Present: Bob Heath, Janey Adams, Larry Brown
The meeting to order at 9 AM. The minutes of the last meeting were approved.
Word 98
Bob reported on the replies to the survey on Word 98. He found that the level of sophistication was uneven. A few people asked for the basics. Most said that they are very familiar with the features they use regularly but needed to learn more about Word in general. Almost everyone who responded asked for a session that would cover formatting and turning off some of the Auto "features". Staff also asked for information about : labels, tables, styles, templates, columns, and headers and footers. No one expressed an interest in HTML or mail merge.
Bob had noted an article in the ITS newsletter listing training videos including Word. He proposed a brown bag lunch series that would involve showing a videos at lunchtime and following these up with presentations by ITS. This would help to fill in the gaps for those needing Word basics and bring everyone up to speed in an area. Wendy would then have a foundation to build on and could cover more advanced topics.
Bob's recommendations were adopted and the group began to plan a brown bag series on Word that could be expanded to other software packages in the ITS video collection. It was decided to show the first video twice at lunchtime one week and have a live presenter one afternoon the following week. Times and dates were set and Janey offered to handle the arrangements. The group decided to review the series at the March 4th meeting and make improvements based on feedback from staff. The group also voted to send the complete results of the survey to Wendy to help her customize her training.
Other Business
The group discussed what to do about sharing the minutes with the rest of the library staff. It was decided to post them on the bulletin board and consider a web version at some future time.
The group discussed other resources that should be investigated and presented to support library staff. The concept of "local experts" was considered and tabled for now due to concerns over the demands on their time. Purchasing additional books was discussed; Larry will look into adding to the Visual Quick Start series and report back. The ITS help desk was also discussed and some concerns expressed. It was decided that we would recommend the x3888 number as a possible resource and let the service stand or fall on its own merits.
The meeting was adjourned at 10 AM.