SIRS (McKeldin Service+ Information & Research
Services Desk Committee)
Minutes of meeting
June 21, 2000
Present: Bunn, Edwards, Foudy, Laguerre, Lindquist,
Moreton, Nail-Chiwetalu, Todd, Van Sant, Winker, Yocco

· Weeding Party.   We reviewed the McK Reference weeding "party."
Selectors did a great job and tagged  a lot of material for transfer/withdrawal.
Core staff and TSD are working together to methodically process the material.
We are trying to maintain a 4 truck rolling backlog for TSD to process.
Selectors need to continue their efforts at evaluating the Reference collection.
We have not yet decided whether or not to have another "party."  If we do it
will be in late summer.
· New signage.  Gerri and Mary proposed new signage that would describe
"How to Pay for Print."  Gerri volunteered to create a draft for us to review.
· New Bookmark.  We reviewed Gina's proposed draft of a new bookmark to
describe "How to find a Periodical Article."  We decided not to proceed with
this proposal.
· New Dynal card dispenser.  Cindy reported on her email exchanges with
Mark W. on siting a new Dynal card dispenser in our P4P area.  SIRS decided
that it preferred that the dispenser be set up to dispense a zero value card
for $1 instead of  a $4 value card for $5.
· Draft Training Checklist.  Cindy distributed a draft training checklist
that is being used to train new staff for service at the McK Info Desk.
Barbara L. and the Science Team have contributed to the checklist development.
It has been used to train the new NAL librarian, Cindy will be using to train
Patti C., and we have modified the checklist to use to train new students.
SIRS recommended that Cindy attach the document to the S+ page.
· Service Quality.  We had a lively discussion on how to describe, perform,
and evaluate the quality of service that we aspire to.  Someone proposed
removing chairs from behind the desk to encourage desk staff to move from
behind the desk; we talked about repositioning workstations at the back of
the desk so that librarians would not have their backs to the "front" of the
desk; we talked about hiring (or using volunteer) "unknowns" to pose as patrons
and evaluate how we're doing; we talked about the importance of roving and moving
from behind the desk.  We agreed that we will continue this discussion in a TIP
meeting since this is more than a "McKeldin" issue.  To inform that discussion,
Cindy will try to gather the "service evaluation" data from last Fall's user
survey and try to gather data from the "Suggestion Box."  Glenn will draft some
questions that SIRS will pose as a survey of "us" so that we can formally
articulate how we evaluate our own service.
Core staff will see that student staff input is gathered.

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