Service Quality Improvement Council

Minutes
August 11, 1999

Present: Kathleen Bauer, Sue Crockford-Peters, Suzanne Eggleston, Emily Horning, Kenny Marone, Fred Martz, Danuta Nitecki, Sandy Peterson, Rich Richie, Paul Stuehrenberg (chair), Joan Swanekamp

Absent: Andy Shimp, Martha Smalley

I. Announcements, future agenda items.

A. Paul Stuehrenberg welcomed Katie Bauer, the new Assessment Group Chair, to the Service Quality Improvement Council. Introductions followed.

B. Suzanne Eggleston distributed copies of maps of the library system (one side features a map of the main campus as well as Medical and Divinity, while the other side presents each library's street address and public service phone numbers). The map is currently under revision; Suzanne asked that SQIC review the map for errors. Suggestions included:

• the addition of urls (for each of the libraries' websites) to the list of addresses and phone numbers;

• the inclusion of information on the Library Shelving Facility (LSF) as well as some "missing" specialized collections [Suzanne noted that it was decided not to incorporate all collections into the map and accompanying list];

• the removal of the British Art Center from the main list of libraries to the "Other Libraries in Orbis" category;

• the removal of the Statistics Library from the "Other Libraries in Orbis" category to the main list of libraries;

Additional comments are to be sent to Suzanne.

C. Future agenda item -- library privileges

II. Programmatic statement for public workstations. The draft of the Programmatic Statement for YUL Public Workstations proposed by the Research Workstation Advisory Board was reviewed. Sandy Peterson began the discussion by remarking on the many problems encountered by Government Documents staff over the course of the summer with regard to workstation misuse. Frequently, workstations were used for "entertainment" purposes by students rather than to search for government documents. Sandy pressed for stronger language to be employed in the programmatic statement on the proper use of workstations. Danuta Nitecki suggested that cases of inappropriate use of equipment be treated as part of the behavioral/problem patron, as opposed to the workstation use, issue. She added that it is critical to clarify what readers can expect and to take a stand on our policy on non-registered reader use of workstations. She described the current situation as "a free-or-all." Danuta noted that printing is another service issue requiring clarification. Are we committed to providing free printing or will we charge a fee? Paul Stuehrenberg agreed with Danuta's assessment of the need to present a consistent, library-wide understanding of the differentiation between what "legitimate" categories of researchers versus "others" can expect when they walk into YUL facilities.

Danuta asked whether the library should pursue a policy that distinguishes between restricted/private (requiring authentication of university status to log in) and non-restricted/public workstations; such an arrangement might improve management of workstations at peak use times. Joan Swanekamp commented that such a policy should give priority to students and faculty at all workstations. Danuta recommended that the implied advocacy in the programmatic statement of providing no or limited access to public workstations to non-registered users should be more clearly stated. Some considerations prompted by this policy option follow:

• Kenny Marone brought up the issue of YUL's community service responsibilities.

• Rich Richie commented that, practically speaking, there is no way to monitor who comes in to use YUL facilities (though the Research Workstation Advisory Board intends to look into ways to measure how much of YUL's collections are being used by non-registered readers). Danuta inquired whether this was a management issue -- a problem stemming from a lack of resources.

Of the two possibilities discussed -- establishing real public workstations and restricted-use workstations, or promoting self-policing by workstation users -- Paul cast his vote for the latter. Fred Martz noted that in the near future, licenses that are open now to Yale users (effectively, anyone in a Yale building) will be restricted to users with the proper authentication (the system will judge based on information it has on the user what the user is able to access). Blanket IP control will diminish as we get this capability.

It was decided that the SQI Council will take over the issue of public workstations from the Research Workstation Advisory Board before sending the programmatic proposal to LMC.

Final suggestions --

• the policy must be library-wide

• what "qualified" users can expect in terms of available services should be further clarified;

• some of the statement's wording should be reviewed/revised;

• is there any need to mention concerns involving users with disabilities in the statement?

• the printing issue needs to be concluded. Will there be a charge? Will laser-printing be available? Should we seek printing services through ITS (RIS does not offer services on weekends)? Is printing something we are willing to subsidize, like photocopying?

The draft of the Programmatic Statement for YUL Public Workstations will be revised by the next meeting of the SQI Council on 9-8-99 and will be revisited at that time.