| July 29 2008 Advisory Councul Meeting Minutes |
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GRES Advisory Council Meeting Minutes
July 29, 2008, 9:00 am
Present: Chris Bell, John Geer, Chane Griggs, Perrin Damon, Kathi Riddell, Robert Hulshof-Schmidt, Jim Scheppke, Andrea Blake, Kate McGann, Arlene Weible (recording)
Introductions
New council member, John Geer from the Dept. of Energy was introduced. The other new member, Sandy Lasher from Dept. of Human Services, was not able to attend this meeting. Andrea Blake is the new Team Coordinator for the GRES team.
GRES Updates
The Oregon Poetry Collection was launched with a ceremony including the Poet Laureate on April 25, 2008. The poetry collection is available for browsing and circulation in the Library Reading Room.
The State Library Board approved the OSL budget request and the policy package for enhancement of the Oregon.gov service (formerly known as the AskOregon service). Since Scott Smith has left the E-gov Office, Robert will be meeting with their new leaders to determine next steps on the development of the service.
The GRES Emergency Board request for a limitation to spend an additional $170,000 on electronic resources was delayed so more historical data could be gathered. It will be considered in the Sept. meeting of the Emergency Board. If not approved, GRES will need to take steps to reduce the budget for electronic resources for state employees.
GRES has two new employees: Scott Gilbert, Library Systems Analyst on the Automated Services Unit (ASU) and Sarah Marsh, Technical Services Assistant. Merrialyce Blanchard retired in June 2008, and Special Collections duties have been transferred to Dave Hegeman. A new Cataloging Services Librarian is currently being recruited.
The State Library has been promoting a number ofOregon 150 activities. GRES is supporting agencies as they complete their agency history research. The Library is also supporting the Oregon Library Association’s Oregon Reads initiative, which is promoting Oregonians to read the book, Stubborn Twig, in 2009. More information about the program can be found at: http://www.oregonreads2009.org/ The Library will also be working with the Oregon State Archives on an exhibit of material from Oregon ’s Centennial celebration in 1959.
The Fall Lecture Series will be expanded to four lectures. The first one will be held on September 16th. The speaker will be Pat Courtney Gold, on the topic: Innovators and Traders: The indigenous people of the Columbia River
GRES is also working on a mid-biennium review of its Charter, which is the document that outlines the team’s goals and projects for the biennium. A report on the review will be made at the Council’s next meeting.
Needs Assessment Discussion
Kate provided background on the needs assessment survey conducted in May 2008. Comments on survey results:
- The survey covered both registered users and non-registered state employees
- Few new services were suggested
- Full-text databases and OneSearch (federated search engine) were identified as most useful
- There seems to be some confusion on how to access Library services from state web pages, particularly from Oregon.gov
- Survey respondents favored online tutorials and self-help guides
- Oregon and Federal documents were considered important, High Performance Library and Reference materials were less important.
- Qualitative comments seem to echo a theme that the library web site is difficult to use. Jim suggested looking at the Oregon State University Library web site, which has put a lot of effort into designing for usability: http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/
Suggestions/ideas/comments generated from discussion:
- Provide links to library services from internal web pages of larger state agencies
- Feature library services in internal agency newsletters
- Find way to get link to library services in desktop bookmarks
- Consider “branding” options for link to services, something catchy or mysterious to help market services like “ask Cornelia”.
- Use marketing tools like mousepads
- Perhaps the word “library” does not create the right impression of services offered, should emphasize the research and information gathering parts of the service.
- State employees like online tutorials because they do not need special permission to attend this type of training.
- Create a “new employee” training video for library services that could be distributed online or via disc.
- Instant Messaging (IM) technology raises expectations of instant service. This is a technology embraced by younger generations, and needs to be part of library services in the future
- Have librarians go to agency break rooms with a laptop and schedule short appointments to address specific research interests, i.e. information screenings
- Have only one “front door” to library services (i.e. one web page)
Council Priorities for FY09
Provide advice on the development of enhanced Oregon.gov services.
o Speaker’s bureau service
o Locate state services by zip code service
Increase seamlessness and usability of Library’s web presence
o Require less knowledge of library procedures and practices
o Conduct usability testing with focus groups
Improve visibility of library services in state agencies
o Better presence on internal agency intranets
o Research appointments at agencies (info screening)
o Service branding options
o Identify agency champions
o Desktop bookmark to services
o Outreach to new employees
Promote more collaboration with State of Oregon Law Library
o Advisory council could meet with Law Library staff to discuss options
Create information products using Web 2.0 technologies like blogs and RSS feeds
o Gather content that is helpful to targeted groups
Provide advice and feedback on the development of computer-based tutorials
o Could be streamed online or distributed on disc
o A tutorial on how to use the Order, Borrow, Renew services is currently available: http://library.state.or.us/services/materials/Order_Borrow_Renew_Tutorial.ppt
Improve access to information collections housed outside of the State Library
o Facilitate loaning of material between agencies
o Help agencies develop catalog of materials
o Integrate materials into Library’s catalog
Parking lot ideas
o Promote enterprise procurement for information services with agency CIOs.
o Advocate for more RSS feeds on state agency web pages with E-government Board
Council member terms and new chair
Two of the original five council members need to serve three year terms, according to the Council’s bylaws. Perrin volunteered to take one of terms, and Chris and Kathi may also be interested. Chris will ask Chane (who had to leave early) and Sandy Allen if they are interested, and will resolve the issue via email before the next Council meeting.
Chris nominated Chane to be the Council chair for the upcoming year. She was endorsed by the Council members present, but Chris will confirm her interest before the next meeting. If she declines, a Chair needs to be chosen at least two weeks prior to the next meeting.
Meeting schedule for September and November 2008
Members agreed that the next meetings will be September 23 and November 18, 2008.
Meetings will be posted on the Council web page:
http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/GRES/advisory.shtml
John suggested that an RSS feed be set up on the page to alert members when updates are made. Also, the new members of the Council need to be added to the membership list.
Meeting adjourned at 11:50 am.
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