MOBAC Reference Committee Meeting

Tuesday, March 28, 2017 2 pm

 Hartnell College Library

ACTION ITEMS: (details in minutes below)

• Check the information about your library on the MOBAC website at http://www.mobac.org/services-survey-draft-redesign/ and update as needed on the wiki: Library Services Updates 2017
• Brainstorm new committee names/charges on the wiki: Ideas for New Committee Name
• Make note of job titles for librarians doing reference on the wiki: Job Titles

___________________________________________________

Ann called the meeting to order at 2:10pm

Present

Ann Jacobson from Naval Postgraduate School

Alicia Martinez from Watsonville

Cynthia Ainsworth from Hartnell

Kris Amaral from Monterey County Free Libraries

Ellie Anderson from Monterey Public Library

Jean Chapin from Harrison Memorial Library

Sarah Dahlen from CSUMB (via Zoom)

Frank Gravier from UC Santa Cruz (via Zoom)

Recorder

Cynthia Ainsworth

Proxies

None

Approval of Old Minutes

February minutes approved

Public Comments

None

Old Business

None

New Business:

Library Services Survey

Time for each of us to review the information about our library on this public site : http://www.mobac.org/services-survey-draft-redesign/

Ann asked that each library review the information about their library (make sure it is accurate and up-to-date) by next meeting in May. No need to click through the "By Service" link.  Just click on the name of your library under By Library. Changes can be noted on the wiki at: Library Services Updates 2017

Wendy Cao from PLP will make the changes on the MOBAC website. If you know how to make the updates, feel free to do so and indicate that on the Library Services Updates 2017 wiki page.

Facilitated Topic Discussion

Ellie Anderson, Facilitator:  What do we do? What is reference and where is its value in a modern library?

Discussion Questions:

1. What does reference look like at your library? Who answers reference questions and what is the volume of questions? What is a reference question anyway?

2. What is the value of specialization? Is there a greater need for specialist in your library or generalists? What do those terms mean in different types of libraries?

Discussion on the what constitutes a reference question; the pros and cons of the single service desk and problems arise when non-reference staff are fielding questions. Do non-librarian staff understand what is a reference question? Yet, they are determining when a reference librarian is called. All agreed that with Google, the nature of what constitutes  a reference question has changed. Reference is more aligned to customer service.

Identification of next meeting's topic and facilitator

The third discussion question will be the topic for next meeting: Kris will expand the question to make a fuller topic.

3) What does your community (school, town, etc.) need from its library? Who decides? How does reference service fit into the effort to fill those needs?

Review of our committee charge

Administrative Council asked the Ref Committee to review our charge: Does it makes sense? Do we need a new charge/purpose? Do we need a new name for the committee? Discussion on the different job titles held by those in attendance. At one time, heads of Reference attended meetings. Does the job of “Reference Librarian” exist and is it relevant to what we do? Our workshops tend to be non-reference related. Discussion of “Information Management” or “Public Service” as possible name changes. With a name change, would more libraries be open to sending other members who are not “Reference”? Committee members were asked to research other job titles that encompass the traditional reference role. Those can be shared on the Wiki at Job Titles

Reports:

Administrative Council

Included a discussion about the Reference Committee name and charge. We were asked to think about both and propose any changes to the Admin Council. The next meeting will be June 9th. We may not be ready to propose changes by then.

Tech Committee

Workshop April 28th on Google analytics and Internet security @ Marina Library. Flyer to follow

ILL Committee

No report

SPLAMBA

Play workshop last month was good but not well attended; committee working on a book list “Mirrors and Windows”: celebrating people who are different from ourselves

Reference Shares:

Kris shared that MCFL now has Bookbrowse, a readers advisory website similar to Goodreads: intended for paraprofessionals fulfilling more reference librarian roles. Suggestion made to invite a guest speaker to our Ref Committee meeting to present then open to discussion. Again idea about local history as a workshop topic was brought up.

News from libraries (off the record)

Meeting adjourned

Next meeting— (May 23, 2017 @ CSUMB)