SIRS (McKeldin Service+ Information & Research Services
Desk Committee)
Minutes of meeting
May 26, 1999

Present: Bunn, Edwards, Laguerre,  Linquist, Mauro,
McManus, Spohn,  Todd,  M.Vikor, Winker
Absent:   Bernardo, Stephany

1. Reference/Reserve procedures.  Ross and Sonia will draft
written procedures for managing this collection.

2. Student Training.  Staff reviewed how students receive "training."
Sonia is responsible for overall desk training.  Ross teaches
students how to perform inter-filing and how to shelve special
periodicals.  Chris teaches students how to trouble-shoot computers.
Deb teaches students how to shelve books.  In the past, we have
sent student assistants to User Education classes:  When is your
paper due?  Victor training as well as to programs that Preservation
has done on maintenance of materials.  We agreed to develop the following
classes/new How to Guides… to enhance student/staff skills.

a. Pat Herron and Chris B. are working on a course on Short Story/Poetry
criticism.  There will be multiple sessions taught at the end of June
(this is in-progress).
b. Deborah Mauro and Marlene Vikor will work on an enhanced VictorWeb
training session.  The goal is to have this ready for August/September
c. Steve Spohn will create a How to Guide….for helping users complete/clean-up
faulty bibliographic citations (this is in-progress)
d. Steve S. and Eric will work on an in-depth tour of the homepage.  The
goal is to have this ready for August/September
e. Steve S. will create a training/introduction to the SIRS information webpage

          Our intention is to do multiple sessions of each training opportunity
and to include rovers whenever possible.

3. Communicating at the desk.  We discussed desirable patterns of
communication among staff while on the desk.  We agreed that it is extremely
important that all staff keep in touch with each other while on the desk.
When staff leave the desk for any reason, they should communicate that
fact to other staff serving on the desk.  If desk staff are "on-call" they
are to stay within earshot of their telephones, they must be reachable for
staffing the desk.  If desk staff are shelving or computer trouble-shooting,
they  need to be aware of the amount of activity at the desk so that they can
return if needed.

4. Trouble-shooting guides and telephone tree.  Cindy passed out the latest
version of the ESC Telephone Tree, Troubleshooting Procedures, and a new draft
for Troubleshooting MdUSA that she has written for the desk.  SIRS members
were asked to take a look at the documents, verify that they are clear and
usable, and to get back to Cindy with comments.

5. McKeldin Quick Reference/Ready Reference.  We reviewed the history of
the two collections.  Alesia would like for us to consider the possibility
of merging the two collections.  Eric and Deb agreed to discuss with their
respective teams.  (As a side discussion:  yes, Marlene there ARE book blocks
in the McK Ref collection to represent the Quick and Ready Reference.  Since
both of these are clearly indicated as Reference locations in VICTOR, we are
in the process of removing the book blocks and changing the procedure that
placed them there.   The procedure pre-dated establishing the Quick/Ready Reference
locations on VICTOR.  Thanks for asking this question!)

----------------------
Cynthia Todd
Coordinator for Information & Research Services
McKeldin Library
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
ct15@umail.umd.edu