Service Quality Improvement Council

Instruction Group

Minutes 8/16/2004

Present: Emily Horning (chair), Diane Kaplan, Soraya Magalhaes-Willson, Martha Smalley, Ellen Cordes, Suzanne Eggleston, Hannah Bennett, Charlie Greenberg, John Nann, Jan Glover (recording)

1. The Instruction Group needs a secretary…

Emily asked the group for a volunteer to take minutes. A charming member of the group offered. It was decided that the chore of minutes would rotate.

2. CLIR Intern

Emily spoke about the CLIR internship and Daphnee Rentfrow, this year's intern. Daphnee has teaching experience and is very interested in the instruction program. Emily asked that we invite her to visit our individual programs and perhaps to attend an instruction session. She is a 'library boot camp' through the end of August and will be available after Sept 1. Her email is: daphnee.rentfrow@yale.edu.

3. Information for Instructors page: http://www.library.yale.edu/instruction/staff.html

Soraya reported on this page that she has been building on our behalf. The focus is undergraduate education and has a section on adult learning theory. She asked that we make comments and send her additional links, etc. Since this is for instructors, it was suggested that we all add our handouts and other material; this would make material available for adapting to other purposes (giving credit where credit is due).

Emily mentioned that Karen Reardon offered web space for the instruction group. We decided to continue with Soraya's page.

4. RefWorks Update

Katie Bauer was not present to speak about this issue but Charlie Greenberg was able to fill us in. The upshot is that RefWorks is funded for one year - a pilot year. An outstanding issue involving individual accounts/authentication needs to be solved before widely advertising this new product. Charlie also spoke about an information page for both staff and the public - these have not been completed yet.

5. Instruction Forum for Fall: Ideas for Speakers/Topics Needed

The group agreed that Emily's idea was excellent and Emily will look at potential dates in November.

6. Orbis Tutorial

Ellen and Emily have been working on this project and announced that it will be ready on or around September 1. It is 5-10 minutes long and will be linked from the Workshops and Tutorials page and the Orbis Help pages.

7. Primary Sources Tutorial
This page/tutorial needs updating and a group will be put together to begin working. Diane, Emily and Ellen were interested. It was suggested that Dana Peterman was interested and that Daphnee might be a good choice. [And even though I listened I'm not sure if there was an action item associated with this agenda item.]

8. Other Business

Suzanne is interested in experiences with pre-tests. She will be constructing one for an English 114 section and would see examples of pre-tests or talk with you about pre-tests. This is also a good opportunity to put materials on the Instructors Web site.

Emily was asked by Alan Solomon to announce a program to develop relationships with the residential colleges by capitalizing on fellows of the residential colleges. If you are a fellow (or want to be a fellow) contact Emily or Alan for more information.