ELECTRONIC DATA SERVICE GROUP
MINUTES OF THE MEETING, APRIL 4, 2006
Present: Christy Branston, Tim Ireland, Sandra Keys (Chair), Judy McTaggart
(Recorder), Richard Pinnell, Shabiran Rahman
Regrets: Helene LeBlanc, Neil Patterson
1. Remarks from the Chair: Sandra welcomed Tim Ireland to the EDS group. He
is the Librarian for Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology.
2. Approval of Minutes from February 7, 2006: The minutes were approved with
minor corrections.
3. Business Arising:
Item 4, TDR-OMG report, paragraph 5: Sandra noted she has received no further
details about the Nesstar training session. Richard said Michelle and Carol are
planning to give the session if there is still interest. The delay has been due to
logistical problems that need to be worked out. It was agreed that sometime near the
end of April or the beginning of May, and preferably a Wednesday afternoon, would
be a good time to schedule the session. Action: Richard will convey this to
Michelle.
Sandra noted she will be giving a Nesstar session as part of the ISR Training Retreat
program; however, the session will focus strictly on software and details that staff
need to know when they are on the information desk.
Shabiran asked Richard to convey to TDR the problems we have experienced with
the Nesstar website.
Shabiran confirmed that Val Huggan had sent out the distribution list for DataLinks.
Doug Horne has spoken with Linda Day about the links in TRELLIS that need to be
changed. Linda says that a list of new URLs is needed. Richard said the TDR web
retrieval will not be taken down until the changes are made. Hopefully, a
global change can be done and links to the main page of Nesstar can be created.
Item 5, c: IGOStats: Shabiran stated she will not be taking the issue Helene brought
forth to IR. She noted this appears to be an institutional issue and it would be
appropriate to have it sorted out at that level before being taken to the OCUL IR
group. She also suggested Sandra might want to bring the issue up at the next DINO
meeting. There was discussion about how consortial purchases are handled at UW.
Shabiran pointed out that anything purchased goes back to the individual Librarian
rather than the IR rep. Richard noted the OCUL map group does not go to the OCUL
IR when purchases are made.
Shabiran will check to see what the EDS budget is.
Item 7: Christy reported that no further action was required on the request to
purchase reports for gas price data. The student was able to find another source for
the data.
4. Additional Agenda:
There were no additional agenda items.
5. TDR-OMG Report (Richard):
Richard reported TDR did not meet. One of the main items on the agenda was the
TDR budget and the implication of the share UW pays. He noted the budget is based
on Nesstar use and currently there is no method of measuring this. Shabiran said she
would be interested in seeing the formula used to determine budget share. Other
agenda items included updates on Nesstar, DataLinks, DLI and cataloguing.
6. EDS Office (Shabiran):
Shabiran provided some background information on why the EDS office was
established. At one time there was a need for a separate room to hold consultations,
to house codebooks, and to access data not available elsewhere. She asked the group
to consider whether there is still a need to maintain this office. Now, consultations are
provided most often in individual offices and many of the codebooks are available
electronically. She suggested it may be possible to discard many of the printed
codebooks now. Also, the computer in the EDS office could be moved to another
secure location (e.g. the last office in ISR) and the cd-roms put in Controlled Access
or the ISR Department by the computer. The group discussed this and it was agreed
in principle that the office could be dismantled. Shabiran noted that before a decision
is made, the group should think about it and discuss by email any concerns they might
have.. She pointed out that somebody would need to go through the codebooks.
Actions: Richard will check the ICPSR material and make a decision on what needs
to be kept. The group should give any comments, concerns or suggestions to Sandra
by April 18th.
7. EDS Advisory Group:
Sandra noted she is in the process of compiling a list of faculty members and others
who have been identified as possibly being interested in joining the EDS Advisory
group. She will send the list to the group shortly. The group agreed that a message
should be sent to Bryan Smale notifying him that we are moving in this direction
rather than the original suggestion of having 2 representatives from each Department.
Action: Christy will draft a message and send to the group.
8. Around the Table:
Richard asked the group to send him any concerns, issues, etc. they would like him to
take to the next TDR meeting. Shabiran noted that October and February would be
good target dates to set for the publication of DataLinks.
When a question is received through the EDS alias, Sandra asked if the person who is
going to take charge of it would send a message to the group. This would avoid any
possible duplication. Also, if Sandra is away someone should answer these questions
rather than having the client wait a couple days. She noted that Christy and her need
to look at how to divide up the work re these questions.
Tim asked if the session “Statistics Bootcamp” is something he should be attending.
Sandra noted it would be a useful session to attend; however, registration is full.
Next Meeting: Due to conflicts the date for the next EDS meeting will need to be
changed. Sandra will look into this and notify the group of the new date.