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Minutes - 16 November 2005

Members present: Duke (minutes), Gaskell, Hennig (chair), Quirion

1. Update on SFX/Verde Presentation to DLG/TSAC

Nicole, Tracy and Ellen presented to DLG/TSAC this morning to follow-up with the recommendations of the SFX/Verde group. WAG will be involved in the user needs assessment.

2. User Needs Assessment

Nicole reviewed the user needs assessment proposal that the SFX/Verde group has outlined.   Both WAG and SFX/Verde group would be involved in the different parts of this assessment:

Part 1: Gather existing data - send via email (if possible) and bring to next meeting

  • Demographics from admissions: Christine
  • Current library survey results: Millicent
  • Usablity test results from other institutions: Nicole
  • CSET survey: Darcy
  • web usage stats: Nicole
  • get Barton stats on which searches are most commonly used (from off-campus?): Nicole

Part 2: Survey
Nicole will contact MacKenzie and Steve about partnering with other MIT units on a user information survey.  Since the Libraries just conducted a survey, there is concern about survey burnout.  If there are problems with running the survey, we could have a brainstorming with a representative focus group.

Part 3: Interviews
The survey should inform the creation of questions for the interviews.  If there is a problem with the survey, we will have to think creatively about how to compile the questions - glean from other universities user needs surveys, etc.

Part 4: Group task analysis

3. Miscellaneous

  • Stephen has been talking with Carol F about posting to the news blog regarding scholarly communication issues
  • rss button is now on bottom of the home page
  • Nicole will find out about a professor's request about Vera - small change but will require javascript from Austin
  • Barker home page now has imbedded rss feed from the news blog for our headlines
  • Virtual Reference Collection: Nicole and Marion have been working on a new way of providing the VRC using del.icio.us; Nicole will purchase the pro version of Feed Digest so that we will have enough feeds
  • new books list as RSS feed direct from ALEPH - Darcy will prioritize

Brainstorm:

  • can we put a new book feeds into a blog so that they can comment? 
  • getting new book feeds into Stellar or department pages where they can comment on a local level?
  • can we bookmark individual items in Barton or Vera with tags using del.icio.us or similar (Daniel Chudnov's system at Yale); can this replace database discovery? if mocked-up, can we show to interviewees for user needs assessment?; del.icio.us now has sub-categories


Next meeting:

Wednesday, December 7, 2-3:30 pm, Cubespace

http://libstaff.mit.edu/webgroup/minutes/20051116.html


Web Advisory Group Home > Minutes > 16 November 2005