MOBAC Reference Committee Meeting, November 25, 2014

Present:

Jean Chapin, Harrison Memorial
Benjamin MacBean, Salinas Public
Inga Waite, Monterey Public
Ann Jacobson, Naval Postgraduate School
Sarah Dahlen, CSUMB
Deborah Stephens, Hartnell
Glenn Tozier, Monterey Peninsula College
Be Astengo, Monterey Country Free Libraries
Laura Dickie, Cabrillo College
Jen Waterson, MIIS

Jean is proxy for Jennifer (Santa Cruz)

Ann Jacobson, Recorder

Inga was host and provided wonderful refreshments, thank you!

Agenda changes=none.  Approved.

Minutes from last month’s meeting:

Corrections: Kris stepped down as co-chair, Benjamin McBean is now Vice Chair.  (Salinas Public)

Corrections Approved.

No public comments.

Reports:

Sarah went to Admin Council.  We submitted our report.  PLP needs a new chair.  Remote meeting participation on the radar. 

Tech Committee:  Deborah.  Looking at various ways to have remote attendance for that committee. Testing various options.  Will make a recommendation to admin council. Not a lot of people attending the tech committee meetings.

ILL:  Nobody from our group attended.  Sarah said that SCPL ILL will be reinstated in January.

SPLAMBA:  Be reports that they are trying to reach out to schools.  Attendance at meetings is pretty low.  Coming up with ways to reach out to whatever schools are in the area where the meeting is scheduled.  They discussed an interesting workshop at CLA on the user experience of families with children.  “Brazleton touchpoints.”  Will have a March workshop on the topic.

Old Business:

Reference Committee workshops for PLP:  We haven’t heard anything from Mary or from them.

Reviewing services survey:  Jean reporting:  Subcommittee met.  George mocked up a website.

http://www.mobac.org/library-services-survey-draft-redesign/cabrillo-college-test/

We took a look at it and Jean took her own notes to bring back to George.

Keep FAX category.

We discussed some design issues and gave some suggestions for improving the usability.

Discussed list of things that George wondered whether we should keep tracking or start tracking.

We would really prefer to have it be a searchable database rather than flat HTML.  Tech committee also thinking about this. So until then, it would be helpful to just keep the site as is, but edit the categories.

Jean will discuss with George.

Action agreed on:  Tell him to leave it alone for now.

Letter for change in state statistics.  Be working on this, has a draft.  Who do we write it to?  Greg Lucas/Admin Council?  Draft two letters, one to Admin Council and one to Greg Lucas from Admin Council as a sample? Want stats to more accurately reflect what reference librarians do.  Involves a lot more of working with technology like emails, downloading eBooks, using databases, etc.  Be needs our input on what we want to say.

How consistently do we track?  Some people tabulate tech as ref, some don’t.

Stats need:  Consistency in reporting.  Breaking out technology more clearly. Would be a more accurate reflection of our work.

Jean says updated definitions and standards address what a lot of our concerns were. Maybe we should wait to so how those work out?

We discussed various fine points of collecting web and reference stats.

Action: Tabling for now, will revisit if needed after the public libraries use their new standards for a while.

New Business:

October Future of Reference Workshop.  Went well.  A bit lightly attended.  Be collected feedback. Beata’s Reference Core Competencies got a lot of good feedback.  Diversity of topics worked well.  Feedback was generally good.

Inga had trouble recording the session. Instructions weren’t available. She talked to Steve about that. She’s not sure how well the recording went. But now the instructions seem to be available. 

We talked a bit about whether the videos are ever watched, where they might be housed.

Lessons learned: Be: we needed to allow time for Q&A after each session.  Wished we had gotten publicity out earlier. Wonders if change of venue made a difference. Tighter library staffing generally is probably impacting attendance, too. Maybe we can host at MPC again in the future?  Glenn thinks it’s possible.

Make it longer again:  0830-1200.  With workshop 9-12.

Overall a big success!

Subscription Databases (public libraries packages):  Wait to hear back from Califa about how it will be organized.  PLP has negotiated packages in the past….  Prices were locked in for three years, now needs to be looked at, renewed, etc. Are Directors/Admin Council aware?  Probably…

Action:  None for now, waiting for more info.

Spring Workshop:

Was in March last year.  Tech doing one in April.  Subcommittee to work on March Workshop?

Ideas include Ergonomics for librarians, hot new tech.  Another idea is various means of selling books to raise $$$. Jen will check on the ergonomics, Be will see if there is someone in the County who might speak on this topc.  First order of business in January meeting will be volunteers for subcommittee. All should be thinking about your ideas for  a workshop and whether you want to help organize. Reference

Shares:

Be, what do you do if children are left when library closes.  Is there a policy, procedures, etc.  MPL calls the police because they are right across the street.  Various details discussed.

Next meeting:  January 26 2015 at Watsonville Public Library.

News from Libraries: (not recorded)