Five College Research, Instruction and Outreach Committee (RIO)
Annual Report 2009-2010
2009-2010 Members of the Committee
Chrissa Godbout, Mount Holyoke College
Susan Kimball, Amherst College
Bonnie Vigeland, Hampshire College
Barbara Polowy, Smith College (chair)
Beth Lang, University of Massachusetts/Amherst (September 2009-March 2010)
Madeleine Charney, University of Massachusetts/Amherst (March 2010-August 2010)
Charlotte Slocum Patriquin, Mount Holyoke College (Five College Librarians Council Liaison)
Committee Meetings
September 21, October 19, November 9, December 21, 2009, January 11, February 8, March 8, April 5, May 17, June 22, July 20, August 24, 2010
Highlights
RIO began the year under the direction of a new charge, one that refocused the committee’s attention on research and instruction. Responsibility for developing the OPAC interface, an effort that in past years occupied much of RIO’s work, was shifted to the new Five College OPAC Committee. RIO’s activities over the course of the year met many of the specific mandates of the new charge, as highlighted below.
Promotes knowledge and skills development for Five Colleges library staff related to work of the Committee.
Drawing in part from discussions at the annual reference librarians’ gathering in September, the committee developed a list of topics for programs to develop the teaching skills of instruction libarians and archivists. The committee explored local resources for program presenters, including the UMass Center for Teaching, faculty in library and information studies departments in the northeast, and notable conference presenters. With funding from the Five College Librarians Council, the committee sponsored “Seeing is Believing: Using Visual Methods to Enhance Library Instruction.” Carrie Donovan, Head of Teaching and Learning for the Indiana University Libraries, led the workshop which took place on April 9 from 1 to 4 p.m. at Mount Holyoke’s Willits-Hallowell Conference Center. Thirty-five staff representing all five institutions attended. Program evaluations indicated that attendees overwhelmingly approved of the content, format, speaker, and venue.
Promotes communication, sharing, and coordination among the Five Colleges libraries concerning reference, instruction, research education, information literacy, and outreach.
RIO experimented with a new format for the annual Five College reference librarians’ gathering held September 25 at Hampshire’s Franklin Patterson Hall. After brief updates and the introduction of new staff members, the 25 attendees were invited to review RIO’s new charge and brainstorm about new committee initiatives. Several ideas from this discussion resulted in RIO projects for this year. The attendees then circulated among the “electronic posters” displayed throughout the room which demonstrated the use of Library 2.0 technology at each institution. This format fostered lively interchange among participants.
Assists in the development, implementation, promotion, and assessment of joint initiatives, actively partnering with other appropriate Five Colleges and campus groups and individuals.
Prompted by a suggestion from Ann Leone, director of the Landscape Studies Program at Smith, RIO members developed an extensive guide to Five College and other local resources on topics related to landscape as very broadly defined. The guide is hosted at the UMass LibGuides website, but using a new feature of the platform, RIO members from four institutions were able to work on the guide as co-authors. It is available at http://guides.library.umass.edu /FiveCollegeLandscapeStudies.
Researches, identifies, and evaluates opportunities, strategies, trends, and tools to address user needs, achieve efficiencies, and broaden, deepen, and synchronize user support.
RIO worked with DEDCC to develop a charge, membership, and timetable for the Discovery Service Task Force to begin its work in September 2010.
Other Activities
• New-staff tour: RIO coordinated the bi-annual new-staff tour, held May 18 and 19. Despite scheduling recommendations from potential participants, the event was poorly attended. RIO suggests waiting several years before holding this event again, and scheduling it during the January intersession as in past years.
• Five College subject specialists: Following up on an idea discussed at the reference librarians’ gathering in September, RIO solicited volunteers for a consortium-wide list of librarians with special-subject expertise who are willing to work with students and faculty from other institutions. Few were willing to commit to the project and it was dropped.
Goals for 2010/2011
• Continue to develop teaching-skills programs for reference and instruction librarians and archivists based on feedback from our constituencies
• Work with the Discovery Service Task Force
• Explore new ways to foster Five College cooperation in reference, instruction, and other information services (e.g., developing a guide to Five College government documents resources)
Five College Research, Instruction and Outreach Committee (RIO)
Annual Report 2008-2009
2008-2009 Members of the Committee
Bryan Goodwin (chair), Mount Holyoke College
Susan Kimball, Amherst College
Bonnie Vigeland, Hampshire College
Barbara Polowy, Smith College
Beth Lang, University of Massachusetts/Amherst
Charlotte Slocum Patriquin, Five College Librarians Council Liaison
Committee Membership: In January 2008, Charlotte Slocum Patriquin was appointed as the Five College Librarians Council Liaison.
2008-2009 Regular Meetings of RIO:
July 14, 2008, August 18, 2008,September 15, 2008, October 20, 2008, November 20, 2008, December 8, 2008, January 12, 2009, February 6, 2009, March 27, 2009, April 10, 2009, May 20, 2009, June 22, 2009
Year’s Highlights
ALEPH OPAC
As in previous years, RIO spent the majority of its time working on issues related to the public interface of the library catalog. This work included developing the appropriate text and layout for new features such as the Alerts and Spell Checking programs as well as running tests to insure that these features were working properly prior to making them available to the public. RIO also served as the primary testing group for ensuring that the ALEPH upgrade to version 19 did not adversely affect the public interface. All RIO members spent a considerable amount of time testing various features and reporting back any potential problems.
RIO also worked on the goal mentioned in last year’s report of developing a good working relationship with the new ALEPH manager, Stephanie Schmitt. RIO met with Stephanie shortly after her arrival in January 2009 and began a discussion of ways for moving forward in improving the user interface of the ALEPH catalog despite technical and financial challenges. This discussion continued over the next several months and resulted in the crafting of a proposal to form a new Five College taskforce that would be staffed with both computing and library personnel who could focus exclusively on library interface enhancements. After vetting the proposal both with the AMC and DEDCC committees, RIO sent it on to FCLC for a final decision. RIO was pleased to hear that the proposal was recently approved by the library directors and the committee looks forward to working with this new taskforce in the coming year.
Revising RIO’s Charge
For the past several years, library interface issues dominated RIO’s agenda to the detriment of its other responsibilities. In light of the possible creation of the interface taskforce, RIO undertook a review of its current committee charge. Given past episodes of overlapping activities between RIO and DEDCC, the two committees held a very productive joint meeting in the spring to help clarify their respective charges and look for ways to collaborate more closely with one another. RIO consequently drafted a charge that focused on the goal to “facilitate Five College-wide sharing of resources and ideas related to reference, library instruction, and other related information services.” The committee also would serve as an advocate for library users in the development of well designed public interfaces that involve our libraries and resources. RIO was pleased to hear that FCLC accepted the need for a revised charge, and the committee looks forward to the final version drafted by FCLC.
Five College Instruction and Outreach
RIO also again organized a September meeting of Five College librarians in reference and instruction. This has proven to be a popular meeting as it allows a representative from each library to give a brief report on major developments, new staff, etc that may have an impact on interactions between the Five Colleges libraries.
RIO also hosted a Five College January program with the theme of Web 2.0 and library applications. In a departure from past conferences, the program utilized a “lightening round” format consisting of short, five minute presentations delivered by two presenters from each library. Feedback from attendees was quite positive, and it was agreed that a similar format would be used for next year’s conference.
Goals for 2009/2010 Academic Year
1. Plan for a Five College January program focusing on some aspect of research and instruction.
2. Develop a good working relationship with the new OPAC Working Group.
3. Foster greater cooperation in reference, instruction, and other information services by exploring the possibility of sharing tutorials, research guides, and other instruction materials for similar resources and services.
4. Develop new goals and activities as related to our revised RIO Committee charge.
Five College Research, Instruction, and Outreach Committee(RIO)
Annual Report 2004-2005
2004-2005 Members of the Committee:
Margaret Adams Groesbeck (chair), Amherst College
Bonnie Vigeland, Hampshire College
Bryan Goodwin, Mt. Holyoke College
Barbara Polowy, Smith College
Lori Mestre, University of Massachusetts/Amherst
Sherre Harrington, Five College Librarians Council Liaison
Janet Ewing, DEDCC Liaison
Consortial Library Systems and Services. In 2004/2005 RIO’s largest project focused on establishing vocabulary and design of MetaLib, Ex Libris’ federated searching product. Choices involved discussions and consultations with public services staff at all institutions. Unfortunately those choices were often restricted by the Five College libraries’ limited ability to customize a service hosted by the vendor. The Five College Librarians Council accepted the suggestion to hire an outside firm to do the design of the web interface for CrossSearch (the local name selected for MetLib). Margaret Groesbeck and Barbara Polowy were RIO’s liaisons to Gravity Switch of Northampton for the design. All members of RIO agreed that, given some of the limitations of the product, there would be no formal introduction of CrossSearch on a Five College basis. Instead each library is encouraged to introduce elements of the service at its own pace.
RIO has continued to consult about issues with the III public catalog. Some, such as the proposal to load records from Academic Search Premier into the four-college catalog, have required input from more than one Five College library committee without any clear designation of the committee that is ultimately responsible for the final decision about the issue. Based on the experience with the question of loading ASP records for the four colleges, RIO recommends that proposals be referred to a committee in writing, with issues and timetables explicitly spelled out, and carry with them the unequivocal charge of committee responsibility. In other words, committees should make recommendations with an understanding of which committee will ultimately decide an issue. RIO assumes that many such decisions will take the form of recommendations to the Five College Librarians Council and that the FCLC will approve and ask to have the recommended action implemented.
Five College Instruction and Outreach. RIO has traditionally been in charge of Five College library orientation. This fall RIO organized Five College library orientation for new librarians in the consortium. New librarians toured all 5 libraries from October 12 through 13, 2004.. RIO plans new librarian orientation every 2 to 3 years.
On February 3, 2005, RIO hosted a Five College “conversation” about the Teacher Track of ACRL’s Information Literacy Institute. Judith Nagata from the Amherst College Library and Sharon Domier, East Asian Studies Librarian for the Five College libraries, shared their experiences of the Teacher Track Program and led a discussion of information literacy/instruction in local libraries.
Bruce Sajdak of Smith, Lori Mestre of UMass, and Julie Boisselle of Mount Holyoke all gave informal presentations about their participation in the Program Track of the Information Literacy Institute on April 13, 2005. They all had different outcomes of their Institute experiences to share with Five College colleagues
On June 14, RIO and DEDCC sponsored a panel and discussion of usability testing. Pat Billingsley of Smith IT, who has had extensive experience in usability testing of software, joined Susan Edwards of Amherst and Stephanie Brown of Hampshire in presentations about testing. Pat Billingsley defined general principles of usability testing used by software developers; Susan Edwards and Stephanie Brown focused on approaches to testing systems locally.
Committee Membership. Sherre Harrington of Amherst took over from Pat Albanese of Mount Holyoke as the Five College Librarian Council representative to RIO in September 2004. Margaret Groesbeck continued as chair for 2004/2005. On July 1, 2005, Bonnie Vigeland became chair of the Committee, and Beth Lang succeeded Lori Mestre as the University of Massachusetts/Amherst representative.
2004-2005 Regular Meetings of RIO
July 13, 2004, with MetaLib Implementation Team
July 21, 2004
September 2, 2004
October 7, 2004
November 8, 2004
December 13, 2004
February 8, 2005
March 25, 2005
May 4, 2005
June 21, 2005
As of June 21, 2005, RIO minutes are posted at:
http://fivecolleges.edu/sites/libraries_rio/news/
Goals and Projects for 2004/2005 Academic Year
Aleph Planning and Implementation:
o Review and make recommendations for the ALEPH’s catalog (Indexing, Limiting, Logical Bases, etc)
o Participate, through RIO representatives and wider public services consultation, in the design of Aleph’s public interface
o Oversee Usability Testing of the new ILS public interface
o Offer a program in May to help librarians in the teaching of the new library catalog to patrons.
Host the fall meeting of Five College librarians in reference and instruction.
Co-Sponsor an Amherst College panel discussion on Focus Groups.
Review Five College Depository Services.
Respectfully submitted,
Margaret Adams Groesbeck, Chair for 2004/2005
