RISS
(Reference and Information Services Section) Business Meeting
Minutes
April
2, 2001
Art
Libraries Society of North America 29th Annual Conference, Los
Angeles, CA
Tom
Grieves, Moderator
Marcy Neth, Co-Moderator
Judy
Donovan, Update Editor
Elections/Nominations
The
first order of business was the nomination of a new slate of RISS officers.
Marcy Neth, who currently is Co-Moderator of RISS was nominated for
Moderator. Judy Donovan, who
currently is Update Editor was nominated for Co-Moderator as was Terry Wilson, a
new member of RISS. Erica Dowell
was nominated as the new Update Editor. Since
the candidates for Moderator and Update Editor were running unopposed, there was
no need for a vote. Members
approved the new appointments unanimously by a voice vote.
Members voted on Co-Moderator candidates Judy Donovan and Terry Wilson.
Judy Donovan was elected as the new Co-Moderator.
Announcements
Margaret
Webster reminded everyone that conference proposals for the 2002 meeting in St.
Louis were due May 1st and distributed proposal information forms.
The categories for proposals are: The changing Research and Collections
Environments; Redefining Roles and Responsibilities with the Digital Age;
Digital Projects: Revelations, Project Management, Models and Future
Initiatives; Issues and Challenges; Workshops; Plenary sessions.
Tara
Carlisle, the new editor of Art Reference Services Quarterly, a peer-reviewed
journal devoted to visual arts and architecture, announced that this somewhat
irregular publication has again resumed publications and welcomed RISS members
to submit articles for publication.
2002
RISS Session Proposals
Tom
asked members if anyone wanted to propose RISS sessions for the 2002 conference.
Tom Jacoby proposed a session on the Mississippi River. Tom Grieves
proposed a session on Digital and Virtual Reference.
Lucy Stylianopoulos proposed a session, possibly in conjunction with the
Diversity Committee on building web pages that conform to web accessibility
guidelines. The Diversity Committee
is planning a session on the planning of virtual and physical spaces, so this
topic might mesh well with that session.
RISS’s
2001 Session, “Too Much of a Good Thing?”
Tom
commented that our panel for this conference, co-sponsored by the Cataloging
Section, was a success and thanked everyone involved.
Judy Donovan, who co-moderated the panel along with Alexandra deLuise,
mentioned that during the question and answer session the issue was raised that
ARLIS ought to be taking the lead in putting together a “core collection” of
art/design websites that its members could rely on when creating their own pages
to assist students. Judy asked if
any of the RISS members wanted to form a Task Force to begin investigating the
possibility of creating such a list. Members voted in favor of creating such a
task force on Core Collection of Art/Design Websites. Kate Shaw, Liv Valmstat , Alba Nora Fernandez, Ruth
Thomas and Judy Donovan volunteered to join this committee. They will discuss the issue together via email and on the
ARLIS-L listserv over the coming year.
The
business meeting ended early in order to allow time for our three speakers to do
their presentations. Tom mentioned
that he had heard these speakers at this year’s ALA Midwinter conference and
was delighted to be able to get them to repeat their presentations for ARLIS.
Our
speakers were Joan Stahl “Joan of Art” from the Smithsonian who repeated her
colleague Diane Nester Kresh’s (Library of Congress) presentation on the
Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS) of the Library of Congress ;
Susan McLamery, from the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System in Pasadena, CA
who spoke on Cooperative Reference Using E-Commerce Software; and Nancy
O’Neill from the Santa Monica Public Library who spoke on How Digital
Reference Service Works in Public Libraries.
What
follows are brief summaries of each speaker’s presentation. The summaries are quoted from a report on their original
presentations at ALA Midwinter that was published in Information Today.
The complete article can be found at http://www.infotoday.com/it/mar01/saunders.htm
The
website for CDRS is http://www.loc.gov/rr/digiref/
The
Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS) of the Library of Congress
(presented by Joan Stahl on behalf of her colleague Diane Nester Kresh:
"Having
heard two speakers refer to LC's Collaborative Digital Reference Service without
much
Kresh
reported that in November 2000, LC finished the final test of the CDRS's Phase
3, in which more than 50 members had participated. The goals of the pilot tests
included developing a Web form for the question-and-answer process, creating
procedures for assigning and tracking,
Susan
McLamery, from the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System (MCLS) in Pasadena
California “Cooperative Reference Using E-Commerce Software”
Representing
the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System (MCLS) in Pasadena, California,
McGlamery
displayed a number of system screens via the Santa Monica Public Library's Web
site (http://www.smpl.org/library) to show how the digital reference system
actually looks. The consortium
is now concentrating on Web-accessible information, pushing Web pages to users,
and building FAQs. During the process of developing digital reference processes,
librarians identified a number of problems. One issue was the increasing level
of computer skill and technical expertise required of them. McGlamery concluded
by stating that chat reference is just in its infancy and has a long way to go
before being as easy and spontaneous as an in-person reference interview.”
For more information on the MCLS project go to: http://247ref.org
Nancy
O’Neill, Santa Monica Public Library:
“How
Digital Reference Service Works in Public Libraries”
“Nancy
O'Neill, principal librarian at the Santa Monica Public Library, followed up
with her session, "How Digital
Reference Works in the Public Library." Despite her library's vision of
using digital reference services to meet the needs of a diverse clientele
wherever they are, O'Neill stated that 24/7 service is not quite there yet. She
suggested that before initiating such a venture, librarians need to consider how
digital reference service fits into the library mission and institutional
culture, whether there is acceptance from administration and staff, and whether
the appropriate technology infrastructure exists.
Having
provided an e-mail reference service since 1989, in March 2000 Santa Monica
Public
The
presentations were followed by questions from the RISS members.
Meeting adjourned at 11:30
Judy
Donovan, session recorder