinical/nursing faculty. Nancy thanked all LAC members who suggested names for participants. The focus groups were led by two people from PSU institutional planning. Here are some of the findings:
- People unsure about what library resources are available and need an easy way of learning about information sources, such as databases, offered by the library.
- Two ways of reaching faculty with information about library resources are departmental meeting and online tutorials. Email and articles in the Crescent are not effective. We are currently looking at short How To videos which will be on the website.
- Clinical faculty said that health information geared toward patients is difficult to find. They would like to see library information more integrated into their workflow, such as within the electronic medical record or in a clinical portal.
- Faculty are generally satisfied with the amount of resources, such a journal titles, that the library offers, but would like to see a better organized library website, more automated way of submitting an interlibrary loan request, and more streamlined ways of getting to all the content the library offers. Focus groups responses will factor into our new Strategic plan.
Nancy also shared a change in workshops offered by the library. Analysis showed that patrons prefer individual tuition, which we are now implementing. The new request form for individual help will be on the website later this week. Some workshops will continue if requested by departments for a specific group of people.
4. Questions/concerns from faculty?
- Rena Kass asked if the library home page could be accessed without going into the infonet. Nancy answered yes by going into http://med.psu.edu/library.
- Fauzia Mahr asked if departmental libraries were syndicated with the library, David answered no, all department libraries are owned and maintained by the department staff. Some departments do catalogue their books and David stated that we can consult with the administrative staff of the department re managing their own library and cataloging.
Meeting adjourned at 8:20 am