MSL Staff Meeting Minutes - 1/29/08

Announcements - N/A

Committee Reports

Library Council - The reorganization was announced, so most of the meeting focused on this topic. Judy will be coming to the MSL staff meeting next week to answer any questions that we may have about the chart and/or process.

PSC Meeting - The login to the public computers will be changed from the 14 digit library # to the Gatorlink account. This should be completed during the intercession between Spring and Summer A. RealPlayer will be added to the public computers.

MSL Services

Whitney Lab - They do have services through our ILL/Document Delivery department. In the ILL/DD form their department is "DISTANCE- Whitney Lab"

MSL blog & wiki - We will not be transferring them at this time

Computer Services

Laptops - Batteries and chargers still aren't here. Only 10 are currently circulating.

Cataloging Services

Coastal Archives - there is still 100 linear feet on the shelf waiting to be searched plus 12 other boxes

Database Management Librarian - this position is still a go

Selectors
Reference Email - Amy will be taking over as the primary on this

GOBI3 Training - Tara will be attending the webinar on Friday and will report back to those who were interested

Elsevier Title Swap - Please continue to look through and make decisions on the low usage titles Google Doc. Select titles from the list that Rich generated from Serials Solutions & the Incremental list and send them to Tara by this Thursday!

MSL Meeting Minutes - 1/15/08

Reference Desk:

Amy announced the new Outlook calendar for the reference desk. Currently she and Pat can edit the calendars so they will be writing trades in the calendar. Remember to write all vacations/known days off in the print calendar so Pat/Amy can find a trade. You can find your own trade, email Pat/Amy 1-2 weeks in advance so they can get it on the calendar and don't look for a trade. If you are sick, just call in like normal and Pat will find a replacement. If you trade a day ahead or so (after the schedule has been printed) just mark it on the printed schedule at the reference desk.

Someone asked if the long distance number has been moved. No one knew. I just called it and Amy answered so it still comes to the MSL Ref Desk.

Display Case

The display case is open until October. If you have an idea for a display, contact Val to schedule.

MSL Outlook lists

Tara brought up that the lists in Outlook for MSL all start with different designations. There is: MSL, Marston & Science. We voted and most people preferred MSL. Tara will try to combine lists and change them all to begin with MSL.

Computers

Laptops will begin circulating Thursday. Feel free to direct people waiting for computers to the circ desk.

Printing problems: We are having problems printing big files. If this happens, power the printer off, count to 10 and turn it back on. This will reset the printer and the print job will be lost. You can then print the "bad" files using the reference desk printer.

Tara asked about the scanners we were supposed to get. We don't know where in the process they are.. Denise/Laurie will ask Michael and report back.

Selectors

We all agreed Vernon did a nice job with the answers to Michelle's strategic planning questions. Thanks Vernon!

Denise gave a nice synopsis of the OCLC Talk she went to. It was about their latest report on users.

Vernon reminded everyone that the Brittle Books review period would begin soon.

Tara explained what everyone needs to do for the Elsevier Title Swap.

(Sorry these are so late.. I kept forgetting to type them up!)

Carrot

Has anyone seen the search engine, Carrot? I thought it was interesting because it uses what we call "facets" like in Endeca and WOS. Also has a special tab just for PubMed - hmmmm.

Distance Learning Council Meeting

At the last DLC meeting Becky Williams, an instructional designer with CITT, gave a presentation on CMS software issues and spoke about open source (such as SAKAI) vs. Vendor (WebCT/Blackboard) products and a new software system for teacher grading, called SWoRD. Here is a synopsis of what she presented, and feel free to take a look at her ppt for more information: (http://plaza.ufl.edu/rjwillia/swordtalk%20-%20learning%20consort-oct07.ppt).

The first four slides are about CMS vendors vs. open source:

A growing disillusionment with vendor products has many Universities moving or considering moving to Sakai (the most popular open source system available). WebCT and Bb have left many unaddressed issues, and they require universities to pay for upgrades or extensions if something does not work. Moving a CMS to open source has its own issues, but that the vendor situation is so aggravating more universities are considering it as an option. I thought these issues sounded familiar to our LMS experiences - I'll be interested in seeing where the CMS discussion goes.

Slide 5 through 42 are about a new, free software called SWoRD. In large classes, professors assign fewer papers as writing assignments due to the difficulty of grading a large number of papers. Despite writing less, student grades are higher and students feel they are good writers; and, yet, teaching faculty don't agree. SWoRD is a system by which papers are automatically assigned to other student writers, for peer-review. Each student peer-reviews 5 papers. Ms. Williams had evidence supporting the value of multiple peer reviewing of a paper; it is much more useful for a student to have 3 peers review their paper than it is for one student or one professor to review the paper. Read the slides if you are interesting in learning more. Currently the software is free, although Ms. Williams thought that would most likely change.

This meeting was held in the Digital Worlds Building at Norman and included a digital tour of the Gator Nation Island in Second Life. Someone at the meeting mentioned that the Libraries were holding reference hours within SL, which Laura Jordan was able to speak to.