Attending:
Andrew Dell'Antonio, Lisa Griffin, John Kolsti, Jill Marshall, Irene Owens, Charles Radin, Kenneth Ralls, John Slatin; Candace Chui, Blaire Knox, Cale McDowell; Fred Heath, Dennis Dillon, Jo Anne Hawkins, Sue Phillips, Mark McFarland, Jocelyn Duffy
The next meeting of the committee will be held on December 14 from 1 until 2 P.M. The committee will convene in DFA 4.104 for a discussion of plans for the Fine Arts Library integrated learning environment, to be led by Laura Schwartz, head librarian for the Fine Arts Library. There will be a brief tour of the Fine Arts Library.
Dennis Dillon distributed a handout before his presentation (attached).
Kenneth Ralls distributed a business card created by the staff of the McKinney Engineering Library. The reverse of this card reads:
WHEN GOOGLING ISN'T ENOUGH
Sue Phillips did a demonstration on the utility of an integrated library system (ILS) for users, beginning with a look at the UT Libraries website, and asking: (1) How easy is it for an undergraduate to use the site? (2) Does the student know where to start to find resources? (3) Is there a place to store links to information that they find?
She proceeded to display the Research Port at the University of Maryland, showing: (1) it offers a Quick Search option (just enter search terms and go); (2) it will search a set of selected resources (databases, catalogs, etc) with one click; (3) its search process puts up a status page indicating results of the search in each database, etc. (successful link, connection failure, number of results); and (4) its users can save an article to disk, send it via e-mail, or add it to their personalized Research Port. Users can create their own personalized Research Port that lists sets of databases and e-journals that they regularly search, and stores citations and links to information that they find through their Port.
Professor Slatin inquired about accessibility issues with the status report, and wanted to know whether a screen reader would pick up the changing text.
Professor Radin asked whether students wouldn't continue to use Google rather than a library search portal.
Sue Phillips observed that Google is one of the reasons that search portals are moving towards simpler interfaces, that is a single box where the user can enter search information and access a search engine that searches multiple online resources for one search.
Professor Radin asked, "Can you search e-journals directly?"
Dennis Dillon responded that Research Port is sometimes referred to as the "Academic Google." It returns valid, refereed results. But it does not work that well with more in-depth, graduate-level searches.
Professor Slatin commented that Google only searches what is online, in digital format. Research Port returns more types of artifacts, including citations for prints items and items from the library's catalog.
In general, Google can be very useful for programs that have critical information that was published yesterday, but not all university programs work in the same time frame.
Dennis Dillon noted that this library has fed information to Google in the past, but that now there is too much information and too few staff to continue to do this.
Professor and Chair Ralls said that the University Libraries need to publicize the potential power and usefulness of a new Integrated Library System (ILS)-What an ILS can do for you!-together with an explanation that information that is not online remains very relevant.
An Integrated Library System will allow the library (taken from Dennis Dillon's handout): (1) to provide faculty and students with a larger univers3e of scholarly information; (2) to provide faculty and students with more control over that information; (3) to deliver information in more sophisticated ways; (4) to simplify your life and to save you time; (5) to work more easily with publishers, universities, and database suppliers; and (6) to achieve operating efficiencies. (More detail is provided on the actual handout.) He also noted that a modern integrated library system will help with new digital library activities as well as traditional library activities. Moreover it will help library staff in a number of ways.
Professor Slatin observed that federated searching or a tool similar to Research Port will provide a definite accessibility benefit. People with learning disabilities and impairments may have a difficult time searching since each database can have its own interface. One interface to learn will make online searching easier for everyone.
Mark McFarland said that the University Library staff will meet with John to include accessibility specifications in the Request for Proposal (RFP).
If the library does not purchase a new Integrated Library System, faculty and students (continued from Dennis Dillon's handout): (1) will not have access to the information tools available to the rest of higher eduction; (2) will have access to a smaller universe of information; (3) will spend more time doing research; (4) will use search technology that misses research material and is less effective than at peer institutions; (5) will have access to fewer e-journals; (6) will spend more time tracking down printed journals; (7) will not be competitive with their peers at other institutions who have access to modern information systems; (8) will find an increasing amount of frustrating errors in the existing library system; and (9) will see a reduction in library services. (As before, more detail is provided in the actual, attached handout.)
Associate Professor Dell'Antonio asked whether a new ILS would improve e-reserves (noting that streaming audio does not always work well).
E-reserves is a separate system, said Mark McFarland. It's also as state-of-the-art a reserve system as can be purchased at this time.
Associate Professor Irene Owens asked, "How does UT Austin compare against other consortia, for example, the Big 12?"
Dennis Dillon responded that UT Austin is the only university library in North America without an Integrated Library System. He noted that UT Austin is an international leader in resource holdings, but is unable to easily tell others about its holdings.
Associate Professor Dell'Antonio asked whether there has been any resistance to the library getting a new ILS.
Dr. Heath said that no one has said they are against it. But the realities are that the university wants to get smaller, that the libraries are set to lose monies from library fees, lost book fees and overdue fines, and that the budget for the libraries will be reduced by nearly $2M during the next fiscal year.
