Research Services Committee Progress Report--March 2006
The RSC created two forums to facilitate communication among all interested staff engaged in instruction and reference functions. Email distribution lists were created, and planning for activities and programming is underway. Sue Erickson has taken the lead on the Reference Forum, Melinda Brown on the Instruction Forum. The Instruction Forum will take the lead in addressing the Information Literacy goal in the Strategic Plan. Melinda summarized input from all the libraries on our instruction efforts for submission for the University’s reaccreditation self study.
RSC participated with the Digital Library Steering Committee and the Communications Committee in developing a set of priorities for Heard Library webpage revision and updating.
An agenda of high priority activities was developed by the Committee with the Information Literacy Goal being the highest. The Lib QUAL survey is expected to yield useful results, identifying areas where we need to focus first. OAK represents an area in which the Library can be more active and supportive; RSC began thinking and talking about its relationship to OAK support and development; additional training is needed for effective use. In addition, this year the group will work on conducting a needs assessment for our services and assessing our current services. We will also look at ways to balance job responsibilities and new job demands, possibly by reviewing what we are currently doing and identifying those activities we could discontinue or do more efficiently.
The committee also reviews particular service issues that arise from time to time. These include ways in which our electronic services work and how they can be improved. Links to the Ask Us service from selected databases, adding CRL records to ACORN, working on the World Cat link from ACORN searches/results, potential use of clicker technology, training priorities, and a policy revision for the electronic classroom have all been topics for discussion and/or resolution.