Digital Reference Committee

Meeting Minutes

September 8, 2005

Attended: Jenny Hatleberg, Travis Johnson, Kari Schmidt, Joan Stahl (notetaker), Cindy Todd, Laura Wrubel (facilitator)

Topic: Transition to one service

The group discussed training:

a) Is there a need for HumanClick training? Laura is willing to do small group or one-on-one instruction. Cindy will announce that, after librarians get more familiar wit the new staffing model. b) The earlier suggestion to offer a program on Best Practices was put on the back burner because 1) everybody's Fall schedule is heavy and 2) best practices will be covered by Joe Thompson in upcoming Maryland AskUsNow! training sessions 3) we will add useful training links to the Committee's Web page

Topic: Upcoming Committee Review

Cindy explained the upcoming review of the Digital Reference Committee by members of the Facilitators Group; the review process originated in the Library Leaders Group. Alan Mattlage and Maggie Saponaro will meet with the Committee in October. The questions they will ask will be distributed to Committee members in advance. The Review Committee drafts a report, which is then sent back to the Library Leaders Group.

Topic: Committee Membership / Work:

Committee membership, which has changed at the start of the calendar year, was discussed. Travis and Jenny wish to continue serving on the Committee, but Laura will be rotating off Kari believes it is important to get others involved in the Committee. Cindy wants to see the subcommittee continue through this transition period. Since DigRef is a subcommittee of IRS-T, Cindy would like for IRS-T and DigRef to consider whether or not DigRef's work should change or be integrated into IRS-T.

The group discussed the work of the Committee during this transition period. They identified many roles and activities and agreed to send the list to IRS-T, who will direct the work of the Committee. Joan will submit the following list, outlining possible activities for the Committee, to IRS-T:

a) Gather digital reference statistics (consult with Irma Dillon)
b) Monitor best practices
c) Investigate marketing strategies (liaison with PR Team)
d) Manage / staff chat service
e) Integrate our email service into our new service
f) Work to integrate Special Collections reference
g) Provide education to librarians, through training sessions and related programming
h) Keep abreast of trends in digital reference
i) Collaborate with CLIS (provide training opportunities for graduate assistants and field study students)
j) Participate at a scholarly level (attend conferences; conduct research)
k) Work with USMAI libraries to build further partnerships for digital reference
l) Liaison to UM Libraries Administration on issues pertaining to digital reference

Next meeting: October 13, 2005 (Art Library Conference Room)
Notetaker: Jenny Hatleberg
Agenda items: Facilitator’s Review of Committees, Groups, and Teams