Draft Minutes, Digital Reference Committee Meeting

December 13, 2002, 10 - 11:30 am

EPSL Instruction Room

Present: Julie Arnold, Eileen Abels, Bonnie Jo Dopp, Ann Hudak, Neal Kaske, Jim Miller, Cindy Todd

Topic: AskUsNow!

Time: 10 minutes

Outcome: Questions from previous minutes were looked at in order to prepare for conference call with Joe Thompson.

Topic: Telephone Call to Joe Thompson, Coordinator of AskUsNow!

Time: 45 minutes

Outcome: Committee engaged in a telephone discussion with Joe about the service, and asked questions. Questions about policies, hours, staffing, were raised and discussed. Joe pointed the team to the global 24/7 Reference schedule. All AskUsNow! Staff members will have access to this calendar to see “who is on at what time.” Joe pointed out that the 24/7 organization will provide staffing when there is no one else to cover. There will be 4 “Maryland” seats open for staffing. UM Libraries will cover 5-15 hours of this time. We say what hours we are able to cover. Our users will have access to the service “24/7.” Joe also informed the committee that the January 14^th liaison meeting will be to discuss policies and staffing.

Topic: Email Reference Statistics Report

Leader: Rick Robison (CLIS field study student)

Time: 20 minutes

Outcome: CIS field study student Rick Robison provided the committee with a copy of his report and recommendations for evaluating email reference questions that have been forwarded to lib-email@umail.umd.edu and es155@umail.umd.edu