NSW public library wiki

Auburn

Will Coombe (Lane Cove), Martin Boyce (Sutherland), Cathy Johnston (Coffs Harbour), Pam Langridge (Northern Regional), Jennifer Wilson (Fairfield) Present: Annetta Kucharska (Auburn), Stephanie Hodgson (Auburn), John Taggart (Manly), Gaye Stinson (Burwood), Cynthia Methuen (Hornsby), Karen Deegan (Fairfield), Temutisa Fainu (Canterbury), Ion Sloggett (Kogarah), Marisa O’Connor (Wollongong), Samson Leung (Canada Bay), Neera Sahni (Ryde), Laurence O’Donnell (Auburn), Ellen Forsyth (State) Feedback from Reference at the Metcalfe, and from the September RISG meeting - what was your big new idea? From discussion: It was a reminder about the importance of tablets and the service implications of them. Will they replace pcs. To find out: Library staff are to explore how easy the databases/websites/catalogues are on mobile platforms, how well does reference work on mobile devices, starting discussions with IT about how library tools work on mobile applications, noting which councils were using social media, which was library driven, which was blocked, From discussion : Some councils pro having social media, others more concerned, Suggestions for libraries/councils to monitor social media – google alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts), social mention (http://www.socialmention.com/), a range of alerts tools to explore, hootsuit – useful for managing multiple social media accounts and for statistics (http://hootsuite.com/), also providing statistics, importance of surveying qualitative information about reference and information services. Be aware of the use/reuse of library website information Often library websites/blogs etc not highly commented on, need to be highly shareable so that people can share their reading online. Auburn is exploring catalogue searching through facebook app – and finding out how accessible databases, ebooks etc are. To find out: Does your library catalogue have an app or widget for sharing in another location?

Three at Auburn doing at Slam the boards. Like that they can choose the queries, good way to promote libraries, good training too, professional refresher, really fitting around what else is being done at the time. Core reference collections - what to include? across all formats Good medical information, drugs, street directory, World of religions – in print, Short history series – online and in print, need to think about community when thinking about the format, privacy around reference queries as well, Importance of still keeping some reference tools in print, location and neighbours, difficult balance of asking for help for information, really need to remember how to do reference interviews, and use the skills to move the query forward, need to keep balance between going to portable devices – providing the service in the format which people want, whatever the format, Being able to replicate services online and in library, discussion about IM being used to help with queries, being used widely in university libraries, not in public libraries – could be a way to explore, can you track the insite as opposed to offsite searching This topic generated much discussion about client format choice.

Auburn promoting reference resources through local schools, working with schools on excellence in research skills, promoting resources and research skills, will then build by word of mouth, one local school has no online resources. Canada Bay – Reference, children’s youth officer go to local schools to promote resources, and then have library visits, tales of it taking a while to get invited to schools Canterbury has just launched facebook account, Temu is wearing QR code on badge for promotion, are exploring online reference services, some libraries exploring ideas of QR codes with link to online resources fro in library Ryde – visiting local organisations, groups and talking about library services,

People asked to consider promoting reference resources and services using the 2012 themes http://love2read2012.wordpress.com/monthly-themes/ (question, explore, discover being some good starting points) Measuring your success - Do the statistics you collect reflect your libraries goals? Do you go beyond simply counting numbers to get more meaningful insights into how your library is performing? Do you put your numbers into any context to assess your performance? Could libraries be measuring their success in better ways? Discussion around how statistics relate to mission/vision, how is this reflected? Wollongong has a new strategic plan in draft – will be exploring ways, need to explore different ways of evaluating reference and information services – in house use has value for knowing reference use, need to explore different ways of evaluating reference and information services, Ellen to look into Exploring reference services/collection models for evaluation - and planning

People to share/explore possible reference evaluation tools/ideas and share them on the wiki Ref-ex review planned

How to motivate staff to keep up their skills/knowledge for reference – in ever changing online environment? – Training opportunity next Meeting date and location - 16 February 2012 the meeting will be at Newcastle 10.00 - 12.00pm with a reference related workshop 1.00 - 3.00pm Ryde offered to host meeting in August, Canterbury in November. Auburn was thanked for hosting meeting.

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