MOBAC Reference Committee Meeting

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

2pm, Watsonville Public Library

 

Ann called the meeting to order at 2:08pm

 

Present

Carol Heitzig from Watsonville

Alicia Martinez from Watsonville

Cynthia Ainsworth from Hartnell

Ann Jacobson from Naval Postgraduate School

Ellie Anderson from Monterey Public Library

Stacy Mueller from Cabrillo College

Julie Richardson from Santa Cruz Public

 

Recorder

Ellie Anderson

 

Proxies

None

 

Approval of Old Minutes

October minutes approved

January minutes approved

 

Public Comments

None

 

Old Business

Chair for next year

We need to identify an incoming chair to ensure a smooth transition.

Carol suggested establishing a rotating chair position, perhaps based on alphabetical order.

Cynthia said she would be willing to be a co-chair if someone would be her partner. Stacy said that she would be the other co-chair. Ann will meet with them to prepare them for the positions. The transition happens in August. Outgoing chair will write the annual report and set them up for success. Thank you, Stacy and Cynthia!

 

 

New Business

Committee Survey

Seven responses out of 11 active members.

Most members can attend some of the time.

Networking is valued. Scheduling and time pressures make it difficult to attend meetings.

Content-rich meetings appeal to many members.

Maybe one workshop a year would be more achievable that two.

It is worth considering who the workshop is for. Reference Librarians? Paraprofessionals who are asked to do library work? Who is our target group?

 

We decided that we will meet every other month to make it easier for members to attend.

 

Spring Workshop or Product

At the January meeting we had discussed hiring someone from InfoPeople to teach about Marketing E-Resources, but it is cost prohibitive.

We have approximately $420 left in our budget for the year. Another time, we could ask the Admin Council if there are any other committees with money who would like to co-sponsor a workshop with broad appeal.

Instead of doing a second workshop, would we like to put together a resource guide? One idea could be collecting a guide to local history resources.

 

We decided that we will do one workshop a year instead of two, with the option of a combined resource guide or other useful project in place of the second workshop.

 

Future Meeting Discussion Topics

●     What do we do? What is reference and where is its value in a modern library? Specialization vs Generalists.

●     Ellie will facilitate this conversation at the March meeting.

 

Upcoming Meeting Dates (new every-other-month schedule)

March 28th at Hartnell

May 23rd CSUMB

June 27th at The Whole Enchilada for networking

 

Ann will take this idea to Admin Council Meeting:

We would like to suggest that we would like to have an Admin Council meeting that would be planned and publicized as a larger group meeting with staff invited and a social component afterward.

 

Snack Procedures

Let’s start just bringing a snack to share with the group rather than depending on the host library to provide snacks.

 

Discussion Topic: Fake News

Facilitated by Stacy Mueller.

 

Cabrillo College has a Research Guide: http://cabrillo.libguides.com/content.php?pid=322934&sid=5854327

 

How can libraries and Librarians get the word out about fake news? What are you doing or what would you like to do?

●     Cabrillo has a lesson plan for a class session in evaluating websites and information, generally. Stacy will send it to us.

●     The difference between “fake news” and “biased reporting”. How do we empower our library users to figure out the difference.

●     ACRL Threshold Concepts. Information as conversation. What’s the difference

●     Community colleges are doing education on this. What about public libraries? Programs or resource sharing? Is Politifact a useful resource to share?

●     Are librarians the experts? Who else are the experts? Teachers of critical thinking? Or ethics?

●     Fake News is a useful hook, but is it the same work we have have been doing?

 

Library as a neutral space? Or a space for practicing civil discussion?

 

Collaboration with high schools? Teachers or librarians?

 

What is our responsibility to stop the spread of fake news? How do you respond to fake news when you come across it in social media?

●     Do you respond to other people’s facebook posts?

●     Use Snopes as a way to backup your conversation.

●     Interface between the private and the personal.

 

Reports

Admin Meeting - no meeting

Tech Committee - no representative

ILL Committee - no representative

SPLAMBA - Working on book lists to open windows through sharing stories about a wide variety of people. Summer reading idea sharing.

 

Reference Shares

LibGuides. What is the user behavior that results in finding the information? What is the role of LibGuides? To help people find this information, is it best to start with something people know, like Google Scholar, then move to databases and LibGuides? Ebsco Discovery Layer is a bit like this.

 

Ebsco Databases have updated to MLA 8 in citation tool.

 

Meeting adjourned