Libraries: Research, Instruction, and Outreach Committee : Annual Reports

Annual Reports

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


	Annual Reports 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