Information Services
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/library/about_library/reference.htm
Because our temporary quarters are so far from the heart of the campus (we are located nearer the toes of the campus than its heart), many students use the Library Café to access the Library catalog and full-text electronic resources. While the Café staff are well-trained with software and hardware, they are not librarians. In the spring 2001, several members of the Information Services staff established a schedule for offering reference help to students working in the Café. This new program was christened "ER," or Emergency Reference, and it proved to be a resounding success. Information Services will to continue this service for as long as we remain in temporary quarters.
In the fall 2001 Chief Librarian Barbra Higginbotham charged an E-Reference Task Force:
"As I mentioned at our last department meeting, I am interested in electronic reference at Brooklyn College. I am asking the five of you to serve on a task force on e-reference, to be chaired by Beth Evans, to determine where we go from here, and to organize a pilot for spring 2002. Among the issues to be considered are:
1) Who is our target audience?
2) Where are they located when posing questions--in the Library, or elsewhere?
3) During what hours should e-reference be offered?
4) What technology should be employed (e-mail; chat)? If chat, which software package?
5) Should we seek other institutions as partners? (Within CUNY, extra-CUNY, in our time-zone, in other time zones?)
6) How can e-reference best be integrated with the rest of the Information Services' staff's responsibilities? What role might there be for well-trained supporting staff?
"I would like to see a pilot in place, beginning in April, so that the approach we choose is well-tested before we occupy the new Library.
Task force members include Beth Evans, Anthony Cucchiara, Jocelyn Berger, James Castiglione, Emma Lee Yu, and Alex Rudshteyn.
"Whether accessing books in the online catalog, full-text electronic journals, or appropriate Web sites for students, high speed, high capacity PCs are the essential tools needed to provide optimum service to the College community. One only has to experience a server that has crashed or a balky, overloaded, and slow PC to realize the dire consequences it has on service and the ability of students to meet their academic goals." Anthony Cucchiara, Associate Librarian for Information Services & Distinctive Collections
As the fall semester 2001 began, students working at the PCs in the Reference Internet cluster were complaining consistently about machines crashing or responding in an excruciatingly slow manner. Librarians were equally discouraged by their inability properly to instruct and guide students. With the help of Library Systems staff, all sixteen machines in this cluster were reconfigured and reformatted to improve their performance; still, the problems did not abate. Students were dissatisfied and reaching their boiling points.
Electronic Services librarian Beth Evans conducted a comparative study of the capabilities of the older and slower student PCs, and those used by librarians in their own work areas. (Library faculty have new, state-of-the-art equipment.) Not surprisingly, it took twice as long to run the same search on the student machines as it did on the librarians' PCs.
The bottom line: while we were very reluctant to spend money for new machines only one year away from the new building and the equipment that would come with it, we simply could not wait. The chief librarian authorized the purchase of five high-speed computers, to help alleviate some of the students' and librarians' frustrations, until the new building makes such experiences nothing more than a bad dream.
In an effort to keep the professional staff abreast of the evolving digital information world, Professor Beth Evans, our Electronic Services librarian, organized a half-day in-house conference during the January 2001 intersession. "Look at the Literature" invited librarians to consider three issues looming large for libraries: digitization and preservation; electronic resources; and security and privacy. Professor Evans prepared and distributed a reading packet before the conference. All who participated left with a fuller understanding of the challenges facing library service in a digital environment.
Information Services has become increasingly reliant on support staff for both technical and administrative assistance. These staff work side by side with librarians, as paraprofessionals. Consequently, their training and supervision is critical. To this end, Professor Beth Evans runs periodic training sessions for all support staff members on protocol with readers, Internet technical support, and catalog searching.
In addition to direct assistance to Library users, the Information Services support team assisted the professional staff on many projects, including:
Designing a subject database for e-journals Developing a text version of the Library Web site for use by persons with visual disabilities Tabulating information on electronic reserves policies in different libraries Running comparative studies of content in e-journal databases Developing informational pages for licensed electronic resources Adding Internet links to Library Web site pages
These are just a sample of the many tasks support staff and interns perform. They have helped move the Library's agenda forward, and they play a vital role in its educational mission.
As we prepare to move into the "Once & Future Library," the Information Services staff feels the need to create a policy and procedure manual for this enormous new facility. Professor Martha Corpus
>, who assembled a similar document in another library, is coordinating this effort. The document will include topics such as reference responsibilities and referrals, service priorities and limitations, standards for Library behavior, emergency and safety procedures, and so forth. It will be reviewed and approved before we open for business in the new building.