Reference Services/Web Advisory Committee Joint Meeting
Blackburn Room, 4th floor, Robarts Library
Thursday Jan. 17, 2013, 9:30 – 11:00 am
Present: Monique Flaccavento (OISE, Chair of the Web Advisory Committee);
Michelle Spence (Engineering, Chair of the Reference Services Committee); Joan
Links (Media Commons, meeting secretary); Marc Lalonde (ITS); Jennifer Robertson
(Robarts CDD, Math); Sian Miekle (ITS); Pam King (UTM, Scholarly
Communications); Susanne Tabur (Gerstein); Judith Logan (Robarts Reference);
Jenaya Webb (OISE); Mary Reynolds (Regis); Holly Inglis (BIC – Rotman); Heather
Buchansky (Robarts Reference); Chad Crichton (UTSC Library); Heather
Cunningham (Gerstein); Noel S McFerran (St. Michael’s College); Candy Yip (CanadaHong Kong Library); Joanna Szurmak (UTM); Kimberley Silk (Rotman-MPI); Helen
Kula (Gerstein – Mars); Helen Ge (Knox); Lucy Gan (East Asian Library); Debbie
Green (Robart Reference); Eveline Houtman (Robarts); Allison Bell (Gerstein);
Helen He (Dentistry); Klara Maidenberg (Scholars Portal); Margaret Wall
(Robarts/UTL); Effie Patelos (Shore and Moffat Library); Elsie Del Bianco (Trinity);
Kate MacDonald (Trinity); Jacqueline Whyte Appleby (Scholars Portal); Juliya Borie
(Robarts); James Mason (Music); Andrew McAlorum (ITS); Maria Buda (Dentistry);
John Bolan (Law); Lari Langford (Robarts, Access and Information); Susan Stone
(Robarts, Resource Sharing); Christina Tooulias-Santolin (Robarts Reference); Roma
Kail (Victoria University Libraries); Nalini Singh (iSchool Inforum); Larry Alford
(Chief Librarian, UofT Libraries).
Regrets:Christina Kim (MaRS); Jennifer Toews (Fisher); Rita Vine; Mike Serafin
(UTM); GabbiZaldin (Pratt)
Meeting opening:Michelle Spence, the Chair of the Reference Services Committee
welcomed everyone to this special joint meeting between the Reference Service
Committee and the Web Advisory Committee.
1. Reference Services Committee:
Minutes of the last meeting andbusiness arising
Minutes: There was 1 correction regarding the Mobile Working Group. The
project is ongoing. Michelle made the change.
The minutes were approved.
Business arising: It was requested that the item on the Chair term ending be
deferred to next meeting. Approved.
2. Web Advisory Committee:
Minutes of the last meeting and business arising
Minutes were approved.
Business arising: Marc Lalonde reported that the Contact Us page was
missing a link for in-person reference services. The link will be added before
the next meeting.
3. Thoughts on reference and web services – Larry Alford
Larry made opening comments about references services. He said that he
was not an expert on this service. His impression, however, was that the
service seems to work well at the University of Toronto Libraries. He turned
the discussion back to the group and stated he would like feedback from the
group on our perceptions where reference is currently and where it is going.
How is the first floor Robarts reference service working out? According to a
survey conducted by the Reference Department, the undergrads prefer the
first floor, while faculty and graduates preferred the 4th floor. Numerically,
the in-person use of the desk continues to drop. There seems to be a trend in
which usage drops during high season, but increases during low periods.
There are proportionally more in-depth questions, and proportionally fewer
technical computer questions. This may be because the Info Commons Help
Desk is on 1st floor as well. There are problems with noise, and surrounding
commotion. Personal consultation sessions are going up.
Larry noted that Temple University Library moved the reference desk to
middle of main corridor where it was very obvious with huge signs. They
also got agreement from University curriculum committees to mandate
mandatory writing courses for every first year student with librarians as part
of each course. Each course had the same script. They hired extra librarians
to manage the additional load.The usage of electronic and print collection
increased, as well as in-person questions at the desk and consultations. Due
to many factors, there is a problem ingetting a similar program mandated at
UofT. He hopes to bring this as a problem to be solved in the strategic
planning process.
Michelle Spence asked the group if we saw an increase in consultations after
a class is taught. The response was that there is usually some increase.
Larry asked if we had tried implementing a basic information skills
programme across the University. There are some basic classes, but not a
University-wide programme.
Debbie Green stated that before we push to devise such a programme, we
need to be clear on issues – what are our goals? Are the different statistics we
collect really indicative of more or less skills? Perhaps we are receiving
fewer questions at the Reference Desk because we’re doing a better job of
providing instruction, for example.
Larry stated that we should try to reach all 1st year students.
Effie Patelos reported that the Concordia University Library had held a
review of its services during which problems were identified. One problem
identified was the patrons’ lack of knowledge of terminology used by
Librarians for various services.
Sian Miekle reported ITS’ survey had identified terminology as a problem
and that ITS is working on revamping some of the wording in the public
webpages.
Kim Silk commented that often effective reference work involves making a
procedure relevant to the patron at the right point such as when there is a
sense of panic over a need. At Temple University, the embedded course
librarians worked within courses with structured assignments -- this affected
students’gradeswhich created some of this type of urgency.
It was reported that at the University of Toronto, writing classes are
available, but there is not a huge uptake. The classes are scattered, with
different contacts. Many librarians are trying to get closer to the different
programmes.
There was a question on whether there was a way to use Library website
better to promote services offered by the library.
Larry articulated his role as Chief Librariannot as an expert in the various
functions of the Library, but as the advocate who can take best ideas and
promote them within the University in order to find the resources to
implement the ideas and programmes needed to make the Library function
well.
There was a comment on how integrated everything within the Library is.
One service that is successful may impact on another service making it less
needed while another service may lead to other services becoming more
important and used. It is often difficult to track. Statistically, one number may
reflect a success somewhere else, not a failure.
4. Statistics in Counting Options – Debbie Green
Debbie introduced the evolution of a Library groupcreated to look at how we
gather reference statistics in Counting Options (aka LibPas). The group
looked at how best to create categories that reflect the work we are doing.
They also looked at factors such as how to count locally and how to relate the
information to a larger count. They also looked at who keeps data locally and
centrally and how tomaintain consistency. The terminology usedin the
categories was examined as was how to includenew technologies (such as
Twitter queries) into the counting process.The group looked carefully at how
to define and name reference consultations. Tours were added as a category.
Debbie asked if we need to track Libguides? The Reference Services Group
answered yes, because one thing can impact on another. This led to a
discussion on the need to keep in mind differences in use and creation across
the various constituencies.
Debbie reported that some of the statistics cannot be collected on this
specific form, but will still need to be collected across UofT. It was
recommended that libraries across the UofT should set up tracking
mechanisms similar to each other. We should also keep in mind that year to
year comparisons must be monitored for category changes, and be ready to
implement different tracking methods.
5. Personal Librarian Project – Rita Vine
Due to a scheduling conflict, Rita was not able to present today.
6. Overview of the work of the Web Advisory Ctte(WAC) – Monique
Flaccavento
Monique presented a brief history of the Web Advisory Committee. The
current structure is two years old. It is now an independent Committee that
reports to Library Council. Previously, the Web Advisory Group reported to
the Reference Services Committee. The Web Advisory Committee’s minutes
are on the Staff Intranet.
The Committee advises the Web Co-ordinator on web services and
applications. It has been working on the usability of Library webpages for the
last two years. They looked at updating pages, standardizing them and
making them consistent. They created the UTL Web Style Guide which is on
the Intranet. They simplified pages according to content, organization,
navigation, and logistics as well as reduced redundancies in navigation and
worked on accessibility.
LarryAlford asked about a specific redundancy which had been identified.
Were there still 13 “help” links? No, there are now 3 links, plus one in the
header and one in the footer.
7. Google Analytics for UTL pages and Suggestions for the Research dropdown menu -- Jennifer Robertson
The Web Advisory Committee will begin to review the “Research” drop-down
and fly-out menus at their next meeting (Feb. 6th). Please submit suggestions
for improvements (out of date content; information that should be included;
feedback about redundant information; etc.) to
http://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/dropdown-feedback
The Web Analytics Working Group is a working group of WAC, and provides
information on our user groups.
The group started tracking with Google Analytics in 2011. Now with the use
of Drupal on the webpages they are able to do more in-depth and better
tracking and gathering of statistics.
Jennifer demonstrated the site. It can track month by month and by year. For
example, there were 2.5 million unique visitors, people spend 7.45 min. on a
page on average, and there were 6,009,054 visits in 2012.
Google Analytics can track mobile device usage and specific devices used. It
can track the top pages and where users are going when leave our site. It has
a real time feature that can track how many users are currently on the site. It
was recommended that we add a widget to our webpage to show some of the
statistics as they happen.
Jennifer showed how the data collection on use was used to improve our
webpage, specifically, the services drop-down menu. A cleaner more efficient
drop-down menu was created.
8. LibGuides stats for the fall term – Michelle Spence
There were over 397,000 views from Sept. to Dec. 2012, a huge increase over
the same time period last year. The Subject Guides” homepage was used very
heavily, but the “Course Guides” tab on the home page doesn’t appear to have
been used as much. The numbers may be lower for the course guides page
because they are also on Blackboard pagesand there may be other links to
get to them. We can, however, track which browsers are used to get at pages.
9. Web accessibility and Crazy Egg –Marc Lalonde
The Web Accessibility Group is also a Working Group of WAC. They will be
meeting to draft accessibility guidelines for the UTL Web Style Guide.
Members of the group went to workshops on accessibility e.g.at CNIB.
Later in the year, they will host workshops for the libraries that are hosted
through our servers.
The Group has started to tweak pages, so that they will read properly in
formats used by persons with disabilities. Marc Lalonde has fixed book cover
flows and webforms and has looked at colours used in the webpages and
tweaked them to make them more legible for persons with colour blindness.
It will be an ongoing process.
Crazy Egg is heat map software. ITS ran a trial for 1 month for all central
libraries. The results showed that the portal link is very popular. Crazy Egg
was also used on the Popular Databases page to show which databases were
most looked at.
ITS will be developing a privacy statement for our library for use with Crazy
Egg.
10. Endeca development and responsive web design – report from ITS:
Sian Meikle spoke about responsive web design that will display well no
matter which type of device is being used.
ITS is working on the Endeca interface to update items such as the
authorities, the availability filter, to run faster updates from Sirsi, and to
include deletes. They are almost ready to go live with the Beta site. In the
next month,they will be looking for feedback. The switchover will happen in
the summer. ITS is also updating the generic book covers displayed in
Endeca.
There was a suggestion for AB testing which looks at one site beside the
other. Sian will look at trying to do so.
11. Other business:
Reference Services Minutes are now available on the intranet.
12. Dates of the next meetings:
Web Advisory Committee – February 6, 2013
Reference Services Committee – Feb. 13, 2013