Reference Working Group
March 24, 2009     2:15 p.m.
OSL offices, Warwick

Meeting came to order at 2:25.  Those in attendance:
Barbara Bussart (WNS), Julie Holden (PAW), Lauri Burke (BAR), Diane Swindelhurst (EPL), Beth Johnson (CRA), Ann Poulos (PRO), Lisa Davis (OSL), Mary Anne Quinn (WAR), Pat LaRose (NPT)

Minutes from the last meeting :
Featured lists - Lisa has locked the careers list - if you want to add to it, send bibs to her.
        Book Awards lists have been added.

Installation of Encore and training was discussed. Beth has found two libraries that have Encore tutorials on their web sites.  Lisa will contact to ask if we can use them as well.

PINs - the Millennium PIN function is not turned on.  If/when it is, patrons will be able to set their own PINs.  Staff will have to delete old ones. Pat again stated that many ref staff use the OPAC to place hold for patrons, both in person and on the phone, so establishing the need for PINs to place holds will be a burden on staff. [Joan later added that Steering needs to decide about this.]   

The client can do anything that the OPAC can do with regard to searching and limiting.  Many of us feel that it is not as smooth a search.

Legacy.com and obitfinder.com are web sites that can assist in locating obituaries, including from the ProJo.  Some fees may apply for archived full obit notices.

Vtunnel.com is a web site that can bypass filtering software.Lisa asked Rene to check into this.

Information that shows up in milcirc - dates, publication info, etc.  Why does it show up in some records and not others?  At some points in search but not at bib summary page?

DATABASES -

Pat shared with committee info from the database review committee.  Proposals from EBSCO and GALE included different databases and pricing  GALE has lowered the price considerably.   GALE is also offering 25 virtual reference resources in their package.  

How should we be reviewing these? Price? Content? Package? Customer support?

Laura sent an email about the survey results -
        Most requested subjects:
        Auto repair
        Biographies
        Academic Reference
        Current Events
        General Reference
        General Science
        Health Reference
        Literature
        Newspapers
        Readers' Advisory
        History

Changing databases and providers can be very confusing to patrons.  Training can be a waste of time if we change databases too often (1 year contracts?)
Does OSL have to go with the lowest bid, like individual libraries do?  No

ASKRI -If we switch to GALE, ASKRI will not get the better pricing that they get with us contracting with EBSCO.
Is ASKRI even going to have any money for next fiscal year?  If so, maybe we can ask them to take over paying for PROJO instead of some of the databases that they have now.
There is also the involvement of HELIN to consider.

We polled the committee -
        5 wanted to stay with EBSCO, 5 favored GALE.   Some of those favoring EBSCO stated that it was because changing would confuse their patrons. Most favored a combo selection, and indicated several databases they wanted.  Of these Novelist, and a literary criticism database were favored, also biographical one, among others mentioned.
Other databases that might be suggested:   New York Times Historical, New York Times Current,  Learning Express
Possibility of 1 year contracts instead of 3 years - economic reasons.  If we go with a 1 year contract, should we just stick with EBSCO?

Database review committee will present their recommendations to Steering, who will make the final decisions, then they will present to full membership. Next Steering meeting is April 16.  Next full membership meeting is May 2.

Loading Envisionware, Encore and the new databases all at approximately the same time would be extremely confusing to patrons and staff. [Joan later added that these will be staggered.]   ResearchPro is coming with Encore - it will search the databases as well as the catalog. Easiest to do with the databases that are available to all, not so easy and may cost individual libraries to add their "other" databases (ones they pay for themselves) to the Research Pro module.

Next meeting April 28 at 2:15.        
Respectfully submitted,          
Barbara J. Bussart