Meeting Minutes for the User Interface Task Group
September 4, 2007 - 10-12 am
HSHSL in Baltimore, MD, Family Meeting Room

Present: Cindy Todd (UM), Tierney Lyons (HS/HSL), Laura Wrubel (UM), Heidi Hansen (UM), Janet Evander (UM), Sean Henry (Frostburg), Susan Wheeler (UB), Lenore England (UMUC, note taker)

Topic 1. Approve minutes from August 7 meeting.

The minutes were approved.

Topic 2. Metalib 4 planning report.

The group discussed the following issues.

• MetaLib 4 is now installed on the test server. We are starting with the out of the box version and are making changes, based on our priorities.
  
  
• The group reviewed the suggested MetaLib 4 changes which were initially reviewed by the MetaLib4 subgroup on August 30th.
  
  
The overall concept is to break down the existing Research Port structure and make the work flow clearer based on our priorities and usability testing to date. The technical capability of these concepts will be reviewed to make sure these changes can be made. Overall, the suggested work flow is to select a category initially and then cross search the respective electronic resources. The group agreed that this was a good direction to investigate. Usability testing will be conducted at College Park and will be based on screen shots of suggested MetaLib 4 changes.


• The group discussed possible questions to ask during MetaLib 4 usability testing:
  1. Ask the participants about how they would research a given topic using the categories provided.
  2. Ask the participant to research or look for a particular subcategory.
  3. Ask a Citation Linker question on how to track down a journal or an article.
  4. Using Quick Search; will participants use it, given a certain question?
  5. How to find a specific database?
  6. Ask some My Research Port questions, for instance, how would they save an item (article). Usability studies have shown there is confusion about the difference between My Account in the catalog and My Research Port.
     
     

Topic 3 - Overall Direction of the USMAI Site (SFX, Catalog, Research Port, and USMAI Campuses' Local Digital Collections and Websites) - White Paper Report Committee.
Laura discussed the committee mission: To discuss and review the current environment and then think about directions to take for the USMAI sites. What sort of services should we provide that users are looking for? The committee is interested in UITG feedback and how the UITG can work with white paper group. Lenore mentioned that UMUC will share the results of our usability testing with the UITG. Tierney (HS/HSL) and Sean (Frostburg) mentioned that their libraries will also conduct usability testing this fall. The group decided to wait for more feedback from the committee and Laura will keep UITG informed about what is going on.

Topic 4: AV 18 cleanup report.

Heidi will continue to work on the screen changes discussed at a prior meeting.

Changes to date:
The Preferences link moved on the My Account page. It was decided to put the link above any message(s) or if there are no messages, then on this section of the page. A sentence will describe what options the preferences include: "Choose how you want your search results displayed".

Topic 5: Report on Export from ALEPH to RefWorks.

The University of Notre Dame created a direct export from the ALPEH OPAC to RefWorks. The group agreed to make this a priority and work on this now. Heidi will begin the work to set this up in the catalog.

Topic 6: Work planning for coming year.

Cindy will create a work plan and put on the UITG wiki. Each priority will be broken down into tasks.

Items that were discussed:

• Authorities: For next time, everyone will review the authorities wiki pages and determine where we are. There will be a subgroup established that includes Cindy and other members.
• RefWorks - Work will begin on this now.
• Making the interface simpler.
• Metalib4 will go live at the beginning of January 2008.

The hierarchy on other items of our work plan we will be reviewed at the next meeting.

Topic 7: Miscellaneous Discussion.

• Has the new books project been completed?
  The group had decided to wait for 6 months before removing the beta image, and it has been about 6 months now. Heidi did some recent changes to the algorithms though. The group decided to wait for a month and Cindy will contact CPC to see where they are with it.
• Heidi will sort out and reorganize the wiki.

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