Members Present: Carol Turner, Carol Drum, Alice Primack, Jan Swanbeck, David Hickey, Rich Bennett, Gary Cornwell, Colleen Seale, LeiLani Freund, Jana Ronan, Suzanne Brown, Robena Cornwell

Members Absent: Robert Singerman, John Ingram, Richard Phillips, HelenJane Armstrong, David Fuller, Ed Teague, Pam Cenzer

       Carol Drum demonstrated a prototype of a subject guide placed in the catalog. The subject and type of resource wanted was typed into the search area and a list of matching items were displayed. For example: Carol typed in the subject “Physical Chemistry” and the type “web.” She then received a listing of web pages dealing with some type of physical chemistry. This would provide another way of accessing materials that are already in the catalog. It could be useful to help patrons or staff find electronic publications that are not offered in paper form and are thus not included in the library’s catalog.
A discussion was held to determine if this would be beneficial to add to the catalog. If it were added, a lot of effort must be expended to guarantee that the links were up-to-date at all times. It was decided that the discussion was a good introduction to the idea, but that it should be discussed further, especially by the web group, before a decision was made.
Carol Turner said that a forum might be scheduled to allow staff to give input since it is a library-wide issue. She said she would discuss the idea of a forum with Carolyn and Martha.
2. Living the Future

Carol Turner gave a brief report on the Living the Future conference she attended in Arizona. Much of the conference focused on the University of Arizona and the radical reorganization it underwent since a new director was hired ten years ago. The library did away with the traditional hierarchical organization and created teams. Its goal is to focus on user needs and to assess how its activities are supporting its users. She said that while this approach would not work at every university, it is interesting to see how it is working at Arizona.  Much can be learned and adapted from what Arizona has accomplished.
3. Updates
       Baseline Services--Carol discussed the work done at the last PSSC meeting to come up with baseline or critical services. Initial efforts were undertaken to define services that are part of the circulation function.  Several approaches were taken.  The group approved the listing approach used by Rich Bennett.  An effort is now going to be made to apply this method to other public service functions.  Basic function categories were divided among the PSSC members in order to test whether this basic approach works for other functions.  After this is completed, processed will be developed to involve staff throughout Public Services in determine service priorities and defining levels of quality and user expectations.

The categories and assignments are as follows:


• ILL—Rich Bennett
• Reference—Gary Cornwell
• Facilities (equipment, seating, hours, etc.)—Carol Drum
• User Access Equipment—Carol Turner
• Electronic Access to Resources—Rich Bennett
• User Training—Gary Cornwell
• Reserves—Carol Drum
• Providing Access to Material—David Hickey and Jan Swanbeck
• Preview—Jana Ronan announced that Preview this summer would include a brief tour of the library. Preview runs from May 19 – July 21. Tours of approximately 15 freshmen will be conducted two to three days a week from 9 am to 3 pm.
• Transfer Orientation—Alice Primack said that each college has a one-day orientation session for incoming transfers. As a pilot, the College of Agriculture will include library handouts and brief information about the library. If this is successful, other colleges will include library information in future sessions.
• Ref Xpress—Colleen reported that the Ref Xpress pilot project will end on May 4. During the eight-week trial, about 30 questions were asked through the chat service. An assessment of the project will be done to determine the value and to decide if this is the most effective way of doing things. Colleen passed out a copy of the survey included at the bottom of the Ref Xpress page. The survey answers will help with the assessment process.
4. Announcements
• The next library system demonstration will be held May 16. The organization doing the demo is Epixtech.
• Linda Sparks is retiring on June 30. Ed Teague has accepted a job at North Carolina State University. His last day is June 30.