Annual Report of the Reference Services Committee

(May 2011 – April 2012)

May 2012

Reference Services Committee is a Standing Committee of Library Council, with members appointed by the heads of libraries or units. A list of current members is appended.

  1. Terms of Reference:
  • To identify, consider and recommend initiatives to enhance reference services in the central library and, where appropriate, in the campus libraries
  • To share information related to reference services.
  • To coordinate activities related to the provision of reference services.
  • To anticipate and respond in a coordinated manner to developments in the library system which may have an impact on reference services: for example, forming subcommittees charged with working on specific areas of reference services deemed necessary and beneficial by the committee.
  • To recommend annually two of its members from the central library system to the Electronic Information Resources Committee. One of the recommended members shall represent areas with science reference responsibilities, and one shall represent areas with social science and humanities reference responsibilities.
  • To communicate relevant information related to reference services to other areas of the library system, as appropriate.
  • To review, from time to time, existing reference services.
  • To meet regularly, at least eight times a year.
  • To report regularly to Library Council in May of each year.
  • To collaborate with the Staff Development Committee in order to facilitate opportunities reference-related staff developments activities.
  1. Members:

The Committee has 38 members, including ex-officio members and appointed members from the Central Library System and Campus Libraries.

  1. Chair and Secretary:

Joan Links was the Chair from January 2010 to January2012. Michelle Spence was the chair from February 2012 to the present. The committee currently has a rotating Secretary.

  1. Subcommittees
  • Mobile Libraries Working Group, chaired by Elena Springall.
  1. Number of meetings

Since May 2011, the Reference Services Committee has had 9 meetings.

  1. Accomplishments
  • Promotion of the Ask a Librarian Chat service

In March 2012, a group of librarians got together to promote the Ask a Librarian chat service to the U of T community. The chat widget was placed on more library webpages and pop-up tables were set up in Sidney Smith Hall, Gerstein Library, and Robarts Library.

  • Summon Train the Trainer team

In May 2011, a group of librarians organized an ad hoc group to investigate how Summon had been implemented at other universities in order to better prepare ourselves for the implementation of Summon at U of T. The group met throughout the summer and into the fall, collaborating on findings and reporting to ITS on problems that were encountered once Summon went live.

  • Reports from ITS

Sian Meikle and Marc Lalonde continued to report on the developments and initiatives that they and ITS are engaged in. The issues discussed early in the year centred around the migration from to the Serials Solutions platform, including the migration of Scholars Portal to Summon, and the migration from SFX to 360Link. As the year progressed, the topics involved issues caused by the migrations, the evolution of the new services, as well as changes to the University of Toronto Libraries web site.

  1. Presentations

This year, there were many outstanding presentations on a variety of topics given at committee meetings. These include:

  • Scholarly Communication Services

Rea Devakos presented on the progress of TSpace, Synergies, and the Open Journal Service, and introduced Focus on Research.

  • Soviet Samizdat Periodicals

Andrew McAlorum introduced Soviet Samizdat Periodicals, a digitalcollection at U of T. It is a collaborative project developed by Ann Komaromi (Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures) and the library.

  • LibAnswers

Susanne Tabur presented on LibAnswers, a FAQ system being used at three libraries at the October 2011 meeting. She also gave an update with Michelle Spence at the April 2012 meeting.

  • Harnessing New Tools

Joanna Szurmakpresented on the work she and Lauren De Monte have done to formulate a process to create videos for chat and in-person reference at UTM.

  • Updating the Representation of Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian language in the catalogue

Lana Soglasnovadescribed the work that is going intoupdating catalogue records to try to balance the accuracy of the records with the socio-political sensitivities of the communities.

  • Ask a Librarian Chat

Klara Maidenburg of Scholars Portal gave a presentation on the Ask a Librarian chat reference. University of Toronto Libraries participates in this service. Klara reported on usage statistics for the six months that the service has been in operation.

  • E-Resources Cataloguing in Transition

Alastair Boyd and Marlene van Ballegooie presented on the changes that have happened and are still ongoing in catalogue practices since the implementation of Serials Solutions products.

  1. REFINFO

The mailing list continues to be a valuable source of information and discussion for the members of the Reference Services Committee and those involved with reference services.

  1. Terms of Reference and Membership Documentation

Reference Services Committee is currently in the process of updating our Terms of Reference and Membership documentation.

Report prepared by Michelle Spence (Chair) and Joan Links (former Chair), Reference Services Committee

May 2012