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Meeting Minutes: November 16, 2006


InfoEyes Advisory Committee Meeting

Attendees:

Kathie Corrigan, Catherine Durivage, Meghan McDaniel, Linda Rossman, Robin Rousu, Sharon Ruda, Joe Thompson, Gayle (Philadelphia), Tom (Pittsburgh)

Location:

Online iVocalize Room

Time:

2:00 pm Eastern / 1:00 pm Central

1. Statistical Report

Catherine provided the usage report for the past two months. September was a very busy month with 45 questions, which is the most we have received in any one month. There were 33 questions asked in October. The statistics for these two months will soon be posted to the infoeyes.org web site. Once updated, we will also have available a record of the number of items that have been added to the InfoEyes local knowledgbase in that time period.

So far there have been 264 questions answered this year. We are on track to surpass last year's total of 271 questions.

2. New "Knowledge Base for InfoEyes"

Saving reference questions into our QP Knowledge Base. Process for creating and basics on how to use, including search and browse features.

Linda began to describe how records can now be added to our local InfoEyes knowledgebase within the QuestionPoint system. Use of a local knowledgebase is a part of our current QuestionPoint contract with OCLC. In addition to the local knowledgebase we create and maintain, we also have access to search the Global knowledgebase. The knowlegebase is essentially a searchable database of our previously answered questions.

Linda was interrupted by a fire drill in her building at this point and Catherine took over leading the discussion on the topic.

Catherine demonstrated on-screen how we can log into the QuestionPoint system to open the knowledgebase "Basic Search" screen. From this screen our librarians can search our local "INFOEYES" knowlegebase, the "QP Global Reference Network" knowlegebase, or both at once.

On November 9th Linda distributed on the InfoEyes e-mail listserv information for our librarians on how to add records to our local InfoEyes knowlegebase (Linda's message is also included as Addendum #1 at the conclusion of these minutes).

It was also asked if our local InfoEyes knowledgebase might at some point be made available to be searched by the public. If we did at some point in the future, we would need to verify that all personal and identifying information had been removed from the question/answer content.

In the future we will add some staff support information to the InfoEyes web site regarding how to add items to the local knowledgebase and how it may be searched.

3. List Serve Issues-creating a confidential list serve to ensure our users' confidentiality

Catherine explained that in consideration of customer privacy, we have created a new listserv for librarians who potentially answer InfoEyes questions. This new list is called InfoEyesReference. This is separate from the main InfoEyes list were we discuss general topics of relevance to the overall service. If there's someone that should be on the new listserv but is not, please contact Catherine or Linda to be added. Diana Sussman has created this new listserv.

4. New InfoEyes Chat Room Link and training issues

Linda described the new version of online meeting room we are now using. The old room was supported by version 4, and now we are using version 5. There seem to be a few bugs to work out, but in general it is working. Tom Peters of OPAL will be offering another training class on how to use version 5 on November 28.

There is a new link to the new InfoEyes 2-person room as well that would be used to communicate with customers. Catherine has updated the scripted message that is available when we answer questions in QuestionPoint as well, which should be used when explaining to a customer how to access the live room. Support material for this version 5 will soon be added to the InfoEyes web site.

5. Other Business

Costs for next year:

Costs for each state are actually be $4.93 than originally projected do to an increase in the web hosting fee for the infoeyes.org domain. Each state's InfoEyes bill will be $317.43 instead of $312.50 due to a $39.40 increase in the cost of web hosting from InfoBahn Outfitters. This isn't expected to be a problem for anyone, but Catherine wanted to make note of this. Requests for payment will be mailed out soon from Diana Sussman's library in Illinois. If this increase is problematic for anyone, please reply with that information ASAP to either Catherine A. Durivage (catherine.durivage@state.mn.us) or Linda Rossman (Linda.Rossman@perkins.org), in which case you will be billed the original $312.50. The Southern Illinois Talking Book Center has graciously offered to cover any difference.

Update on QuestionPoint Chat plans for accessibility:

Joe reported on updated information shared during recent meetings by Jeff Penka of OCLC's QuestionPoint service regarding plans by QP to make available a screen-reader accessible version of chat. A pilot version is expected to be available in November or December with a version available to subscribing libraries in January 2007. Joe also posted information about these plans by QuestionPoint in a message to the InfoEyes listserv on November 10.

Jeff Penka is looking for volunteers familiar with recent versions of JAWS or WindowEyes to help test QuestionPoint's new accessible chat platform. Volunteers from InfoEyes libraries would be very welcome. Jeff can be contacted at penkaj@oclc.org or 1-800-848-5878 ext. 6178.

Spam messages:

Robin asked what procedure we should follow regarding the trend we've seen of receiving spam questions to the InfoEyes service. Joe recommended that we close these questions if they are obviously not from a real customer and others agreed.

New contact person in Philadelphia:

Meghan will be leaving her position at the library in Philadelphia and her role on the InfoEyes Advisory Committee will be taken on by Gayle in the future.

Training during off-months in 2007:

Joe offered to provide the first of the off-month training sessions in 2007. This will be held on February 15 at 2:00 p.m. ET. Joe suggested that he could cover the topic of best practices for composing an e-mail reference reply if others would be interested. There seemed to be agreement that this would be a good first topic to cover. We will consider other training topics for the rest of the year.

Meeting adjourned at 2:50 p.m. ET

Next Meeting:

January 18, 2006 at 2:00 pm Eastern / 1:00 pm Central

(Meetings are held every-other month)

Minutes submitted by Joe Thompson


Addendum

Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2006 11:51:32 -0500
From: Linda.Rossman@Perkins.org
Reply-To: InfoEyes infoeyes@shawls.lib.il.us
To: infoeyes@shawls.lib.il.us
Subject: [InfoEyes] Creation of InfoEyes Knowledge Database and Directions for Adding Questions for InfoEyes Staff

Hi Everyone,

I have been working on setting up our own InfoEyes Knowledge Database in QuestionPoint for InfoEyes Questions that we wish to save and refer back to later. If each of you who works on the InfoEyes Desk can help us out by moving your own questions that you think are important to keep for future reference to the Knowledge Database, that would be very helpful. I am including some very basic directions to do this, so it should be no problem for you.

If anyone has questions after reading this, please feel free to call me, and I will help you with it. Basically, it is a good idea to move the questions you have worked on that you want to save from the closed questions section after you have closed a question. I have moved about 38 of our older questions into the Knowledge Database so far, and they are all searchable; but if you can all now do this as we go along, it will be very helpful. Catherine and I will then check the administrative database and activate the questions so that they'll be searchable. Hope you can all attend the InfoEyes Meeting next Thursday so we can review this together.

Directions for Putting InfoEyes Questions into InfoEyes Database:

The Record will be saved into the Knowledge Database under InfoEyes (It will give you a message that the new record has been created). A yellow barrel like symbol will later show in the closed questions showing that the question is now in the Knowledge Base.

This is actually just the first step as Catherine or I will need to then activate the records administratively to make them searchable. We will check what you all add on an ongoing basis and make them active. The records will be searchable 24 hours after Catherine or I activate them and make them public. At that point they can be browsed or searched by key words in the question. It will be a nice additional feature for us to have access to these older questions as good sources of information for our reference librarians.

Sincerely,

Linda

Linda Rossman
Reference Services Librarian
Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library
175 North Beacon Street
Watertown, MA 02472
617-972-7245