Meeting Minutes: August 18, 2005
InfoEyes Advisory Committee Meeting
Attendees:
Joe Thompson, Crystal Lentz, Robin Rousu, Mollyne Honor, Meghan Clark McDaniel, Diana Sussman, Lori Bell, Linda Rossman, Lev Sherman, and Catherine Durivage
1) Usage Statistics Report
Catherine said she would email her report to the group soon.
2) Volunteers/Nominations for Secretary (term starting Oct. 1)
Joe volunteered, but we still need a back-up person in case he can't attend a meeting. Diana offered to send some tips to the new secretaries.
3) Shared cost for Question Point profile
Cost:
- OCLC is charging us for 1 profile, with a steep discount. We are being charged $2,135 for annual access to QuestionPoint plus it costs $200 a year for the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center to host the InfoEyes website. That brings the total amount to $2,335.
- There is an anonymous donation for the cost of 1 membership.
- There is a possibility that another state will join InfoEyes, brining the total number of member states to 9.
- Cost scenarios:
- 8 member states + donation: $259.45 each.
- 12 libraries + donation: $179.62 each.
- 9 member states + donation: $233.50 each.
- 13 libraries + donation: $166.79 each.
- At most the cost will be $259.25 each. The lowest cost would be $166.79 each.
- Can do a mix of individual libraries and member states, which make the totals slightly different.
Billing:
Billing will probably take place in October. Our current QP subscription ends September 30 and we will be invoiced for the next year after that. The Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center (Lori Bell) will be acting as fiscal manager.
States able to make a contribution:
Meghan - from Philadelphia - Has attempted to contact Pittsburgh to discuss the fee, but hasn't had any feedback yet. Without consultation, she would say that since Pennsylvania acts as one member with one vote, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia should split any fee. Can pay any fee necessary, though.
Joe - from MD - can definitely pay for 1 participation fee, or 2 if they get funding through their grant request. Will find out in the next few weeks.
Robin Rousu - from WA - Washington Talking Book & Braille Library can pay the full fee.
Linda - Massachusetts - can commit to highest fee mentioned.
Lev - Maine should be ok with the cost. He's doesn't have final say though.
Diana will try to have a firm figure in Sept. She will contact people via email to find out for sure who can pay what. So far, no one has indicated that they can pay nothing.
People Who Join After Invoicing:
Diana suggested that we prorate membership and put money into an account at the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center to alleviate costs for QP and other things the next year. There were no objections to the suggestion.
4) New Schedule for Fall
Linda, Catherine, and Diana came up with some schedule options where each library will work a full day. During the day the scheduled library will check QP email periodically and answer questions that come in. They will also be the responsible agent that makes sure any requests for live sessions get taken. Requests will go to the listserv. Someone should take it immediately, claim the QP question, arrange a time, and cc the listserv. Responsibility for requests not falling through the cracks lies with the scheduled library. If no one has claimed the question, or there has been no message cc'd to listserv, it is the scheduled library's responsibility to inform the patron that their question is being worked on. The scheduled library should then email the listserv to ask what's up and then make sure the patron has been communicated with and that they get something scheduled.
Schedule Options:
Copies of each option (except C1) are attached to the “scheduling options) email that Diana sent out prior to the meeting.
Schedule D - will be used if there are only 8 members (unless someone comes up with something better). NY is 6 and Illinois is 4 because they have 3 member libraries. 7 rotates between Mondays and Wednesdays. 8 rotates between Tuesdays and Fridays. MD could cover every third Saturday.
Schedule B - 9 members (if new state joins); includes Saturday coverage. Safest schedule - MD may be able to volunteer for every 3rd Saturday, but can't commit at this time. Library 9 has a very bizarre rotation.
Schedule A - 9 member libraries (with new member); includes Saturday; depends on MD committing to working every 3rd Saturday. Also means MD Talking Book wouldn't be working very many shifts.
Schedule C - 9 members; every other week, same day each time. (error - 6 just works Mondays). No Saturdays. This is the simplest schedule.
Schedule C1 - document wouldn't open. Diana explained it. New York on Saturdays; to make it work, will need to add one more library that would be willing to work every week (in addition to NY and Illinois). If no new member, a 4th library willing to work every week would make the schedule work.
Any other libraries willing to work every single week?
Joe - MD can. The LBPH is used to it, and AskUsNow is joining them. Mollyne said that she needs to speak to the other librarians at the LBPH, though.
Meghan - will discuss every week idea with Pittsburgh
Robin - WTBBL should be able to work every week, but she needs to check with Gloria first.
Illinois can work every week.
Catherine - Minnesota may also be able to cover every week.
Diana will check with the potential new library. If she can't get an answer, she will go ahead with the schedule and plug them in later. Then one library working every week will back off to every other week.
Give Diana a definitive answer by early next week, so she can start building a schedule. A calendar will be created too, so that everyone knows who is covering when.
Next week - Diana will try via email to compile a list of days that each library can or cannot do. She's hoping to not have a single day that no one can work.
How many times will QP be checked?
Diana suggested that it be checked a few times a day like regular email, unless someone wants to propose a standard.
Mollyne proposed an hourly minimum. Diana didn't think the idea was feasible due to the possibility of a single librarian doing the coverage for a library. Hourly could be an ideal, but it's excusable to not check it hourly if you can't do so. If you'll be gone half a day or something, you'll need to get coverage, though.
Catherine suggested a minimum of twice a day - once in the morning and once in the afternoon.
Joe suggested 3 times a day.
Be sure to check for live requests that haven't been claimed too.
5) Wrap up. Anything else?
Diana will be out of the office most of September. She will send out an email about who to CC on emails regarding payment, scheduling, etc.
Even though they have dropped out of the project, New Mexico wants to be a substitute. There were no objections.
What needs to happen before Oct. 1st:
- Need a schedule
- Training from OCLC on how to route questions a new way. Training will be from Jeff Penka and it should be in Sept. Shouldn't require a whole lot of training. Hoping for multiple sessions. If people can't make it, one library can train another.
- Develop routing procedures - how often to check; what's the appropriate response for a request for a live session - script?; scripts need to be created; the patron will have the librarian's email address which is good - if patron goes to the session and has trouble, they can email you.
- Web page will need to be changed over. WSL is currently doing it. Need to find someone else - WTBBL might be able to do it, need to find out for sure.
- Diana thinks the service will be easier to participate in once Oct. starts. Won't be tied to your desk monitoring iVocalize constantly.
Thanks to Diana for all her work on the schedule options.
Joe - Working toward giving anyone the option to come in to an iVocalize room or the standard chat service through the AskUsNow portal. Needs to be presented to staff statewide. Start date: March 17 (3 year anniversary) or early April. Trying to get away from the idea that the service is just for one group of people.
Mollyne - MD wants to highlight that iVocalize works well with screen readers, but anyone can use it.
Diana - people fear iVocalize until they use it, then they realize how easy it is.
The goal is for everyone to use the same services in the same ways. Diana offered her help in getting that message across in MD, showing people around an iVocalize room, etc.
Need to change link on the InfoEyes website to the version 4 software room as opposed to the current version 3. Users will need to download software again if they haven't used a version 4 room before.
Joe - Where does InfoEyes.org live? Lives at Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center. Sitting on server there. Updated by WA. Site can be maintained by any of the libraries.