MARS Executive Committee Minutes (2001 Annual, San Francisco 6/18/01) MARS Executive Committee Minutes Monday June 18, 2001 Argent Hotel, Franciscan I PRESENT: Executive Committee members: William McHugh, Nancy Buchanan, LeiLani Freund, Doris Ann Sweet, Andrea Copeland, Alesia McManus, Pat Riesenman, Naomi Lederer, Carole Richter. Committee and Task Force Chairs, Representatives and Planning Committee members: Linda Keiter, John Hinchcliffe, John Glace, Toby A. Lyles, Nancy B. Portnow, George Porter, Rosemary Meszaros, Jose Aguinaga, Marianna Fitzgerald, Jody Fagan, Denise Bennett, Kathleen Kern, Lori Morse, Marcella Stark, Lesley Bell, Arlie Simms, Jody Fagan (guest) Nancy Buchanan presided. A. Committee and Task Force Reports 1. Managers in Mars DG (Michael Ciccone) Reported on the Reference 24x7 Discussion Forum. A successful discussion of issues by panelists and audience. 2. Public Libraries (John Hinchcliffe) Virtual Reference DG had an invited discussion leader to frame the discussion. 3. Publications (Toby Lyle) a. MARS web site reviews will take place this year; a membership survey is planned, to be coordinated by Alesia McManus. Alesia will report details in MARS-L. b. The committee is establishing procedures for selection of MARS Web Coordinator. c. The bibliography of 25 Years of MARS in Print will be reviewed for possible additional content. d. Alesia McManus and Mary Popp are coordinating an effort to index and create a MARS site map. All committees are encouraged to have homepages; Alesia can assist with markup. Committee pages contribute to good public relations. e. The RUSA Web Coordinating Group is working on improving access for users with disabilities. The suggestion was made that a searchable roster of RUSA members should be considered; confidentiality considerations might be an issue. ALA is investigating new search engines. f. The committee plans to convert the MARS Handbook to pdf format. g. An Executive Session of Executive Committee voting members was held to consider the selection of Web Coordinator Intern. The search committee reported they have reviewed four candidates, all technically qualified for the position. Some candidates had more leadership experience than others. Daisy Benson from University of Vermont was recommended and unanimously approved for a one-year term as Intern, followed by a three-year term as Web Coordinator. h. RUSA Publications (Toby Lyles) RUSA Update will not continue as a separate publication after this year (two more issues due), but will become a section of RUSQ; there will be fewer pages in this format. The Web version won't have a space limitation, so may include complete information sent by chairs. Suzanne Sweeney will be editor for both print and Web versions; Anne Haynes will need to send both print and Web versions of MARS reports. 4. Products & Services (Rosemary Meszaros) a. Met on Saturday to plan the Midwinter Forum,"We deliver: bringing live reference to our users." They plan to have a panel of three speakers focus on software selection. Will coordinate time with Public Libraries DG. Forum time forSunday Jan 18 9:30-11:00 approved. b. Planning a Web publication on an archiving and preservation topic. 5. Denise Bennett reminded committee chairs to schedule a business meeting time at Midwinter to complete the checklist for RUSA review, and to make sure the scheduling makes it possible for the at-large member liaison to attend. 6. Hot Topics (Linda Keiter) Reported on successful forum on SFX and linking technologies. George Porter will post a pdf version of his SFX presentation. 7. Public Libraries DG (John Hinchcliffe) a. Reported on DG meeting, topic 'Real time virtual reference service." b. Will update its Web project, a guide to Web resources for public libraries. A new virtual member of the PL committee will have primary responsibility for this work. c. Midwinter Forum topic is "I'm addicted to Google..." 8. Nancy Buchanan reported that MARS has been asked to produce a checklist or guidelines publication for virtual reference services. Guidelines must originate in a section. RUSA needs to have an ad-hoc committee to produce these guidelines by November 1. Hope to position RUSA as first group to produce guidelines for virtual reference. 9. Local Systems & Services (Kathleen Kern) Reported on LSS program planning for 2002 Annual. Topic is usability testing. The Innovative Services list will be updated, including a new section "Questions for developers." The committee has prior approval from Publications. 10. Member-at-Large (Andrea Copeland) Asked committees to help with nominations for My Favorite Martian award. Decision is made at Midwinter, and the plan is to announce the winner in Spring, before Annual. Nancy Buchanan announced that Amy Tracy Wells is this year's winner. 11. Education Training & Support (Arlie Sims) Committee is planning a program for Annual, and also interested in holding a DG at Midwinter. Their focus is training aspects of virtual reference; Sunday 2-4pm time slot is likely. Management of Electronic Services (Lesley Bell) will have a staffing focus. Products & Services has a software focus. At the encouragement of ExComm, ETS and Management of Electronic Reference Services agreed to combine their discussion forums for midwinter into a single discussion forum. 12 MERS, Management of Electronic Reference Services (Lesley Bell) Has met twice. Lesley reported on the Checklist for Reference Web Sites project. Publications has asked that this ongoing project be completed. Minutes transcribed by Carole Richter, MARS Secretary 1/15/2002